Albert Barnes Commentary Job 39:1

"Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? [Or] canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?" — Job 39:1 (ASV)

Do you know the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? – That is, the particular season when the mountain goats bring forth their young. The habits of domestic animals—the sheep, the tame goat, etc.—would be fully understood.

But the question here relates to the animals that roamed at large on inaccessible cliffs, that were hidden in deep forests, that were far from the dwellings and observation of people. The meaning is that there were many facts regarding such points of Natural History which Job could not explain.

God knew all their instincts and habits, and on the inaccessible cliffs, in the deep dell, in the dark forest, he was with them, and they were the objects of his care. He not only regarded the condition of the domestic animals that had been brought into the service of humans, and where humans perhaps might be disposed to claim that they owed much of their comfort to their care, but he also regarded the wild, wandering beast of the mountain, where no such pretense could be advanced.

The providence of God is over them. In the periods of their lives when they seem most to need attention—when every shepherd and herdsman is most solicitous about his flocks and herds—then God is present, and his care is seen in their preservation.

The particular point in the inquiry here is not regarding the time when these animals produced their young or the period of their gestation, which might probably be known, but regarding the attention and care that was necessary for them when they were so far removed from human observation and had no human aid.

The “wild goat of the rock” referred to here is, doubtless, the Ibex, or mountain goat, that has its dwellings among the rocks, or in stony places. The Hebrew term is יעל (yâ‛êl)—from יעל (ya‛al)—meaning “to ascend, to go up.” They had their residence in the lofty rocks of mountains (Psalms 104:18): The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats.

In Hebrew, “For the goats of the rocks” is יעלים סלעים (yâ‛êliym sela‛iym). So in 1 Samuel 24:2, it says, Saul went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats; that is, where the wild goats—היעלים (hayâ‛êliym)—were. For a description of the wild goat, see Bochart, Hieroz. P. i. Lib. iii. c. xxiii.

The animal referred to here is, doubtless, the same one that Burckhardt saw on the summit of Mount Catherine, adjacent to Mount Sinai, and which he describes in his Travels in Syria, p. 571:

“As we approached the summit of the mountain (Catherine, adjacent to Mount Sinai), we saw at a distance a small flock of mountain goats feeding among the rocks. One of our Arabs left us, and by a widely circuitous route endeavored to get to the leeward of them, and near enough to fire at them. He enjoined us to remain in sight of them, and to sit down in order not to alarm them.

He had nearly reached a favorable spot behind a rock, when the goats suddenly took to flight. They could not have seen the Arab, but the wind changed, and thus they smelled him. The chase of the beden, as the wild goat is called, resembles that of the chamois of the Alps, and requires as much enterprise and patience. The Arabs make long circuits to surprise them and endeavor to come upon them early in the morning, when they feed.

The goats have a leader who keeps watch, and on any suspicious smell, sound, or object, makes a noise, which is a signal to the flock to make their escape. They have much decreased of late, if we may believe the Arabs, who say that fifty years ago, if a stranger came to a tent and the owner of it had no sheep to kill, he took his gun and went in search of a beden. They are, however, even now more common here than in the Alps or in the mountains to the east of the Red Sea. I had three or four of them brought to me at the convent, which I bought at three-fourths of a dollar each.

The flesh is excellent and has nearly the same flavor as that of deer. The Bedouins make water bags of their skins and rings of their horns, which they wear on their thumbs. When the beden is met with in the plains, the hunters’ dogs easily catch him; but they cannot come up with him among the rocks, where he can make leaps of 20 feet.”

Or can you observe when the hinds calve? – The reference here is to the special care and protection of God manifested for them. The meaning is that this animal always seems timid and apprehensive of danger, and that special care is bestowed upon an animal so defenseless in enabling it to rear its young. The word “hinds” denotes the deer, the fawn—perhaps the most timid and defenseless of all animals.