[1] The LORD Continues 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.
