CHAPTER 39
1Do you know the mountain goats’ birth time,
do you mark the calving of the gazelles?
2Do you number the months till they come to term
and know their birthing time?
3They crouch, burst forth with their babes,
their young they push out to the world.
4Their offspring batten, grow big in the wild,
they go out and do not return.
5Who set the wild ass free,
and the onager’s reins who loosed,
6whose home I made in the steppes,
his dwelling place flats of salt?
7He scoffs at the bustling city,
the driver’s shouts he does not hear.
8He roams mountains for his forage,
and every green thing he seeks.
9Will the wild ox want to serve you,
pass the night at your feeding trough?
10Bind the wild ox with cord for the furrow,
will he harrow the valleys behind you?
11Can you rely on him with his great power
and leave your labor to him?
12Can you trust him to bring back your seed,
gather grain on your threshing floor?
13The ostrich’s wing joyously beats.
Is the pinion, the plume, like the stork’s?
14For she leaves her eggs on the ground,
and in the dust she lets them warm.
15And she forgets that a foot can crush them,
and a beast of the field stomp on them—
16harsh, abandons her young to a stranger,
in vain her labor, without fear.
17For God made her forgetful of wisdom,
and He did not allot her insight.
18Now on the height she races,
she scoffs at the horse and its rider.
19Do you give might to the horse,
do you clothe his neck with a mane?
20Do you make his roar like locusts—
his splendid snort is terror.
21He churns up the valley exulting,
in power goes out to the clash of arms.
22He scoffs at fear and is undaunted,
turns not back before the sword.
23Over him rattles the quiver,
the blade, the javelin, and the spear.
24With clamor and clatter he swallows the ground,
and ignores the trumpet’s sound.
25At the trumpet he says, “Aha,”
and from afar he scents the fray,
the thunder of captains, the shouts.
26Does the hawk soar by your wisdom,
spread his wings to fly away south?
27By your word does the eagle mount
and set his nest on high?
28On the crag he dwells and beds down,
on the crest of the crag his stronghold.
29From there he seeks out food,
from afar his eyes look down.
30His chicks lap up blood,
where the slain are, there he is.