Chapter text
World English Bible
Verse-by-verse text with stable anchors, canonical chapter URLs, and copyable verse links.
- 1 “Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns?
- 2 Can you count the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they give birth?
- 3 They bow themselves. They bear their young. They end their labor pains.
- 4 Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open field. They go out, and don’t return again.
- 5 “Who has set the wild donkey free? Or who has loosened the bonds of the swift donkey,
- 6 whose home I have made the wilderness, and the salt land his dwelling place?
- 7 He scorns the tumult of the city, neither does he hear the shouting of the driver.
- 8 The range of the mountains is his pasture. He searches after every green thing.
- 9 “Will the wild ox be content to serve you? Or will he stay by your feeding trough?
- 10 Can you hold the wild ox in the furrow with his harness? Or will he till the valleys after you?
- 11 Will you trust him, because his strength is great? Or will you leave to him your labor?
- 12 Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed, and gather the grain of your threshing floor?
- 13 “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the feathers and plumage of love?
- 14 For she leaves her eggs on the earth, warms them in the dust,
- 15 and forgets that the foot may crush them, or that the wild animal may trample them.
- 16 She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers. Though her labor is in vain, she is without fear,
- 17 because God has deprived her of wisdom, neither has he imparted to her understanding.
- 18 When she lifts up herself on high, she scorns the horse and his rider.
- 19 “Have you given the horse might? Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane?
- 20 Have you made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is awesome.
- 21 He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength. He goes out to meet the armed men.
- 22 He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed, neither does he turn back from the sword.
- 23 The quiver rattles against him, the flashing spear and the javelin.
- 24 He eats up the ground with fierceness and rage, neither does he stand still at the sound of the trumpet.
- 25 As often as the trumpet sounds he snorts, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
- 26 “Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and stretches her wings toward the south?
- 27 Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and makes his nest on high?
- 28 On the cliff he dwells and makes his home, on the point of the cliff and the stronghold.
- 29 From there he spies out the prey. His eyes see it afar off.
- 30 His young ones also suck up blood. Where the slain are, there he is.”