The Bible Says
Job 39:1-4 Meaning

In Job 39:1-4, God continues demonstrating to Job how tiny his perspective is compared to God’s. God began answering Job’s petition to have a hearing to gain Job’s perspective, after which time Job expressed confidence God would alter His actions toward him (Job 23:3-7).

God’s answer to Job began in Job 38:1. The resulting monologue continues through Chapter 39, then after a brief exchange, continues through Chapter 41. God began by demanding of Job that he answer a number of metaphysical questions to which Job had no answer (Job 38:4-38). In Job 38:39, God switched from metaphysical insights to the knowledge of the animal world, beginning with the lion. God now asks: “Do you know the time the mountain goats give birth?” (v. 1).

God is inviting Job to think about a scene Job has likely never witnessed. Mountain goats live among razor-edged cliffs and high crags, places where feet slip and human hands are of little use. In the Judean wilderness and the eastern desert ridges, the terrain is a maze of ledges, ravines, and sheer faces—sun-baked in summer, wind-cut in winter. There, without a shepherd’s calendar or a midwife’s clock, the Creator keeps watch over them and determines their time.

The question isn’t so much seeking data from Job as much as it is exposing Job’s limits. Even if Job goes to the difficulty of stalking the mountain goats and observing them give birth he cannot explain how it takes place. Further, even with the advancements of modern technology we can only describe and name the reproductive processes in animals. As the DNA genetic code has come to light, this challenge from God becomes even more poignant. The DNA code’s complexity goes far beyond our capacity to comprehend, much less to create on our own.

God pushes further: “Do you observe the calving of the deer?” (v. 1). The Hebrew word translated observe is often translated “keep,” as in Genesis 2:15 where God placed Adam in the garden to “keep” it. Does the deer need Job’s help to calve its fawns? Of course not. God takes care of that without any human aid. These births happen in brushy gullies, shaded valleys, and thickets under God’s care alone.

Job has never sat watch to record the contractions of a laboring deer, and even if he tried, the deer would flee before he got close. Creation is always speaking of God’s care and order (Psalm 19:1-4; Romans 1:20). But much of that speech occurs out of our sight, or is given in ways that extend beyond our comprehension. Still, God sees it all. As the New Testament puts it, in Christ “all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16-17). The Lord’s questions not-so-gently say, “Job, you do not hold this together—I do.”

The point matches the theme of the whole divine speech: God is widening Job’s view from his personal pain to the orchestration of the entire world. Job had hoped to give God “missing” perspective; God shows that nothing is missing to Him. Creation is not an empty stage—God is actively present, ruling every hidden moment in wild places, the way He rules the storms, the dawn, and the depths (Job 38).

Through this intellectual challenge, which was invited and requested by Job, God gives Job an opportunity to immensely expand his experience of life, as the very definition of life is to know God (John 17:3, Job 42:5). God next asks another question regarding deer and their time of gestation and giving of birth: “Can you count the months they fulfill, Or do you know the time they give birth?” (v. 2).

This is calendar language—gestation lengths, due dates, timelines. People count what they manage or control. Ranchers mark breeding cycles for domesticated herds. But no tag hangs from the ears of these wild goats and deer. Job can’t track their months, and he can’t know the time of their delivery. Yet the births happen on schedule, without Job’s oversight. The Maker set the cycles, and those cycles keep turning.

The underlying premise of the arguments of Job’s friends was that life functions according to simple transactions where we have ultimate control: behave and God must bless; slip and God must strike (Job 8:5-6). To his great credit, Job did not agree with this and spoke only what was right of God (Job 42:7). God’s questions unmask a deeper reality: He is not an idol or cosmic vending machine that can be controlled; He is the Creator who orders realities humans barely perceive. The proper response is worship rather than transactional barter (Romans 11:33-36).

This also prepares the ground for grace. If the wild world runs on a wisdom beyond us, it follows that God’s care for Job also runs deeper than we can compute. Later, Job will say, “I declared things too wonderful for me” (Job 42:3). That confession is the fruit of these questions. God’s objective is to bless Job, but training requires effort and comes through difficulty. Scripture declares that God chastises those whom He loves (Hebrews 12:6).

