Job 39:3
in Job 39They crouch down and bring forth their young; they deliver their newborn.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
They bow themselves, they bring forth their young, They cast out their pains.
KJV
They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows.
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This verse in Job 39
Commentary
9 notes on this verseThey bow themselves for the birth, and bring forth, and utter roarings. 47. For they roar in truth, whilst by bending themselves down, they bring forth the souls of their hearers in the conversation of light; because they cannot release us from eternal punishments, except by tears and pain. For holy preachers sow in tears now, that they may afterwards reap a crop of joys. They are now like hinds in the pangs of bringing forth, that they may afterwards be fruitful in spiritual offspring.
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.
This site's exposition
bring forth their young
The doe and the mountain goat give birth in the wild with no shepherd near, Barnes notes, and God alone to guard their young. Clarke reads the Hebrew chebleyhem, rendered their sorrows in older versions, as the afterbirth. Henry drew comfort here for women in labor.
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
And so he says, "They crouch to bring forth their young," which they bring forth, "and give birth," by themselves instructed by nature. Still giving birth is not delightful, but painful for them, and so he says, "and they bring it forth roaring," because of …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Some think it is intimated ( Ps. xxix. 9 ) that God by thunder helps the hinds in calving. Let it be observed, for the comfort of women in labour, that God helps even the hinds to bring forth their young; and shall he not much more succour them, and save them in child-bearing, who are his children in covenant with him?
They bow themselves,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
They bow themselves - literally, they curve or bend themselves; that is, they draw their limbs together. They cast out their sorrows - That is, they cast forth the offspring of their pains, or the young which cause their pains. The idea seems to be, that they do this without any of the care and attention which shepherds are obliged to show to their flocks at such seasons. They do it when God only guards them; when they are in the wilderness or on the rocks far away from the abodes of man.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
They bow themselves - In order to bring forth their young ones. They cast out their sorrows - חבליהם chebleyhem; the placenta, afterbirth, or umbilical cord. So this word has been understood.
The words behind it
5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| תִּ֭כְרַעְנָה | tikhra'nah | they kneel down | H3766 → | 36 times |
| יַלְדֵיהֶ֣ן | yaldeihen | young their | H3206 → | 89 times |
| תְּפַלַּ֑חְנָה | tefalachnah | they cleave open | H6398 → | |
| חֶבְלֵיהֶ֥ם | chevleihem | labor-pains their | H2256 → | 62 times |
| תְּשַׁלַּֽחְנָה׃ | teshalachnah | they send forth | H7971 → | 845 times |
תִּ֭כְרַעְנָהthey kneel down
tikhra'nahH3766 →36 times
יַלְדֵיהֶ֣ןyoung their
yaldeihenH3206 →89 times
תְּפַלַּ֑חְנָהthey cleave open
tefalachnahH6398 →
חֶבְלֵיהֶ֥םlabor-pains their
chevleihemH2256 →62 times
תְּשַׁלַּֽחְנָה׃they send forth
teshalachnahH7971 →845 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
About Job

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; 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.
