Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

104 Let my whole being^[a] bless the Lord!
    Lord my God, how fantastic you are!
    You are clothed in glory and grandeur!
² You wear light like a robe;
    you open the skies like a curtain.
³ You build your lofty house on the waters;
    you make the clouds your chariot,
    going around on the wings of the wind.
⁴ You make the winds your messengers;
    you make fire and flame your ministers.
⁵ You established the earth on its foundations
    so that it will never ever fall.
⁶ You covered it with the watery deep like a piece of clothing;
    the waters were higher than the mountains!
⁷ But at your rebuke they ran away;
    they fled in fear at the sound of your thunder.
⁸ They flowed over the mountains,
    streaming down the valleys
    to the place you established for them.
⁹ You set a boundary they cannot cross
    so they’ll never again cover the earth.

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.