Job

39 “Have you come to know the appointed time for the mountain goats of the crag to give birth?+

Do you observe just when the hinds bring forth+ with birth pangs?

 2 Do you count the lunar months that they fulfill,

Or have you come to know the appointed time that they give birth?

 3 They bow down when they cast forth their young ones,

[When] they get rid of their pangs.*

 4 Their sons become robust, they get big in the open field;

They actually go forth and do not return to them.

 5 Who sent forth the zebra+ free,

And who loosened the very bands of the wild ass,

 6 Whose house I have appointed the desert plain

And whose dwelling places the salt country?+

 7 It laughs at the turmoil of a town;

The noises of a stalker+ it does not hear.

 8 It explores mountains for its pasturage+

And after every sort of green plant+ it seeks.

 9 Does a wild bull want to serve you,+

Or will it spend the night by your manger?

10 Will you bind a wild bull fast with its ropes in the furrow,

Or will it harrow+ low plains after you?

11 Will you trust in it because its power is abundant,

And will you leave your toil to it?

12 Will you rely on it that it will bring back your seed

And that it will gather to your threshing floor?

13 Has the wing of the female ostrich flapped joyously,

Or [has she] the pinions of a stork+ and the plumage?

14 For she leaves her eggs to the earth itself

And in the dust she keeps them warm,

15 And she forgets that some foot may crush them

Or even a wild beast of the field may tread on them.

16 She does treat her sons roughly, as if not hers+—

In vain is her toil [because she has] no dread.

17 For God* has made her forget wisdom,

And he has not given her a share in understanding.+

18 At the time she flaps [her wings] on high,

She laughs at the horse and at its rider.

19 Can you give to the horse mightiness?+

Can you clothe its neck with a rustling mane?*

20 Can you cause it to leap like a locust?

The dignity of its snorting is frightful.+

21 It paws*+ in the low plain and exults in power;

It goes forth to meet armor.+

22 It laughs at dread, and is not terrified;+

Nor does it turn back on account of a sword.

23 Against it a quiver rattles,

The blade of a spear and a javelin.

24 With pounding and excitement it swallows up the earth,

And it does not believe that it is the sound of a horn.

25 As soon as the horn blows it says Aha!

And from far off it smells the battle,

The uproar of chiefs* and the war cry.+

26 Is it owing to your understanding that the falcon soars up,

That it spreads its wings to the south wind?

27 Or is it at your order that an eagle+ flies upward

And that it builds its nest high up,+

28 That on a crag it resides and stays during the night

Upon the tooth of a crag and an inaccessible place?

29 From there it has to search for food;+

Far into the distance its eyes keep looking.

30 And its young ones themselves keep sipping up blood;

And where the slain are, there it is.”+