Job 39–41

Chapter 39

¹“Do you know when the mountain goats bring forth?

Do you observe the calving of the hinds?

²Can you number the months that they fulfil,

and do you know the time when they bring forth,

³when they crouch, bring forth their offspring,

and are delivered of their young?

⁴Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open;

they go forth, and do not return to them.

⁵“Who has let the wild ass go free?

Who has loosed the bonds of the swift ass,

⁶to whom I have given the steppe for his home,

and the salt land for his dwelling place?

⁷He scorns the tumult of the city;

he hears not the shouts of the driver.

⁸He ranges the mountains as his pasture,

and he searches after every green thing.

⁹“Is the wild ox willing to serve you?

Will he spend the night at your crib?

¹⁰Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes,

or will he harrow the valleys after you?

¹¹Will you depend on him because his strength is great,

and will you leave to him your labor?

¹²Do you have faith in him that he will return,

and bring your grain to your threshing floor?ⁱ

¹³“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly;

but are they the pinions and plumage of love?^j

¹⁴For she leaves her eggs to the earth,

and lets them be warmed on the ground,

¹⁵forgetting that a foot may crush them,

and that the wild beast may trample them.

¹⁶She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers;

though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear;

¹⁷because God has made her forget wisdom,

and given her no share in understanding.

¹⁸When she rouses herself to flee,^k

she laughs at the horse and his rider.

¹⁹“Do you give the horse his might?

Do you clothe his neck with strength?^l

²⁰Do you make him leap like the locust?

His majestic snorting is terrible.

²¹He paws^m in the valley, and exults in his strength;

he goes out to meet the weapons.

²²He laughs at fear, and is not dismayed;

he does not turn back from the sword.

²³Upon him rattle the quiver,

the flashing spear and the javelin.

²⁴With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground;

he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

²⁵When the trumpet sounds, he says ‘Aha!’

He smells the battle from afar,

the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

²⁶“Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars,

and spreads his wings toward the south?

²⁷Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up

and makes his nest on high?

²⁸On the rock he dwells and makes his home

in the fastness of the rocky crag.

²⁹Thence he spies out the prey;

his eyes behold it afar off.

³⁰His young ones suck up blood;

and where the slain are, there is he.”

Chapter 40

¹And the Lord said to Job:

²“Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?

He who argues with God, let him answer it.”

³Then Job answered the Lord:

⁴“Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer thee?

I lay my hand on my mouth.

⁵I have spoken once, and I will not answer;

twice, but I will proceed no further.”

⁶Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

⁷“Gird up your loins like a man;

I will question you, and you declare to me.

⁸Will you even put me in the wrong?

Will you condemn me that you may be justified?

⁹Have you an arm like God,

and can you thunder with a voice like his?

¹⁰“Deck yourself with majesty and dignity;

clothe yourself with glory and splendor.

¹¹Pour forth the overflowings of your anger,

and look on every one that is proud, and abase him.

¹²Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low;

and tread down the wicked where they stand.

¹³Hide them all in the dust together;

bind their faces in the world below.ⁿ

¹⁴Then will I also acknowledge to you,

that your own right hand can give you victory.

¹⁵“Behold, Behemoth,^o

which I made as I made you;

he eats grass like an ox.

¹⁶Behold, his strength in his loins,

and his power in the muscles of his belly.

¹⁷He makes his tail stiff like a cedar;

the sinews of his thighs are knit together.

¹⁸His bones are tubes of bronze,

his limbs like bars of iron.

¹⁹“He is the first of the works^p of God;

let him who made him bring near his sword!

²⁰For the mountains yield food for him

where all the wild beasts play.

²¹Under the lotus plants he lies,

in the covert of the reeds and in the marsh.

²²For his shade the lotus trees cover him;

the willows of the brook surround him.

²³Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened;

he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth.

²⁴Can one take him with hooks,^q

or pierce his nose with a snare?

Chapter 41

¹“Can you draw out Leviathan^s with a fishhook,

or press down his tongue with a cord?

²Can you put a rope in his nose,

or pierce his jaw with a hook?

³Will he make many supplications to you?

Will he speak to you soft words?

⁴Will he make a covenant with you

to take him for your servant for ever?

⁵Will you play with him as with a bird,

or will you put him on leash for your maidens?

⁶Will traders bargain over him?

Will they divide him up among the merchants?

⁷Can you fill his skin with harpoons,

or his head with fishing spears?

⁸Lay hands on him;

think of the battle; you will not do it again!

⁹Behold, the hope of a man is disappointed;

he is laid low even at the sight of him.

¹⁰No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up.

Who then is he that can stand before me?

¹¹Who has given to me,^u that I should repay him?

Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.

¹²“I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,

or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame.

¹³Who can strip off his outer garment?

Who can penetrate his double coat of mail?^v

¹⁴Who can open the doors of his face?

Round about his teeth is terror.

¹⁵His back^w is made of rows of shields,

shut up closely as with a seal.

¹⁶One is so near to another

that no air can come between them.

¹⁷They are joined one to another;

they clasp each other and cannot be separated.

¹⁸His sneezings flash forth light,

and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.

¹⁹Out of his mouth go flaming torches;

sparks of fire leap forth.

²⁰Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke,

as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.

²¹His breath kindles coals,

and a flame comes forth from his mouth.

²²In his neck abides strength,

and terror dances before him.

²³The folds of his flesh cleave together,

firmly cast upon him and immovable.

²⁴His heart is hard as a stone,

hard as the nether millstone.

²⁵When he raises himself up the mighty are afraid;

at the crashing they are beside themselves.

²⁶Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail;

nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

²⁷He counts iron as straw,

and bronze as rotten wood.

²⁸The arrow cannot make him flee;

for him slingstones are turned to stubble.

²⁹Clubs are counted as stubble;

he laughs at the rattle of javelins.

³⁰His underparts are like sharp potsherds;

he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire.

³¹He makes the deep boil like a pot;

he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.

³²Behind him he leaves a shining wake;

one would think the deep to be hoary.

³³Upon earth there is not his like,

a creature without fear.

³⁴He beholds everything that is high;

he is king over all the sons of pride.”