God describes what Job has likely not seen and certainly does not comprehend, still speaking of the deer birthing their young: “They kneel down, they bring forth their young, They get rid of their labor pains” (v. 3).

We can imagine a mountain ledge barely wider than a walkway. The doe or goat “kneels down,” steadying herself on that precarious perch. No human holds her. No rope secures her. Yet the birth proceeds. The phrase bring forth their young paints a normal, healthy outcome—life arrives without a veterinary team of attending humans. And They get rid of their labor pains shows recovery—pain of labor gives way to relief of birth.

The Creator wrote this script into their bodies and provides the safety for it to unfold in the places that are safe for them but would be perilous for humans. There’s a quiet encouragement here. If God can oversee labor and delivery on a cliff face, He can attend to our crises where footing feels just as narrow.

Jesus told anxious disciples to look at birds and flowers as living billboards of the Father’s care (Matthew 6:26-30). Job is being asked to look at goats and deer. The message is the same: your Father handles details you don’t even know to pray about. You can trust Him with the details you do know.

And the detail that the deer kneel down hints at a rhythm built into creation—strain, then relief; pain, then joy. The New Testament applies that rhythm to us: “We exult in tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance… and hope does not disappoint” (Romans 5:3-5). God is not indifferent to pain; He intends it to lead to life.

In fact, God will turn all things to good for those whom He loves (Romans 8:28). Job’s story will follow that path: God will shrink Job to realize his true place and in doing so will greatly enlarge him by leading him to know God better (Job 40:3-4). Next God notes the result of His wild nursery: “Their offspring become strong, they grow up in the open field; They leave and do not return to them.” (v. 4).

These young offspring don’t need barns or shepherds. The open field is their classroom and gym—steep slopes for legs to strengthen, dangers that teach alertness, the need to forage for food which trains endurance and persistence. They become strong in God’s manner, with no human oversight. And when they are ready, they leave and do not return, because the Creator designed them to stand on their own and make their own way in the world.

This also reflects what should be a human pattern. Parents should raise children to launch and go out on their own. The first and best place to make disciples is in our own homes (Deuteronomy 6:4-7, Matthew 28:18-20). Teachers equip students to graduate. God’s wise care aims not at permanent sheltering but at developing real strength in His people. This is why James exhorts believers to rejoice in trials because they present opportunities to grow faith, and perseverance in faith is how we win at life (James 1:2-4, 12).

This is why the true objective God sets forth for believers in Jesus is to overcome as He overcame (Revelation 3:21). He promises that to those who overcome by not fearing rejection, loss, or death, He will grant to reign with Christ, thus restoring His design for humans (Hebrews 2:5-10). To learn endurance requires going through trials, which is why James 1:2 tells us to consider it joy to engage in trials.

Job understandably longed for relief, and God will give it, but first He gives something better: maturity—strength that comes from knowing God. That is why this long dialogue ends with Job worshiping and with God doubling his blessing (Job 42:2-6, 10). God is after Job’s best, even when the training is hard.

In the bigger frame of the Bible, this points us to Jesus. He, too, grew and “learned obedience” through His suffering (Hebrews 5:8), and through His cross He secured a people who would share His life through knowing Him (John 17:3). The One through whom all things were made (John 1:3) is the same One who feeds birds and clothes fields (Matthew 6:26-30), and stands with sufferers like Job until faith is stronger than fear. Creation is God’s sermon, Job is God’s student, and through Christ we hear the same call: trust the Father who orders births on the heights and carries us through our valleys.

It is important here to note that through all of Job’s travails, he never sinned with his lips or complained against God (Job 1:22, 2:10). Further, Job spoke of God only what was true, as declared by God Himself (Job 42:7). Job was God’s favorite, a man of whom God was exceedingly proud (Job 1:8, 2:3).

But Job still lacked understanding. And when Job expressed a belief that God lacked perspective and asked God for an audience, God complied, but not in the way Job imagined. God’s engagement with Job is likely an example of what it looks like to ask and receive from God wisdom to understand why we should rejoice in difficulties (James 2:5-6).