“Do you know the time when the wild mountain goats bear young? Or can you mark when the deer gives birth?
Parallel translations
- WEB “Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns?
- KJV Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?
- BSB “Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the doe bear her fawn?
- 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 29:9Yahweh’s voice makes the deer calve, and strips the forests bare. In his temple everything says, “Glory!”
- 1 Sam 24:2Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men on the rocks of the wild goats.
- Ps 104:18The high mountains are for the wild goats. The rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.
- Jer 14:5Yes, the hind also in the field calves, and forsakes her young, because there is no grass.
- Deut 14:5the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, 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.