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“Is the wild ox willing to serve you?
    Will it spend the night at your crib?(A)
10 Can you tie it in the furrow with ropes,
    or will it harrow the valleys after you?
11 Will you depend on it because its strength is great,
    and will you hand over your labor to it?
12 Do you have faith in it that it will return
    and bring your grain to your threshing floor?[a]

13 “The ostrich’s wings flap wildly,
    though its pinions lack plumage.[b]
14 For it leaves its eggs to the earth
    and lets them be warmed on the ground,
15 forgetting that a foot may crush them
    and that a wild animal may trample them.
16 It deals cruelly with its young, as if they were not its own;
    though its labor should be in vain, yet it has no fear;(B)
17 because God has made it forget wisdom
    and given it no share in understanding.(C)
18 When it spreads its plumes aloft,[c]
    it laughs at the horse and its rider.

19 “Do you give the horse its might?
    Do you clothe its neck with mane?(D)
20 Do you make it leap like the locust?
    Its majestic snorting is terrible.(E)
21 It paws[d] violently, exults mightily;
    it goes out to meet the weapons.(F)
22 It laughs at fear and is not dismayed;
    it does not turn back from the sword.
23 Upon it rattle the quiver,
    the flashing spear, and the javelin.
24 With fierceness and rage it swallows the ground;
    it cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.(G)
25 When the trumpet sounds, it says ‘Aha!’
    From a distance it smells the battle,
    the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.(H)

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Footnotes

  1. 39.12 Heb your grain and your threshing floor
  2. 39.13 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  3. 39.18 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  4. 39.21 Gk Syr Vg: Heb they dig