Job 39:1-18 ▼

1 |Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch the does when they are in labor?

2 Can you count the months they are pregnant or know the time when they'll give birth?

3 They kneel down to give birth and deliver their young. Then the pain of giving birth is over.

4 Their young are healthy and grow up in the wild. They leave and don't come back.

5 |Who lets the wild donkey go free? Who unties the ropes of the wild donkey?

6 I gave it the desert to live in and the salt flats as its dwelling place.

7 It laughs at the noise of the city and doesn't [even] listen to the shouting of its master.

8 It explores the mountains for its pasture and looks for anything green.

9 |Will the wild ox agree to serve you, or will it stay at night beside your feeding trough?

10 Can you guide a wild ox in a furrow, or will it plow the valleys behind you?

11 Can you trust it just because it's so strong or leave your labor to it?

12 Can you rely on it to bring your grain back and take it to your threshing floor?

13 |Does the ostrich flap its wings in joy, or do its wings lack feathers?

14 It lays its eggs on the ground and warms them in the dust.

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

16 It acts harshly toward its young as if they weren't its own. It is not afraid that its work is for nothing

17 because God has deprived it of wisdom and did not give it any understanding.

18 It laughs at the horse and its rider when it gets up to flee.