Bible Strands
Job 39:5
Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from the harness?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks to Job in the midst of a rhetorical discourse examining creation. The question occurs at a moment when God is contrasting human limitation with divine sovereignty over the natural world.
The words — The Hebrew שִׁלַּח (shi.Lach) translates literally to "did he let loose," operating on the subject פֶּרֶא (Pe.re'), meaning "wild donkey." The syntax frames a direct inquiry into who initiated the animal's release from restraint.
The thread — The wild donkey appears in Job 6:5, Job 11:12, and Job 24:5 as a marker of untamed instinct, human folly, and the harsh reality of desert survival. These passages use the creature to illustrate boundaries between the natural order and human comprehension.
Why it lands — The text asks the reader to acknowledge that God alone sets the parameters for wild creatures. It requires a plain admission that human authority does not extend to the origins of natural life.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?
Cross-references
- Job 6:5 Does a wild donkey bray over fresh grass, or an ox low over its fodder?
- Job 11:12 But a witless man can no more become wise than the colt of a wild donkey can be born a man!
- Job 24:5 Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go to work foraging for food; the wasteland is food for their children.
- Psalms 104:11 They give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
- Genesis 16:12 He will be a wild donkey of a man, and his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
- Genesis 49:14 Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the sheepfolds.
- Isaiah 32:14 For the palace will be forsaken, the busy city abandoned. The hill and the watchtower will become caves forever—the delight of wild donkeys and a pasture for flocks—
- Jeremiah 2:24 a wild donkey at home in the wilderness, sniffing the wind in the heat of her desire. Who can restrain her passion? All who seek her need not weary themselves; in mating season they will find her.
- Jeremiah 14:6 Wild donkeys stand on barren heights; they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail for lack of pasture.”
- Daniel 5:21 He was driven away from mankind, and his mind was like that of a beast. He lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like an ox, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he acknowledged that the Most High God rules over the kingdom of mankind, setting over it whom He wishes.