“Canst thou number the months that they fulfil? or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?”
God continues 'Can you number the months they fulfill, or do you know the time when they give birth?' asking whether Job can predict or control the timing of animal reproduction. The questions about numbering months and knowing times of birth suggest that divine knowledge encompasses such temporal and biological details. Job's inability to predict or control such things establishes his fundamental dependence on the order that God maintains. The emphasis on timing and fulfillment suggests that animal reproduction operates according to regular patterns and schedules established by God. Job's inability to understand or control such patterns establishes yet another area in which divine knowledge and action transcend human agency. The verses about animal birth suggest that reproduction, while ordinary from human perspective, actually involves detailed divine knowledge and action at every instant.
Church Fathers on Job 39:2
Hast thou numbered the months of their conception? For when holy men think of the improvement of their hearers, they bear already a conception, as it were, in their womb. But when they put off some things which ought to be said, and seek a season fit for their exhortations, they are detained, as it were, by a weary length of months, from that birth which they wish to take place. And frequently when they are unwilling to express some of their sentiments to their hearers…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!