< 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 at what time the wild goats in the rocks bear their young? Can you watch when the deer are having their fawns?
2 and [if] you has have numbered the full months of their being with young, and [if] you have relieved their pangs:
Can you count the months that they gestate? Do you know the time when they bear their young?
3 and have reared their young without fear; and will you loosen their pangs?
They crouch down and birth their young, and then they finish their labor pains.
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 ones become strong and grow up in the open fields; they go out and do not come back again.
5 And who is he that sent forth the wild ass free? and who loosed his bands?
Who let the wild donkey go free? Who has untied the bonds of the swift donkey,
6 whereas I made his habitation the wilderness, and the salt land his coverts.
whose home I have made in the Arabah, his house in the salt land?
7 He laughs to scorn the multitude of the city, and hears not the chiding of the tax-gatherer.
He laughs in scorn at the noises in the city; he does not hear the driver's shouts.
8 He will survey the mountains [as] his pasture, and he seeks after every green thing.
He roams over the mountains as his pastures; there he looks for every green plant to eat.
9 And will the unicorn be willing to serve you, or to lie down at your manger?
Will the wild ox be happy to serve you? Will he consent to stay by your manger?
10 And will you bind his yoke with thongs, or will he plow furrows for you in the plain?
Can you use ropes to hold the wild ox in the furrows? Will he harrow the valleys as he follows after you?
11 And do you trust him, because his strength is great? and will you commit your works to him?
Will you trust him because his strength is great? Will you leave your work to him to do?
12 And will you believe that he will return to you your seed, and bring [it] in [to] your threshing floor?
Will you depend on him to bring your grain home, to gather the grain for your threshing floor?
13 The peacock has a beautiful wing: if the stork and the ostrich conceive, [it is worthy of notice],
The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love?
14 for [the ostrich] will leave her eggs in the ground, and warm them on the dust,
For she leaves her eggs on the earth, and she lets them keep warm in the dust;
15 and has forgotten that the foot will scatter them, and the wild beasts of the field trample them.
she forgets that a foot might crush them or that a wild beast might trample them.
16 She has hardened [herself] against her young ones, as though [she bereaved] not herself: she labors in vain without fear.
She deals roughly with her young ones as if they were not hers; she does not fear that her labor might have been in vain,
17 For God has withholden wisdom from her, and not given her a portion in understanding.
because God has deprived her of wisdom and has not given her any understanding.
18 In her season she will lift herself on high; she will scorn the horse and his rider.
When she runs swiftly, she laughs in scorn at the horse and its rider.
19 Hast you invested the horse with strength, and clothed his neck with terror?
Have you given the horse his strength? Did you clothe his neck with his flowing mane?
20 And have you clad him in perfect armor, and made his breast glorious with courage?
Have you ever made him jump like a locust? The majesty of his snorting is fearsome.
21 He paws exulting in the plain, and goes forth in strength into the plain.
He paws in might and rejoices in his strength; he rushes out to meet the weapons.
22 He laughs to scorn a king as he meets him, and will by no means turn back from the sword.
He mocks fear and is not dismayed; he does not turn back from the sword.
23 The bow and sword resound against him; and [his] rage will swallow up the ground:
The quiver rattles against his flank, along with the flashing spear and the javelin.
24 and he will not believe until the trumpet sounds.
He swallows up ground with fierceness and rage; at the trumpet's sound, he cannot stand in one place.
25 And when the trumpet sounds, he says, Aha! and afar off he smells the war with prancing and neighing.
Whenever the trumpet sounds, he says, 'Aha!' He smells the battle from far away— the thunderous shouts of the commanders and the outcries.
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 by your wisdom that the hawk soars, that he stretches out his wings for the south?
27 And does the eagle rise at your command, and the vulture remain sitting over his nest,
Is it at your orders that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest in high places?
28 on a crag of a rock, and in a secret [place]?
He lives on cliffs and makes his home on the peaks of cliffs, a stronghold.
29 Thence he seeks food, his eyes observe from far.
From there he searches for victims; his eyes see them from very far away.
30 And his young ones roll themselves in blood, and wherever the carcasses may be, immediately they are found.
His young also drink up blood; where killed people are, there he is.”