The Book of Job

⭑ Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

- Chapter 39 -

“Job, do you know at what time of the year the female mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the wild deer while their calves were being born?

Do you know how many months pass from the time they become pregnant until their calves are born?

When they give birth, they crouch down, and then their labor pangs are done.

The young calves grow up in the open fields, and then they leave their mothers and do not return to them again.

Who allows the wild donkeys to go wherever they want away from the cities?

I am the one who has freed them and put them in the desert plain, in places where grass does not grow.

They do not like the noise in the cities; in the desert they do not have to listen to the shouts of those who forced them to work.

They go over the hills to find food; there they search for grass to eat.

Will a wild ox agree to work for you? Will it allow you to keep it penned up at night in the place where you put feed for your animals?

Can you fasten a rope on it so that it will plow furrows in your fields, your fields in the valley?

Since it is very strong, can you for that reason trust it to work for you? Can you go away after you tell it what work it should do and assume that it will do that work?

Can you rely on it to come back from the field bringing your grain to the place where you thresh it?

Think also about the ostriches. They joyfully flap their wings, but they have no love for their own young.

Ostriches lay their eggs on top of the ground and then walk away, leaving the eggs to be warmed in the sand.

Ostriches never think about the possibility that some wild animal may step on the eggs and crush them.

Ostriches act cruelly toward their chicks; they act as though the chicks belonged to some other ostrich. They are not concerned if their chicks die, that they may have laid their eggs for nothing.

That is because I did not allow ostriches to be wise. I did not enable them to be intelligent.

However, when they get up and begin to run, they scornfully laugh at horses with their riders because the horses cannot run as fast as the ostriches!

Also, think about horses. Job, are you the one who made the horses to be strong? Are you the one who put flowing manes on their necks?

Are you the one who enabled them to leap forward like locusts? When they snort, they cause people to be afraid.

They paw the ground, rejoicing because they are very strong, as they prepare to rush into battle.

It is as if they were laughing at the thought of being afraid. They are not afraid of anything! They do not run away when the soldiers in the battle are fighting each other with swords.

The quivers containing the riders’ arrows rattle against the horses’ sides, and the spears and javelins flash in the light of the sun.

The horses run very quickly, and they speedily cover the ground; they rush into battle as soon as the trumpet is blown.

They neigh joyfully when they hear someone blowing the trumpet. They can smell a battle even when they are far away, and they understand what it means when the commanders shout their commands to their soldiers.

Think about big birds. Are you the one who enabled hawks to spread their wings and fly to the south for the winter?

Do eagles fly high up into the cliffs to make their nests because you commanded them to do that?

They live in holes in those cliffs. They are safe in those high pointed rocks because no animals can reach them there.

As they watch carefully from there, they see animals far away that they can kill.

After an eagle kills an animal, the baby eagles drink the blood of that animal; they gather wherever there are dead people lying on the ground.”

“Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns?

Can you count the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they give birth?

They bow themselves. They bear their young. They end their labor pains.

Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open field. They go out, and don’t return again.

“Who has set the wild donkey free? Or who has loosened the bonds of the swift donkey,

whose home I have made the wilderness, and the salt land his dwelling place?

He scorns the tumult of the city, neither does he hear the shouting of the driver.

The range of the mountains is his pasture. He searches after every green thing.

“Will the wild ox be content to serve you? Or will he stay by your feeding trough?

Can you hold the wild ox in the furrow with his harness? Or will he till the valleys after you?

Will you trust him, because his strength is great? Or will you leave to him your labor?

Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed, and gather the grain of your threshing floor?

“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the feathers and plumage of love?

For she leaves her eggs on the earth, warms them in the dust,

and forgets that the foot may crush them, or that the wild animal may trample them.

She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers. Though her labor is in vain, she is without fear,

because God has deprived her of wisdom, neither has he imparted to her understanding.

When she lifts up herself on high, she scorns the horse and his rider.

“Have you given the horse might? Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane?

Have you made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is awesome.

He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength. He goes out to meet the armed men.

He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed, neither does he turn back from the sword.

The quiver rattles against him, the flashing spear and the javelin.

He eats up the ground with fierceness and rage, neither does he stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

As often as the trumpet sounds he snorts, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

“Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and stretches her wings toward the south?

Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and makes his nest on high?

On the cliff he dwells and makes his home, on the point of the cliff and the stronghold.

From there he spies out the prey. His eyes see it afar off.

His young ones also suck up blood. Where the slain are, there he is.”