Job 39

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¹Do you know when the wild goats give birth? Have you watched the birth-pains of the deer?

²Do you know how many months they carry their young? Do you know the time when they give birth?

³They crouch down in labor to deliver their offspring.

⁴Their young grow strong in the open countryside; they leave and never return.

⁵Who gave the wild donkey its freedom? Who set it free from its bonds?

⁶I have given it the wilderness as its home, the salt plains as a place to live.

⁷It despises the noise of the city; it doesn't need to listen to the shouts of a driver.

⁸It hunts in the mountains for pastureland, searching for all kinds of green plants to eat.

⁹Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will it spend the night at your manger?

¹⁰Can you tie a wild ox to a plow? Can you make it till your fields for you?

¹¹Because it's so powerful can you trust it? Can you depend on it to do your heavy work for you?

¹²Are you sure it will gather your grain and bring it to your threshing floor?

¹³The ostrich proudly flaps her wings, but they are nothing like the flight feathers of the stork.

¹⁴The ostrich abandons her eggs on the ground, leaving them to be warmed in the dust.

¹⁵She doesn't think that they can be crushed underfoot, trampled by a wild animal.

¹⁶She is tough towards her young, acting as if they didn't belong to her. She doesn't care that all her work was for nothing.

¹⁷For I, God, made her forget wisdom—she didn't get her share of intelligence.

¹⁸But when she needs to, she can jump up and run, mocking a horse and its rider with her speed.

¹⁹Did you give the horse its strength? Did you place a mane upon its neck?

²⁰Did you make it able to jump like a locust? Its loud snorting is terrifying!

²¹It paws at the ground, rearing up with power as it charges into battle.

²²It laughs at fear; it is not frightened at all.

²³The quiver full of arrows rattles against it; the spear and the javelin flash in the sunlight.

²⁴Shaking with rage it gallops across the ground; it cannot remain still when the trumpet sounds.

²⁵Whenever the trumpet calls, it is ready; he senses the sound of battle from far away, he hears the commanders shouting.

²⁶Is it through your wisdom that the hawk soars, spreading its wings towards the south?

²⁷Do you command the eagle to fly high and make its nest in the summits of the mountains?

²⁸It lives among the cliffs, and roosts on a remote rocky crag.

²⁹From there it spies its prey from far away, fixing its gaze on its victim. Its chicks eagerly swallow blood.

³⁰Where the carcasses are, that's where birds of prey are found.”