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On the Birth of Young

39 “Do you know when the mountain goat gives birth?
    Do you watch the doe as it calves its young?
Can you count the months of their gestation?
    Do you know the time when they give birth,
when they crouch down[a] to give birth[b] to their offspring,
    and let go[c] of their birth pangs?
Their young are strong;
    they grow up in the open field;
then they go off
    and don’t return to them.”

On Wild Animals

“Who sets the wild donkey free?
    Who loosens the bonds of the wild donkey
to whom I’ve given the Arabah[d] for a home;
    the salt plain for his dwelling place?
He despises city noises;[e]
    he ignores the shouts[f] of the driver.
He ranges the mountains that are his pasture
    to search for anything green.
Is the wild ox willing to serve you?
    Will he sleep at night near your feeding trough?
10 Can you bind the ox to plow a furrow with a rope?
    Will he harrow after you in the valley?
11 Will you trust him because of his great strength
    and entrust your labor to him?
12 Will you trust him that he’ll bring in your grain,
    and gather it to your threshing floor?”

On the Ostrich

13 “The wings of the ostrich flap joyously,
    but aren’t its pinions and feathers like the stork?
14 She abandons her eggs on the ground
    and lets them be warmed in the sand,
15 but she forgets that a foot might crush them
    or any wild animal might trample them.
16 She mistreats her young as though they’re not hers,
    and she has no fear that her labor may be in vain,
17 because God didn’t grant her wisdom
    and never gave her understanding.
18 And yet when she gets ready to run,
    she laughs at the horse and its rider.”

On the Horse

19 Do you instill the horse with strength?
    Do you clothe its neck with a mane?
20 Can you make him leap like the locust,
    and make the splendor of his snorting terrifying?
21 He paws the ground[g] in the valley
    and rejoices in his strength;
        he goes out to face weapons.
22 He scoffs at fear
    and is never scared;
        he never retreats from a sword.
23 A quiver of arrows rattles against his side,
    along with a flashing spear and a lance.
24 Leaping in his excitement, he takes in[h] the ground;
    he cannot stand still when the trumpets sound!
25 When the trumpet blasts he’ll neigh, ‘Aha! Aha!’
    From a distance he can sense war,
        the war cry of generals,[i] and their shouting.”

On Raptors

26 “Is it by your understanding that the hawk flies,
    spreading its wings toward the south?
27 Does the eagle soar high at your command[j]
    and build its nest on the highest crags?
28 He dwells on the crags where he makes his home,
    there on the rocky crag is his stronghold.
29 From there he searches for prey,
    and his eyes recognize it from a distance.
30 His young ones feast[k] on blood;
    he’ll be found wherever there’s a carcass.”[l]

Footnotes

  1. Job 39:3 Or bow down
  2. Job 39:3 Lit. cleave open
  3. Job 39:3 Lit. send
  4. Job 39:6 I.e. the desert wilderness of southern Israel
  5. Job 39:7 Or sound
  6. Job 39:7 Or noise
  7. Job 39:21 The Heb. lacks the ground
  8. Job 39:24 Lit. swallows
  9. Job 39:25 Or officers
  10. Job 39:27 Lit. mouth
  11. Job 39:30 Lit. suck up
  12. Job 39:30 Or slain