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Mountain goat and doe

39 Do you know when mountain goats give birth;
    do you observe the birthing of does?
Can you count the months of pregnancy;
    do you know when they give birth?
They crouch, split open for their young,
    send forth their offspring.
Their young are healthy; they grow up in the open country,
    leave and never return.

Wild donkey

Who freed the wild donkey,
        loosed the ropes of the onager
    to whom I gave the desert as home,
        his dwelling place in the salt flats?
He laughs at the clamor of the town,
        doesn’t hear the driver’s shout,
    searches the hills for food
        and seeks any green sprout.

Wild ox

Will the wild ox agree to be your slave,
    or will it spend the night in your crib?
10 Can you bind it with a rope to a plowed row;
    will it plow the valley behind you?
11 Will you trust it because its strength is great
    so that you can leave your work to it?
12 Can you rely on it to bring back your grain
    to gather into your threshing floor?

Ostrich

13 The ostrich’s wings flap joyously,
    but her wings and plumage are like a stork.
14 She leaves her eggs on the earth,
    lets them warm in the dust,
15     then forgets that a foot may crush them
        or a wild animal trample them.
16 She treats her young harshly as if they were not hers,
    without worrying that her labor might be in vain;
17 God didn’t endow her with sense,
    didn’t give her some good sense.
18 When she flaps her wings high,
    she laughs at horse and rider.

Horse

19 Did you give strength to the horse,
        clothe his neck with a mane,
20     cause him to leap like a locust,
        his majestic snorting, a fright?
21 He[a] paws in the valley, prances proudly,
        charges at battle weapons,
22     laughs at fear, unafraid.
He doesn’t turn away from the sword;
23     a quiver of arrows flies by him,
        flashing spear and dagger.
24 Excitedly, trembling, he swallows the ground;
    can’t stand still at a trumpet’s blast.
25 At a trumpet’s sound, he says, “Aha!”
    smells the battle from afar,
        hears[b] officers’ shouting and the battle cry.

Hawk and eagle

26 Is it due to your understanding that the hawk flies,
    spreading its wings to the south?
27 Or at your command does the eagle soar,
    the vulture build a nest on high?
28 They dwell on an outcropping of rock,
    their fortress on rock’s edge.
29 From there they search for food;
    their eyes notice it from afar,
30     and their young lap up blood;
        where carcasses lie, there they are.

Footnotes

  1. Job 39:21 Or they
  2. Job 39:25 Heb lacks hears.

39 Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?

Canst thou number the months that they fulfil? or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?

They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows.

Their young ones are in good liking, they grow up with corn; they go forth, and return not unto them.

Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?

Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings.

He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver.

The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing.

Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?

10 Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?

11 Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?

12 Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?

13 Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?

14 Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust,

15 And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them.

16 She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not her's: her labour is in vain without fear;

17 Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding.

18 What time she lifteth up herself on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider.

19 Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?

20 Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible.

21 He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.

22 He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword.

23 The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield.

24 He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet.

25 He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

26 Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south?

27 Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?

28 She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place.

29 From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off.

30 Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she.