Job 38:39-39:18

The Lord Answers Job

39 "Can you hunt the prey for the lion,
or b satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
 40 when they crouch in their c dens
or lie in wait d in their thicket?
 41 Who provides for e the raven its prey,
when its young ones cry to God for help,
and wander about for lack of food?

Job 39

1 "Do you know when f the mountain goats give birth?
Do you observe g the calving of the does?
 2 Can you number the months that they fulfill,
and do you know the time when they give birth,
 3 when they h crouch, bring forth their offspring,
and are delivered of their young?
 4 Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open;
they go out and i do not return to them.

5 "Who has let the wild donkey go free?
Who has j loosed the bonds of the swift donkey,
 6 to whom I have given k the arid plain for his home
and l the salt land for his dwelling place?
 7 He scorns the tumult of the city;
he hears not the shouts of the driver.
 8 He ranges the mountains as his pasture,
and he searches after every green thing.

9 "Is m the wild ox willing to serve you?
Will he spend the night at your n manger?
 10 Can you bind m him in the furrow with ropes,
or will he harrow the valleys after you?
 11 Will you depend on him because his strength is great,
and will you leave to him your labor?
 12 Do you have faith in him that he will return your grain
and gather it to your threshing floor?

13 "The wings of the ostrich wave proudly,
but are they the pinions and plumage of love? 1
14 For she leaves her eggs to the earth
and lets them be warmed on the ground,
 15 forgetting that a foot may crush them
and that the wild beast may trample them.
 16 She o deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers;
though her p labor be in vain, yet she has no fear,
 17 because God has made her forget wisdom
and q given her no share in understanding.
 18 When she rouses herself to flee, 2
she laughs at the horse and his rider.

  1. Cross References
    Psalms 104:21
    The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.
  2. Cross References
    Job 37:8
    Then the beasts go into their lairs, and remain in their dens.
  3. Cross References
    Psalms 17:12
    He is like a lion eager to tear, as a young lion lurking in ambush.
  4. Cross References
    Psalms 147:9
    He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry.
    Luke 12:24
    Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!
    Matthew 6:26
    Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
  5. Cross References
    1 Samuel 24:2
    Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Wildgoats' Rocks.
    Psalms 104:18
    The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.
  6. Cross References
    Psalms 29:9
    The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, "Glory!
  7. Cross References
    1 Samuel 4:19
    Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant, about to give birth. And when she heard the news that the ark of God was captured, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed and gave birth, for her pains came upon her.
  8. Cross References
    Genesis 8:12
    Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.
  9. Cross References
    Job 12:18
    He looses the bonds of kings and binds a waistcloth on their hips.
    Psalms 116:16
    O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds.
  10. Cross References
    Job 24:5
    Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert the poor go out to their toil, seeking game; the wasteland yields food for their children.
    Jeremiah 2:24
    A wild donkey used to the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her.
  11. Cross References
    Psalms 107:34
    A fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the evil of its inhabitants.
    Jeremiah 17:6
    He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.
    Deuteronomy 29:23
    The whole land burned out with brimstone and salt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout, an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath -
  12. Cross References
    Numbers 23:22
    God brings them out of Egypt and is for them like the horns of the wild ox.
  13. Cross References
    Proverbs 14:4
    Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.
    Isaiah 1:3
    The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.
  14. Cross References
    Job 39:9
    Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your manger?
  15. Cross References
    Lamentations 4:3
    Even jackals offer the breast; they nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
  16. Cross References
    Isaiah 49:4
    But I said, "I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God.
    Isaiah 65:23
    They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them.
  17. Cross References
    Job 35:11
    Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.