[1] “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the does?
[2] Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth,
[3] when they crouch, bring forth their offspring, and are delivered of their young?
[4] Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open; they go out and do not return to them.
[5] “Who has let the wild donkey go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey,
[6] to whom I have given the arid plain for his home and the salt land for his dwelling place?
[7] He scorns the tumult of the city; he hears not the shouts of the driver.
[8] He ranges the mountains as his pasture, and he searches after every green thing.
[9] “Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your manger?
[10] Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes, or will he harrow the valleys after you?
[11] Will you depend on him because his strength is great, and will you leave to him your labor?
[12] Do you have faith in him that he will return your grain and gather it to your 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 to the earth and lets them be warmed on the ground,
[15] forgetting that a foot may crush them and that the wild beast may trample them.
[16] She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers; though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear,
[17] because God has made her forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding.
[18] When she rouses herself to flee, she laughs at the horse and his rider.
[19] “Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane?
[20] Do you make him leap like the locust? His majestic snorting is terrifying.
[21] He paws in the valley and exults in his strength; he goes out to meet the weapons.
[22] He laughs at fear and is not dismayed; he does not turn back from the sword.
[23] Upon him rattle the quiver, the flashing spear, and the javelin.
[24] With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground; he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.
[25] When the trumpet sounds, he says ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle from afar, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
[26] “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south?
[27] Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high?
[28] On the rock he dwells and makes his home, on the rocky crag and stronghold.
[29] From there he spies out the prey; his eyes behold it from far away.
[30] His young ones suck up blood, and where the slain are, there is he.”