1Do you know how mountain goats breed?
Have you observed the hinds in labor,
2numbered the months they must fulfill,
and fixed the time they must give birth?
3Have you watched them end their labor
as they crouch and drop their young,
4how they wait for them to grow,
until they leave never to return?
5Who has given the wild ass his freedom,
and loosed the bonds of the wild donkey?
6I have given him the desert for a home,
the salt plains for a shelter.
7For he scorns the city’s tumult,
and is free of the driver’s shout and insult;
8he prefers the hills for his pasture,
ranging for food in the rich verdure.
9Is the wild ox willing to serve you,
to pass the night by your manger?
10Can you make him work with a plow or harrow
if you provide him with the proper gear?
11Can you rely on his great strength
and leave him to do your heavy work?
12Can you depend on him to come home alone,
carrying your grain to your threshing floor?
13Can the wing of the ostrich be compared
with the plumage of the stork or falcon?
14She lays her eggs on the ground
and lets them warm in the sand,
15not knowing that a foot may step on them
or some wild beast may crush them.
16Cruel to her chicks as if they were not hers,
she cares not that her labor be in vain,
17for God has given her no wisdom
nor a share of good sense.
18Yet in the swiftness of foot,
she makes sport of horse and rider.
19Is it you who give the horse strength
and clothe his neck with splendor,
20who make him leap like a grasshopper
and his proud snorting strike terror?
21Rejoicing in his strength, he fiercely paws
and charges into the fray,
22afraid of nothing, laughing at fear,
not shying away from the sword.
23Against his side rattles the quiver,
along with the lance and flashing spear.
24In frenzied excitement he eats up the ground;
there is no holding him when the trumpets sound.
25He cries “Hurrah!” at each trumpet blast.
He catches the scent of battle from afar,
the shout of commanders and the battle cry.
26Is it by your wisdom that the hawk takes flight
and spreads his wings toward the south?
27Is it at your command that eagles fly
and build their nests on high?
28They dwell on cliffs and spend the night;
their stronghold is the rocky crag.
29From there they look out for food,
which they detect even from afar.
30They and their young feast on blood,
and where the slain lie, there they are.
