Job 39:1
in Job 39“Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the doe bear her fawn?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? Or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?
KJV
Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?
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This verse in Job 39
Commentary
9 notes on this verseKnowest thou the time when the wild goats bring forth in the rocks, or hast thou observed the hinds when they calve? 36. The southern part of the world calls birds, which inhabit the streams of the Nile, 'ibices.' But the eastern and western quarters term small quadrupeds, 'ibices,' whose custom also it is to bring forth in the rocks, because they know not how to dwell except in the rocks. And if they ever fall down, even from the lofty tops of the mountains, they catch themselves without hurt on their own horns.
This site's exposition
mountain goats give birth
on Job 39:1-4
The list of creatures opens with births no man attends: the “mountain goats” and the doe keep their own times. Their young “leave and do not return”. Delitzsch notes the argument beneath every portrait, that God sustains whole orders of life that owe man nothing and lie outside his management.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
He is right in saying, "Have you protected the calving of the hinds?" Since flight, fear and anxiety are usual in this kind of animal, which never ceases from leaping and galloping, how, he says, can it not abort, so do you know how its young can be given birth at the right time? "Say if you have numbered the full months of their being with young, and if you have relieved their pangs. [Speak out if you] have reared their young without fear. Will you loosen their pangs?" This animal is timorous. How may its young ones, which cannot count on the speed of their legs, be devoid of fear? Who watches them? You see that nature never abandons them, neither the lion rules through its strength, nor is the hind abandoned.
The Medieval Church1 voice
The Lord called to mind in what preceded what relates to the cognitive power, speaking about the wisdom of men and the intelligence of the cock. (38:36) He also called to mind the prey of lions and the food of crows, which relate to the …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Shall we pretend to tell what is in the womb of Providence, or what a day will bring forth, who know not the time of the pregnancy of a hind or a wild goat?
Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth?....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Knowest thou, the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? - That is, the particular season when the mountain goats bring forth their young. Of domestic animals - the sheep, the tame goat, etc., the habits would be fuIly understood. But the question here relates to the animals that roamed at large on inaccessible cliffs; that were buried in deep forests; that were far from the dwellings and observation of people; and the meaning is, that there were many facts in regard to such points of Natural History which Job could not explain.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Even wild beasts, cut off from all care of man, are cared for by God at their seasons of greatest need. Their instinct comes direct from God and guides them to help themselves in parturition; the very time when the herdsman is most anxious for his herds. wild goats--ibex (Ps 104:18;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Knowest thou the time - To know time, etc., only, was easy, and has nothing extraordinary in it; but the meaning of these questions is, to know the circumstances, which have something peculiarly expressive of God’s providence, and make the questions proper in this place. Pliny observes, that the hind with young is by instinct directed to a certain herb, named seselis, which facilitates the birth. Thunder, also, which looks like the more immediate hand of Providence, has the same effect. Psa 29:9: “The Voice of the Lord maketh the Hinds to Calve.” See Dr. Young. What is called the wild goat, יעל yael, from עלה alah, to ascend, go or mount up, is generally understood to be the ibex or mountain goat, called yael, from the wonderful manner in which it mounts to the tops of the highest rocks. It is certain, says Johnston, there is no crag of the mountains so high, prominent or steep, but this animal will mount it in a number of leaps, provided only it be rough, and have protuberances large enough to receive its hoofs in leaping. This animal is indigenous to Arabia, is of amazing strength and agility, and considerably larger than the common goat. Its horns are very long, and often bend back over the whole body of the animal; and it is said to throw itself from the tops of rocks or towers, and light upon its horns, without receiving any damage. It goes five months with young. When the hinds do calve? - The hind is the female of the stag, or cervus elaphus, and goes eight months with young. They live to thirty-five or forty years. Incredible longevity has been attributed to some stags. One was taken by Charles VI., in the forest of Senlis, about whose neck was a collar with this inscription, Caesar hoc mihi donavit, which led some to believe that this animal had lived from the days of some one of the twelve Caesars, emperors of Rome. […]
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
mountain goats Estainboc in Old French. It hates its young, and, when preparing to give birth, goes to the top of a high rock, so that its young should fall to the earth and die.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֲיָדַ֗עְתָּ | hayada'ta | ¿ do you know | H3045 → | 945 times |
| עֵ֭ת | ʾet | [the] time of | H6256 → | 296 times |
| לֶ֣דֶת | ledet | [the] bringing forth of | H3205 → | 496 times |
| יַעֲלֵי־ | yaalei- | mountain goats of | H3277 → | |
| סָ֑לַע | sala' | rock | H5553 → | 58 times |
| חֹלֵ֖ל | cholel | [the] giving birth of | H2342 → | 58 times |
| אַיָּל֣וֹת | ʾaiyalot | does | H355 → | |
| תִּשְׁמֹֽר׃ | tishmor | do you watch? | H8104 → | 468 times |
הֲיָדַ֗עְתָּ¿ do you know
hayada'taH3045 →945 times
עֵ֭ת[the] time of
ʾetH6256 →296 times
לֶ֣דֶת[the] bringing forth of
ledetH3205 →496 times
יַעֲלֵי־mountain goats of
yaalei-H3277 →
סָ֑לַעrock
sala'H5553 →58 times
חֹלֵ֖ל[the] giving birth of
cholelH2342 →58 times
אַיָּל֣וֹתdoes
ʾaiyalotH355 →
תִּשְׁמֹֽר׃do you watch?
tishmorH8104 →468 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 104:18The high mountains are for the wild goats, the cliffs a refuge for the rock badgers.
it leads to
- Proverbs 30:26
the rock badgers are creatures of little power, yet they make their homes in the rocks;
- Proverbs 30:26
Through
Psalms 29:9The voice of the LORD twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in His temple all cry, “Glory!”
it leads to
- Psalms 46:2–5
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth is transformed and the mountains are toppled into the depths of the seas,
- Psalms 26:8
O LORD, I love the house where You dwell, the place where Your glory resides.
- Ezekiel 20:46–48
“Son of man, set your face toward the south, preach against it, and prophesy against the forest of the Negev.
- Job 39:1–3
“Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the doe bear her fawn?
- Psalms 48:9
Within Your temple, O God, we contemplate Your loving devotion.
- Psalms 46:2–5
Through
Jeremiah 14:5Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass.
it leads to
- Psalms 29:9
The voice of the LORD twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in His temple all cry, “Glory!”
- Psalms 29:9
Through
1 Samuel 24:2So Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to look for David and his men in the region of the Rocks of the Wild Goats.
it leads to
- 1 Samuel 26:2
So Saul, accompanied by three thousand chosen men of Israel, went down to the Wilderness of Ziph to search for David there.
- 1 Samuel 26:2
About Job
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXX; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 39:1B-3B; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.