39:1
Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you ever watched deer in labour?
39:2
Have you ever counted the months that they carry their young? Do you know when they give birth?
39:3
They crouch to drop their young, they get rid of their burdens
39:4
and the calves, having grown big and strong, go off into the desert and never come back to them.
39:5
Who has given the wild donkey his freedom, who has undone the harness of the brayer?
39:6
I have given him the wastelands as his home, the salt plain as his habitat.
39:7
He scorns the turmoil of the town, obeys no donkey-man's shouts.
39:8
The mountains are the pastures that he ranges in quest of anything green.
39:9
Is the wild ox willing to serve you or spend a night beside your manger?
39:10
If you tie a rope round his neck will he harrow the furrows for you?
39:11
Can you rely on his massive strength and leave him to do your heavy work?
39:12
Can you depend on him to come home and pile your grain on your threshing-floor?
39:13
Can the wing of the ostrich be compared with the plumage of stork or falcon?
39:14
She leaves her eggs on the ground with only earth to warm them;
39:15
forgetting that a foot may tread on them or a wild animal crush them.
39:16
Cruel to her chicks as if they were not hers, little she cares if her labour goes for nothing.
39:17
God, you see, has deprived her of wisdom and given her no share of intelligence.
39:18
Yet, if she bestirs herself to use her height, she can make fools of horse and rider too.
39:19
Are you the one who makes the horse so brave and covers his neck with flowing mane?
39:20
Do you make him leap like a grasshopper? His haughty neighing inspires terror.
39:21
Exultantly he paws the soil of the valley, and charges the battle-line in all his strength.
39:22
He laughs at fear; he is afraid of nothing, he recoils before no sword.
39:23
On his back the quiver rattles, the flashing spear and javelin.
39:24
Trembling with impatience, he eats up the miles; when the trumpet sounds, there is no holding him.
39:25
At each trumpet blast he neighs exultantly. He scents the battle from afar, the thundering of the commanders and the war cry.
39:26
Is it your wisdom that sets the hawk flying when he spreads his wings to travel south?
39:27
Does the eagle soar at your command to make her eyrie in the heights?
39:28
She spends her nights among the crags with a needle of rock as her fortress,
39:29
from which she watches for prey, fixing it with her far-ranging eye.
39:30
Even her young drink blood; where anyone has been killed, she is there.
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