Job, 39

1. Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you ever watched deer in labour?

1. "Do you know when the mountain goats bring forth? Do you observe the calving of the hinds?

2. Have you ever counted the months that they carry their young? Do you know when they give birth?

2. Can you number the months that they fulfil, and do you know the time when they bring forth,

3. They crouch to drop their young, they get rid of their burdens

3. when they crouch, bring forth their offspring, and are delivered of their young?

4. and the calves, having grown big and strong, go off into the desert and never come back to them.

4. Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open; they go forth, and do not return to them.

5. Who has given the wild donkey his freedom, who has undone the harness of the brayer?

5. "Who has let the wild ass go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift ass,

6. I have given him the wastelands as his home, the salt plain as his habitat.

6. to whom I have given the steppe for his home, and the salt land for his dwelling place?

7. He scorns the turmoil of the town, obeys no donkey-man's shouts.

7. He scorns the tumult of the city; he hears not the shouts of the driver.

8. The mountains are the pastures that he ranges in quest of anything green.

8. He ranges the mountains as his pasture, and he searches after every green thing.

9. Is the wild ox willing to serve you or spend a night beside your manger?

9. "Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your crib?

10. If you tie a rope round his neck will he harrow the furrows for you?

10. Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes, or will he harrow the valleys after you?

11. Can you rely on his massive strength and leave him to do your heavy work?

11. Will you depend on him because his strength is great, and will you leave to him your labor?

12. Can you depend on him to come home and pile your grain on your threshing-floor?

12. Do you have faith in him that he will return, and bring your grain to your threshing floor?

13. Can the wing of the ostrich be compared with the plumage of stork or falcon?

13. "The wings of the ostrich wave proudly; but are they the pinions and plumage of love?

14. She leaves her eggs on the ground with only earth to warm them;

14. For she leaves her eggs to the earth, and lets them be warmed on the ground,

15. forgetting that a foot may tread on them or a wild animal crush them.

15. forgetting that a foot may crush them, and that the wild beast may trample them.

16. Cruel to her chicks as if they were not hers, little she cares if her labour goes for nothing.

16. She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers; though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear;

17. God, you see, has deprived her of wisdom and given her no share of intelligence.

17. because God has made her forget wisdom, and given her no share in understanding.

18. Yet, if she bestirs herself to use her height, she can make fools of horse and rider too.

18. When she rouses herself to flee, she laughs at the horse and his rider.

19. Are you the one who makes the horse so brave and covers his neck with flowing mane?

19. "Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with strength?

20. Do you make him leap like a grasshopper? His haughty neighing inspires terror.

20. Do you make him leap like the locust? His majestic snorting is terrible.

21. Exultantly he paws the soil of the valley, and charges the battle-line in all his strength.

21. He paws in the valley, and exults in his strength; he goes out to meet the weapons.

22. He laughs at fear; he is afraid of nothing, he recoils before no sword.

22. He laughs at fear, and is not dismayed; he does not turn back from the sword.

23. On his back the quiver rattles, the flashing spear and javelin.

23. Upon him rattle the quiver, the flashing spear and the javelin.

24. Trembling with impatience, he eats up the miles; when the trumpet sounds, there is no holding him.

24. With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground; he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

25. At each trumpet blast he neighs exultantly. He scents the battle from afar, the thundering of the commanders and the war cry.

25. When the trumpet sounds, he says `Aha!' He smells the battle from afar, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

26. Is it your wisdom that sets the hawk flying when he spreads his wings to travel south?

26. "Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and spreads his wings toward the south?

27. Does the eagle soar at your command to make her eyrie in the heights?

27. Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high?

28. She spends her nights among the crags with a needle of rock as her fortress,

28. On the rock he dwells and makes his home in the fastness of the rocky crag.

29. from which she watches for prey, fixing it with her far-ranging eye.

29. Thence he spies out the prey; his eyes behold it afar off.

30. Even her young drink blood; where anyone has been killed, she is there.

30. His young ones suck up blood; and where the slain are, there is he."