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?
[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:
2 Do you know how many months pass from the time they become pregnant until their fawns are born?
and [if] you has have numbered the full months of their being with young, and [if] you have relieved their pangs:
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.
and have reared their young without fear; and will you loosen their pangs?
4 The young fawns grow up in the open fields, and then they leave their mothers and do not return to them again.
Their young will break forth; they will be multiplied with offspring: [their young] will go forth, and will not return to them.
5 “Who allows the wild donkeys to go wherever they want [DOU]?
And who is he that sent forth the wild ass free? and who loosed his bands?
6 I am the one who put them in the desert, in places where grass does not grow.
whereas I made his habitation the wilderness, and the salt land his coverts.
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.
He laughs to scorn the multitude of the city, and hears not the chiding of the tax-gatherer.
8 They go to the hills to find food; there they search for grass to eat.
He will survey the mountains [as] his pasture, and he seeks after every green thing.
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?
And will the unicorn be willing to serve you, or to lie down at your manger?
10 And can you fasten it with a rope so that it will plow furrows/trenches in your fields?
And will you bind his yoke with thongs, or will he plow furrows for you in the plain?
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]?
And do you trust him, because his strength is great? and will you commit your works to him?
12 Can you rely on it to come back [from the field], bringing your grain to the place where you thresh it?
And will you believe that he will return to you your seed, and bring [it] in [to] your threshing floor?
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.
The peacock has a beautiful wing: if the stork and the ostrich conceive, [it is worthy of notice],
14 Ostriches lay their eggs on top of the ground [and then walk away], leaving the eggs to be warmed in the sand.
for [the ostrich] will leave her eggs in the ground, and warm them on the dust,
15 Ostriches do not worry that some wild animal may step on the eggs and crush them [DOU].
and has forgotten that the foot will scatter them, and the wild beasts of the field trample them.
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.
She has hardened [herself] against her young ones, as though [she bereaved] not herself: she labors in vain without fear.
17 That is because I did not allow ostriches to be wise. I did not enable them to be intelligent.
For God has withholden wisdom from her, and not given her a portion in understanding.
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!]
In her season she will lift herself on high; she will scorn the horse and his rider.
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?
Hast you invested the horse with strength, and clothed his neck with terror?
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.
And have you clad him in perfect armor, and made his breast glorious with courage?
21 They paw the ground, rejoicing about being very strong, as they prepare to rush into a battle.
He paws exulting in the plain, and goes forth in strength into the plain.
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.
He laughs to scorn a king as he meets him, and will by no means turn back from the sword.
23 The quivers containing the riders’ arrows rattle against the horses’ sides, and the spears and javelins flash [in the light of the sun].
The bow and sword resound against him; and [his] rage will swallow up the ground:
24 The horses paw the ground fiercely/excitedly, [wanting the battle to begin, ] and they rush into the battle when the trumpet is blown.
and he will not believe until the trumpet sounds.
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].
And when the trumpet sounds, he says, Aha! and afar off he smells the war with prancing and neighing.
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]?
And does the hawk remain steady by your wisdom, having spread out her wings unmoved, looking toward the region of the south?
27 Do eagles fly high up [into the cliffs] to make their nests because you commanded them to do that?
And does the eagle rise at your command, and the vulture remain sitting over his nest,
28 They live in [holes in] those cliffs. They are safe in those high pointed rocks [because no animals can reach them there].
on a crag of a rock, and in a secret [place]?
29 As they watch carefully from there, they see far away the animals that they can kill (OR, dead bodies of animals).
Thence he seeks food, his eyes observe from far.
30 After an eagle kills an animal, the baby eagles drink the blood of that animal.”
And his young ones roll themselves in blood, and wherever the carcasses may be, immediately they are found.
