Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?
Parallel translations
- WEB “Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns?
- BSB “Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the doe bear her fawn?
- NKJV “Do you know the time when the wild mountain goats bear young? Or can you mark when the deer gives birth?
- NASB “Do you know the time the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the deer?
- NLT “Do you know when the wild goats give birth? Have you watched as deer are born in the wild?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Does Job know when the mountain goats and deer give birth? The secret rhythms of wild animals are watched by God, not man.
Overview
God turns to the birthing of wild creatures, asking if Job oversees their seasons. These hidden events in the wilderness escape human knowledge but not God's. The verse extends the theme that God intimately governs a world far larger than human awareness.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Ps 29:9The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory.
- 1 Sam 24:2Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats.
- Ps 104:18The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies.
- Jer 14:5Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.
- Deut 14:5The hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 39:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.