Job 39:1-28 ▼

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 wilderness  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.

19 Do you give strength to  the  horse ? Do you adorn his  neck with a mane ? 

20 Do you make him leap like  a  locust ? His proud snorting fills one with terror.

21 He paws  in  the  valley and  rejoices in  his strength; He charges into  battle. 

22 He laughs at fear, since  he is afraid of nothing; he does not run from  the sword.

23 A quiver rattles at his  side, along with a flashing  spear and  a lance. 

24 He charges ahead   with  trembling  rage; he cannot stand still at the trumpet’s  sound.

25 When the trumpet blasts, he snorts  defiantly.  He smells the battle from  a distance; he hears the officers’  shouts and  the battle cry.

26 Does the hawk take flight by  your  understanding and spread its  wings to  the south ?

27 Does the eagle  soar at  your  command and make its  nest  on high?

28 It lives on a cliff where it spends the night; its stronghold is on  a rocky  crag.