1 »Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the deer?
2 »Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth,
3 when they crouch to give birth to their offspring, and are delivered of their young?
4 »Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open; they go forth, 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 »Whose home I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwelling?
7 »He scorns the tumult of the city. He does not heed the shouts of the driver.
8 »The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searches after every green thing.
9 »Will the wild ox be willing to serve you? Will he bed by your manger?
10 »Can you bind the wild bull in the furrow with ropes? Or will he plow the valleys behind you?
11 »Will you rely on him for his great strength? Will you leave your heavy work to him?
12 »Can you trust him to bring in your grain and gather it to your threshing floor?
13 »The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but they cannot compare with the pinions and feathers of the stork.
14 »She lays her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand.
15 »She is unaware that a foot may crush them, that some wild animal may trample them.
16 »She treats her young cruelly, as if they were not hers. Even if her labor is in vain, she is unconcerned.
17 »This is because God has made her forget wisdom. He has not given her a share of understanding.
18 »When she lifts herself on high, 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 terrible.
21 »It paws in strength and finds joy in its power. It charges into battle.
22 »It laughs at fear, is afraid of nothing, and does not back away from swords.
23 »A quiver of arrows rattles on it along with the flashing spear and javelin.
24 »Anxious and excited, the horse eats up the ground and does not trust the sound of the ram's horn.
25 »As often as the horn sounds, the horse says: Aha! And it smells the battle far away; the thundering orders of the captains and the battle cries.
26 »Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and spreads its wings toward the south?
27 »Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes its nest on high?
28 »It lives on the rock and makes its home in the fastness of the rocky crag.
29 »It spies the pray from there. Its eyes see it from far away.
30 »Its young ones suck up blood; and where the slain are, there it is.