Job 39
39
The LORD continues
When do mountain goats give birth?
1When do mountain goats
and deer give birth?
Have you been there
when their young are born?
2-3How long are they pregnant
before they deliver?
4Soon their young grow strong
and then leave
to be on their own.
5Who set wild donkeys free?
6I alone help them survive
in salty desert sand.
7They stay far from crowded cities
and refuse to be tamed.
8Instead, they roam the hills,
searching for pasture land.
9Would a wild ox agree
to live in your barn
and labour for you?
10Could you force him to plough
or to drag a heavy log
to smooth out the soil?
11Can you depend on him
to use his great strength
and do your heavy work?
12Can you trust him
to harvest your grain
or take it to your barn
from the threshing place?
An ostrich proudly flaps her wings
13An ostrich proudly
flaps her wings,
but not because
she loves her young.
14She abandons her eggs
and lets the dusty ground
keep them warm.
15And she doesn't seem to worry
that the feet of an animal
could crush them all.
16She treats her eggs as though
they were not her own,
unconcerned that her work
might be for nothing.
17I myself made her foolish
and without common sense.
18But once she starts running,#39.18 starts running: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
she laughs at a rider
on the fastest horse.
Did you give horses their strength?
19Did you give horses their strength
and the flowing hair
along their necks?
20Did you make them able
to jump like grasshoppers
or to frighten people
with their snorting?
21Before horses are ridden
into battle,
they paw at the ground,
proud of their strength.
22Laughing at fear, they rush
towards the fighting,
23while the weapons of their riders
rattle and flash in the sun.
24Unable to stand still,
they gallop eagerly into battle
when trumpets blast.
25Stirred by the distant smells
and sounds of war, they snort
in reply to the trumpet.
26Did you teach hawks to fly south
for the winter?
27-28Did you train eagles#39.27,28 eagles: Or “vultures”. to build
their nests on rocky cliffs,
29where they can look down
to spot their next meal?
30Then their young gather to feast#Mt 24.28; Lk 17.37.
wherever the victim lies.
Currently Selected:
Job 39: CEVUK
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© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012