Job 39

1Do you know when the mountain goats give birth among the rocks? Do you watch over the does as they bear their young? 2Can you count the months until they are due, and do you know the time when they give birth? 3They crouch down and bring their young to birth; they are rid of their labor pains. 4Their young grow strong and grow up in the open country; they go off and do not come back to them. 5Who let the wild donkey go free? Who untied the ropes of the wild ass? 6I made the wilderness its home and the salt flats its dwelling place. 7It scorns the noise of the city; it never hears the shouts of a driver. 8It roams the mountains for its pasture and searches for every green plant. 9Will the wild ox agree to serve you? Will it stay the night beside your feeding trough? 10Can you tie the wild ox with a rope to plow a furrow? Will it follow you and break up the soil in the valleys? 11Will you rely on it because its strength is great? Will you leave your heavy work to it? 12Can you trust it to bring in your grain and gather it to your threshing floor? 13The ostrich flaps her wings with joy, but are they the wings and feathers of the stork? 14She leaves her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand. 15She forgets that a foot may crush them, that a wild animal may trample them. 16She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers; she has no fear that her labor may be wasted. 17For 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 flowing mane? 20Do you make it leap like a locust? Its proud snorting strikes terror. 21It paws the ground in the valley and delights in its strength; it charges out to meet the weapons. 22It laughs at fear and is not afraid; it does not turn back from the sword. 23The quiver rattles at its side, along with the flashing spear and javelin. 24Trembling with excitement, it devours the ground; it cannot stand still when the horn sounds. 25Whenever the horn blows, it snorts, Aha! It smells the battle from far away, the thunder of the commanders and the war cry. 26Is it by your understanding that the hawk takes flight and spreads its wings toward the south? 27Is it at your command that the eagle flies high and builds its nest up on the heights? 28It lives on the cliffs and stays there at night, on a rocky crag, its fortress. 29From there it searches for its prey; its eyes see it from far away. 30Its young ones gulp down blood, and where the dead bodies are, there it is.