| 1 | “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the deer? |
| 2 | Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth, |
| 3 | when they crouch to give birth to their offspring, and are delivered of their young? |
| 4 | Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open; they go forth, and do not return to them. |
| 5 | “Who has let the wild ass go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift ass, |
| 6 | to which I have given the steppe for its home, the salt land for its dwelling place? |
| 7 | It scorns the tumult of the city; it does not hear the shouts of the driver. |
| 8 | It ranges the mountains as its pasture, and it searches after every green thing. |
| 9 | “Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will it spend the night at your crib? |
| 10 | Can you tie it in the furrow with ropes, or will it harrow the valleys after you? |
| 11 | Will you depend on it because its strength is great, and will you hand over your labor to it? |
| 12 | Do you have faith in it that it will return, and bring your grain to your threshing floor? |
| 13 | “The ostrich’s wings flap wildly, though its pinions lack plumage. |
| 14 | For it leaves its eggs to the earth, and lets them be warmed on the ground, |
| 15 | forgetting that a foot may crush them, and that a wild animal may trample them. |
| 16 | It deals cruelly with its young, as if they were not its own; though its labor should be in vain, yet it has no fear; |
| 17 | because God has made it forget wisdom, and given it no share in understanding. |
| 18 | When it spreads its plumes aloft, it laughs at the horse and its rider. |
| 19 | “Do you give the horse its might? Do you clothe its neck with mane? |
| 20 | Do you make it leap like the locust? Its majestic snorting is terrible. |
| 21 | It paws violently, exults mightily; it goes out to meet the weapons. |
| 22 | It laughs at fear, and is not dismayed; it does not turn back from the sword. |
| 23 | Upon it rattle the quiver, the flashing spear, and the javelin. |
| 24 | With fierceness and rage it swallows the ground; it cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet. |
| 25 | When the trumpet sounds, it says ‘Aha!’ From a distance it smells the battle, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting. |
| 26 | “Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and spreads its wings toward the south? |
| 27 | Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes its nest on high? |
| 28 | It lives on the rock and makes its home in the fastness of the rocky crag. |
| 29 | From there it spies the prey; its eyes see it from far away. |
| 30 | Its young ones suck up blood; and where the slain are, there it is.” |