39
1 Say if you know the time of the bringing forth of the wild goats of the rock, and if you have marked the calving of the hinds: 2 and if you have have numbered the full months of their being with young, and if you have relieved their pangs: 3 and have reared their young without fear; and will you loosen their pangs? 4 Their young will break forth; they will be multiplied with offspring: their young will go forth, and will not return to them. 5 And who is he that sent forth the wild ass free? and who loosed his bands? 6 whereas I made his habitation the wilderness, and the salt land his coverts. 7 He laughs to scorn the multitude of the city, and hears not the chiding of the tax-gatherer. 8 He will survey the mountains as his pasture, and he seeks after every green thing. 9 And will the unicorn be willing to serve you, or to lie down at your manger? 10 And will you bind his yoke with thongs, or will he plow furrows for you in the plain? 11 And do you trust him, because his strength is great? and will you commit your works to him? 12 And will you believe that he will return to you your seed, and bring it in to your threshing floor? 13 The peacock has a beautiful wing: if the stork and the ostrich conceive, it is worthy of notice, 14 for the ostrich will leave her eggs in the ground, and warm them on the dust, 15 and has forgotten that the foot will scatter them, and the wild beasts of the field trample them. 16 She has hardened herself against her young ones, as though she bereaved not herself: she labors in vain without fear. 17 For God has withholden wisdom from her, and not given her a portion in understanding. 18 In her season she will lift herself on high; she will scorn the horse and his rider. 19 Have you invested the horse with strength, and clothed his neck with terror? 20 And have you clad him in perfect armor, and made his breast glorious with courage? 21 He paws exulting in the plain, and goes forth in strength into the plain. 22 He laughs to scorn a king as he meets him, and will by no means turn back from the sword. 23 The bow and sword resound against him; and his rage will swallow up the ground: 24 and he will not believe until the trumpet sounds. 25 And when the trumpet sounds, he says, Aha! and afar off he smells the war with prancing and neighing. 26 And does the hawk remain steady by your wisdom, having spread out her wings unmoved, looking toward the region of the south? 27 And does the eagle rise at your command, and the vulture remain sitting over his nest, 28 on a crag of a rock, and in a secret place? 29 Thence he seeks food, his eyes observe from far. 30 And his young ones roll themselves in blood, and wherever the carcasses may be, immediately they are found. 31 And the Lord God answered Job, and said, 32 Will any one pervert judgment with the Mighty One? and he that reproves God, let him return it for answer. 33 And Job answered and said to the Lord, 34 Why do I yet plead? being rebuked even while reproving the Lord: hearing such things, whereas I am nothing: and what shall I answer to these arguments? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. 35 I have spoken once; but I will not do so a second time.