Job 39 · a question people ask
Does the LORD say anything in this chapter about Job's suffering?
No verse of chapter 39 names Job's losses, his sores or his friends. The chapter is questions about animals, put to Job: "Do you know" (39:1), "Can you count" (39:2), "Who has set the wild donkey free?" (39:5), "Will the wild ox be content to serve you?" (39:9), "Have you given the horse might?" (39:19), "Is it by your wisdom" (39:26), "Is it at your command" (39:27). The LORD's speech had begun, "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer me!" (38:2-3), and after it Job says, "Behold, I am of small account. What will I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth" (40:4). Later Job says, "I have uttered that which I didn’t understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know" (42:3), and the LORD says to Eliphaz, "you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has" (42:7). The book sets these side by side and doesn't explain how they fit, or how these questions bear on what Job has suffered, and these notes don't either.
The verses
““Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns? Can you count the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they give birth?”
““Who has set the wild donkey free? Or who has loosened the bonds of the swift donkey,”
““Will the wild ox be content to serve you? Or will he stay by your feeding trough?”
““Have you given the horse might? Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane?”