Job 39
1 “Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the doe bear her fawn?
“[Job], do you know at what time/season [of the year] the female mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the wild deer while their fawns were being born?
2 Can you count the months they are pregnant? Do you know the time they give birth?
Do you know how many months pass from the time they become pregnant until their fawns are born?
3 They crouch down and bring forth their young; they deliver their newborn.
[When they give birth, ] they crouch down so that the fawns do not [get hurt by] falling to the ground when they are born.
4 Their young ones thrive and grow up in the open field; they leave and do not return.
The young fawns grow up in the open fields, and then they leave their mothers and do not return to them again.
5 Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from the harness?
“Who allows the wild donkeys to go wherever they want [DOU]?
6 I made the wilderness his home and the salt flats his dwelling.
I am the one who put them in the desert, in places where grass does not grow.
7 He scorns the tumult of the city and never hears the shouts of a driver.
They do not like the noise in the cities; [in the desert] they do not have to listen to the shouts of those who force donkeys to work.
8 He roams the mountains for pasture, searching for any green thing.
They go to the hills to find food; there they search for grass to eat.
9 Will the wild ox consent to serve you? Will he stay by your manger at night?
:Will a wild ox agree to work for you? Will it allow you to keep it penned up at night in the place where you put feed for your animals?
10 Can you hold him to the furrow with a harness? Will he plow the valleys behind you?
And can you fasten it with a rope so that it will plow furrows/trenches in your fields?
11 Can you rely on his great strength? Will you leave your hard work to him?
Since it is very strong, can you trust it to work for you? Can you go away after you tell it what work it should do [and assume that it will do that work]?
12 Can you trust him to bring in your grain and gather it to your threshing floor?
Can you rely on it to come back [from the field], bringing your grain to the place where you thresh it?
13 The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but cannot match the pinions and feathers of the stork.
“[Think also about] the ostriches. [They] joyfully flap their wings, but they do not have wing feathers [that enable them to fly] like storks do.
14 For she leaves her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand.
Ostriches lay their eggs on top of the ground [and then walk away], leaving the eggs to be warmed in the sand.
15 She forgets that a foot may crush them, or a wild animal may trample them.
Ostriches do not worry that some wild animal may step on the eggs and crush them [DOU].
16 She treats her young harshly, as if not her own, with no concern that her labor was in vain.
Ostriches act cruelly towards their chicks; they act as though the chicks belonged to some other ostrich. They are not concerned if [their chicks die], [and so] the laying of the eggs was in vain.
17 For God has deprived her of wisdom; He has not endowed her with understanding.
That is because I did not allow ostriches to be wise. I did not enable them to be intelligent.
18 Yet when she proudly spreads her wings, she laughs at the horse and its rider.
But, when they get up and begin to run, they scornfully laugh at horses with their riders [because the horses cannot run as fast as the ostriches!]
19 Do you give strength to the horse or adorn his neck with a mane?
And [think about] horses. [Job], are you the one who caused horses to be strong? Are you the one who put flowing (manes/long hair) on their necks?
20 Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting?
Are you the one who enabled them to leap forward like locusts? When they (snort/blow loudly through their noses), they cause people to be afraid.
21 He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength; he charges into battle.
They paw the ground, rejoicing about being very strong, as they prepare to rush into a battle.
22 He laughs at fear, frightened of nothing; he does not turn back from the sword.
[It is as if] they laugh at the thought of being afraid. They are not afraid of anything! They do not run away when [the soldiers in the battle are fighting each other with] swords.
23 A quiver rattles at his side, along with a flashing spear and lance.
The quivers containing the riders’ arrows rattle against the horses’ sides, and the spears and javelins flash [in the light of the sun].
24 Trembling with excitement, he devours the distance; he cannot stand still when the ram’s horn sounds.
The horses paw the ground fiercely/excitedly, [wanting the battle to begin, ] and they rush into the battle when the trumpet is blown.
25 At the blast of the horn, he snorts with fervor. He catches the scent of battle from afar— the shouts of captains and the cry of war.
They neigh [joyfully] when they hear someone blowing the trumpet. They can smell a battle even when they are far away, and they understand what it means when the commanders shout their commands [to their soldiers].
26 Does the hawk take flight by your understanding and spread his wings toward the south?
“[And think about big birds.] Are you the one who enabled hawks to spread their wings and fly to the south [for the winter]?
27 Does the eagle soar at your command and make his nest on high?
Do eagles fly high up [into the cliffs] to make their nests because you commanded them to do that?
28 He dwells on a cliff and lodges there; his stronghold is on a rocky crag.
They live in [holes in] those cliffs. They are safe in those high pointed rocks [because no animals can reach them there].
29 From there he spies out food; his eyes see it from afar.
As they watch carefully from there, they see far away the animals that they can kill (OR, dead bodies of animals).
30 His young ones feast on blood; and where the slain are, there he is.”
After an eagle kills an animal, the baby eagles drink the blood of that animal.”
