Job 39:1-18 ▼

1 Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the deer in labor?

2 Can you count the months they are pregnant so you can know the time they give birth?

3 They crouch down to give birth to their young; they deliver their newborn.

4 Their offspring are healthy and grow up in the open field. They leave and do not return.

5 Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from its harness?

6 I made the desert its home, and the salty wasteland its dwelling.

7 It scoffs at the noise of the village and never hears the shouts of a driver.

8 It roams the mountains for its pastureland, searching for anything green.

9 Would the wild ox be willing to serve you? Would it spend the night by your feeding trough?

10 Can you hold the wild ox to a furrow by its harness? Will it plow the valleys behind you?

11 Can you depend on it because its strength is great? Would you leave it to do your hard work?

12 Can you trust the wild ox to harvest your grain and bring it to your threshing floor?

13 The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but are her feathers and plumage like the stork’s?

14 She abandons her eggs on the ground and lets them be warmed in the sand.

15 She forgets that a foot may crush them or that some wild animal may trample them.

16 She treats her young harshly, as if they were not her own, with no fear that her labor may have been in vain.

17 For God has deprived her of wisdom; he has not endowed her with understanding.

18 When she proudly spreads her wings, she laughs at the horse and its rider.