Job 39

GOD’S WORD Translation

39 “Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth?
Do you watch the does when they are in labor?
² Can you count the months they are pregnant
or know the time when they’ll give birth?
³ They kneel down to give birth and deliver their young.
Then the pain of giving birth is over.
⁴ Their young are healthy and grow up in the wild.
They leave and don’t come back.

⁵ “Who lets the wild donkey go free?
Who unties the ropes of the wild donkey?
⁶ I gave it the desert to live in
and the salt flats as its dwelling place.
⁷ It laughs at the noise of the city
and doesn’t ⌞even⌟ listen to the shouting of its master.
⁸ It explores the mountains for its pasture
and looks for anything green.

⁹ “Will the wild ox agree to serve you,
or will it stay at night beside your feeding trough?
¹⁰ Can you guide a wild ox in a furrow,
or will it plow the valleys behind you?
¹¹ Can you trust it just because it’s so strong
or leave your labor to it?
¹² Can you rely on it to bring your grain back
and take it to your threshing floor? ^[a]

¹³ “Does the ostrich flap its wings in joy,
or do its wings lack feathers? ^[b]
14 It lays its eggs on the ground
and warms them in the dust.
¹⁵ It forgets that a foot may crush them
or a wild animal may trample them.
¹⁶ It acts harshly toward its young as if they weren’t its own.
It is not afraid that its work is for nothing
¹⁷ because God has deprived it of wisdom
and did not give it any understanding.
¹⁸ It laughs at the horse and its rider when it gets up to flee.

¹⁹ “Can you give strength to a horse
or dress its neck with a flowing mane?
²⁰ Can you make it leap like a locust,
when its snorting causes terror?
²¹ It paws in strength and finds joy in its power.
It charges into battle.
²² It laughs at fear,
is afraid of nothing,
and doesn’t back away from swords.
²³ A quiver of arrows rattles on it
along with the flashing spear and javelin.
²⁴ Anxious and excited, the horse eats up the ground
and doesn’t trust the sound of the ram’s horn.
²⁵ As often as the horn sounds, the horse says, ‘Aha!’
and it smells the battle far away—
the thundering ⌞orders⌟ of the captains and the battle cries.

²⁶ “Does your understanding make a bird of prey fly
and spread its wings toward the south?
²⁷ Is it by your order that the eagle flies high
and makes its nest on the heights?
²⁸ It perches for the night on a cliff.
Its fortress is on a jagged peak.
²⁹ From there it seeks food,
and its eyes see it from far away.
³⁰ Its young ones feed on blood. It is found wherever there are dead bodies.”