Job 39
1 [Say] if you know the time of the bringing forth of the wild goats of the rock, and [if] you have marked the calving of the hinds:
Do you know when the wild goats give birth? Have you watched the birth-pains of the deer?
2 and [if] you has have numbered the full months of their being with young, and [if] you have relieved their pangs:
Do you know how many months they carry their young? Do you know the time when they give birth?
3 and have reared their young without fear; and will you loosen their pangs?
They crouch down in labor to deliver their offspring.
4 Their young will break forth; they will be multiplied with offspring: [their young] will go forth, and will not return to them.
Their young grow strong in the open countryside; they leave and never return.
5 And who is he that sent forth the wild ass free? and who loosed his bands?
Who gave the wild donkey its freedom? Who set it free from its bonds?
6 whereas I made his habitation the wilderness, and the salt land his coverts.
I have given it the wilderness as its home, the salt plains as a place to live.
7 He laughs to scorn the multitude of the city, and hears not the chiding of the tax-gatherer.
It despises the noise of the city; it doesn't need to listen to the shouts of a driver.
8 He will survey the mountains [as] his pasture, and he seeks after every green thing.
It hunts in the mountains for pastureland, searching for all kinds of green plants to eat.
9 And will the unicorn be willing to serve you, or to lie down at your manger?
Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will it spend the night at your manger?
10 And will you bind his yoke with thongs, or will he plow furrows for you in the plain?
Can you tie a wild ox to a plow? Can you make it till your fields for you?
11 And do you trust him, because his strength is great? and will you commit your works to him?
Because it's so powerful can you trust it? Can you depend on it to do your heavy work for you?
12 And will you believe that he will return to you your seed, and bring [it] in [to] your threshing floor?
Are you sure it will gather your grain and bring it to your threshing floor?
13 The peacock has a beautiful wing: if the stork and the ostrich conceive, [it is worthy of notice],
The ostrich proudly flaps her wings, but they are nothing like the flight feathers of the stork.
14 for [the ostrich] will leave her eggs in the ground, and warm them on the dust,
The ostrich abandons her eggs on the ground, leaving them to be warmed in the dust.
15 and has forgotten that the foot will scatter them, and the wild beasts of the field trample them.
She doesn't think that they can be crushed underfoot, trampled by a wild animal.
16 She has hardened [herself] against her young ones, as though [she bereaved] not herself: she labors in vain without fear.
She is tough towards her young, acting as if they didn't belong to her. She doesn't care that all her work was for nothing.
17 For God has withholden wisdom from her, and not given her a portion in understanding.
For I, God, made her forget wisdom—she didn't get her share of intelligence.
18 In her season she will lift herself on high; she will scorn the horse and his rider.
But when she needs to, she can jump up and run, mocking a horse and its rider with her speed.
19 Hast you invested the horse with strength, and clothed his neck with terror?
Did you give the horse its strength? Did you place a mane upon its neck?
20 And have you clad him in perfect armor, and made his breast glorious with courage?
Did you make it able to jump like a locust? Its loud snorting is terrifying!
21 He paws exulting in the plain, and goes forth in strength into the plain.
It paws at the ground, rearing up with power as it charges into battle.
22 He laughs to scorn a king as he meets him, and will by no means turn back from the sword.
It laughs at fear; it is not frightened at all.
23 The bow and sword resound against him; and [his] rage will swallow up the ground:
The quiver full of arrows rattles against it; the spear and the javelin flash in the sunlight.
24 and he will not believe until the trumpet sounds.
Shaking with rage it gallops across the ground; it cannot remain still when the trumpet sounds.
25 And when the trumpet sounds, he says, Aha! and afar off he smells the war with prancing and neighing.
Whenever the trumpet calls, it is ready; he senses the sound of battle from far away, he hears the commanders shouting.
26 And does the hawk remain steady by your wisdom, having spread out her wings unmoved, looking toward the region of the south?
Is it through your wisdom that the hawk soars, spreading its wings towards the south?
27 And does the eagle rise at your command, and the vulture remain sitting over his nest,
Do you command the eagle to fly high and make its nest in the summits of the mountains?
28 on a crag of a rock, and in a secret [place]?
It lives among the cliffs, and roosts on a remote rocky crag.
29 Thence he seeks food, his eyes observe from far.
From there it spies its prey from far away, fixing its gaze on its victim. Its chicks eagerly swallow blood.
30 And his young ones roll themselves in blood, and wherever the carcasses may be, immediately they are found.
Where the carcasses are, that's where birds of prey are found.”
