Job 39:13-30
English Standard Version
13 “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly,
but are they the pinions and plumage of love?[a]
14 For she leaves her eggs to the earth
and lets them be warmed on the ground,
15 forgetting that a foot may crush them
and that the wild beast may trample them.
16 She (A)deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers;
though her (B)labor be in vain, yet she has no fear,
17 because God has made her forget wisdom
and (C)given her no share in understanding.
18 When she rouses herself to flee,[b]
she laughs at the horse and his rider.
19 “Do you give the horse his might?
Do you clothe his neck with a mane?
20 Do you make him leap like the locust?
His majestic (D)snorting is terrifying.
21 He paws[c] in the valley and exults in his strength;
he (E)goes out to meet the weapons.
22 He laughs at fear and is not dismayed;
he does not turn back from the sword.
23 Upon him rattle the quiver,
the flashing spear, and the javelin.
24 With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground;
he cannot stand still at (F)the sound of the trumpet.
25 When the trumpet sounds, he says ‘Aha!’
He smells the battle from afar,
the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
26 “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars
and spreads his wings toward the south?
27 Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up
and makes his (G)nest on high?
28 On the rock he dwells and makes his home,
on (H)the rocky crag and stronghold.
29 From there he spies out the prey;
his eyes behold it from far away.
30 His young ones suck up blood,
and (I)where the slain are, there is he.”
Job 39:13-30
Lexham English Bible
13 “The wings[a] of the female ostrich flap[b]—
are they[c] the pinions of the stork or[d] the falcon?
14 Indeed, it leaves its eggs to the earth,
and it lets them be warmed on the ground,
15 and it forgets that a foot might crush an egg,[e]
and a wild animal[f] might trample it.[g]
16 It deals cruelly with its young ones, as if they were not its own,
as if without fear that its labor were in vain,
17 because God made it forget wisdom,
and he did not give it a share in understanding.
18 When it spreads its wings aloft,[h]
it laughs at the horse and its rider.
19 “Do you give power to the horse?
Do you clothe its neck with a mane?
20 Do you make it leap like the locust?
The majesty of its snorting is terrifying.
21 They paw in the valley, and it exults with strength;
it goes out to meet the battle.
22 It laughs at danger and is not dismayed,
and it does not turn back from before[i] the sword.
23 Upon it the quiver rattles
along with the flash of the spear and the short sword.
24 With roar and rage it races over the ground,[j]
and it cannot stand still at the sound of the horn.
25 Whenever[k] a horn sounds, it says, ‘Aha!’
And it smells the battle from a distance—
the thunder of the commanders and the war cry.
26 “Does the hawk soar by your wisdom?
Does it spread its wings to the south?
27 Or does the eagle fly high at your command
and construct its nest high?
28 It lives on the rock and spends the night
on the rock point and the mountain stronghold.[l]
29 From there it spies out the prey;
its eyes look from far away.
30 And its young ones lick blood greedily,
and where the dead carcasses are, there they are.”
Footnotes
- Job 39:13 Hebrew “wing”
- Job 39:13 Or “flaps”
- Job 39:13 Or “if,” or “or”
- Job 39:13 Hebrew “and”
- Job 39:15 Hebrew “it”; or a collective singular (“them”) referring to “eggs” in v. 14
- Job 39:15 Literally “an animal of the field”
- Job 39:15 Or a collective singular (“them”) referring to “eggs” in v. 14
- Job 39:18 Literally “in the height”
- Job 39:22 Literally “from faces of”
- Job 39:24 Or “it paws the ground”; literally “it swallows the earth/ground”
- Job 39:25 Literally “At enough”
- Job 39:28 Literally “on the tooth of the rock and the stronghold”
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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