Podcast 53, Stories of the Bible, “The Book of Job, Ch 39”

Chapter 39 of Job is an extension of Chapter 38; therefore, there is no salutation. The Lord lists the following animals: wild goats, wild ass, unicorn, peacocks, ostrich, horse, hawk, and eagle. The unicorn is not the mythical white horse of medieval texts, but scholars speculate it was based on a real creature, a massive wild ox that was untamable.

You can see a kind of movement. For example, the wild goats, wild ass, and unicorn are very much creatures of nature, particularly the wilderness, suggesting that they are untamable. The peacock is known for its extraordinary beauty but serves no real practical function. The horse, however, is the first practical animal. It is a symbol of war, a symbol of mobility, a symbol of civilization that freed mankind to travel long distances. Of the list, it is the first tamable beast that has served mankind for ages. The next creatures—the hawk and the eagle are known for their predatorial instincts, their high altitudes, their majesty, and their breaking from the gravity of the earth. Tennyson captured the majesty and independence of the eagle brilliantly in a few lines.

The Eagle
by Alfred Lord Tennyson

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Using the chronological order in Job, let’s divide Chapter 39 into eight stanzas and discuss each image in turn. Keep in mind that things may also be seen as types. The animals tied to earth may symbolize temporal law and its inconceivable power, and the animals tied to the heavens may symbolize spiritual law and its inconceivable power. God is governor of all laws. Nothing is equal to the power of God. When we consider all the images collectively, including Job Chapter 38, we get a sense of the incomprehensible nature of God.

Job 39:1-4

Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve? Canst thou number the months that they fulfil? or knowest thou the time when they bring forth? They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows. Their young ones are in good liking, they grow up with corn; they go forth, and return not unto them.

Everything is governed by law. Even in the wildness of nature, there is perfect order. Patterns emerge giving predictability to that which seems wild, untamed, and uncertain. Everything is known to God but not to man.

Job 39:5-8

Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass? Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings. He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver. The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing.

Notice the juxtaposition of the words “house” and “wilderness.” When we think of a house, we perhaps think of our owe home, where everything for our convenience is confined into a single structure with dedicated rooms for different functions: bedroom, kitchen, family room, garage, laundry room, etc. The house of the wild ass is the entire wilderness or range of mountains which suggests thousands or hundreds of thousands of untamed acres; yet it is his home, his sanctuary. The ass roams the entire range of mountains searching for food. It is the scale that is important. There is order everywhere.

Job 39:9-12

Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?