Job, 39

¹ “Have you come to know the appointed time for the mountain goats of the crag to give birth? Do you observe just when the hinds bring forth with birth pangs?

² Do you count the lunar months that they fulfill, Or have you come to know the appointed time that they give birth?

³ They bow down when they cast forth their young ones, [When] they get rid of their pangs.^*1

⁴ Their sons become robust, they get big in the open field; They actually go forth and do not return to them.

⁵ Who sent forth the zebra free, And who loosened the very bands of the wild ass,

⁶ Whose house I have appointed the desert plain And whose dwelling places the salt country?

⁷ It laughs at the turmoil of a town; The noises of a stalker it does not hear.

⁸ It explores mountains for its pasturage And after every sort of green plant it seeks.

⁹ Does a wild bull want to serve you, Or will it spend the night by your manger?

¹⁰ Will you bind a wild bull fast with its ropes in the furrow, Or will it harrow low plains after you?

¹¹ Will you trust in it because its power is abundant, And will you leave your toil to it?

¹² Will you rely on it that it will bring back your seed And that it will gather to your threshing floor?

¹³ Has the wing of the female ostrich flapped joyously, Or [has she] the pinions of a stork and the plumage?

¹⁴ For she leaves her eggs to the earth itself And in the dust she keeps them warm,

¹⁵ And she forgets that some foot may crush them Or even a wild beast of the field may tread on them.

¹⁶ She does treat her sons roughly, as if not hers— In vain is her toil [because she has] no dread.

¹⁷ For God^*1 has made her forget wisdom, And he has not given her a share in understanding.

¹⁸ At the time she flaps [her wings] on high, She laughs at the horse and at its rider.

¹⁹ Can you give to the horse mightiness? Can you clothe its neck with a rustling mane?^*1

²⁰ Can you cause it to leap like a locust? The dignity of its snorting is frightful.

²¹ It paws^*1 in the low plain and exults in power; It goes forth to meet armor.

²² It laughs at dread, and is not terrified; Nor does it turn back on account of a sword.

²³ Against it a quiver rattles, The blade of a spear and a javelin.

²⁴ With pounding and excitement it swallows up the earth, And it does not believe that it is the sound of a horn.

²⁵ As soon as the horn blows it says Aha! And from far off it smells the battle, The uproar of chiefs^*1 and the war cry.

²⁶ Is it owing to your understanding that the falcon soars up, That it spreads its wings to the south wind?

²⁷ Or is it at your order that an eagle flies upward And that it builds its nest high up,

²⁸ That on a crag it resides and stays during the night Upon the tooth of a crag and an inaccessible place?

²⁹ From there it has to search for food; Far into the distance its eyes keep looking.

³⁰ And its young ones themselves keep sipping up blood; And where the slain are, there it is.”