Ayub 39:1

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?

Habakuk 1:8

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 

[39:1]  ¹ tn The text uses the infinitive as the object: “do you know the giving birth of?”

[39:1]  ² tn Or “ibex.”

[1:8]  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).

[1:8]  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.

[1:8]  ⁵ tn Or “horsemen,” “cavalry.”

[1:8]  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).

[1:8]  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.

[1:8]  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.