Job 39 — The Holy Bible

“Do you know the time when the wild rock goats bear young,

And do you mark when the deer gives birth?

Do you number the full months of childbearing,

And have you relieved their pangs?

Have you reared their young without fear,

And have you sent away their pangs?

Their young ones will break forth;

They will be multiplied with offspring;

They depart and do not return.

Who set the wild donkey free?

Who loosed his bonds?

I made the wilderness his dwelling

And the salt lands his house.

He scorns the great multitude of the city;

He does not heed the blame of the tax collector.

He will survey the mountains as his pasture,

And he seeks out every green thing.

Will the wild ox be willing to serve you?

Will he bed by your manger?

Can you bind his yoke with ropes,

Or will he plow furrows for you in the field?

Do you trust him because his strength is great?

Or will you commit your works to him?

Will you trust him to bring home your seed

And gather it to your threshing floor?

The wings of the falcon wave proudly,

But are her wings and pinions like the kindly stork's?

For the falcon leaves her eggs on the ground

And warms them in the dust.

She has forgotten that a foot will scatter them,

Or that wild animals will trample them.

She hardens herself against her young ones

As though they were not hers.

She labors in vain without concern,

Because God deprived her of wisdom

And did not endow her with understanding.

When she lifts herself on high,

She scorns the horse and its rider.

Have you given the horse strength?

Have you clothed his neck with a mane?

Have you put on him a suit of armor

And made his breast glorious with courage?

He paws exultingly in the valley

And goes forth with strength into the plain.

He mocks at battle when he sees it,

Nor does he turn back from the sword.

The bow and the sword resound against him,

And his rage would destroy the earth.

He will not believe until the trumpet sounds,

For at the blast of the trumpet he says, ‘Good! Well done!’

He smells the battle from afar with its leaping and shouting.

Does the hawk remain steady by your understanding,

And spread its rigid wings looking toward the south?

Does the eagle mount up at your command,

And the vulture remain sitting over its nest

On the crag of a hidden rock?

From there it spies out the prey;

Its eyes observe from afar.

Its young ones roll themselves in blood;

And where the slain are, immediately they are found.”