Job

¹“Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns? ²Can you count the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they give birth? ³They bow themselves. They bear their young. They end their labor pains. ⁴Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open field. They go out, and don’t return again. ⁵“Who has set the wild donkey free? Or who has loosened the bonds of the swift donkey, ⁶whose home I have made the wilderness, and the salt land his dwelling place? ⁷He scorns the tumult of the city, neither does he hear the shouting of the driver. ⁸The range of the mountains is his pasture. He searches after every green thing. ⁹“Will the wild ox be content to serve you? Or will he stay by your feeding trough? ¹⁰Can you hold the wild ox in the furrow with his harness? Or will he till the valleys after you? ¹¹Will you trust him, because his strength is great? Or will you leave to him your labor? ¹²Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed, and gather the grain of your threshing floor? ¹³“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the feathers and plumage of love? ¹⁴For she leaves her eggs on the earth, warms them in the dust, ¹⁵and forgets that the foot may crush them, or that the wild animal may trample them. ¹⁶She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers. Though her labor is in vain, she is without fear, ¹⁷because God has deprived her of wisdom, neither has he imparted to her understanding. ¹⁸When she lifts up herself on high, she scorns the horse and his rider. ¹⁹“Have you given the horse might? Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane? ²⁰Have you made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is awesome. ²¹He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength. He goes out to meet the armed men. ²²He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed, neither does he turn back from the sword. ²³The quiver rattles against him, the flashing spear and the javelin. ²⁴He eats up the ground with fierceness and rage, neither does he stand still at the sound of the trumpet. ²⁵As often as the trumpet sounds he snorts, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting. ²⁶“Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and stretches her wings toward the south? ²⁷Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and makes his nest on high? ²⁸On the cliff he dwells and makes his home, on the point of the cliff and the stronghold. ²⁹From there he spies out the prey. His eyes see it afar off. ³⁰His young ones also suck up blood. Where the slain are, there he is.”