• 1 “Do you know the time when the wild mountain goats bear young? Or can you mark when the deer gives birth?
  • 2 Can you number the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they bear young?
  • 3 They bow down, They bring forth their young, They deliver their offspring.
  • 4 Their young ones are healthy, They grow strong with grain; They depart and do not return to them.
  • 5 “Who set the wild donkey free? Who loosed the bonds of the onager,
  • 6 Whose home I have made the wilderness, And the barren land his dwelling?
  • 7 He scorns the tumult of the city; He does not heed the shouts of the driver.
  • 8 The range of the mountains is his pasture, And he searches after every green thing.
  • 9 “Will the wild ox be willing to serve you? Will he bed by your manger?
  • 10 Can you bind the wild ox in the furrow with ropes? Or will he plow the valleys behind you?
  • 11 Will you trust him because his strength is great? Or will you leave your labor to him?
  • 12 Will you trust him to bring home your grain, And gather it to your threshing floor?
  • 13 “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, But are her wings and pinions like the kindly stork’s?
  • 14 For she leaves her eggs on the ground, And warms them in the dust;
  • 15 She forgets that a foot may crush them, Or that a wild beast may break them.
  • 16 She treats her young harshly, as though they were not hers; Her labor is in vain, without concern,
  • 17 Because God deprived her of wisdom, And did not endow her with understanding.
  • 18 When she lifts herself on high, She scorns the horse and its rider.
  • 19 “Have you given the horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with thunder?
  • 20 Can you frighten him like a locust? His majestic snorting strikes terror.
  • 21 He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength; He gallops into the clash of arms.
  • 22 He mocks at fear, and is not frightened; Nor does he turn back from the sword.
  • 23 The quiver rattles against him, The glittering spear and javelin.
  • 24 He devours the distance with fierceness and rage; Nor does he come to a halt because the trumpet has sounded.
  • 25 At the blast of the trumpet he says, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle from afar, The thunder of captains and shouting.
  • 26 “Does the hawk fly by your wisdom, And spread its wings toward the south?
  • 27 Does the eagle mount up at your command, And make its nest on high?
  • 28 On the rock it dwells and resides, On the crag of the rock and the stronghold.
  • 29 From there it spies out the prey; Its eyes observe from afar.
  • 30 Its young ones suck up blood; And where the slain are, there it is.”