NRSV Job 39 Chapter
39:1
"Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the deer?
39:2
Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth,
39:3
when they crouch to give birth to their offspring, and are delivered of their young?
39:4
Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open; they go forth, and do not return to them.
39:5
"Who has let the wild ass go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift ass,
39:6
to which I have given the steppe for its home, the salt land for its dwelling place?
39:7
It scorns the tumult of the city; it does not hear the shouts of the driver.
39:8
It ranges the mountains as its pasture, and it searches after every green thing.
39:9
"Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will it spend the night at your crib?
39:10
Can you tie it in the furrow with ropes, or will it harrow the valleys after you?
39:11
Will you depend on it because its strength is great, and will you hand over your labor to it?
39:12
Do you have faith in it that it will return, and bring your grain to your threshing floor?
39:13
"The ostrich's wings flap wildly, though its pinions lack plumage.
39:14
For it leaves its eggs to the earth, and lets them be warmed on the ground,
39:15
forgetting that a foot may crush them, and that a wild animal may trample them.
39:16
It deals cruelly with its young, as if they were not its own; though its labor should be in vain, yet it has no fear;
39:17
because God has made it forget wisdom, and given it no share in understanding.
39:18
When it spreads its plumes aloft, it laughs at the horse and its rider.
39:19
"Do you give the horse its might? Do you clothe its neck with mane?
39:20
Do you make it leap like the locust? Its majestic snorting is terrible.
39:21
It paws violently, exults mightily; it goes out to meet the weapons.
39:22
It laughs at fear, and is not dismayed; it does not turn back from the sword.
39:23
Upon it rattle the quiver, the flashing spear, and the javelin.
39:24
With fierceness and rage it swallows the ground; it cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.
39:25
When the trumpet sounds, it says 'Aha!' From a distance it smells the battle, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
39:26
"Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and spreads its wings toward the south?
39:27
Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes its nest on high?
39:28
It lives on the rock and makes its home in the fastness of the rocky crag.
39:29
From there it spies the prey; its eyes see it from far away.
39:30
Its young ones suck up blood; and where the slain are, there it is."