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39“Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the deer? ²Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth, ³when they crouch to give birth to their offspring, and are delivered of their young? ⁴Their 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, ⁶to which I have given the steppe for its home, the salt land for its dwelling place? ⁷It scorns the tumult of the city; it does not hear the shouts of the driver. ⁸It 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? ¹⁰Can you tie it in the furrow with ropes, or will it harrow the valleys after you? ¹¹Will you depend on it because its strength is great, and will you hand over your labor to it? ¹²Do 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. ¹⁴For it leaves its eggs to the earth, and lets them be warmed on the ground, ¹⁵forgetting that a foot may crush them, and that a wild animal may trample them. ¹⁶It deals cruelly with its young, as if they were not its own; though its labor should be in vain, yet it has no fear; ¹⁷because God has made it forget wisdom, and given it no share in understanding. ¹⁸When 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? ²⁰Do you make it leap like the locust? Its majestic snorting is terrible. ²¹It paws violently, exults mightily; it goes out to meet the weapons. ²²It laughs at fear, and is not dismayed; it does not turn back from the sword. ²³Upon it rattle the quiver, the flashing spear, and the javelin. ²⁴With fierceness and rage it swallows the ground; it cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet. ²⁵When 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? ²⁷Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes its nest on high? ²⁸It lives on the rock and makes its home in the fastness of the rocky crag. ²⁹From there it spies the prey; its eyes see it from far away. ³⁰Its young ones suck up blood; and where the slain are, there it is.”