Between Text and Sermon: Job 38:39–39:30

This essay explores three repeated themes in Job 38:39–39:30—God’s questions, God’s care for wild animals and their young, and the animals’ fearless laughter—followed by reflections on this passage’s ecological, theological, and ethical implications. ¹ The divine speeches in Job 38–41 overflow with questions, which traditionally have been interpreted as God putting Job in his place. Yet, Sam Balentine’s groundbreaking scholarship proposed a more constructive purpose for God’s questions, which may be designed “to enlarge Job’s understanding of the world and his moral sensibilities.” ²

A sermon on this passage might emphasize God’s care and admiration for the animals. The descriptions of six of the ten featured animals in Job 38:39–39:30 pertain to the animals’ young. A stanza on “the birthing process” of ibex and deer (Job 39:1–4) suggests God’s deep knowledge of and care for these mammals. ³ The feeding of hungry young animals frames the zoological section of the first divine speech (Job 38:39–41; 39:30). Yet, while the opening stanza positively portrays the raven’s hungry brood crying to God (Job 38:41), the section contrastingly closes by depicting young griffon vultures consuming blood (Job 39:30). Though Leviticus 11 identifies these birds as detestable (Lev 11:13, 15) and many of the animals in the Joban theophany as unclean, these labels are absent from the Joban theophany, where God celebrates and cares for each of these creatures. ⁴ Balentine suggests that “God’s assessment of who or what is welcomed in this ‘temple-world’” may differ substantially from the conventional assumption that these animals are “too wild or too unclean for proximity to the holy.” ⁵

These animals also teach us how to confront human violence and promote justice. The most prominent sound from these animals is fearless laughter in the face of human tumult and violence. The onager, liberated and provided for by God, laughs at or “scorns the tumult of the city” (Job 39:5–7). The ostrich “laughs at the horse and its rider” (Job 39:18). The horse, charging toward weapons, “laughs at fear” (Job 39:21–22). ⁶ God repeatedly revels in these animals’ fearless laughter, even in the face of danger. Their laughter echoes the first sound uttered by God in the Psalter—laughter in the face of peoples’ plots (Ps 2:1–4)—and foreshadows the laughter of Leviathan “at the rattle of javelins” in the closing verses of the Joban theophany (Job 41:29).

Theophanic imagery—typically used to describe God—appears in the descriptions of the horse and Leviathan (Job 39:19–20; 41:18–21), while God explicitly takes responsibility for providing the onager a tabernacle and making the ostrich “forget wisdom” (Job 39:6, 17). ⁷ Perhaps God presents to Job the fearless laughter of these four creatures as an example of what it means to be the image of God, to courageously confront human violence and injustice. God’s delight in the fearless laughter of these animals in the first divine speech (Job 39:7, 18, 22) lays a foundation for the message of the second divine speech (Job 40:6–41:34). There, Balentine suggests that humans “must be fierce, unbridled contenders for justice” and “that human beings may image God not by acquiescing to innocent suffering but by protesting it, contending with the powers that permit or sustain it.” ⁸

Though the Job of the prologue “fears God” (Job 1:1, 8, 9; 2:3), the God of the whirlwind delights in creatures who laugh at fear (Job 39:22). From fear of the Lord to fearless laughter, Job’s moral imagination is broadened, his empathy deepened, and his courage strengthened by God’s celebration of the wondrous qualities of animals that Job previously disdained. Job’s theophanic encounter with wild animals eventually transforms his actions in unexpected ways. Two of the book’s final verses feature the names of Job’s daughters, their beauty, and the inheritance that Job gives them and their brothers (Job 42:14–15), an act of gender equity that surpasses what is permitted in the Torah (Num 27:1–11). By granting his daughters an inheritance, in defiance of patriarchal tradition, Job exemplifies the animals’ fearless laughter at human civilization, rebellion against oppression, and care for their young. Job images the God of justice and grace who feeds young ravens and liberates and provides for the onager (Job 38:41; 39:5–6). ⁹

The Joban theophany’s wondrous portrayal of animals provides ecological, theological, and ethical lessons for congregations today. Multiple species that are celebrated by God in Job 38:39–39:30 are now extinct. From an ecological lens, a sermon on this text could explore how we can image the God who delights in the diversity of creation and the unique characteristics of each species, who provides food and habitats so that each animal can thrive, and who cares deeply about the wellbeing of fauna. The divine speeches’ emphasis on the intrinsic value of non-human life calls us to take concrete steps to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis and additional threats to the animals and habitats cherished by God. ¹⁰

The divine speeches challenge prejudice by revealing the Creator’s deep care for and delight in some of the very species and ecosystems that other biblical and ancient Near Eastern texts demean. Such a reversal of stereotypes invites contemporary readers to question: What individuals or groups in our own communities are being unjustly marginalized, discriminated against, or labeled or treated as other or unclean? What actions might we take to help those individuals or groups feel included, valued, and supported? ¹¹

The animals at the heart of this passage model multiple means of challenging human oppression, tumult, and violence. While the ostrich and horse confront forces of violence (Job 39:18, 21–22), the liberated onager “scorns the tumult of the city” and focuses instead on its own habitat (Job 39:5–8). The models set forth by these animals beckon us to ponder how we might be called to challenge injustice and oppression. Resistance to injustice may be shown through courageous confrontation—like the horse and ostrich—expressed in protest, nonviolent resistance, and activism, or by nurturing in local communities a counterspace of hospitality, justice, peace, and care for and solidarity with all creation.

The sermon could conclude with an insight that the voice out of the whirlwind moved Job from alienation to community, ¹² from crisis to transformative action. It calls us today to confront crises—however overwhelming—not with fear or hopelessness, but with the wonder and broader perspective imparted to Job, ¹³ the young ravens’ prayers, the ostrich’s courage, the hawk’s wisdom, and the horse’s fearless laughter and committed action (Job 38:41; 39:18, 21–22, 26). It beckons us to image God’s deep love for a majestic, diverse, and interdependent creation. It invites us to live into the Creator’s vision of a world where the marginalized are embraced and where each ecosystem, species, and individual—including you—is vital, interconnected, sustained, and cherished. ¹⁴