¹ Do thou know the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? Or can thou mark when the hinds do calve?

² Can thou number the months that they fulfill? Or do thou know the time when they bring forth?

³ They bow themselves. They bring forth their young. They cast out their pains.

⁴ Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open field. They go forth, and return not again.

⁵ Who has sent out the wild donkey free? Or who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey

⁶ whose home I have made the wilderness, and the salt land his dwelling-place?

⁷ He scorns the tumult of the city, neither does he hear the shoutings of the driver.

⁸ The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searches after every green thing.

⁹ Will the wild-ox be content to serve thee? Or will he abide by thy crib?

¹⁰ Can thou bind the wild-ox with his band in the furrow? Or will he harrow the valleys after thee?

¹¹ Will thou trust him because his strength is great? Or will thou leave to him thy labor?

¹² Will thou confide in him that he will bring home thy seed, and gather the grain of thy threshing-floor?

¹³ The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love?

¹⁴ For she leaves her eggs on the ground, and warms them in the dust.

¹⁵ And she forgets that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may trample them.

¹⁶ She deals hardly with her young ones, as if they were not hers. Though her labor be in vain, she is without fear,

¹⁷ because God has deprived her of wisdom, nor has he imparted understanding to her.

¹⁸ The time she lifts up herself on high she scorns the horse and his rider.

¹⁹ Have thou given the horse his might? Have thou clothed his neck with the quivering mane?

²⁰ Have thou made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is awesome.

²¹ He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength. He goes out to meet the armed men.

²² He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed. Neither does he turn back from the sword.

²³ The quiver rattles against him, the flashing spear and the javelin.

²⁴ He swallows the ground with fierceness and rage, nor does he believe that it is the voice of the trumpet.

²⁵ As often as the trumpet sounds he says, Aha! And he smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

²⁶ Is it by thy wisdom that the hawk soars, and stretches her wings toward the south?

²⁷ Is it at thy command that the eagle mounts up, and makes her nest on high?

²⁸ She dwells on the cliff, and makes her home upon the point of the cliff and the stronghold.

²⁹ From there she spies out the prey. Her eyes behold it afar off.

³⁰ Her young ones also suck up blood. And where the slain are, there is she.