What does Job Chapter 39 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

As indicated in the editorial summary, the chapter reveals the wonders of God's power and providence in many of His creatures. Continuing His interrogation from the tempest, the Lord asks Job whether he knows the exact seasons when wild goats bring forth young upon rocky cliffs, or if he observes the calving of the mountain hinds. Does human understanding number their months of gestation, or witness how they bow down, give birth amid natural cries, and send forth their young to graze independently without returning?

In the Lord’s speech, the Lord points to the wild ass, asking who granted that creature freedom and unloosed his bonds, providing him a dwelling in the barren wilderness. The wild ass scorns the noisy crowds of the city, heeds not the shouts of drivers, and roams high mountain pastures in search of every green plant. God asks whether the mighty rhinoceros will agree to human servitude, remain content beside a domestic stall, or allow itself to be bound with plowing ropes to break clods in the valley. Can man place confidence in its immense power, leaving field labor to its charge and expecting it to gather grain onto the barnfloor?

In the Lord’s speech, the Lord directs Job's gaze to the ostrich, whose wings resemble those of herons and hawks. When she leaves eggs on earth, the speech asks whether Job will warm them in dust. She forgets that a foot may crush them or wild beasts trample them. She treats her offspring with unyielding hardness as though they were not hers, laboring without constraining fear because God deprived her of wisdom and withheld understanding. Yet when the time comes she sets up her wings on high and scorns the horse and his rider.

In the Lord’s speech, the Lord describes the terrifying majesty of the war horse: did Job bestow his strength or clothe his neck with fierce neighing? The speech asks whether Job will lift him like locusts and calls the glory of his nostrils terror. He paws the earth with his hoof, prances forward boldly, and goes forward to meet armed men. Despising fear, he refuses to turn his back before the sword, while quivers rattle above him and spears and shields flash. Chafing with rage, he swallows the ground and pays no heed to the sounding horn. At the trumpet call he utters his cry of battle, scenting conflict from afar, hearing the encouragement of captains and the roar of advancing armies.

In the Lord’s speech, God asks whether the hawk grows feathers and flies south through human wisdom, or whether the eagle mounts aloft at mortal command to construct her aerie on inaccessible flint crags. From those rocky heights she spies out prey from afar, her eaglets suck up blood, and wherever a carcass lies, she is immediately present.

In the Lord’s speech, the Lord pauses to ask whether he who disputes with God will be easily silenced, declaring that whoever reproves the Almighty must answer Him. Job replies that having spoken rashly, he can offer no answer and will place his hand over his mouth. As the Challoner annotation explains citing Saint Gregory, Job spoke nothing truly impious, but his manner of expression dwelled too much on his own affliction and too little on God's goodness, which Job now acknowledges as inconsiderate. Job says he spoke one thing he wishes he had not said, and another to which he will add no more.