39 Do you know when mountain goats give birth?
Have you watched the deer in labor?
² Can you count the months they are pregnant^[a]
so you can know the time they give birth?
³ They crouch down to give birth to their young;
they deliver their newborn.^[b]
4 Their offspring are healthy and grow up in the open field.
They leave and do not return.^[c]

⁵ Who set the wild donkey free?
Who released the swift donkey from its harness?
⁶ I made the desert^(A) its home,
and the salty^(B) wasteland its dwelling.
⁷ It scoffs at the noise of the village
and never hears the shouts of a driver.^(C)
8 It roams the mountains for its pastureland,
searching for anything green.
⁹ Would the wild ox be willing to serve you?
Would it spend the night by your feeding trough?
¹⁰ Can you hold the wild ox^(D) to a furrow by its harness?
Will it plow the valleys behind you?
¹¹ Can you depend on it because its strength is great?
Would you leave it to do your hard work?
¹² Can you trust the wild ox to harvest your grain
and bring it to your threshing floor?

¹³ The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully,
but are her feathers and plumage like the stork’s?^[d](E)
14 She abandons her eggs on the ground
and lets them be warmed in the sand.
¹⁵ She forgets that a foot may crush them
or that some wild animal may trample them.
¹⁶ She treats her young harshly, as if they were not her own,
with no fear that her labor may have been in vain.
¹⁷ For God has deprived her of wisdom;
he has not endowed her with understanding.^(F)
18 When she proudly^[e] spreads her wings,
she laughs at the horse and its rider.

¹⁹ Do you give strength to the horse?
Do you adorn his neck with a mane?^[f]
20 Do you make him leap like a locust?
His proud snorting fills one with terror.
²¹ He paws^[g] in the valley and rejoices in his strength;
he charges into battle.^[h]
22 He laughs at fear, since he is afraid of nothing;
he does not run from the sword.
²³ A quiver rattles at his side,
along with a flashing spear and a javelin.
²⁴ He charges ahead^[i] with trembling rage;
he cannot stand still at the sound of the ram’s horn.
²⁵ When the ram’s horn blasts, he snorts defiantly.^[j]
He smells the battle from a distance;
he hears the officers’ shouts and the battle cry.

²⁶ Does the hawk take flight by your understanding
and spread its wings to the south?
²⁷ Does the eagle soar at your command
and make its nest^(G) on high?
²⁸ It lives on a cliff where it spends the night;
its stronghold is on a rocky crag.
²⁹ From there it searches for prey;^(H)
its eyes penetrate the distance.
³⁰ Its brood gulps down blood,
and where the slain are, it is there.^(I)