Job 39:1–39:12, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Job 39:1–39:12
Wild Births and Untamable Animals Live Beyond Human Control
Birth on the crags is not a human calendar
Do you know the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? Can you mark when the hinds do calve? Can you number the months that they fulfill? Do you know the time when they bring forth? They bow themselves, they bring forth their young, they cast out their sorrows. Their young ones are in good liking. They grow up with corn. They go forth and do not return to them.
The point is knowledge Job does not have about lives he does not manage. Wild birth is successful without him.
Wild donkey and wild ox will not take his harness
Who has sent out the wild ass free, or loosed the bands of the wild ass? Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings. He scorns the multitude of the city. He does not regard the crying of the driver. The range of the mountains is his pasture.
Will the unicorn be willing to serve you, or abide by your crib? Can you bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? Will he harrow the valleys after you? Will you trust him because his strength is great, or leave your labor to him? Will you believe him, that he will bring home your seed and gather it into your barn?
The KJV's 'unicorn' is a translation problem, not a zoo exhibit. The creature is an untamable wild ox in this poetry's world, not a warrant for fantasy animals or modern cryptid hunts. Freedom from the driver is the theological load: some strength exists that will not work Job's field.
How this should shape us
Do not demand that every strong life become your instrument. Translate difficult creature-names with care. Refuse both a circus of legendary beasts and a religion that cannot stand a world undomesticated by human plans.
Teach it back
Explain Job 39:1–39:12 in your own words. Name the speaker, the unit's place in Job, one source-controlled textual or literary observation, one uncertainty, and one harmful use the passage does not authorize.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do responsible readings differ?
Best judgment: The animals' identities and KJV 'unicorn' language require translation care; the passage does not support fantasy zoology or modern cryptid claims.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Job 39:1–39:12, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 39:1–39:12
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 39:1–39:12.
Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 39:1–39:12
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Enter the Bible Job course, Introductory Issues and Theological Themes: divine speeches, creation, Behemoth, and Leviathan; applied to Job 39:1–39:12
Supports: Lament, undeserved suffering, creation's wild freedom, nonhuman value, chaos imagery, encounter, and ending, used as one responsible pastoral-scholarly reading.
Schifferdecker, Working Preacher Job series, commentary headed for Job 38:1-41:34; applied to Job 39:1–39:12
Supports: Ancient Greek textual and translation evidence where the Masoretic and Greek forms, wording, length, or attribution materially differ.
NETS Iob, introduction on the shorter Old Greek and exact Greek translation and notes for Iob 39:1–39:12
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Job 39:1–39:12, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 39:1–39:12
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Job
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 39:1–39:12.
Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 39:1–39:12
Open the official NET Job PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Job course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Daniel J. Simundson and Kathryn Schifferdecker
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, current online edition inspected 2026
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Job course, Introductory Issues and Theological Themes: divine speeches, creation, Behemoth, and Leviathan; applied to Job 39:1–39:12
Open the Enter the Bible Job course ↗modern scholarly pastoral commentary collection
Job preaching series and creation commentaries
Kathryn M. Schifferdecker
Working Preacher, Luther Seminary, 2012-2016
Supports: Lament, undeserved suffering, creation's wild freedom, nonhuman value, chaos imagery, encounter, and ending, used as one responsible pastoral-scholarly reading.
Exact location: Schifferdecker, Working Preacher Job series, commentary headed for Job 38:1-41:34; applied to Job 39:1–39:12
Open Schifferdecker on Job 38-42 ↗ancient greek text translation and introduction
A New English Translation of the Septuagint: Iob
Claude E. Cox
International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies; Oxford University Press, 2009
Supports: Ancient Greek textual and translation evidence where the Masoretic and Greek forms, wording, length, or attribution materially differ.
Exact location: NETS Iob, introduction on the shorter Old Greek and exact Greek translation and notes for Iob 39:1–39:12
Open NETS Iob ↗