Job 39

Lexham English Bible

39 “Do you know the time when the goats of the rocks give birth?
Do you observe the doe deer’s giving birth?
² Can you number the months they fulfill,
and do you know the time of its giving birth?
³ When they crouch, they bring forth their young ones;
they get rid of their labor pains.^[a]
4 Their young ones grow strong; they grow up in the open;
they go forth and do not return to them.
⁵ “Who has sent forth the wild ass free?
And who has released the wild donkey’s bonds,
⁶ to which I have given the wilderness as its house
and the salt flat as its dwelling place?
⁷ It scorns the city’s turmoil;
it does not hear the driver’s shouts.
⁸ It explores the mountains as its pasture
and searches after every kind of green plant.
⁹ “Is the wild ox willing to serve you,
or will he spend the night at your feeding trough?
¹⁰ Can you tie the wild ox with its rope to a furrow,
or will it harrow the valleys after you?
¹¹ Can you trust it because its strength is great,
or will you hand your labor over to it?
¹² Can you rely on it that it will return your grain
and that it will gather it to your threshing floor?
¹³ “The wings^[b] of the female ostrich flap^[c]—
are they^[d] the pinions of the stork or^[e] the falcon?
¹⁴ Indeed, it leaves its eggs to the earth,
and it lets them be warmed on the ground,
¹⁵ and it forgets that a foot might crush an egg,^[f]
and a wild animal^[g] might trample it.^[h]
16 It deals cruelly with its young ones, as if they were not its own,
as if without fear that its labor were in vain,
¹⁷ because God made it forget wisdom,
and he did not give it a share in understanding.
¹⁸ When it spreads its wings aloft,^[i]
it laughs at the horse and its rider.
¹⁹ “Do you give power to the horse?
Do you clothe its neck with a mane?
²⁰ Do you make it leap like the locust?
The majesty of its snorting is terrifying.
²¹ They paw in the valley, and it exults with strength;
it goes out to meet the battle.
²² It laughs at danger and is not dismayed,
and it does not turn back from before^[j] the sword.
²³ Upon it the quiver rattles
along with the flash of the spear and the short sword.
²⁴ With roar and rage it races over the ground,^[k]
and it cannot stand still at the sound of the horn.
²⁵ Whenever^[l] a horn sounds, it says, ‘Aha!’
And it smells the battle from a distance—
the thunder of the commanders and the war cry.
²⁶ “Does the hawk soar by your wisdom?
Does it spread its wings to the south?
²⁷ Or does the eagle fly high at your command
and construct its nest high?
²⁸ It lives on the rock and spends the night
on the rock point and the mountain stronghold.^[m]
29 From there it spies out the prey;
its eyes look from far away.
³⁰ And its young ones lick blood greedily,
and where the dead carcasses are, there they are.”