Job 39:1-30 AMPC

[1] Do you know the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth [their young]? [Or] do you observe when the hinds are giving birth? [Do you attend to all this, Job?] [2] Can you number the months that they carry their offspring? Or do you know the time when they are delivered, [3] When they bow themselves, bring forth their young ones, [and] cast out their pains? [4] Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open field; they go forth and return not to them. [5] Who has sent out the wild donkey, giving him his freedom? Or who has loosed the bands of the swift donkey [by which his tame brother is bound-he, the shy, the swift-footed, and the untamable], [6] Whose home I have made the wilderness, and the salt land his dwelling place? [7] He scorns the tumult of the city and hears not the shoutings of the taskmaster. [8] The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searches after every green thing. [9] Will the wild ox be willing to serve you, or remain beside your manger? [10] Can you bind the wild ox with a harness to the plow in the furrow? Or will he harrow the furrows for you? [11] Will you trust him because his strength is great, or to him will you leave your labor? [12] Will you depend upon him to bring home your seed and gather the grain of your threshing floor? [Who, Job, was the author of this strange variance in the disposition of animals so alike in appearance? Was it you?] [13] The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, [but] are they the pinions and plumage of love? [14] The ostrich leaves her eggs on the ground and warms them in the dust, [15] Forgetting that a foot may crush them or that the wild beast may trample them. [16] She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers; her labor is in vain because she has no sense of danger [for her unborn brood], [17] For God has deprived her of wisdom, neither has He imparted to her understanding. [18] Yet when she lifts herself up in flight, [so swift is she that] she can laugh to scorn the horse and his rider. [19] Have you given the horse his might? Have you clothed his neck with quivering and a shaking mane? [20] Was it you [Job] who made him to leap like a locust? The majesty of his [snorting] nostrils is terrible. [21] He paws in the valley and exults in his strength; he goes out to meet the weapons [of armed men]. [22] He mocks at fear and is not dismayed or terrified; neither does he turn back [in battle] from the sword. [23] The quiver rattles upon him, as do the glittering spear and the lance [of his rider]. [24] [He seems in running to] devour the ground with fierceness and rage; neither can he stand still at the sound of the [war] trumpet. [25] As often as the trumpet sounds he says, Ha, ha! And he smells the battle from afar, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting. [26] Is it by your wisdom [Job] that the hawk soars and stretches her wings toward the south [as winter approaches]? [27] Does the eagle mount up at your command and make his nest on [a] high [inaccessible place]? [28] On the cliff he dwells and remains securely, upon the point of the rock and the stronghold. [29] From there he spies out the prey; and his eyes see it afar off. [30] His young ones suck up blood, and where the slain are, there is he.