< Job 39 >

1 Have you knowledge of the rock-goats? or do you see the roes giving birth to their young?
“[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 Is the number of their months fixed by you? or is the time when they give birth ordered by you?
Do you know how many months pass from the time they become pregnant until their fawns are born?
3 They are bent down, they give birth to their young, they let loose the fruit of their body.
[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 are strong, living in the open country; they go out and do not come back again.
The young fawns grow up in the open fields, and then they leave their mothers and do not return to them again.
5 Who has let the ass of the fields go free? or made loose the bands of the loud-voiced beast?
“Who allows the wild donkeys to go wherever they want [DOU]?
6 To whom I have given the waste land for a heritage, and the salt land as a living-place.
I am the one who put them in the desert, in places where grass does not grow.
7 He makes sport of the noise of the town; the voice of the driver does not come to his ears;
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 goes looking for his grass-lands in the mountains, searching out every green thing.
They go to the hills to find food; there they search for grass to eat.
9 Will the ox of the mountains be your servant? or is his night's resting-place by your food-store?
: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 Will he be pulling your plough with cords, turning up the valleys after you?
And can you fasten it with a rope so that it will plow furrows/trenches in your fields?
11 Will you put your faith in him, because his strength is great? will you give the fruit of your work into his care?
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 Will you be looking for him to come back, and get in your seed to the crushing-floor?
Can you rely on it to come back [from the field], bringing your grain to the place where you thresh it?
13 Is the wing of the ostrich feeble, or is it because she has no feathers,
“[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 That she puts her eggs on the earth, warming them in the dust,
Ostriches lay their eggs on top of the ground [and then walk away], leaving the eggs to be warmed in the sand.
15 Without a thought that they may be crushed by the foot, and broken by the beasts of the field?
Ostriches do not worry that some wild animal may step on the eggs and crush them [DOU].
16 She is cruel to her young ones, as if they were not hers; her work is to no purpose; she has no fear.
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 taken wisdom from her mind, and given her no measure of knowledge.
That is because I did not allow ostriches to be wise. I did not enable them to be intelligent.
18 When she is shaking her wings on high, she makes sport of the horse and of him who is seated on him.
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? is it by your hand that his neck is clothed with power?
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 Is it through you that he is shaking like a locust, in the pride of his loud-sounding breath?
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 is stamping with joy in the valley; he makes sport of fear.
They paw the ground, rejoicing about being very strong, as they prepare to rush into a battle.
22 In his strength he goes out against the arms of war, turning not away 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 The bow is sounding against him; he sees the shining point of spear and arrow.
The quivers containing the riders’ arrows rattle against the horses’ sides, and the spears and javelins flash [in the light of the sun].
24 Shaking with passion, he is biting the earth; he is not able to keep quiet at the sound of the horn;
The horses paw the ground fiercely/excitedly, [wanting the battle to begin, ] and they rush into the battle when the trumpet is blown.
25 When it comes to his ears he says, Aha! He is smelling the fight from far off, and hearing the thunder of the captains, and the war-cries.
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 Is it through your knowledge that the hawk takes his flight, stretching out his wings to 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 Or is it by your orders that the eagle goes up, and makes his resting-place on high?
Do eagles fly high up [into the cliffs] to make their nests because you commanded them to do that?
28 On the rock is his house, and on the mountain-top his strong place.
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 is watching for food; his eye sees it far off.
As they watch carefully from there, they see far away the animals that they can kill (OR, dead bodies of animals).
30 His young have blood for their drink, and where the dead bodies are, there is he to be seen.
After an eagle kills an animal, the baby eagles drink the blood of that animal.”

< Job 39 >