Job 39

NEW JERUSALEM	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you ever watched deer in labour?	1 Do you know about the birth of the mountain goats, watch for the birth pangs of the hinds,
2 Have you ever counted the months that they carry their young? Do you know when they give birth?	2 Number the months that they must fulfill, and fix the time of their bringing forth?
3 They crouch to drop their young, they get rid of their burdens	3 They crouch down and bear their young; they deliver their progeny in the desert.
4 and the calves, having grown big and strong, go off into the desert and never come back to them.	4 When their offspring thrive and grow, they leave and do not return.
5 Who has given the wild donkey his freedom, who has undone the harness of the brayer?	5 Who has given the wild ass his freedom, and who has loosed him from bonds?
6 I have given him the wastelands as his home, the salt plain as his habitat.	6 I have made the wilderness his home and the salt flats his dwelling.
7 He scorns the turmoil of the town, obeys no donkey-man's shouts.	7 He scoffs at the uproar of the city, and hears no shouts of a driver.
8 The mountains are the pastures that he ranges in quest of anything green.	8 He ranges the mountains for pasture, and seeks out every patch of green.
9 Is the wild ox willing to serve you or spend a night beside your manger?	9 Will the wild ox consent to serve you, and to pass the nights by your manger?
10 If you tie a rope round his neck wil he harrow the furrows for you?	10 Will a rope bind him in the furrow, and will he harrow the valleys after you?
11 Can you rely on his massive strength and leave him to do your heavy work?	11 Will you trust him for his great strength and leave to him the fruits of your toil?
12 Can you depend on him to come home and pile your grain on your threshing-floor?	12 Can you rely on him to thresh out your grain and gather in the yield of your threshing floor?
13 Can the wing of the ostrich be compared with the plumage of stork or falcon?	13 The wings of the ostrich beat idly; her plumage is lacking in pinions.
14 She leaves her eggs on the ground with only earth to warm them;	14 When she leaves her eggs on the ground and deposits them in the sand,
15 forgetting that a foot may tread on them or a wild animal crush them.	15 Unmindful that a foot may crush them, that the wild beasts may trample them,
16 Cruel to her chicks as if they were not hers, little she cares if her labour goes for nothing.	16 She cruelly disowns her young and ruthlessly makes nought of her brood;
17 God, you see, has deprived her of wisdom and given her no share of intel igence.	17 For God has withheld wisdom from her and has given her no share in understanding.
18 Yet, if she bestirs herself to use her height, she can make fools of horse and rider too.	18 Yet in her swiftness of foot she makes sport of the horse and his rider.
19 Are you the one who makes the horse so brave and covers his neck with flowing mane?	19 Do you give the horse his strength, and endow his neck with splendor?
20 Do you make him leap like a grasshopper? His haughty neighing inspires terror.	20 Do you make the steed to quiver while his thunderous snorting spreads terror?
21 Exultantly he paws the soil of the val ey, and charges the battle-line in all his strength.	21 He jubilantly paws the plain and rushes in his might against the weapons.
22 He laughs at fear; he is afraid of nothing, he recoils before no sword.	22 He laughs at fear and cannot be deterred; he turns not back from the sword.
23 On his back the quiver rattles, the flashing spear and javelin.	23 Around him rattles the quiver, flashes the spear and the javelin.
24 Trembling with impatience, he eats up the miles; when the trumpet sounds, there is no holding him.	24 Frenzied and trembling he devours the ground; he holds not back at the sound of the trumpet,
25 At each trumpet blast he neighs exultantly. He scents the battle from afar, the thundering of thecommanders and the war cry.	25 but at each blast he cries, "Aha!" Even from afar he scents the battle, the roar of the chiefs and the shouting.
26 Is it your wisdom that sets the hawk flying when he spreads his wings to travel south?	26 Is it by your discernment that the hawk soars, that he spreads his wings toward the south?
27 Does the eagle soar at your command to make her eyrie in the heights?	27 Does the eagle fly up at your command to build his nest aloft?
28 She spends her nights among the crags with a needle of rock as her fortress,	28 On the cliff he dwells and spends the night, on the spur of the cliff or the fortress.
29 from which she watches for prey, fixing it with her far-ranging eye.	29 From thence he watches for his prey; his eyes behold it afar off.
30 Even her young drink blood; where anyone has been killed, she is there.	30 His young ones greedily drink blood; where the slain are, there is he.