Can you count the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they give birth?
Parallel Translations
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Can you count the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they give birth?
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Canst thou number the months that they fulfil? or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?
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Canst thou number the months that they fulfil? Or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?
Cross-references (1)
Passages linked to Job 39:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Jeremiah 2:24 a wild donkey used to the wilderness, that sniffs the wind in her craving. When she is in heat, who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not weary themselves. In her month, they will find her.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (7 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 39:2 Canst thou number the months [that] they…
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.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Dost thou exactly know when they did conceive, and…
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.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Canst thou number the months that they fulfil?.... Which…
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?
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(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.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Canst thou number the months ... - That is,…
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.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain They bring forth with ease and do not need…
They bring forth with ease and do not need to reckon the months of pregnancy, as the shepherd does in the case of his flocks.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 2. canst thou number] Rather, dost thou. The “months…
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?
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Canst thou number the months that they fulfil? With…
Canst thou number the months that they fulfil? With an animal so wild as the ibex, these secrets of nature would be difficult to observe and note down. In Job"s time probably no one had made such subjects an object of inquiry. Or knowest thou the time when they bring forth? This would be less difficult to observe. The breeding-time of most wild animals is known in the country which produces them.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.