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Job 39:3

in Job 39

They 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.

This verse in Job 39

Commentary

9 notes on this verse
They 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

A commentator

John Chrysostom

COMMENTARY ON JOB 39:1B-3B · Written before 407.

proposed

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

A commentator

Thomas Aquinas

Commentary on Job · Written before 1274.

proposed

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

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

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

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

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

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 words

Every 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.

  • 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

Job Hears of His Misfortunes, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Job Hears of His Misfortunes, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

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.