Job 39
1HAST thou known the time of the rock-goat’s delivery, and watched the pangs of hinds in travail?
2Hast thou numbered the months they go with young, and hast thou dismissed their pangs?
3Hast thou brought up their young, devoid of fear, and wilt thou dismiss their pangs also?
4Shall they cast off their young, and be increased with a new progeny, and shall they go forth and no more return to them?
5Who hath sent forth the wild ass free, and Who hath loosed his bands?
6As I made the desert his habitation, and the saltish soil his place of encampment;
7he scorneth the crowds of a city, and regardeth not the clamours of a driver.
8The range of mountains he will consider as his pasture, and he searcheth after everything green.
9Will the unicorn condescend to serve thee, or go to rest at thy stall?
10Canst thou bind his yoke with thongs, or will he draw thy furrows in the field?
11Hast thou relied on him because his strength is great?
12Wilt thou leave thy labours to him, and trust that he will carry out thy seed, and bring home thy threshed grain?
13Why is the wing of the peacock a delight? And is the ostrich like the stork when she conceives,
14for she will commit her eggs to the ground, and hatch them in the dust,
15not remembering that the foot may crush, and wild beasts trample them.
16She hardened herself against her young, as if not hers; she laboured in vain without fear;
17because God had silenced wisdom in her. But did he not impart to her some understanding?
18At a suitable occasion she will rear herself aloft; she will laugh to scorn the horse and his rider.
19Hast thou invested the horse with strength, and clothed his neck with terror?
20When thou arrayedst him with armour didst thou inspire his dauntless breast with courage?
21Pawing in the plain he swelleth with pride, and rusheth impetuous to the field.
22Meeting a king he meeteth him with scorn, and turneth not back for fear of the sword.
23On him the bow and the sword swell with pride; and his rage will cause the ground to vanish,
24nor will he believe till the trumpet sounds:
25but at the sound of the trumpet he saith, Aha, and sniffeth the battle from afar, with a bound and neighing.
26Hath the hawk by thy wisdom poised herself aloft with wings expanded, unmoved, surveying the regions of the south?
27At thy command doth the eagle soar, and the vulture abide seated on its nest,
28on the high crag of a rock, and in secret,
29and continuing there seek its food? Its eyes take an extensive survey,
30and its young are besmeared with blood. Wherever carcasses are, there are they suddenly found.