Study notes

Job 39

Introducing JobWho wrote it, when, why, and what to look for as you read

38:1–40:5

God challenges Job. Job admits he cannot judge the moral world. God shows Job's ignorance of the natural world's elements related to the realm of heaven, weather, animals, and birds (38:4–21; 22–38; 39–39:30).

38:1–40:5 Section

Job thought that God wouldn’t listen to him. Earlier Job had said he thought that God would send a storm to crush him. Job thought God would do this if he called out to God. Instead, God listened very closely.

God listened to everything that Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar and Elihu said. Instead of crushing Job with a storm, God spoke to Job from a storm. God didn’t answer the questions Job had asked. He didn’t explain to Job why people suffer. God didn’t explain that Satan had suggested a test for Job. Instead, God asked Job many questions. God asked what things Job was able to do. Then God explained many of the things that he can do.

God created everything in heaven and on the earth. He makes sure that what he created works the way he wants it to. This includes the land, the water, the sky, the stars and the animals. God takes care of all animals. This includes animals that aren’t livestock raised by human beings.

God talked a lot about the sky, the earth and the animals. The way he talked about them showed Job something important. Human beings are only one part of what God created. As a human being, Job couldn’t understand everything about God’s creation. Job couldn’t understand everything that was needed to take care of creation. Job couldn’t understand God’s plans. Job couldn’t understand the reasons why God did what he did. And Job couldn’t do God’s work better than God did it. Job’s first answer to God was to remain silent.

39:5–7

the wild donkey … scorns the tumult of the city: This is the first example in a series of animals that think little of other animals not their equal (compare 39:18, 22; 41:29). These images show how God scorns the opposition of a person like Job (see Psalm 2:4).

39:9–12

The wild ox now no longer exists and was already rare by the time of Moses. It was the strongest land animal in early Canaan. They never tamed this Old Testament symbol of strength (Numbers 23:22; 24:8; Deuteronomy 33:17; Psalms 29:6; 92:10; compare Genesis 1:28; 9:2; Psalm 8:5–6).

39:13–18

In the ancient Near East, people believed the ostrich was a bird that God had not given wisdom.

39:14–16

The ostrich symbolizes neglect for her young because she (Lamentations 4:3):

Leaves her eggs on the ground.
Seems to abandon her eggs when a predator comes near. She is probably trying to distract the predator from the nest.
Lays her eggs with other female ostrich in a shared nest, so many eggs are not her own.