Job 39

1 Have you knowledge of the rock-goats? or do you see the roes giving birth to their young?

[Say] if you know the time of the bringing forth of the wild goats of the rock, and [if] you have marked the calving of the hinds:

2 Is the number of their months fixed by you? or is the time when they give birth ordered by you?

and [if] you has have numbered the full months of their being with young, and [if] you have relieved their pangs:

3 They are bent down, they give birth to their young, they let loose the fruit of their body.

and have reared their young without fear; and will you loosen their pangs?

4 Their young ones are strong, living in the open country; they go out and do not come back again.

Their young will break forth; they will be multiplied with offspring: [their young] will go forth, and will not return to them.

5 Who has let the ass of the fields go free? or made loose the bands of the loud-voiced beast?

And who is he that sent forth the wild ass free? and who loosed his bands?

6 To whom I have given the waste land for a heritage, and the salt land as a living-place.

whereas I made his habitation the wilderness, and the salt land his coverts.

7 He makes sport of the noise of the town; the voice of the driver does not come to his ears;

He laughs to scorn the multitude of the city, and hears not the chiding of the tax-gatherer.

8 He goes looking for his grass-lands in the mountains, searching out every green thing.

He will survey the mountains [as] his pasture, and he seeks after every green thing.

9 Will the ox of the mountains be your servant? or is his night's resting-place by your food-store?

And will the unicorn be willing to serve you, or to lie down at your manger?

10 Will he be pulling your plough with cords, turning up the valleys after you?

And will you bind his yoke with thongs, or will he plow furrows for you in the plain?

11 Will you put your faith in him, because his strength is great? will you give the fruit of your work into his care?

And do you trust him, because his strength is great? and will you commit your works to him?

12 Will you be looking for him to come back, and get in your seed to the crushing-floor?

And will you believe that he will return to you your seed, and bring [it] in [to] your threshing floor?

13 Is the wing of the ostrich feeble, or is it because she has no feathers,

The peacock has a beautiful wing: if the stork and the ostrich conceive, [it is worthy of notice],

14 That she puts her eggs on the earth, warming them in the dust,

for [the ostrich] will leave her eggs in the ground, and warm them on the dust,

15 Without a thought that they may be crushed by the foot, and broken by the beasts of the field?

and has forgotten that the foot will scatter them, and the wild beasts of the field trample them.

16 She is cruel to her young ones, as if they were not hers; her work is to no purpose; she has no fear.

She has hardened [herself] against her young ones, as though [she bereaved] not herself: she labors in vain without fear.

17 For God has taken wisdom from her mind, and given her no measure of knowledge.

For God has withholden wisdom from her, and not given her a portion in understanding.

18 When she is shaking her wings on high, she makes sport of the horse and of him who is seated on him.

In her season she will lift herself on high; she will scorn the horse and his rider.

19 Do you give strength to the horse? is it by your hand that his neck is clothed with power?

Hast you invested the horse with strength, and clothed his neck with terror?

20 Is it through you that he is shaking like a locust, in the pride of his loud-sounding breath?

And have you clad him in perfect armor, and made his breast glorious with courage?

21 He is stamping with joy in the valley; he makes sport of fear.

He paws exulting in the plain, and goes forth in strength into the plain.

22 In his strength he goes out against the arms of war, turning not away from the sword.

He laughs to scorn a king as he meets him, and will by no means turn back from the sword.

23 The bow is sounding against him; he sees the shining point of spear and arrow.

The bow and sword resound against him; and [his] rage will swallow up the ground:

24 Shaking with passion, he is biting the earth; he is not able to keep quiet at the sound of the horn;

and he will not believe until the trumpet sounds.

25 When it comes to his ears he says, Aha! He is smelling the fight from far off, and hearing the thunder of the captains, and the war-cries.

And when the trumpet sounds, he says, Aha! and afar off he smells the war with prancing and neighing.

26 Is it through your knowledge that the hawk takes his flight, stretching out his wings to the south?

And does the hawk remain steady by your wisdom, having spread out her wings unmoved, looking toward the region of the south?

27 Or is it by your orders that the eagle goes up, and makes his resting-place on high?

And does the eagle rise at your command, and the vulture remain sitting over his nest,

28 On the rock is his house, and on the mountain-top his strong place.

on a crag of a rock, and in a secret [place]?

29 From there he is watching for food; his eye sees it far off.

Thence he seeks food, his eyes observe from far.

30 His young have blood for their drink, and where the dead bodies are, there is he to be seen.

And his young ones roll themselves in blood, and wherever the carcasses may be, immediately they are found.