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Job 39 (CEV)

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¹ When do mountain goats and deer give birth? Have you been there when their young are born? ² How long are they pregnant ³ before they deliver? ⁴ Soon their young grow strong and then leave to be on their own. ⁵ Who set wild donkeys free? ⁶ I alone help them survive in salty desert sand. ⁷ They stay far from crowded cities and refuse to be tamed. ⁸ Instead, they roam the hills, searching for pastureland. ⁹ Would a wild ox agree to live in your barn and labor for you? ¹⁰ Could you force him to plow or to drag a heavy log to smooth out the soil? ¹¹ Can you depend on him to use his great strength and do your heavy work? ¹² Can you trust him to harvest your grain or take it to your barn from the threshing place? ¹³ An ostrich proudly flaps her wings, but not because she loves her young. ¹⁴ She abandons her eggs and lets the dusty ground keep them warm. ¹⁵ And she doesn't seem to worry that the feet of an animal could crush them all. ¹⁶ She treats her eggs as though they were not her own, unconcerned that her work might be for nothing. ¹⁷ I myself made her foolish and without common sense. ¹⁸ But once she starts running, she laughs at a rider on the fastest horse. ¹⁹ Did you give horses their strength and the flowing hair along their necks? ²⁰ Did you make them able to jump like grasshoppers or to frighten people with their snorting? ²¹ Before horses are ridden into battle, they paw at the ground, proud of their strength. ²² Laughing at fear, they rush toward the fighting, ²³ while the weapons of their riders rattle and flash in the sun. ²⁴ Unable to stand still, they gallop eagerly into battle when trumpets blast. ²⁵ Stirred by the distant smells and sounds of war, they snort in reply to the trumpet. ²⁶ Did you teach hawks to fly south for the winter? ²⁷ Did you train eagles to build ²⁸ their nests on rocky cliffs, ²⁹ where they can look down to spot their next meal? ³⁰ Then their young gather to feast wherever the victim lies.