[1] “Job, do you know when the mountain goats are born? Do you watch when the mother deer has her baby?
[2] Do you know how many months the mountain goat and the deer must carry their babies? Do you know when it is the right time for them to be born?
[3] Those animals lie down they feel their birth pains and their babies are born.
[4] Those baby animals grow strong in the fields. Then they leave their mothers and never come back.
[5] “Job, who let the wild donkeys go free? Who untied their ropes and let them loose?
[6] I ˻(God)˼ let the wild donkey have the desert for a home. I gave the salt lands to them for a place to live.
[7] Wild donkeys laugh at the noisy towns. And no person can control them.
[8] Wild donkeys live in the mountains. That is their pasture. That is where they look for food to eat.
[9] “Job, will a wild bull agree to serve you? Will he stay in your barn at night?
[10] Will a wild bull let you put ropes on him so you can plow your fields?
[11] A wild bull is very strong! But can you trust him to do your work?
[12] Can you trust him to gather your grain and bring it to your threshing place?
[13] “An ostrich gets excited and flaps his wings. ˻But an ostrich can’t fly.˼ Its wings and feathers are not like the wings of a stork.
[14] An ostrich lays her eggs on the ground and they become warm in the sand.
[15] The ostrich forgets that someone might walk on her eggs or that some wild animal might break them.
[16] An Ostrich leaves her little babies. She treats them like they are not hers. If her babies die, she doesn’t care that all her work was for nothing.
[17] Why? Because I ˻(God)˼ didn’t give wisdom to the ostrich. The ostrich is foolish, and I made her that way.
[18] But when the ostrich gets up to run, she laughs at the horse and its rider, because she can run faster than any horse.
[19] “Job, did you give the horse its strength? Did you put the mane on his neck?
[20] Did you make the horse able to jump far like a locust? The horse snorts loudly, and it scares people.
[21] A horse is happy that he is so strong. He scratches the ground with his foot and runs quickly into battle.
[22] The horse laughs at fear. He is not afraid! He won’t run away from a battle.
[23] The soldier’s quiver shakes on the horse’s side. The spear and weapons his rider carries shine in the sun.
[24] The horse is very excited! He runs fast over the ground. When the horse hears the trumpet blow he can’t stand still.
[25] When the trumpet sounds, the horse shouts, 'hurray!’ He smells the battle from far away. He hears the commanders shouting orders and all the other sounds of the battle.
[26] “Job, did you teach the hawk how to spread his wings and fly south.
[27] Are you the one who told the eagle to fly high into the sky. Did you tell him to build his nest high in the mountains?
[28] The eagle lives on a cliff. The cliff is the eagle’s fortress.
[29] An eagle watches for his food from high in his fortress. An eagle can see food that is far away.
[30] Eagles will gather where the dead bodies are. And the babies will drink the blood.”