Job 39
39
1-4“Do you know the month when mountain goats give birth?
Have you ever watched a doe bear her fawn?
Do you know how many months she is pregnant?
Do you know the season of her delivery,
when she crouches down and drops her offspring?
Her young ones flourish and are soon on their own;
they leave and don’t come back.
5-8“Who do you think set the wild donkey free,
opened the corral gates and let him go?
I gave him the whole wilderness to roam in,
the rolling plains and wide-open places.
He laughs at his city cousins, who are harnessed and harried.
He’s oblivious to the cries of teamsters.
He grazes freely through the hills,
nibbling anything that’s green.
9-12“Will the wild buffalo condescend to serve you,
volunteer to spend the night in your barn?
Can you imagine hitching your plow to a buffalo
and getting him to till your fields?
He’s hugely strong, yes, but could you trust him,
would you dare turn the job over to him?
You wouldn’t for a minute depend on him, would you,
to do what you said when you said it?
13-18“The ostrich flaps her wings futilely—
all those beautiful feathers, but useless!
She lays her eggs on the hard ground,
leaves them there in the dirt, exposed to the weather,
Not caring that they might get stepped on and cracked
or trampled by some wild animal.
She’s negligent with her young, as if they weren’t even hers.
She cares nothing about anything.
She wasn’t created very smart, that’s for sure,
wasn’t given her share of good sense.
But when she runs, oh, how she runs,
laughing, leaving horse and rider in the dust.
19-25“Are you the one who gave the horse his prowess
and adorned him with a shimmering mane?
Did you create him to prance proudly
and strike terror with his royal snorts?
He paws the ground fiercely, eager and spirited,
then charges into the fray.
He laughs at danger, fearless,
doesn’t shy away from the sword.
The banging and clanging
of quiver and lance don’t faze him.
He quivers with excitement, and at the trumpet blast
races off at a gallop.
At the sound of the trumpet he neighs mightily,
smelling the excitement of battle from a long way off,
catching the rolling thunder of the war cries.
26-30“Was it through your know-how that the hawk learned to fly,
soaring effortlessly on thermal updrafts?
Did you command the eagle’s flight,
and teach her to build her nest in the heights,
Perfectly at home on the high cliff face,
invulnerable on pinnacle and crag?
From her perch she searches for prey,
spies it at a great distance.
Her young gorge themselves on carrion;
wherever there’s a roadkill, you’ll see her circling.”
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Job 39: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Job 39
39
Mountain goat and doe
1Do you know when mountain goats give birth;
do you observe the birthing of does?
2Can you count the months of pregnancy;
do you know when they give birth?
3They crouch, split open for their young,
send forth their offspring.
4Their young are healthy; they grow up in the open country,
leave and never return.
Wild donkey
5Who freed the wild donkey,
loosed the ropes of the onager
6to whom I gave the desert as home,
his dwelling place in the salt flats?
7He laughs at the clamor of the town,
doesn’t hear the driver’s shout,
8searches the hills for food
and seeks any green sprout.
Wild ox
9Will the wild ox agree to be your slave,
or will it spend the night in your crib?
10Can you bind it with a rope to a plowed row;
will it plow the valley behind you?
11Will you trust it because its strength is great
so that you can leave your work to it?
12Can you rely on it to bring back your grain
to gather into your threshing floor?
Ostrich
13The ostrich’s wings flap joyously,
but her wings and plumage are like a stork.
14She leaves her eggs on the earth,
lets them warm in the dust,
15then forgets that a foot may crush them
or a wild animal trample them.
16She treats her young harshly as if they were not hers,
without worrying that her labor might be in vain;
17God didn’t endow her with sense,
didn’t give her some good sense.
18When she flaps her wings high,
she laughs at horse and rider.
Horse
19Did you give strength to the horse,
clothe his neck with a mane,
20cause him to leap like a locust,
his majestic snorting, a fright?
21He#39.21 Or they paws in the valley, prances proudly,
charges at battle weapons,
22laughs at fear, unafraid.
He doesn’t turn away from the sword;
23a quiver of arrows flies by him,
flashing spear and dagger.
24Excitedly, trembling, he swallows the ground;
can’t stand still at a trumpet’s blast.
25At a trumpet’s sound, he says, “Aha!”
smells the battle from afar,
hears#39.25 Heb lacks hears. officers’ shouting and the battle cry.
Hawk and eagle
26Is it due to your understanding that the hawk flies,
spreading its wings to the south?
27Or at your command does the eagle soar,
the vulture build a nest on high?
28They dwell on an outcropping of rock,
their fortress on rock’s edge.
29From there they search for food;
their eyes notice it from afar,
30and their young lap up blood;
where carcasses lie, there they are.
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2011 Common English Bible. All rights reserved.