Job 39 — Tyndale Study Notes
Job.38.1-40.5
God challenges Job, who acknowledges his inability to judge the moral world by demonstrating his ignorance of the natural world’s cosmic (38:4-21) and meteorological elements (38:22-38), animals, and birds (38:39–39:30).
Job.39.5-7
wild donkey . . . hates (literally scorns) the noise of the city: This is the first in a series of animals that scorn others who are their inferiors in some way (cp. 39:18, 22; 41:29). These images illustrate how God scorns the opposition of a man like Job (see Ps 2:4).
Job.39.9-12
Now extinct and already rare by Moses’ time, the wild ox was the most powerful land animal in early Canaan. This Old Testament symbol of strength (Num 23:22; 24:8; Deut 33:17; Pss 29:6; 92:10) was never tamed (cp. Gen 1:28; 9:2; Ps 8:5-6).
Job.39.13-18
In the ancient Near East, the ostrich had a reputation as a bird that God had deprived of wisdom.
Job.39.14-16
The ostrich is a symbol of neglect for her young (Lam 4:3) because she (1) lays her eggs on top of the earth; (2) appears to leave her eggs to die when a predator approaches them (although she is probably attempting to lure the predator away from the nest); and (3) lays her eggs with several other hens in one nest, so most of the eggs are not her own.
Job.39.18
passes (literally scorns) the swiftest horse with its rider: See 39:7, 22; 41:29.
Job.39.24
The ram’s horn was sounded in combat to call for the charge (Josh 6:4-6).
Job.39.30
Where there’s a carcass, there you’ll find it—feeding on the remains (Ezek 39:17-19; Matt 24:28; Luke 17:37).