Job 39-40

Job 39

¹Have you knowledge of the rock-goats? or do you see the roes giving birth to their young?

²Is the number of their months fixed by you? or is the time when they give birth ordered by you?

³They are bent down, they give birth to their young, they let loose the fruit of their body.

⁴Their young ones are strong, living in the open country; they go out and do not come back again.

⁵Who has let the ass of the fields go free? or made loose the bands of the loud-voiced beast?

⁶To whom I have given the waste land for a heritage, and the salt land as a living-place.

⁷He makes sport of the noise of the town; the voice of the driver does not come to his ears;

⁸He goes looking for his grass-lands in the mountains, searching out every green thing.

⁹Will the ox of the mountains be your servant? or is his night's resting-place by your food-store?

¹⁰Will he be pulling your plough with cords, turning up the valleys after you?

¹¹Will you put your faith in him, because his strength is great? will you give the fruit of your work into his care?

¹²Will you be looking for him to come back, and get in your seed to the crushing-floor?

¹³Is the wing of the ostrich feeble, or is it because she has no feathers,

¹⁴That she puts her eggs on the earth, warming them in the dust,

¹⁵Without a thought that they may be crushed by the foot, and broken by the beasts of the field?

¹⁶She is cruel to her young ones, as if they were not hers; her work is to no purpose; she has no fear.

¹⁷For God has taken wisdom from her mind, and given her no measure of knowledge.

¹⁸When she is shaking her wings on high, she makes sport of the horse and of him who is seated on him.

¹⁹Do you give strength to the horse? is it by your hand that his neck is clothed with power?

²⁰Is it through you that he is shaking like a locust, in the pride of his loud-sounding breath?

²¹He is stamping with joy in the valley; he makes sport of fear.

²²In his strength he goes out against the arms of war, turning not away from the sword.

²³The bow is sounding against him; he sees the shining point of spear and arrow.

²⁴Shaking with passion, he is biting the earth; he is not able to keep quiet at the sound of the horn;

²⁵When it comes to his ears he says, Aha! He is smelling the fight from far off, and hearing the thunder of the captains, and the war-cries.

²⁶Is it through your knowledge that the hawk takes his flight, stretching out his wings to the south?

²⁷Or is it by your orders that the eagle goes up, and makes his resting-place on high?

²⁸On the rock is his house, and on the mountain-top his strong place.

²⁹From there he is watching for food; his eye sees it far off.

³⁰His young have blood for their drink, and where the dead bodies are, there is he to be seen.

Job 40

¹...

²Will he who is protesting give teaching to the Ruler of all? Let him who has arguments to put forward against God give an answer.

³And Job said in answer to the Lord,

⁴Truly, I am of no value; what answer may I give to you? I will put my hand on my mouth.

⁵I have said once, and even twice, what was in my mind, but I will not do so again.

⁶Then the Lord made answer to Job out of the storm-wind, and said,

⁷Get your strength together like a man of war: I will put questions to you, and you will give me the answers.

⁸Will you even make my right of no value? will you say that I am wrong in order to make clear that you are right?

⁹Have you an arm like God? have you a voice of thunder like his?

¹⁰Put on the ornaments of your pride; be clothed with glory and power:

¹¹Let your wrath be overflowing; let your eyes see all the sons of pride, and make them low.

¹²Send destruction on all who are lifted up, pulling down the sinners from their places.

¹³Let them be covered together in the dust; let their faces be dark in the secret place of the underworld.

¹⁴Then I will give praise to you, saying that your right hand is able to give you salvation.

¹⁵See now the Great Beast, whom I made, even as I made you; he takes grass for food, like the ox.

¹⁶His strength is in his body, and his force in the muscles of his stomach.

¹⁷His tail is curving like a cedar; the muscles of his legs are joined together.

¹⁸His bones are pipes of brass, his legs are like rods of iron.

¹⁹He is the chief of the ways of God, made by him for his pleasure.

²⁰He takes the produce of the mountains, where all the beasts of the field are at play.

²¹He takes his rest under the trees of the river, and in the pool, under the shade of the water-plants.

²²He is covered by the branches of the trees; the grasses of the stream are round him.

²³Truly, if the river is overflowing, it gives him no cause for fear; he has no sense of danger, even if Jordan is rushing against his mouth.

²⁴Will anyone take him when he is on the watch, or put metal teeth through his nose?