Job 39:1-30 ERV

[1] "Do you know when the mountain goats are born? Do you watch when the mother deer gives birth? [2] Do you know how many months they must carry their babies? Do you know when it is the right time for them to be born? [3] These animals lie down, they feel their birth pains, and their babies are born. [4] Their babies grow strong out in the wild. Then they leave their mothers and never come back. [5] "Who let the wild donkeys go free? Who untied their ropes and let them loose? [6] I let the wild donkey have the desert for a home. I gave the salt lands to them for a place to live. [7] They are happy to be away from the noise of the city. They never have to listen to their drivers shouting at them. [8] They live in the mountains. That is their pasture. That is where they look for food to eat. [9] "Will a wild bull agree to serve you? Will he stay in your barn at night? [10] Will he let you put ropes on him to plow your fields? [11] A wild bull is very strong, but can you trust him to do your work? [12] Can you trust him to gather your grain and bring it to your threshing place? [13] "An ostrich gets excited and flaps its wings, but it cannot fly. Its wings and feathers are not like the wings of a stork. [14] An ostrich lays her eggs on the ground and lets the sand keep them warm. [15] The ostrich forgets that someone might step on her eggs or that a wild animal might break them. [16] An ostrich leaves her little babies. She treats them as if they were not her own. If her babies die, she does not care that all her work was for nothing. [17] That's because I did not give wisdom to the ostrich. She is foolish, and I made her that way. [18] But when the ostrich gets up to run, she laughs at the horse and its rider, because she can run faster than any horse. [19] "Did you give the horse its strength? Did you put the mane on its neck? [20] Did you make it able to jump like a locust or snort so loudly that it scares people? [21] A horse is happy to be so strong. It scratches the ground with its foot and runs into battle. [22] It laughs at fear; nothing makes it afraid! It does not run away from battle. [23] The soldier's quiver shakes on the horse's side. The spear and weapons its rider carries shine in the sun. [24] The horse gets very excited and races over the ground. When it hears the trumpet blow, it cannot stand still. [25] When the trumpet sounds, it snorts, 'Hurray!' It can smell the battle from far away and hear the shouts of commanders with all the other sounds of battle. [26] "Did you teach the hawk how to spread its wings and fly south? [27] Are you the one who told the eagle to fly high into the sky? Did you tell it to build its nest high in the mountains? [28] It lives high on a peak at the top of a cliff. That is its fortress. [29] From there it looks far into the distance, searching for its food. [30] The eagles gather around dead bodies, and their young eat the blood."