Add parallel Print Page Options

The Lord Continues: The Mountain Goats

39 “Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth?
    Do you watch the does when they are in labor?
Can you count the months they are pregnant
    or know the time when they’ll give birth?
        They kneel down to give birth and deliver their young.
            Then the pain of giving birth is over.
            Their young are healthy and grow up in the wild.
                They leave and don’t come back.

The Wild Donkey

“Who lets the wild donkey go free?
    Who unties the ropes of the wild donkey?
I gave it the desert to live in
    and the salt flats as its dwelling place.
It laughs at the noise of the city
    and doesn’t even listen to the shouting of its master.
It explores the mountains for its pasture
    and looks for anything green.

The Wild Ox

“Will the wild ox agree to serve you,
    or will it stay at night beside your feeding trough?
10 Can you guide a wild ox in a furrow,
    or will it plow the valleys behind you?
11 Can you trust it just because it’s so strong
    or leave your labor to it?
12 Can you rely on it to bring your grain back
    and take it to your threshing floor?[a]

The Ostrich

13 “Does the ostrich flap its wings in joy,
    or do its wings lack feathers?[b]
14 It lays its eggs on the ground
    and warms them in the dust.
15 It forgets that a foot may crush them
    or a wild animal may trample them.
16 It acts harshly toward its young as if they weren’t its own.
    It is not afraid that its work is for nothing
17 because Eloah has deprived it of wisdom
    and did not give it any understanding.
18 It laughs at the horse and its rider when it gets up to flee.

The Horse

19 “Can you give strength to a horse
    or dress its neck with a flowing mane?
20 Can you make it leap like a locust,
    when its snorting causes terror?
21 It paws in strength and finds joy in its power.
    It charges into battle.
22 It laughs at fear,
    is afraid of nothing,
        and doesn’t back away from swords.
23 A quiver of arrows rattles on it
    along with the flashing spear and javelin.
24 Anxious and excited, the horse eats up the ground
    and doesn’t trust the sound of the ram’s horn.
25 As often as the horn sounds, the horse says, ‘Aha!’
    and it smells the battle far away—
        the thundering orders of the captains and the battle cries.

The Birds of Prey

26 “Does your understanding make a bird of prey fly
    and spread its wings toward the south?
27 Is it by your order that the eagle flies high
    and makes its nest on the heights?
28 It perches for the night on a cliff.
    Its fortress is on a jagged peak.
29 From there it seeks food,
    and its eyes see it from far away.
30 Its young ones feed on blood.
    It is found wherever there are dead bodies.”

Footnotes

  1. Job 39:12 A threshing floor is an outdoor area where grain is separated from its husks.
  2. Job 39:13 Or “Do its wings compare well with the wings and feathers of the stork?”

39 Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?

Canst thou number the months that they fulfil? or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?

They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows.

Their young ones are in good liking, they grow up with corn; they go forth, and return not unto them.

Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?

Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings.

He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver.

The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing.

Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?

10 Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?

11 Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?

12 Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?

13 Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?

14 Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust,

15 And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them.

16 She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not her's: her labour is in vain without fear;

17 Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding.

18 What time she lifteth up herself on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider.

19 Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?

20 Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible.

21 He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.

22 He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword.

23 The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield.

24 He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet.

25 He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

26 Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south?

27 Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?

28 She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place.

29 From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off.

30 Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she.