Chapter 39

¹“Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth?

Do you watch when the doe bears fawns?

²Can you number the months that they fulfill?

Or do you know the time when they give birth?

³They bow themselves, they bring forth their young,

They end their labor pains.

⁴Their young ones become strong.

They grow up in the open field.

They go forth, and don’t return again.

⁵“Who has set the wild donkey free?

Or who has loosened the bonds of the swift donkey,

⁶Whose home I have made the wilderness,

And the salt land his dwelling place?

⁷He scorns the tumult of the city,

Neither hears he the shouting of the driver.

⁸The range of the mountains is his pasture,

He searches after every green thing.

⁹“Will the wild ox be content to serve you?

Or will he stay by your feeding trough?

¹⁰Can you hold the wild ox in the furrow with his harness?

Or will he till the valleys after you?

¹¹Will you trust him, because his strength is great?

Or will you leave to him your labor?

¹²Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed,

And gather the grain of your threshing floor?

¹³“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly;

But are they the feathers and plumage of love?

¹⁴For she leaves her eggs on the earth,

Warms them in the dust,

¹⁵And forgets that the foot may crush them,

Or that the wild animal may trample them.

¹⁶She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers.

Though her labor is in vain, she is without fear,

¹⁷Because God has deprived her of wisdom,

Neither has he imparted to her understanding.

¹⁸When she lifts up herself on high,

She scorns the horse and his rider.

¹⁹“Have you given the horse might?

Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane?

²⁰Have you made him to leap as a locust?

The glory of his snorting is awesome.

²¹He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength:

He goes out to meet the armed men.

²²He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed;

Neither does he turn back from the sword.

²³The quiver rattles against him,

The flashing spear and the javelin.

²⁴He eats up the ground with fierceness and rage,

Neither does he stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

²⁵As often as the trumpet sounds he snorts, ‘Aha!’

He smells the battle afar off,

The thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

²⁶“Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars,

And stretches her wings toward the south?

²⁷Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up,

And makes his nest on high?

²⁸On the cliff he dwells, and makes his home,

On the point of the cliff, and the stronghold.

²⁹From there he spies out the prey.

His eyes see it afar off.

³⁰His young ones also suck up blood.

Where the slain are, there he is.”