1‘Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?

Do you observe the calving of the deer?

2Can you number the months that they fulfil,

and do you know the time when they give birth,

3when they crouch to give birth to their offspring,

and are delivered of their young?

4Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open;

they go forth, and do not return to them.

5‘Who has let the wild ass go free?

Who has loosed the bonds of the swift ass,

6to which I have given the steppe for its home,

the salt land for its dwelling-place?

7It scorns the tumult of the city;

it does not hear the shouts of the driver.

8It ranges the mountains as its pasture,

and it searches after every green thing.

9‘Is the wild ox willing to serve you?

Will it spend the night at your crib?

10Can you tie it in the furrow with ropes,

or will it harrow the valleys after you?

11Will you depend on it because its strength is great,

and will you hand over your labour to it?

12Do you have faith in it that it will return,

and bring your grain to your threshing-floor?39.12 Heb your grain and your threshing-floor

13‘The ostrich's wings flap wildly,

though its pinions lack plumage.39.13 Meaning of Heb uncertain

14For it leaves its eggs to the earth,

and lets them be warmed on the ground,

15forgetting that a foot may crush them,

and that a wild animal may trample them.

16It deals cruelly with its young, as if they were not its own;

though its labour should be in vain, yet it has no fear;

17because God has made it forget wisdom,

and given it no share in understanding.

18When it spreads its plumes aloft,39.18 Meaning of Heb uncertain

it laughs at the horse and its rider.

19‘Do you give the horse its might?

Do you clothe its neck with mane?

20Do you make it leap like the locust?

Its majestic snorting is terrible.

21It paws39.21 Gk Syr Vg: Heb they dig violently, exults mightily;

it goes out to meet the weapons.

22It laughs at fear, and is not dismayed;

it does not turn back from the sword.

23Upon it rattle the quiver,

the flashing spear, and the javelin.

24With fierceness and rage it swallows the ground;

it cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

25When the trumpet sounds, it says “Aha!”

From a distance it smells the battle,

the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

26‘Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars,

and spreads its wings towards the south?

27Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up

and makes its nest on high?

28It lives on the rock and makes its home

in the fastness of the rocky crag.

29From there it spies the prey;

its eyes see it from far away.

30Its young ones suck up blood;

and where the slain are, there it is.’