Bible Commentary - Job 39

In this chapter, God continues questioning Job about the natural world.

This chapter goes through a series of mostly wild animals (including a reference to domesticated horses but that is the exception), questioning whether Job understands and controls the lives of those animals.

This continues the general theme of the previous chapter but in a different direction.  In the previous chapter, the general topic was hidden or untraveled places.  God was challenging Job about whether he knows or has traveled to the bottom of the ocean, to the “gates of death”, into the constellations, and whether he was present for the creation of the world.

In this chapter, God continues to challenge Job, but now Job is being questioned about his knowledge of, and authority over, wild animals.  In some ways this knowledge is more relatable than the questions in the previous chapter, because Job (and everyone else) would at least know about wild donkeys and hawks and eagles and so forth.  On the other hand, I believe God is intentionally choosing wild animals because they are dangerous and uncontrollable, and God is questioning whether Job has authority over these animals.

For instance, “is it by your understanding that the hawk soars”, “do you give the horse his might”, “can you bind the wild ox”, “who sent out the wild donkey free”, etc.  God is asking whether Job created these animals, tying each question to one of the defining characteristics of that particular species.  Each species is unique, distinct and wildly uncontrollable, and the questions and designed to highlight those attributes.  The challenge, then, is whether Job has authority and power over the created animals.

From the general tone of the chapter, it is obvious that the answer to all of these questions is supposed to be no.  Job does NOT know when the mountain goats give birth, or how the hawk soars, and he has not given strength to horses or oxen or anything else.  The whole point of this chapter is to describe the many areas of the natural world about which Job is ignorant.  This, in sum, reinforces the same point over and over: that God has a wisdom and understanding that Job lacks, and that Job simply does not have the wisdom to challenge God’s judgment.

In that regard, it’s quite similar to the previous chapter and we can understand it the same way.  This is another, more tangible but still uncontrollable realm of diverse creation, and it lies outside the power of humanity.  Since this chapter has the same intent as the previous chapter, I would encourage my readers to look through my commentary for that chapter as well, and also read the text for chapters 38 and 39 at the same time since they are best understood together.

In the next chapter, God continues challenging Job to match him in power and wisdom.