| Chapter 39 |
1 |
Have you knowledge of the rock-goats? or do you see the roes giving birth to their young?
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2 |
Is the number of their months fixed by you? or is the time when they give birth ordered by you?
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3 |
They are bent down, they give birth to their young, they let loose the fruit of their body.
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4 |
Their young ones are strong, living in the open country; they go out and do not come back again.
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5 |
Who has let the ass of the fields go free? or made loose the bands of the loud-voiced beast?
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6 |
To whom I have given the waste land for a heritage, and the salt land as a living-place.
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7 |
He makes sport of the noise of the town; the voice of the driver does not come to his ears;
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8 |
He goes looking for his grass-lands in the mountains, searching out every green thing.
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9 |
Will the ox of the mountains be your servant? or is his night's resting-place by your food-store?
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10 |
Will he be pulling your plough with cords, turning up the valleys after you?
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11 |
Will you put your faith in him, because his strength is great? will you give the fruit of your work into his care?
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12 |
Will you be looking for him to come back, and get in your seed to the crushing-floor?
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13 |
Is the wing of the ostrich feeble, or is it because she has no feathers,
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14 |
That she puts her eggs on the earth, warming them in the dust,
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15 |
Without a thought that they may be crushed by the foot, and broken by the beasts of the field?
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16 |
She is cruel to her young ones, as if they were not hers; her work is to no purpose; she has no fear.
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17 |
For God has taken wisdom from her mind, and given her no measure of knowledge.
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18 |
When she is shaking her wings on high, she makes sport of the horse and of him who is seated on him.
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19 |
Do you give strength to the horse? is it by your hand that his neck is clothed with power?
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20 |
Is it through you that he is shaking like a locust, in the pride of his loud-sounding breath?
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21 |
He is stamping with joy in the valley; he makes sport of fear.
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22 |
In his strength he goes out against the arms of war, turning not away from the sword.
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23 |
The bow is sounding against him; he sees the shining point of spear and arrow.
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24 |
Shaking with passion, he is biting the earth; he is not able to keep quiet at the sound of the horn;
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25 |
When it comes to his ears he says, Aha! He is smelling the fight from far off, and hearing the thunder of the captains, and the war-cries.
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26 |
Is it through your knowledge that the hawk takes his flight, stretching out his wings to the south?
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27 |
Or is it by your orders that the eagle goes up, and makes his resting-place on high?
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28 |
On the rock is his house, and on the mountain-top his strong place.
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29 |
From there he is watching for food; his eye sees it far off.
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30 |
His young have blood for their drink, and where the dead bodies are, there is he to be seen.
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