Job 39

1Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch over the does as they calve?

2Can you count the months they must complete? Do you know the time when they give birth?

3They crouch down, bring forth their young, and are done with their labor pains.

4Their young grow strong and grow up in the open; they go off and do not come back to them.

5Who set the wild donkey free? Who untied the ropes of the swift donkey?

6I gave him the wilderness as his home and the salt flats as his dwelling.

7He laughs at the commotion of the city; he does not hear the shouts of a driver.

8He roams the mountains as his pasture and searches for anything green.

9Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night by your feeding trough?

10Can you hold the wild ox in the furrow with a rope? Will he till the valleys behind you?

11Will you rely on him because his strength is great, and leave your heavy work to him?

12Can you trust him to bring your grain home and gather it to your threshing floor?

13The ostrich flaps her wings with joy, but are they the pinions and feathers of the stork?

14For she leaves her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the dust.

15She forgets that a foot may crush them or that a wild animal may trample them.

16She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers; though her labor is in vain, she has no fear,

17because God has made her forget wisdom and has given her no share of understanding.

18Yet when she rises up to run, she laughs at the horse and its rider.

19Do you give the horse its strength? Do you clothe its neck with a mane?

20Do you make it leap like a locust? Its majestic snorting is terrifying.

21It paws the ground in the valley and rejoices in its strength; it charges out to meet the weapons.

22It laughs at fear and is not dismayed; it does not turn back from the sword.

23The quiver rattles against its side, along with the flashing spear and javelin.

24Trembling with excitement, it swallows up the ground; it cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.

25Whenever the trumpet blasts, it says, ‘Aha!’ From far away it smells the battle, the thunder of the commanders and the war cry.

26Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads its wings toward the south?

27Is it at your command that the eagle flies high and builds its nest on the heights?

28It lives on the cliff and spends the night there, on a rocky crag, its stronghold.

29From there it looks for food; its eyes spot it from far away.

30Its young ones gulp down blood; where the slain are, there it is.”