Job 39

¹“Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns?

²Can you count the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they give birth?

³They bow themselves. They bear their young. They end their labor pains.

⁴Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open field. They go out, and don’t return again.

⁵“Who has set the wild donkey free? Or who has loosened the bonds of the swift donkey,

⁶whose home I have made the wilderness, and the salt land his dwelling place?

⁷He scorns the tumult of the city, neither does he hear the shouting of the driver.

⁸The range of the mountains is his pasture. He searches after every green thing.

⁹“Will the wild ox be content to serve you? Or will he stay by your feeding trough?

¹⁰Can you hold the wild ox in the furrow with his harness? Or will he till the valleys after you?

¹¹Will you trust him, because his strength is great? Or will you leave to him your labor?

¹²Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed, and gather the grain of your threshing floor?

¹³“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the feathers and plumage of love?

¹⁴For she leaves her eggs on the earth, warms them in the dust,

¹⁵and forgets that the foot may crush them, or that the wild animal may trample them.

¹⁶She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers. Though her labor is in vain, she is without fear,

¹⁷because God has deprived her of wisdom, neither has he imparted to her understanding.

¹⁸When she lifts up herself on high, she scorns the horse and his rider.

¹⁹“Have you given the horse might? Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane?

²⁰Have you made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is awesome.

²¹He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength. He goes out to meet the armed men.

²²He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed, neither does he turn back from the sword.

²³The quiver rattles against him, the flashing spear and the javelin.

²⁴He eats up the ground with fierceness and rage, neither does he stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

²⁵As often as the trumpet sounds he snorts, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

²⁶“Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and stretches her wings toward the south?

²⁷Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and makes his nest on high?

²⁸On the cliff he dwells and makes his home, on the point of the cliff and the stronghold.

²⁹From there he spies out the prey. His eyes see it afar off.

³⁰His young ones also suck up blood. Where the slain are, there he is.”