章 |
39:1 |
'Do you know when the mountain goats bring forth? Do you observe the calving of the hinds?
|
39:2 |
Can you number the months that they fulfil, and do you know the time when they bring forth,
|
39:3 |
when they crouch, bring forth their offspring, and are delivered of their young?
|
39:4 |
Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open;they go forth, and do not return to them.
|
39:5 |
'Who has let the wild ass go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift ass,
|
39:6 |
to whom I have given the steppe for his home, and the salt land for his dwelling place?
|
39:7 |
He scorns the tumult of the city;he hears not the shouts of the driver.
|
39:8 |
He ranges the mountains as his pasture, and he searches after every green thing.
|
39:9 |
'Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your crib?
|
39:10 |
Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes, or will he harrow the valleys after you?
|
39:11 |
Will you depend on him because his strength is great, and will you leave to him your labor?
|
39:12 |
Do you have faith in him that he will return, and bring your grain to your threshing floor?
|
39:13 |
'The wings of the ostrich wave proudly;but are they the pinions and plumage of love?
|
39:14 |
For she leaves her eggs to the earth, and lets them be warmed on the ground,
|
39:15 |
forgetting that a foot may crush them, and that the wild beast may trample them.
|
39:16 |
She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers;though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear;
|
39:17 |
because God has made her forget wisdom, and given her no share in understanding.
|
39:18 |
When she rouses herself to flee, she laughs at the horse and his rider.
|
39:19 |
'Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with strength?
|
39:20 |
Do you make him leap like the locust? His majestic snorting is terrible.
|
39:21 |
He paws in the valley, and exults in his strength;he goes out to meet the weapons.
|
39:22 |
He laughs at fear, and is not dismayed;he does not turn back from the sword.
|
39:23 |
Upon him rattle the quiver, the flashing spear and the javelin.
|
39:24 |
With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground;he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.
|
39:25 |
When the trumpet sounds, he says Aha!' He smells the battle from afar, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
|
39:26 |
'Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and spreads his wings toward the south?
|
39:27 |
Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high?
|
39:28 |
On the rock he dwells and makes his home in the fastness of the rocky crag.
|
39:29 |
Thence he spies out the prey;his eyes behold it afar off.
|
39:30 |
His young ones suck up blood;and where the slain are, there is he.'
|