Job 39
1 “[Job], do you know at what time/season [of the year] the female mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the wild deer while their fawns were being born?
Do you know at what time the wild goats in the rocks bear their young? Can you watch when the deer are having their fawns?
2 Do you know how many months pass from the time they become pregnant until their fawns are born?
Can you count the months that they gestate? Do you know the time when they bear their young?
3 [When they give birth, ] they crouch down so that the fawns do not [get hurt by] falling to the ground when they are born.
They crouch down and birth their young, and then they finish their labor pains.
4 The young fawns grow up in the open fields, and then they leave their mothers and do not return to them again.
Their young ones become strong and grow up in the open fields; they go out and do not come back again.
5 “Who allows the wild donkeys to go wherever they want [DOU]?
Who let the wild donkey go free? Who has untied the bonds of the swift donkey,
6 I am the one who put them in the desert, in places where grass does not grow.
whose home I have made in the Arabah, his house in the salt land?
7 They do not like the noise in the cities; [in the desert] they do not have to listen to the shouts of those who force donkeys to work.
He laughs in scorn at the noises in the city; he does not hear the driver's shouts.
8 They go to the hills to find food; there they search for grass to eat.
He roams over the mountains as his pastures; there he looks for every green plant to eat.
9 :Will a wild ox agree to work for you? Will it allow you to keep it penned up at night in the place where you put feed for your animals?
Will the wild ox be happy to serve you? Will he consent to stay by your manger?
10 And can you fasten it with a rope so that it will plow furrows/trenches in your fields?
Can you use ropes to hold the wild ox in the furrows? Will he harrow the valleys as he follows after you?
11 Since it is very strong, can you trust it to work for you? Can you go away after you tell it what work it should do [and assume that it will do that work]?
Will you trust him because his strength is great? Will you leave your work to him to do?
12 Can you rely on it to come back [from the field], bringing your grain to the place where you thresh it?
Will you depend on him to bring your grain home, to gather the grain for your threshing floor?
13 “[Think also about] the ostriches. [They] joyfully flap their wings, but they do not have wing feathers [that enable them to fly] like storks do.
The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love?
14 Ostriches lay their eggs on top of the ground [and then walk away], leaving the eggs to be warmed in the sand.
For she leaves her eggs on the earth, and she lets them keep warm in the dust;
15 Ostriches do not worry that some wild animal may step on the eggs and crush them [DOU].
she forgets that a foot might crush them or that a wild beast might trample them.
16 Ostriches act cruelly towards their chicks; they act as though the chicks belonged to some other ostrich. They are not concerned if [their chicks die], [and so] the laying of the eggs was in vain.
She deals roughly with her young ones as if they were not hers; she does not fear that her labor might have been in vain,
17 That is because I did not allow ostriches to be wise. I did not enable them to be intelligent.
because God has deprived her of wisdom and has not given her any understanding.
18 But, when they get up and begin to run, they scornfully laugh at horses with their riders [because the horses cannot run as fast as the ostriches!]
When she runs swiftly, she laughs in scorn at the horse and its rider.
19 And [think about] horses. [Job], are you the one who caused horses to be strong? Are you the one who put flowing (manes/long hair) on their necks?
Have you given the horse his strength? Did you clothe his neck with his flowing mane?
20 Are you the one who enabled them to leap forward like locusts? When they (snort/blow loudly through their noses), they cause people to be afraid.
Have you ever made him jump like a locust? The majesty of his snorting is fearsome.
21 They paw the ground, rejoicing about being very strong, as they prepare to rush into a battle.
He paws in might and rejoices in his strength; he rushes out to meet the weapons.
22 [It is as if] they laugh at the thought of being afraid. They are not afraid of anything! They do not run away when [the soldiers in the battle are fighting each other with] swords.
He mocks fear and is not dismayed; he does not turn back from the sword.
23 The quivers containing the riders’ arrows rattle against the horses’ sides, and the spears and javelins flash [in the light of the sun].
The quiver rattles against his flank, along with the flashing spear and the javelin.
24 The horses paw the ground fiercely/excitedly, [wanting the battle to begin, ] and they rush into the battle when the trumpet is blown.
He swallows up ground with fierceness and rage; at the trumpet's sound, he cannot stand in one place.
25 They neigh [joyfully] when they hear someone blowing the trumpet. They can smell a battle even when they are far away, and they understand what it means when the commanders shout their commands [to their soldiers].
Whenever the trumpet sounds, he says, 'Aha!' He smells the battle from far away— the thunderous shouts of the commanders and the outcries.
26 “[And think about big birds.] Are you the one who enabled hawks to spread their wings and fly to the south [for the winter]?
Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, that he stretches out his wings for the south?
27 Do eagles fly high up [into the cliffs] to make their nests because you commanded them to do that?
Is it at your orders that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest in high places?
28 They live in [holes in] those cliffs. They are safe in those high pointed rocks [because no animals can reach them there].
He lives on cliffs and makes his home on the peaks of cliffs, a stronghold.
29 As they watch carefully from there, they see far away the animals that they can kill (OR, dead bodies of animals).
From there he searches for victims; his eyes see them from very far away.
30 After an eagle kills an animal, the baby eagles drink the blood of that animal.”
His young also drink up blood; where killed people are, there he is.”
