Job 39–41

39“Job, do you know when mountain goats have their babies?

Do you watch when female deer give birth?

²Do you count the months until the animals have their babies?

Do you know the time when they give birth?

³They bend their back legs and have their babies.

Then their labor pains stop.

⁴Their little ones grow strong and healthy in the wild.

They leave and do not come home again.

⁵“Who let the wild donkeys go free?

Who untied their ropes?

⁶I gave them the dry and empty land as their home.

I gave them salt flats to live in.

⁷They laugh at all of the noise in town.

They do not hear the shouts of the donkey drivers.

⁸They wander over the hills to look for grass.

They search for anything green to eat.

⁹“Job, will wild oxen agree to serve you?

Will they stay by your feed box at night?

¹⁰Can you keep them in straight rows with harnesses?

Will they plow the valleys behind you?

¹¹Will you depend on them for their great strength?

Will you let them do your heavy work?

¹²Can you trust them to bring in your grain?

Will they take it to your threshing floor?

¹³“The wings of ostriches flap with joy.

But they can’t compare with the wings and feathers of storks.

¹⁴Ostriches lay their eggs on the ground.

They let them get warm in the sand.

¹⁵They do not know that something might step on them.

A wild animal might walk all over them.

¹⁶Ostriches are mean to their little ones.

They treat them as if they did not belong to them.

They do not care that their work was useless.

¹⁷I did not provide ostriches with wisdom.

I did not give them good sense.

¹⁸But when they spread their feathers to run,

they laugh at a horse and its rider.

¹⁹“Job, do you give horses their strength?

Do you put flowing manes on their necks?

²⁰Do you make them jump like locusts?

They terrify others with their proud snorting.

²¹They paw the ground wildly.

They are filled with joy.

They charge at their enemies.

²²They laugh at fear. They are not afraid of anything.

They do not run away from swords.

²³Many arrows rattle at their sides.

Flashing spears and javelins are also there.

²⁴They are so stirred up that they eat up the ground.

They can’t stand still when trumpets are blown.

²⁵When they hear the trumpets they snort, ‘Aha!’

They catch the smells of battle far away.

They hear the shouts of commanders and the battle cries.

²⁶“Job, are you wise enough to teach hawks where to fly?

They spread their wings and fly toward the south.

²⁷Do you command eagles to fly so high?

They build their nests as high as they can.

²⁸They live on cliffs and stay there at night.

High up on the rocks they think they are safe.

²⁹From there they look for their food.

They can see it from far away.

³⁰Their little ones like to eat blood.

Eagles gather where they see dead bodies.”

40The Lord continued,

²“I am the Mighty One.

Will the man who argues with me correct me?

Let him who brings charges against me answer me!”

Job’s Reply

³Job replied to the Lord,

⁴“I’m not worthy. How can I reply to you?

I’m putting my hand over my mouth. I’ll stop talking.

⁵I spoke once. But I really don’t have any answer.

I spoke twice. But I won’t say anything else.”

The Second Speech of the Lord

⁶Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said,

⁷“Get ready to stand up for yourself.

I will ask you some more questions.

Then I want you to answer me.

⁸“Would you dare to claim that I am not being fair?

Would you judge me in order to make yourself seem right?

⁹Is your arm as powerful as mine is?

Can your voice thunder as mine does?

¹⁰Then put on glory and beauty as if they were your clothes.

Also put honor and majesty on.

¹¹Let loose your great anger.

Look at those who are proud and bring them low.

¹²Look at proud people and bring them down.

Crush those who are evil right where they are.

¹³Bury their bodies in the dust together.

Cover their faces in the grave.

¹⁴Then I myself will admit to you

that your own right hand can save you.

¹⁵“Look at the behemoth. It is a huge animal.

I made both of you.

It eats grass like an ox.

¹⁶Look at the strength it has in its hips!

What power it has in the muscles of its stomach!

¹⁷Its tail sways back and forth like a cedar tree.

The tendons of its thighs are close together.

¹⁸Its bones are like tubes made out of bronze.

Its legs are like rods made out of iron.

¹⁹It ranks first among my works.

I made it. I can approach it with my sword.

²⁰The hills produce food for it.

All of the other wild animals play near it.

²¹It lies under lotus plants.

It hides in tall grass in the swamps.

²²The lotus plants hide it in their shade.

Poplar trees near streams surround it.

²³It is not afraid when the river roars.

It is secure even when the Jordan River rushes against its mouth.

²⁴Can anyone capture it by its eyes?

Can anyone trap it and poke a hole through its nose?

41“Job, can you pull the leviathan out of the sea with a fish hook?

Can you tie down its tongue with a rope?

²Can you put a rope through its nose?

Can you stick a hook through its jaw?

³Will it keep begging you for mercy?

Will it speak gently to you?

⁴Will it make an agreement with you?

Can you make it your slave for life?

⁵Can you make a pet out of it like a bird?

Can you put it on a leash for your young women?

⁶Will traders offer you something for it?

Will they divide it up among the merchants?

⁷Can you fill its body with harpoons?

Can you throw fishing spears into its head?

⁸If you touch it, it will fight you.

Then you will remember never to touch it again!

⁹No one can possibly control the leviathan.

Just looking at it will terrify you.

¹⁰No one dares to wake it up.

So who can possibly stand up to me?

¹¹Who has a claim against me that I must pay?

Everything on earth belongs to me.

¹²“Now I will speak about the leviathan’s legs.

I will talk about its strength and its graceful body.

¹³Who can strip off its outer coat?

Who would try to put a bridle on it?

¹⁴Who dares to open its jaws?

Its mouth is filled with terrifying teeth.

¹⁵Its back has rows of shields

that are close together.

¹⁶Each one is so close to the next one

that not even air can pass between them.

¹⁷They are joined tightly to one another.

They stick together and can’t be forced apart.

¹⁸The leviathan’s snorting throws out flashes of light.

Its eyes shine like the first light of day.

¹⁹Fire seems to spray out of its mouth.

Sparks of fire shoot out.

²⁰Smoke pours out of its nose.

It is like smoke from a boiling pot over burning grass.

²¹Its breath sets coals on fire.

Flames fly out of its mouth.

²²Its neck is very strong.

People run to get out of its way.

²³Its rolls of fat are close together.

They are firm and can’t be moved.

²⁴Its chest is as hard as rock.

It is as hard as a lower millstone.

²⁵When the leviathan rises up,

even mighty people are terrified.

They run away when it moves around wildly.

²⁶A sword that strikes it has no effect.

Neither does a spear or dart or javelin.

²⁷It treats iron as if it were straw.

It crushes bronze as if it were rotten wood.

²⁸Arrows do not make it run away.

Stones that are thrown from slings are like straw hitting it.

²⁹A club seems like a piece of straw to it.

It laughs when it hears a javelin rattling.

³⁰Its undersides are like broken pieces of pottery.

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

³¹It makes the ocean churn like a boiling pot.

It stirs up the sea like perfume someone is making.

³²It leaves a shiny trail behind it.

You would think the ocean had white hair.

³³Nothing on earth is equal to the leviathan.

That creature is not afraid of anything.

³⁴It looks down on proud people.

It rules over all those who are proud.”