Job 39

1 “[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 Do you know how many months pass from the time they become pregnant until their fawns are born?

3 [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 The young fawns grow up in the open fields, and then they leave their mothers and do not return to them again.

5 “Who allows the wild donkeys to go wherever they want [DOU]?

6 I am the one who put them in the desert, in places where grass does not grow.

7 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 They go to the hills to find food; there they search for grass to eat.

9 :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 And can you fasten it with a rope so that it will plow furrows/trenches in your fields?

11 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 rely on it to come back [from the field], bringing your grain to the place where you thresh it?

13 “[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 Ostriches lay their eggs on top of the ground [and then walk away], leaving the eggs to be warmed in the sand.

15 Ostriches do not worry that some wild animal may step on the eggs and crush them [DOU].

16 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 That is because I did not allow ostriches to be wise. I did not enable them to be intelligent.

18 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 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 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 They paw the ground, rejoicing about being very strong, as they prepare to rush into a battle.

22 [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 quivers containing the riders’ arrows rattle against the horses’ sides, and the spears and javelins flash [in the light of the sun].

24 The horses paw the ground fiercely/excitedly, [wanting the battle to begin, ] and they rush into the battle when the trumpet is blown.

25 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 “[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 Do eagles fly high up [into the cliffs] to make their nests because you commanded them to do that?

28 They live in [holes in] those cliffs. They are safe in those high pointed rocks [because no animals can reach them there].

29 As they watch carefully from there, they see far away the animals that they can kill (OR, dead bodies of animals).

30 After an eagle kills an animal, the baby eagles drink the blood of that animal.”