Job

39* Do you know crag ibexes’ birth,

watch does’ calving?

2 Do you count the months they fill out,

and know their birth-date?

3 They crouch down, detach their young,

let go what they have been hampered with;

4 Their children are robust, grow big in the wilds,

go out and never come back.

5 Who set free a wild ass

and unhitched an onager’s halter,

6 Of which I have made desert the home,

alkali plains the habitation?

7* It laughs at town noises,

hears no vociferations of a driver.

8 It explores mountains as its pasture

and searches after any green thing.

9 Will a ure be willing to work for you

or come to your crib for the night?

10* Will you tie a yoke on him with cords

or will he harrow vales after you?

11 Will you put confidence in him because his strength is great,

and leave to him the results of your toil?

12* Will you rely on him to come back,

get in your seed to your threshing-floor?

13 An ostrich’s wing is for pleasure;

or is it a kindly pinion and plume,

14 When she leaves her eggs on the ground

and warms them on the earth,

15 And has forgotten that feet will smash them

and wild animals tread them to pieces?

16** She is hardhearted to her young as if they were not hers;

her labor goes for nothing without alarming her,

17* Because God has made her unmindful of wisdom

and given her no allowance of sense.

18* The minute she goes off high

she laughs at the pony and its rider.

19* Do you give the ponies mettle?

do you clothe their necks with mane?

20 Do you set them in commotion like grasshoppers?

the thrill of their snorting is a terror.

21 They paw in the vale and are joyous,

go out in strength to meet an armament,

22 Laugh at terrors and are not dismayed,

and do not turn back before swords.

23 On them ring quiver,

spearhead, and javelin.

24* Twitching and fidgeting they pit the earth

and do not believe there is a sound of a ram-horn.

25 At every ram-horn they say ‘Ha!’

and scent battle afar,

thunder of captains and cheering.

26 Is it by your sagacity a hawk takes wing,

soars off to the south,

27 Or is it by your direction that a vulture goes high

and that it sets its nest aloft,

28 Perches on a crag and spends the night

on a crag-tooth and a fastness,

29 Searches from there for food,

its eyes looking far away,

30* And feeds its chicks with blood,

and where there are corpses, there the bird is?”