John Gill Commentary Job 39

Do you know the time when the wild goats of the rock bring
forth ?
&c.] Which creatures are so called, because they dwell among the rocks ^F4 and run upon them; and though their heads are loaded with a vast burden of horns upon them, yet can so poise themselves, as with the greatest swiftness, to leap from mountain to mountain, as Pliny says ^F5 : and if they bring forth their young in the rocks, as Olympiodorus asserts, and which is not improbable, it is not to be wondered, that the time of their bringing forth should not be known by men, to whom the rocks they run upon are inaccessible;

[or] can you mark the time when the hinds do calve ?
that is, precisely and exactly, and so as to direct, order, and manage, and bring it about, as the Lord does: and it is wonderful that they should calve, and not cast their young before their time, when they are continually in flight and fright, through men or wild beasts, and are almost always running and leaping about; and often scared with thunder, which hastens birth, (Psalms 29:9) ; otherwise the time of their bringing forth in general is known by men, as will be observed in (Job 39:2) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F4: ----Amantis saxa capellae.
• F5: Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 53. Aelian. de Animal. l. 14. c. 16.

Canst thou number the months [that] they fulfil ?
&c.] Which some understand both of wild goats and hinds. Common goats fulfil five months, they conceive in November, and bring forth in March, as Pliny ^F6 observes; but how many the wild goats of the rock fulfil is not said by him or any other I know of: the same writer says ^F7 of hinds, that they go eight months;

or do you know the time when they bring forth ?
naturalists ^F8 tell us, that the hinds conceive after the rise of the star Arcturus, which rises eleven days before the autumnal equinox; so that they conceive in September; and as they go eight months, they bring forth in April; but then the exact time to a day and hour is not known. Besides, who has fixed the time for their bringing forth, and carries them in it through so many dangers and difficulties? None but the Lord himself. Now if such common things in nature were not known perfectly by Job, how should he be able to search into and find out the causes and reasons of God's providential dealings with men, or what is in the womb of Providence?

FOOTNOTES:

• F6: Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 50.
• F7: Ib. c. 32.
• F8: Ib. & l. 2. c. 47. Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. 6. c. 29. Solinus, c. 31.

They bow themselves
That they may bring forth their young with greater ease and more safety: for it seems the hinds has great difficulty; and there are provisions in nature made to lessen it;

as thunder, before observed, which causes them to bring forth the sooner; and there is an herb called "seselis", which it is said ^F9 they feed upon before birth, to make it the easier; as well as they use that, and another called "aros", after the birth, to ease them of their later pains;

they bring forth their young ones ;
renting and cleaving asunder the membrane, as the word signifies, in which their young is wrapped;

they cast out their sorrows ;
either their young, which they bring forth in pains and which then cease; or the secundines, or afterbirth, in which the young is wrapped, and which the philosopher says ^F11 they eat, and is supposed to be medical to them. None but a woman seems to bring forth with more pain than this creature; and a wife is compared to it, (Proverbs 5:19) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F9: Cicero de Natura Deoram, l. 2. Plin. Nat. Hist. c. 8. 32. Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 5.
• F11: Aristot. ib.

Their young ones are in good liking
Plump, fat, and sleek, as fawns are:

they grow up with corn ;
by which they grow, or without in the field, as the word also signifies; and their growth and increase is very quick, as Aristotle observes ^F12 ;

they go forth, and return not unto them :
they go forth into the fields, and shift and provide for themselves, and trouble their dams no more; and return not to them, nor are they known by them.

FOOTNOTES:

• F12: Ib. (Aristot. Hist. Animal.) l. 6. c. 29.

Who has sent out the wild ass free ?
Into the wide waste, where it is, ranges at pleasure, and is not under the restraint of any; a creature which, as it is naturally wild, is naturally averse to servitude, is desirous of liberty and maintains it: not but that it may be tamed, as Pliny ^F13 speaks of such as are; but it chooses to be free, and, agreeably to its nature, it is sent out into the wilderness as such: not that it is set free from bondage, for in that it never was until it is tamed; but its nature and inclination, and course it pursues, is to be free.

And now the question is, who gave this creature such a nature, and desire after liberty? and such power to maintain it? and directs it to take such methods to secure it, and keep clear of bondage? It is of God;

or who has loosed the bands of the wild ass ?
not that it has any naturally upon it, and is loosed from them; but because it is as clear of them as such creatures are, which have been in bands and are freed from them: therefore this mode of expression is used, and which signifies the same as before.

FOOTNOTES:

• F13: Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 44.