Job 39–41

39“Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?

Do you watch when the deer gives birth to her fawn?

²Do you count the months until they give birth

and know the right time for them to give birth?

³They lie down, their young are born,

and then the pain of giving birth is over.

⁴Their young ones grow big and strong in the wild country.

Then they leave their homes and do not return.

⁵“Who let the wild donkey go free?

Who untied its ropes?

⁶I am the one who gave the donkey the desert as its home;

I gave it the desert lands as a place to live.

⁷The wild donkey laughs at the confusion in the city,

and it does not hear the drivers shout.

⁸It roams the hills looking for pasture,

looking for anything green to eat.

⁹“Will the wild ox agree to serve you

and stay by your feeding box at night?

¹⁰Can you hold it to the plowed row with a harness

so it will plow the valleys for you?

¹¹Will you depend on the wild ox for its great strength

and leave your heavy work for it to do?

¹²Can you trust the ox to bring in your grain

and gather it to your threshing floor?

¹³“The wings of the ostrich flap happily,

but they are not like the feathers of the stork.

¹⁴The ostrich lays its eggs on the ground

and lets them warm in the sand.

¹⁵It does not stop to think that a foot might step on them and crush them;

it does not care that some animal might walk on them.

¹⁶The ostrich is cruel to its young, as if they were not even its own.

It does not care that its work is for nothing,

¹⁷because God did not give the ostrich wisdom;

God did not give it a share of good sense.

¹⁸But when the ostrich gets up to run, it is so fast

that it laughs at the horse and its rider.

¹⁹“Job, are you the one who gives the horse its strength

or puts a flowing mane on its neck?

²⁰Do you make the horse jump like a locust?

It scares people with its proud snorting.

²¹It paws wildly, enjoying its strength,

and charges into battle.

²²It laughs at fear and is afraid of nothing;

it does not run away from the sword.

²³The bag of arrows rattles against the horse’s side,

along with the flashing spears and swords.

²⁴With great excitement, the horse races over the ground;

and it cannot stand still when it hears the trumpet.

²⁵When the trumpet blows, the horse snorts, ‘Aha!’

It smells the battle from far away;

it hears the shouts of commanders and the battle cry.

²⁶“Is it through your wisdom that the hawk flies

and spreads its wings toward the south?

²⁷Are you the one that commands the eagle to fly

and build its nest so high?

²⁸It lives on a high cliff and stays there at night;

the rocky peak is its protected place.

²⁹From there it looks for its food;

its eyes can see it from far away.

³⁰Its young eat blood,

and where there is something dead, the eagle is there.”

40The Lord said to Job:

²“Will the person who argues with the Almighty correct him?

Let the person who accuses God answer him.”

³Then Job answered the Lord:

⁴“I am not worthy; I cannot answer you anything,

so I will put my hand over my mouth.

⁵I spoke one time, but I will not answer again;

I even spoke two times, but I will say nothing more.”

⁶Then the Lord spoke to Job from the storm:

⁷“Be strong, like a man!

I will ask you questions,

and you must answer me.

⁸Would you say that I am unfair?

Would you blame me to make yourself look right?

⁹Are you as strong as God?

Can your voice thunder like his?

¹⁰If so, then decorate yourself with glory and beauty;

dress in honor and greatness as if they were clothing.

¹¹Let your great anger punish;

look at the proud and bring them down.

¹²Look at the proud and make them humble.

Crush the wicked wherever they are.

¹³Bury them all in the dirt together;

cover their faces in the grave.

¹⁴If you can do that, then I myself will praise you,

because you are strong enough to save yourself.

¹⁵“Look at Behemoth, ⁿ

which I made just as I made you.

It eats grass like an ox.

¹⁶Look at the strength it has in its body;

the muscles of its stomach are powerful.

¹⁷Its tail is like a cedar tree;

the muscles of its thighs are woven together.

¹⁸Its bones are like tubes of bronze;

its legs are like bars of iron.

¹⁹It is one of the first of God’s works,

but its Maker can destroy it.

²⁰The hills, where the wild animals play,

provide food for it.

²¹It lies under the lotus plants,

hidden by the tall grass in the swamp.

²²The lotus plants hide it in their shadow;

the poplar trees by the streams surround it.

²³If the river floods, it will not be afraid;

it is safe even if the Jordan River rushes to its mouth.

²⁴Can anyone blind its eyes and capture it?

Can anyone put hooks in its nose?

41“Can you catch Leviathan ⁿ on a fish hook

or tie its tongue down with a rope?

²Can you put a cord through its nose

or a hook in its jaw?

³Will it keep begging you for mercy

and speak to you with gentle words?

⁴Will it make an agreement with you

and let you take it as your slave for life?

⁵Can you make a pet of Leviathan as you would a bird

or put it on a leash for your girls?

⁶Will traders try to bargain with you for it?

Will they divide it up among the merchants?

⁷Can you stick darts all over its skin

or fill its head with fishing spears?

⁸If you put one hand on it,

you will never forget the battle,

and you will never do it again!

⁹There is no hope of defeating it;

just seeing it overwhelms people.

¹⁰No one is brave enough to make it angry,

so who would be able to stand up against me?

¹¹No one has ever given me anything that I must pay back,

because everything under the sky belongs to me.

¹²“I will speak about Leviathan’s arms and legs,

its great strength and well-formed body.

¹³No one can tear off its outer hide

or poke through its double armor.

¹⁴No one can force open its great jaws;

they are filled with frightening teeth.

¹⁵It has rows of shields on its back

that are tightly sealed together.

¹⁶Each shield is so close to the next one

that no air can go between them.

¹⁷They are joined strongly to one another;

they hold on to each other and cannot be separated.

¹⁸When it snorts, flashes of light are thrown out,

and its eyes look like the light at dawn.

¹⁹Flames blaze from its mouth;

sparks of fire shoot out.

²⁰Smoke pours out of its nose,

as if coming from a large pot over a hot fire.

²¹Its breath sets coals on fire,

and flames come out of its mouth.

²²There is great strength in its neck.

People are afraid and run away.

²³The folds of its skin are tightly joined;

they are set and cannot be moved.

²⁴Its chest is as hard as a rock,

even as hard as a grinding stone.

²⁵The powerful fear its terrible looks

and draw back in fear as it moves.

²⁶The sword that hits it does not hurt it,

nor the arrows, darts, and spears.

²⁷It treats iron as if it were straw

and bronze metal as if it were rotten wood.

²⁸It does not run away from arrows;

stones from slings are like chaff to it.

²⁹Clubs feel like pieces of straw to it,

and it laughs when they shake a spear at it.

³⁰The underside of its body is like broken pieces of pottery.

It leaves a trail in the mud like a threshing board.

³¹It makes the deep sea bubble like a boiling pot;

it stirs up the sea like a pot of oil.

³²When it swims, it leaves a shining path in the water

that makes the sea look as if it had white hair.

³³Nothing else on earth is equal to it;

it is a creature without fear.

³⁴It looks down on all those who are too proud;

it is king over all proud creatures.”