39 “Do you know when mountain goats give birth?
Have you seen deer in labor?
² Can you tell how many months they carry their young?
Do you know when they give birth,
³ when they crouch down and bring forth their young,
when they deliver their fawns?
⁴ Their young become strong, growing up in the open;
they leave and never return.

⁵ “Who lets the wild donkey roam freely?
Who sets the wild donkey loose from its shackles?
⁶ I made the ‘Aravah its home,
the salty desert its place to live.
⁷ It scorns the noise of the city
and hears no driver’s shouts.
⁸ It ranges over the hills for its pasture,
searching for anything green.

⁹ “Would a wild ox be willing to serve you?
Would it stay by your stall?
¹⁰ Could you tie a rope around its neck
and make it plow furrows for you?
¹¹ Would you trust its great strength enough
to let it do your heavy work,
¹² or rely on it to bring home your seed
and gather the grain from your threshing-floor?
¹³ “An ostrich’s wings beat wildly,
although its pinions lack plumage.
¹⁴ It leaves its eggs on the ground
and lets them be warmed by the sand,
¹⁵ forgetting that a foot may crush them
or a wild animal trample on them.
¹⁶ It treats its chicks heartlessly,
as if they were not its own;
even if her labor is in vain,
it really doesn’t care;
¹⁷ because God has deprived it of wisdom
and given it no share in understanding.
¹⁸ When the time comes, it flaps its wings,
scorning both horse and rider.

¹⁹ “Did you give the horse its strength?
Did you clothe its neck with a mane?
²⁰ Did you make him able to leap like a locust?
Its majestic snorting is frightening!
²¹ It paws with force and exults with vigor,
then charges into the battle;
²² mocking at fear, unafraid,
it does not shy away from the sword.
²³ The [rider’s] quiver rattles over it,
[his] gleaming spear and javelin.
²⁴ Frenzied and eager, it devours the ground,
scarcely believing the shofar has sounded.
²⁵ At the sound of the shofar it whinnies;
as from afar it scents the battle,
the roar of the chiefs and the shouting.

²⁶ “Is it your wisdom that sets the hawk soaring,
spreading its wings toward the south?
²⁷ Does the eagle fly up when you say so,
to build its nest in the heights?
²⁸ It lives and spends its nights on the cliffs;
a rocky crag is its fortress.
²⁹ From there it spots its prey,
its eyes see it far off.
³⁰ Its young ones suck up blood;
wherever the slain are, there it is.”