Job 39

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.”