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?
1:8 Their horses are faster than leopards
and more alert 3 than wolves in the desert. 4
Their horses 5 gallop, 6
their horses come a great distance;
like a vulture 7 they swoop down quickly to devour their prey. 8
1 tn The text uses the infinitive as the object: “do you know the giving birth of?”
2 tn Or “ibex.”
3 tn Heb “sharper,” in the sense of “keener” or “more alert.” Some translate “quicker” on the basis of the parallelism with the first line (see HALOT 291 s.v. חדד).
4 tn Heb “wolves of the evening,” that is, wolves that prowl at night. The present translation assumes an emendation to עֲרָבָה (’aravah, “desert”). On this phrase see also Zeph 3:3.
5 tn Or “horsemen,” “cavalry.”
6 tn The precise nuance of the rare verb פָּוַשׁ (parash) is unclear here. Elsewhere it is used of animals jumping or leaping (see Jer 50:11; Mal 4:2).
7 tn Or “eagle” (so NASB, NRSV). The term can refer to either eagles or vultures, but in this context of gruesome destruction and death “vulture” is preferred.
8 tn Heb “they fly like a vulture/an eagle quickly to devour.” The direct object “their prey” is not included in the Hebrew text but is implied, and has been supplied in the translation for clarity.