Job 39:1-25 ▼

1 “ Do you know the time of the bearing of the goats of the rock? Can you observe the twisting of the does?

2 Can you number the months they fulfill? Or do you know the time of their giving birth?

3 They bend down and squeeze out their young; their labor pains they send forth.

4 Their young ones are healthy; they increase in the field; they go forth and do not return to them.

5 Who sent away the wild donkey free? And who opened the bonds of the swift donkey,

6 whose I have made the Arabah house, the salt land as his dwelling?

7 He laughs at the tumult of the city; the shouts of the driver he does not hear.

8 He searches out the mountains for his pasture, and after every green thing he searches.

9 Is the wild ox willing to serve you, or will he lodge by your manger?

10 Can you bind the wild ox in the furrow with a cord, or will he harrow the valleys after you?

11 Will you trust in him because his strength is great, and will you leave to him your labor?

12 Will you trust in him that he will bring back your grain and gather it to your threshing floor?

13 The wings of the ostrich rejoice, but are not the pinions of a stork and its feathers.

14 For she leaves her eggs on the ground, and upon the dust she warms them,

15 and she forgets that a foot may crush it, or that a creature of the field might tread over it.

16 Her young she treats harshly as though not unto her; her labor is in vain, without dread;

17 for God made her forget wisdom, and He has not given a portion to her in understanding.

18 At the time she lifts herself up on high, she laughs at the horse and at its rider.

19 Have you given the horse strength? Did you clothe his neck with a mane?

20 Can you cause him to rush like a locust? The majesty of his snorting is terror.

21 They dig in the valley, and he rejoices in strength; he goes forth to meet the weaponry.

22 He laughs at dread and is not dismayed; he does not turn back from the face of the sword.

23 Upon him rattles the quiver, the flame of the spear and lance.

24 With quaking and raging he swallows the ground; he cannot stand still because of the voice of the shofar.

25 In the abundance of the shofar, he says, ‘Aha!’ And from afar He smells the battle, the thunder of captains and shouting.