39:1 “Are you acquainted with the way 1
the mountain goats 2 give birth?
Do you watch as the wild deer give birth to their young?
39:5 Who let the wild donkey go free?
Who released the bonds of the donkey,
39:9 Is the wild ox willing to be your servant?
Will it spend the night at your feeding trough?
39:19 “Do you give the horse its strength?
Do you clothe its neck with a mane? 3
1 tn The text uses the infinitive as the object: “do you know the giving birth of?”
2 tn Or “ibex.”
3 tn The second half of the verse contains this hapax legomenon, which is usually connected with the word רַעְמָה (ra’mah, “thunder”). A. B. Davidson thought it referred to the quivering of the neck rather than the mane. Gray thought the sound and not the movement was the point. But without better evidence, a reading that has “quivering mane” may not be far off the mark. But it may be simplest to translate it “mane” and assume that the idea of “quivering” is part of the meaning.