Job 39

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

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

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

⁴ Their 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,

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

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

⁸ The 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?

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

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

¹² Will 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?

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

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

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

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

¹⁸ When 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?

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

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

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

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

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

²⁵ As 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?

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

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

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

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