The Meaning of Job 39:5 Explained

Job 39:5

KJV: Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?

YLT: Who hath sent forth the wild ass free? Yea, the bands of the wild ass who opened?

Darby: Who hath sent out the wild ass free? and who hath loosed the bands of the onager,

ASV: Who hath sent out the wild ass free? Or who hath loosed the bonds of the swift ass,

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Who hath sent out  the wild ass  free?  or who hath loosed  the bands  of the wild ass? 

What does Job 39:5 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 39:1-30 - "knowest Thou?" "canst Thou?"
The series of questions is continued, and God asks more especially with respect to animated and organic nature. The wild goats, Job 39:1-4; the wild ass, Job 39:5-8; the wild ox, Job 39:9-12; the peacocks and ostriches, Job 39:13-18; the war horse, Job 39:19-25; the hawk, Job 39:26-30. In each case some special point is asked, hidden from the observation of ordinary men. If Job were unable to know more than they on such matters as these, how could he expect to know more than they of the reasons that dictate God's dealings with His people?
There is mystery in every part of the universe of God. He hides Himself, so that we cannot discover Him. His thoughts are deeper, His ways profounder, than our mind can fathom. There is not a single pathway leading out of the garden of life along which a man, traversing it, will not come to a point when the track dies away in the grass and there is no further progress. In nature and in Scripture alike we have to deal with the inscrutability of God's ways. Nor can we wonder, if the God of the Bible and of nature be the God of providence, to find mystery also there. This is the argument of The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, by Bishop Butler. [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 39

1  Of the wild goats and hinds
5  Of the wild donkey
9  The unicorn
13  The peacock, stork, and ostrich
19  The horse
26  The hawk
27  The eagle

What do the individual words in Job 39:5 mean?

Who set the wild donkey free and the bonds of the onager who loosed
מִֽי־ שִׁלַּ֣ח פֶּ֣רֶא ؟ חָפְשִׁ֑י וּמֹסְר֥וֹת ؟ עָ֝ר֗וֹד מִ֣י פִתֵּֽחַ

שִׁלַּ֣ח  set 
Parse: Verb, Piel, Perfect, third person masculine singular
Root: שָׁלַח  
Sense: to send, send away, let go, stretch out.
פֶּ֣רֶא  the  wild  donkey 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: פֶּרֶא 
Sense: wild ass.
؟ חָפְשִׁ֑י  free 
Parse: Adjective, masculine singular
Root: חָפְשִׁי  
Sense: free.
וּמֹסְר֥וֹת  and  the  bonds 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Noun, masculine plural construct
Root: מֹוסֵר 
Sense: band, bond.
؟ עָ֝ר֗וֹד  of  the  onager 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: עָרֹוד  
Sense: wild ass.
פִתֵּֽחַ  loosed 
Parse: Verb, Piel, Perfect, third person masculine singular
Root: פָּתַח 
Sense: to open.