¹ “Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the doe bear her fawn?

² Can you count the months they are pregnant? Do you know the time they give birth?

³ They crouch down and bring forth their young; they deliver their newborn.

⁴ Their young ones thrive and grow up in the open field; they leave and do not return.

⁵ Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from the harness?

⁶ I made the wilderness his home and the salt flats his dwelling.

⁷ He scorns the tumult of the city and never hears the shouts of a driver.

⁸ He roams the mountains for pasture, searching for any green thing.

⁹ Will the wild ox consent to serve you? Will he stay by your manger at night?

¹⁰ Can you hold him to the furrow with a harness? Will he plow the valleys behind you?

¹¹ Can you rely on his great strength? Will you leave your hard work to him?

¹² Can you trust him to bring in your grain and gather it to your threshing floor?

¹³ The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but cannot match the pinions¹ and feathers of the stork.

1. Pinions are the outer parts of a bird’s wings, including the flight feathers.

¹⁴ For she leaves her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand.

¹⁵ She forgets that a foot may crush them, or a wild animal may trample them.

¹⁶ She treats her young harshly, as if not her own, with no concern that her labor was in vain.

¹⁷ For God has deprived her of wisdom; He has not endowed her with understanding.

¹⁸ Yet when she proudly spreads her wings, she laughs at the horse and its rider.

¹⁹ Do you give strength to the horse or adorn his neck with a mane?

²⁰ Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting?

²¹ He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength; he charges into battle.

²² He laughs at fear, frightened of nothing; he does not turn back from the sword.

²³ A quiver rattles at his side, along with a flashing spear and lance.¹

1. Or javelin

²⁴ Trembling with excitement, he devours the distance; he cannot stand still when the ram’s horn sounds.

²⁵ At the blast of the horn, he snorts with fervor.¹ He catches the scent of battle from afar— the shouts of captains and the cry of war.

1. Or he snorts, ‘Aha!’

²⁶ Does the hawk take flight by your understanding and spread his wings toward the south?

²⁷ Does the eagle soar at your command and make his nest on high?

²⁸ He dwells on a cliff and lodges there; his stronghold is on a rocky crag.

²⁹ From there he spies out food; his eyes see it from afar.

³⁰ His young ones feast on blood; and where the slain are, there he is.”