Job39

¹“Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?

²Do you count the months till they bear? Do you know the time they give birth?

³They crouch down and bring forth their young; their labor pains are ended.

⁴Their young thrive and grow strong in the wilds; they leave and do not return.

⁵“Who let the wild donkey go free? Who untied its ropes?

⁶I gave it the wasteland as its home, the salt flats as its habitat.

⁷It laughs at the commotion in the town; it does not hear a driver’s shout.

⁸It ranges the hills for its pasture and searches for any green thing.

⁹“Will the wild ox consent to serve you? Will it stay by your manger at night?

¹⁰Can you hold it to the furrow with a harness? Will it till the valleys behind you?

¹¹Will you rely on it for its great strength? Will you leave your heavy work to it?

¹²Can you trust it to haul in your grain and bring it to your threshing floor?

¹³“The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, though they cannot compare with the wings and feathers of the stork.

¹⁴She lays her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand,

¹⁵unmindful that a foot may crush them, that some wild animal may trample them.

¹⁶She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers; she cares not that her labor was in vain,

¹⁷for God did not endow her with wisdom or give her a share of good sense.

¹⁸Yet when she spreads her feathers to run, she laughs at horse and rider.

¹⁹“Do you give the horse its strength or clothe its neck with a flowing mane?

²⁰Do you make it leap like a locust, striking terror with its proud snorting?

²¹It paws fiercely, rejoicing in its strength, and charges into the fray.

²²It laughs at fear, afraid of nothing; it does not shy away from the sword.

²³The quiver rattles against its side, along with the flashing spear and lance.

²⁴In frenzied excitement it eats up the ground; it cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.

²⁵At the blast of the trumpet it snorts, ‘Aha!’ It catches the scent of battle from afar, the shout of commanders and the battle cry.

²⁶“Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom and spread its wings toward the south?

²⁷Does the eagle soar at your command and build its nest on high?

²⁸It dwells on a cliff and stays there at night; a rocky crag is its stronghold.

²⁹From there it looks for food; its eyes detect it from afar.

³⁰Its young ones feast on blood, and where the slain are, there it is.”