Job 39

39Do you know when mountain goats are born?

Have you watched wild deer give birth?

²Do you know how long they carry their young?

Do you know the time for their birth?

³Do you know when they will crouch down

and bring their young into the world?

⁴In the wilds their young grow strong;

they go away and don’t come back.

⁵Who gave the wild donkeys their freedom?

Who turned them loose

and let them roam?

⁶I gave them the desert to be their home, and let them live on the salt plains.

⁷They keep far away from the noisy cities,

and no one can tame them and make them work.

⁸The mountains are the pastures where they feed,

where they search for anything green to eat.

⁹Will a wild ox work for you?

Is he willing to spend the night in your stable?

¹⁰Can you hold one with a rope and make him plough?

Or make him pull a harrow in your fields?

¹¹Can you rely on his great strength

and expect him to do your heavy work?

¹²Do you expect him to bring in your harvest

and gather the grain from your threshing place?

¹³How fast the wings of an ostrich beat!

But no ostrich can fly like a stork.^u

¹⁴The ostrich leaves her eggs on the ground

for the heat in the soil to warm them.

¹⁵She is unaware that a foot may crush them

or a wild animal break them.

¹⁶She acts as if the eggs were not hers,

and is unconcerned that her efforts were wasted.

¹⁷It was I who made her foolish

and did not give her wisdom.

¹⁸But when she begins to run,^v

she can laugh at any horse and rider.

¹⁹Was it you, Job, who made horses so strong

and gave them their flowing manes?

²⁰Did you make them leap like locusts

and frighten people with their snorting?

²¹They eagerly paw the ground in the valley;

they rush into battle with all their strength.

²²They do not know the meaning of fear,

and no sword can turn them back.

²³The weapons which their riders carry

rattle and flash in the sun.

²⁴Trembling with excitement, the horses race ahead;

when the trumpet blows, they can’t stand still.

²⁵At each blast of the trumpet they snort;

they can smell a battle before they get near,

and they hear the officers shouting commands.

²⁶Does a hawk learn from you how to fly

when it spreads its wings towards the south?

²⁷Does an eagle wait for your command

to build its nest high in the mountains?

²⁸It makes its home on the highest rocks

and makes the sharp peaks its fortress.

²⁹From there it watches near and far

for something to kill and eat.

^30*Around dead bodies the eagles gather,

and the young eagles drink the blood.