Job 39-40

Common English Bible

39 Do you know when mountain goats give birth;
    do you observe the birthing of does?
² Can you count the months of pregnancy;
    do you know when they give birth?
³ They crouch, split open for their young,
    send forth their offspring.
⁴ Their young are healthy; they grow up in the open country,
    leave and never return.

⁵ Who freed the wild donkey,
        loosed the ropes of the onager
⁶     to whom I gave the desert as home,
        his dwelling place in the salt flats?
⁷ He laughs at the clamor of the town,
        doesn’t hear the driver’s shout,
⁸     searches the hills for food
        and seeks any green sprout.

⁹ Will the wild ox agree to be your slave,
    or will it spend the night in your crib?
¹⁰ Can you bind it with a rope to a plowed row;
    will it plow the valley behind you?
¹¹ Will you trust it because its strength is great
    so that you can leave your work to it?
¹² Can you rely on it to bring back your grain
    to gather into your threshing floor?

¹³ The ostrich’s wings flap joyously,
    but her wings and plumage are like a stork.
¹⁴ She leaves her eggs on the earth,
    lets them warm in the dust,
¹⁵     then forgets that a foot may crush them
        or a wild animal trample them.
¹⁶ She treats her young harshly as if they were not hers,
    without worrying that her labor might be in vain;
¹⁷ God didn’t endow her with sense,
    didn’t give her some good sense.
¹⁸ When she flaps her wings high,
    she laughs at horse and rider.

¹⁹ Did you give strength to the horse,
        clothe his neck with a mane,
²⁰     cause him to leap like a locust,
        his majestic snorting, a fright?
²¹ He^[a] paws in the valley, prances proudly,
        charges at battle weapons,
²²     laughs at fear, unafraid.
He doesn’t turn away from the sword;
²³     a quiver of arrows flies by him,
        flashing spear and dagger.
²⁴ Excitedly, trembling, he swallows the ground;
    can’t stand still at a trumpet’s blast.
²⁵ At a trumpet’s sound, he says, “Aha!”
    smells the battle from afar,
        hears^[b] officers’ shouting and the battle cry.

²⁶ Is it due to your understanding that the hawk flies,
    spreading its wings to the south?
²⁷ Or at your command does the eagle soar,
    the vulture build a nest on high?
²⁸ They dwell on an outcropping of rock,
    their fortress on rock’s edge.
²⁹ From there they search for food;
    their eyes notice it from afar,
³⁰     and their young lap up blood;
        where carcasses lie, there they are.

² Will the one who disputes with the Almighty correct him?
    God’s instructor must answer him.
³ Job responded to the Lord:
⁴ Look, I’m of little worth. What can I answer you?
    I’ll put my hand over my mouth.
⁵ I have spoken once, I won’t answer;
    twice, I won’t do it again.

⁶ The Lord answered Job from the whirlwind:
⁷ Prepare yourself like a man;
    I will interrogate you, and you will respond to me.
⁸ Would you question my justice,
    deem me guilty so you can be innocent?
⁹ Or do you have an arm like God;
    can you thunder with a voice like him?
¹⁰ Adorn yourself with splendor and majesty;
    clothe yourself with honor and esteem.
¹¹ Unleash your raging anger;
    look on all the proud and humble them.
¹² Look on all the proud and debase them;
    trample the wicked in their place.
¹³ Hide them together in the dust;
    bind their faces in a hidden place.
¹⁴ Then I, even I, will praise you,
    for your strong hand has delivered you.

¹⁵ Look at Behemoth, whom I made along with you;
    he eats grass like cattle.
¹⁶ Look, his strength is in his thighs,
    his power in stomach muscles.
¹⁷ He stiffens his tail like a cedar;
    the tendons in his thighs are tightly woven.
¹⁸ His bones are like bronze tubes,
    his limbs like iron bars.
¹⁹ He is the first of God’s acts;
    only his maker can come near him with a sword.
²⁰ Indeed, the hills bring him tribute,
    places where all the wild animals play.
²¹ He lies under the lotuses,
    under the cover of reed and marsh.
²² The lotuses screen him with shade;
    poplars of the stream surround him.
²³ If the river surges, he doesn’t hurry;
    he is confident even though the Jordan gushes into his mouth.
²⁴ Can he be seized by his eyes?
    Can anyone pierce his nose by hooks?