| 39:1 |
Have you knowledge of the rock-goats? or do you see the roes giving birth to their young? |
| 39:2 |
Is the number of their months fixed by you? or is the time when they give birth ordered by you? |
| 39:3 |
They are bent down, they give birth to their young, they let loose the fruit of their body. |
| 39:4 |
Their young ones are strong, living in the open country; they go out and do not come back again. |
| 39:5 |
Who has let the ass of the fields go free? or made loose the bands of the loud-voiced beast? |
| 39:6 |
To whom I have given the waste land for a heritage, and the salt land as a living-place. |
| 39:7 |
He makes sport of the noise of the town; the voice of the driver does not come to his ears; |
| 39:8 |
He goes looking for his grass-lands in the mountains, searching out every green thing. |
| 39:9 |
Will the ox of the mountains be your servant? or is his night's resting-place by your food-store? |
| 39:10 |
Will he be pulling your plough with cords, turning up the valleys after you? |
| 39:11 |
Will you put your faith in him, because his strength is great? will you give the fruit of your work into his care? |
| 39:12 |
Will you be looking for him to come back, and get in your seed to the crushing-floor? |
| 39:13 |
Is the wing of the ostrich feeble, or is it because she has no feathers, |
| 39:14 |
That she puts her eggs on the earth, warming them in the dust, |
| 39:15 |
Without a thought that they may be crushed by the foot, and broken by the beasts of the field? |
| 39:16 |
She is cruel to her young ones, as if they were not hers; her work is to no purpose; she has no fear. |
| 39:17 |
For God has taken wisdom from her mind, and given her no measure of knowledge. |
| 39:18 |
When she is shaking her wings on high, she makes sport of the horse and of him who is seated on him. |
| 39:19 |
Do you give strength to the horse? is it by your hand that his neck is clothed with power? |
| 39:20 |
Is it through you that he is shaking like a locust, in the pride of his loud-sounding breath? |
| 39:21 |
He is stamping with joy in the valley; he makes sport of fear. |
| 39:22 |
In his strength he goes out against the arms of war, turning not away from the sword. |
| 39:23 |
The bow is sounding against him; he sees the shining point of spear and arrow. |
| 39:24 |
Shaking with passion, he is biting the earth; he is not able to keep quiet at the sound of the horn; |
| 39:25 |
When it comes to his ears he says, Aha! He is smelling the fight from far off, and hearing the thunder of the captains, and the war-cries. |
| 39:26 |
Is it through your knowledge that the hawk takes his flight, stretching out his wings to the south? |
| 39:27 |
Or is it by your orders that the eagle goes up, and makes his resting-place on high? |
| 39:28 |
On the rock is his house, and on the mountain-top his strong place. |
| 39:29 |
From there he is watching for food; his eye sees it far off. |
| 39:30 |
His young have blood for their drink, and where the dead bodies are, there is he to be seen. |
