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v1
“Do you know the time when the goats of the rocks give birth? Do you observe the doe deer’s giving birth?
v2
Can you number the months they fulfill, and do you know the time of its giving birth?
v3
When they crouch, they bring forth their young ones; they get rid of their labor pains. ^[Or “deliver their fetuses”]
v4
Their young ones grow strong; they grow up in the open; they go forth and do not return to them.
v5
“Who has sent forth the wild ass free? And who has released the wild donkey’s bonds,
v6
to which I have given the wilderness as its house and the salt flat as its dwelling place?
v7
It scorns the city’s turmoil; it does not hear the driver’s shouts.
v8
It explores the mountains as its pasture and searches after every kind of green plant.
v9
“Is the wild ox willing to serve you, or will he spend the night at your feeding trough?
v10
Can you tie the wild ox with its rope to a furrow, or will it harrow the valleys after you?
v11
Can you trust it because its strength is great, or will you hand your labor over to it?
v12
Can you rely on it that it will return your grain and that it will gather it to your threshing floor?
v13
“The wings ^[Hebrew “wing”] of the female ostrich flap ^[Or “flaps”]— are they ^[Or “if,” or “or”] the pinions of the stork or ^[Hebrew “and”] the falcon?
v14
Indeed, it leaves its eggs to the earth, and it lets them be warmed on the ground,
v15
and it forgets that a foot might crush an egg, ^[Hebrew “it”; or a collective singular (“them”) referring to “eggs” in v. 14] and a wild animal ^[Literally “an animal of the field”] might trample it. ^[Or a collective singular (“them”) referring to “eggs” in v. 14]
v16
It deals cruelly with its young ones, as if they were not its own, as if without fear that its labor were in vain,
v17
because God made it forget wisdom, and he did not give it a share in understanding.
v18
When it spreads its wings aloft, ^[Literally “in the height”] it laughs at the horse and its rider.
v19
“Do you give power to the horse? Do you clothe its neck with a mane?
v20
Do you make it leap like the locust? The majesty of its snorting is terrifying.
v21
They paw in the valley, and it exults with strength; it goes out to meet the battle.
v22
It laughs at danger and is not dismayed, and it does not turn back from before ^[Literally “from faces of”] the sword.
v23
Upon it the quiver rattles along with the flash of the spear and the short sword.
v24
With roar and rage it races over the ground, ^[Or “it paws the ground”; literally “it swallows the earth/ground”] and it cannot stand still at the sound of the horn.
v25
Whenever ^[Literally “At enough”] a horn sounds, it says, ‘Aha!’ And it smells the battle from a distance— the thunder of the commanders and the war cry.
v26
“Does the hawk soar by your wisdom? Does it spread its wings to the south?
v27
Or does the eagle fly high at your command and construct its nest high?
v28
It lives on the rock and spends the night on the rock point and the mountain stronghold. ^[Literally “on the tooth of the rock and the stronghold”]
v29
From there it spies out the prey; its eyes look from far away.
v30
And its young ones lick blood greedily, and where the dead carcasses are, there they are.”