Job 39:2

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Can you number the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they give birth?

World English Bible · Public Domain

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יְרָחִ֣ים

yerach

H3391

“months”

Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute

Appears 13× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 2:2

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from a unused root of uncertain signification

TWOT: 913b

month (lunar cycle), moon - month - calendar month

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

6: words
6: distinct lemmas
Wisdom: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is יְרָחִ֣ים month H3391 — appearing just 13 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

יְרָחִ֣ים month H3391 occurs in 13 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

4 verbs
2 nouns

Verb forms

תִּסְפֹּ֣ר Qal · Imperfect
תְּמַלֶּ֑אנָה Piel · Imperfect
וְ֝יָדַ֗עְתָּ Qal · Perfect
לִדְתָּֽנָה Qal · Infinitive Construct

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 18 words from the Hebrew and 21 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 6 Hebrew tokens and 10 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Job 39:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Jeremiah 2:24 a wild donkey used to the wilderness, that snuffs up the wind in her desire; in her occasion who can turn her away? all those who seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Job 39:2 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

תִּסְפֹּ֣ר יְרָחִ֣ים תְּמַלֶּ֑אנָה וְ֝יָדַ֗עְתָּ עֵ֣ת לִדְתָּֽנָה

Can you number the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they give birth?

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Job 39:2 Septuagint · lemma form

ἀριθμέω δέ αὐτός μήν πλήρης τοκετός ὠδίν δέ αὐτός λύω

and if you have have numbered the full months of their being with young, and if you have relieved their pangs:

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Job 39:2 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

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.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

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

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

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.

John Gill's Exposition

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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

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.

The Pulpit Commentary

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.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Job, in the Wisdom, opens this verse with 6 words (6 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is yerach (“month”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “month” (yerach) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Exodus 2:2, which shares the word «month», read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«תִּסְפֹּ֣ר» is a Qal Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 6 Hebrew ↔ 10 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 15 words in this verse.
6 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 6 words in this verse.