39 “Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth?
    Do you watch the does when they are in labor?
² Can you count the months they are pregnant
    or know the time when they’ll give birth?
³         They kneel down to give birth and deliver their young.
            Then the pain of giving birth is over.
⁴             Their young are healthy and grow up in the wild.
                They leave and don’t come back.

⁵ “Who lets the wild donkey go free?
    Who unties the ropes of the wild donkey?
⁶ I gave it the desert to live in
    and the salt flats as its dwelling place.
⁷ It laughs at the noise of the city
    and doesn’t even listen to the shouting of its master.
⁸ It explores the mountains for its pasture
    and looks for anything green.

⁹ “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]

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.

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.

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.”