¹“Do you know when fthe mountain goats give birth?

Do you observe gthe calving of the does?

²Can you number the months that they fulfill,

and do you know the time when they give birth,

³when they hcrouch, bring forth their offspring,

and are delivered of their young?

⁴Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open;

they go out and ido not return to them.

⁵“Who has let the wild donkey go free?

Who has jloosed the bonds of the swift donkey,

⁶to whom I have given kthe arid plain for his home

and lthe salt land for his dwelling place?

⁷He scorns the tumult of the city;

he hears not the shouts of the driver.

⁸He ranges the mountains as his pasture,

and he searches after every green thing.

⁹“Is mthe wild ox willing to serve you?

Will he spend the night at your nmanger?

¹⁰Can you bind mhim in the furrow with ropes,

or will he harrow the valleys after you?

¹¹Will you depend on him because his strength is great,

and will you leave to him your labor?

¹²Do you have faith in him that he will return your grain

and gather it to your threshing floor?

¹³“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly,

but are they the pinions and plumage of love?1

¹⁴For she leaves her eggs to the earth

and lets them be warmed on the ground,

¹⁵forgetting that a foot may crush them

and that the wild beast may trample them.

¹⁶She odeals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers;

though her plabor be in vain, yet she has no fear,

¹⁷because God has made her forget wisdom

and qgiven her no share in understanding.

¹⁸When she rouses herself to flee,2

she laughs at the horse and his rider.

¹⁹“Do you give the horse his might?

Do you clothe his neck with a mane?

²⁰Do you make him leap like the locust?

His majestic rsnorting is terrifying.

²¹He paws3 in the valley and exults in his strength;

he sgoes out to meet the weapons.

²²He laughs at fear and is not dismayed;

he does not turn back from the sword.

²³Upon him rattle the quiver,

the flashing spear, and the javelin.

²⁴With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground;

he cannot stand still at tthe sound of the trumpet.

²⁵When the trumpet sounds, he says ‘Aha!’

He smells the battle from afar,

the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

²⁶“Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars

and spreads his wings toward the south?

²⁷Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up

and makes his unest on high?

²⁸On the rock he dwells and makes his home,

on vthe rocky crag and stronghold.

²⁹From there he spies out the prey;

his eyes behold it from far away.

³⁰His young ones suck up blood,

and wwhere the slain are, there is he.”