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 fulfil, 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 labour 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 labour 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 towards 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.’
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