Who watches the wild things give birth?
1Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch the hinds in labor? 2Can you count the months they carry and know the time when they give birth, 3when they crouch and bring forth their young and let their pangs go? 4Their young grow strong out in the open; they leave, and do not come back. 5Who set the wild donkey loose? Who untied the ropes of the onager, 6whose house I made the desert, whose dwelling the salt flats? 7He laughs at the din of the town; he never hears a driver shout. 8He scouts the hills for pasture, searching after every green thing. 9Will the wild ox agree to serve you? Will he spend the night at your manger? 10Can you rope the wild ox to the furrow? Will he harrow the valleys behind you? 11Will you trust him because his strength is great and leave your labor to him? 12Will you count on him to bring your seed home and gather it to your threshing floor?
The ostrich, who forgot wisdom
13The wing of the ostrich beats for joy — but has she the pinion and plumage of the stork? 14She leaves her eggs on the ground and lets the dust warm them, 15and forgets that a foot may crush them, that a wild animal may trample them. 16She is hard on her young, as if they were not hers; her labor comes to nothing, and it does not trouble her. 17For Eloah made her forget wisdom and gave her no share of understanding. 18But when she springs up and runs, she laughs at the horse and its rider.
The horse who laughs at fear
19Do you give the horse his strength? Do you clothe his neck with a mane? 20Do you make him leap like a locust? The splendor of his snorting is terror. 21He paws in the valley and glories in his strength; he goes out to meet the weapons. 22He laughs at fear and is not dismayed; he does not turn back from the sword. 23Against him the quiver rattles, the blade of a spear and a javelin. 24Shaking and raging, he swallows the ground; he will not stand still at the sound of the horn. 25At every blast of the horn he says, “Aha!” He smells the battle from far off, the thunder of the captains and the shouting. 26Is it by your understanding that the hawk takes wing and spreads his wings toward the south? 27Is it at your word that the eagle goes up and builds his nest on high? 28He lives on a cliff and spends the night there, on a tooth of rock, a stronghold. 29From there he searches out his food; his eyes look far into the distance. 30His young gulp blood, and where the slain are, there he is.
