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Without having any chief
    or officer or ruler,

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39 “Can you hunt the prey for the lion
    or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,(A)
40 when they crouch in their dens
    or lie in wait in their covert?(B)
41 Who provides for the raven its prey,
    when its young ones cry to God
    and wander about for lack of food?(C)

39 “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
    Do you observe the calving of the deer?(D)
Can you number the months that they fulfill,
    and do you know the time when they give birth,
when they crouch to give birth to their offspring
    and are delivered of their young?(E)
Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open;
    they go forth and do not return to them.

“Who has let the wild ass go free?
    Who has loosed the bonds of the swift ass,(F)
to which I have given the steppe for its home,
    the salt land for its dwelling place?(G)
It scorns the tumult of the city;
    it does not hear the shouts of the driver.
It ranges the mountains as its pasture,
    and it searches after every green thing.

“Is the wild ox willing to serve you?
    Will it spend the night at your crib?(H)
10 Can you tie it in the furrow with ropes,
    or will it harrow the valleys after you?
11 Will you depend on it because its strength is great,
    and will you hand over your labor to it?
12 Do you have faith in it that it will return
    and bring your grain to your threshing floor?[a]

Footnotes

  1. 39.12 Heb your grain and your threshing floor

27 the locusts have no king,
    yet all of them march in rank;

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Will it make a covenant with you
    to be taken as your servant forever?
Will you play with it as with a bird
    or put it on a leash for your young women?
Will traders bargain over it?
    Will they divide it up among the merchants?
Can you fill its skin with harpoons
    or its head with fishing spears?
Lay hands on it;
    think of the battle; you will not do it again!
[a]Any hope of capturing it[b] will be disappointed;
    one is overwhelmed even at the sight of it.
10 No one is so fierce as to dare to stir it up.
    Who can stand before it?[c](A)
11 Who can confront it[d] and be safe?[e]
    —under the whole heaven, who?[f](B)

12 “I will not keep silent concerning its limbs
    or its mighty strength or its splendid frame.
13 Who can strip off its outer garment?
    Who can penetrate its double coat of mail?[g]
14 Who can open the doors of its face?
    There is terror all around its teeth.
15 Its back[h] is made of shields in rows,
    shut up closely as with a seal.
16 One is so near to another
    that no air can come between them.
17 They are joined one to another;
    they clasp each other and cannot be separated.
18 Its sneezes flash forth light,
    and its eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.(C)
19 From its mouth go flaming torches;
    sparks of fire leap out.
20 Out of its nostrils comes smoke,
    as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
21 Its breath kindles coals,
    and a flame comes out of its mouth.
22 In its neck abides strength,
    and terror dances before it.
23 The folds of its flesh cling together;
    it is firmly cast and immovable.
24 Its heart is as hard as stone,
    as hard as the lower millstone.
25 When it raises itself up the gods are afraid;
    at the crashing they are beside themselves.
26 Though the sword reaches it, it does not avail,
    nor does the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
27 It counts iron as straw
    and bronze as rotten wood.
28 The arrow cannot make it flee;
    slingstones, for it, are turned to chaff.
29 Clubs are counted as chaff;
    it laughs at the rattle of javelins.
30 Its underparts are like sharp potsherds;
    it spreads itself like a threshing sledge on the mire.
31 It makes the deep boil like a pot;
    it makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 It leaves a shining wake behind it;
    one would think the deep to be white-haired.
33 On earth it has no equal,
    a creature without fear.(D)
34 It surveys everything that is lofty;
    it is king over all that are proud.”

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Footnotes

  1. 41.9 41.1 in Heb
  2. 41.9 Heb of it
  3. 41.10 Heb me
  4. 41.11 Heb me
  5. 41.11 Gk: Heb that I shall repay
  6. 41.11 Heb to me
  7. 41.13 Gk: Heb bridle
  8. 41.15 Cn Compare Gk Vg: Heb pride

26 “Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars
    and spreads its wings toward the south?
27 Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up
    and makes its nest on high?(A)
28 It lives on the rock and makes its home
    in the fastness of the rocky crag.
29 From there it spies the prey;
    its eyes see it from far away.(B)
30 Its young ones suck up blood,
    and where the slain are, there it is.”(C)

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