Job 39:1-30

“Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the deer gives birth to her fawn? Do you count the months until they give birth and know the right time for them to give birth? They lie down, their young are born, and then the pain of giving birth is over. Their young ones grow big and strong in the wild country. Then they leave their homes and do not return. “Who let the wild donkey go free? Who untied its ropes? I am the one who gave the donkey the desert as its home; I gave it the desert lands as a place to live. The wild donkey laughs at the confusion in the city, and it does not hear the drivers shout. It roams the hills looking for pasture, looking for anything green to eat. “Will the wild ox agree to serve you and stay by your feeding box at night? Can you hold it to the plowed row with a harness so it will plow the valleys for you? Will you depend on the wild ox for its great strength and leave your heavy work for it to do? Can you trust the ox to bring in your grain and gather it to your threshing floor? “The wings of the ostrich flap happily, but they are not like the feathers of the stork. The ostrich lays its eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand. It does not stop to think that a foot might step on them and crush them; it does not care that some animal might walk on them. The ostrich is cruel to its young, as if they were not even its own. It does not care that its work is for nothing, because God did not give the ostrich wisdom; God did not give it a share of good sense. But when the ostrich gets up to run, it is so fast that it laughs at the horse and its rider. “Job, are you the one who gives the horse its strength or puts a flowing mane on its neck? Do you make the horse jump like a locust? It scares people with its proud snorting. It paws wildly, enjoying its strength, and charges into battle. It laughs at fear and is afraid of nothing; it does not run away from the sword. The bag of arrows rattles against the horse’s side, along with the flashing spears and swords. With great excitement, the horse races over the ground; and it cannot stand still when it hears the trumpet. When the trumpet blows, the horse snorts, ‘Aha!’ It smells the battle from far away; it hears the shouts of commanders and the battle cry. “Is it through your wisdom that the hawk flies and spreads its wings toward the south? Are you the one that commands the eagle to fly and build its nest so high? It lives on a high cliff and stays there at night; the rocky peak is its protected place. From there it looks for its food; its eyes can see it from far away. Its young eat blood, and where there is something dead, the eagle is there.”