THE BOOK OF JOB

 

Job Chapter 39

1 ¶ Do you know when the wild mountain goat gives birth? or can you watch when the doe brings forth its young?

2 Can you count the months until they bear? or do you know when they will have their young?

3 They kneel down to give birth, and deliver their newborn.

4 Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the field; they leave, and do not come back.

5 Who lets the wild donkey go free? who has untied his rope?

6 I made the wilderness his home, and the barren land his dwelling place.

7 He scorns the noise of the city, and does not hear the shouting of the taskmaster.

8 The mountain range is his pasture, and he looks for every green thing.

9 Will the rhinoceros be willing to serve you, or remain in your stall?

10 Can you harness the rhinoceros to plow the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys for you?

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

12 Do you believe that he will bring home your grain, and gather it into your barn?

13 ¶ Did you give goodly wings to the peacocks? or wings and feathers to the ostrich?

14 Who leaves her eggs on the ground, and warms them in dust,

15 And forgets that a foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may trample them.

16 She acts harshly toward her young ones, as though they were not hers: it does not trouble her that her labor may have been in vain;

17 Because God has deprived her of wisdom, and has not given her understanding.

18 Yet when she rouses herself to flee, she laughs at the horse and its rider.

19 ¶ Have you given the horse strength? or clothed his neck with a waving mane?

20 Can you make him leap like a grasshopper? the snorting of his nostrils is terrifying.

21 He paws in the valley, and delights in his strength: when he charges into battle.

22 He laughs at fear, and is not afraid; nor does he turn back from the sword.

23 The quiver rattles at his side, along with the glittering spear and the shield.

24 He devours the ground with fierceness and rage: he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

25 When the trumpet blasts he snorts defiantly; and he smells the battle afar off, he hears the officers shout, and the war cries.

26 ¶ Does the hawk fly by your wisdom, when she spreads her wings toward the south?

27 Does the eagle mount up at your command, and make her nest on high?

28 She perches on a cliff and spends the night, the craggy peak is her stronghold.

29 From there she seeks prey, and her eyes can see far away.

30 Her young ones gulp down blood: and wherever the dead are, she is there.