Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 39:2

Canst thou number the months [that] they fulfill? or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?

2. canst thou number ] Rather, dost thou. The “months that they fulfil” is the time they go with young. The words “knowest thou”, “dost thou mark”, and the like, though no doubt referring partly to man’s ignorance of the habits of these remote and timid creatures, carry also the question, Is it Job who presides over and determines all connected with the life and habits of these solitary creatures?

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Canst thou number the months … – That is, as they wander in the wilderness, as they live in inaccessible crags and cliffs of the rocks, it is impossible for man to be acquainted with their habits as he can with those of the domestic animals.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Dost thou exactly know when they did conceive, and when they will bring forth? which is more uncertain in these than in other creatures, because there fall out many accidents which cause them to bring forth before their time, as thunder, Psa 29:9, and other like causes of sudden fear, which may be many and various in those desert places where they live.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

2. They bring forth with easeand do not need to reckon the months of pregnancy, as the shepherddoes in the case of his flocks.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Canst thou number the months [that] they fulfil?…. Which some understand both of wild goats and hinds. Common goats fulfil five months, they conceive in November, and bring forth in March, as Pliny f observes; but how many the wild goats of the rock fulfil is not said by him or any other I know of: the same writer says g of hinds, that they go eight months;

or knowest thou the time when they bring forth? naturalists h tell us, that the hinds conceive after the rise of the star Arcturus, which rises eleven days before the autumnal equinox; so that they conceive in September; and as they go eight months, they bring forth in April; but then the exact time to a day and hour is not known. Besides, who has fixed the time for their bringing forth, and carries them in it through so many dangers and difficulties? None but the Lord himself. Now if such common things in nature were not known perfectly by Job, how should he be able to search into and find out the causes and reasons of God’s providential dealings with men, or what is in the womb of Providence?

f Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 50. g Ib. c. 32. h Ib. & l. 2. c. 47. Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. 6. c. 29. Solinus, c. 31.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Job 39:2. Canst thou number the months, &c. The meaning of these questions is, “Knowest thou the time and circumstances of their bringing forth?” For, to know the time only was easy, and had nothing in it extraordinary; but the circumstances had something peculiarly expressive of God’s providence, which makes the question proper in this place. Pliny observes, that the hind with young is by instinct directed to a certain herb called seselis, which facilitates the birth. Thunder also, which looks like the more immediate hand of Providence, has the same effect. Dr. Young.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Job 39:2 Canst thou number the months [that] they fulfil? or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?

Ver. 2. Canst thou number the months they fulfil? ] Eight months, Aristotle saith (the elephant is said to go above eight years), but who can tell the instant when, or why not sooner or later? Dost thou exactly observe and count those months, as I do, to a moment? Sola hic Deo providentia elucet.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)