- 1
- Do you go after food for the she-lion, or get meat so that the young lions may have enough,
- 2
- When they are stretched out in their holes, and are waiting in the brushwood?
- 3
- Who gives in the evening the meat he is searching for, when his young ones are crying to God;
when the young lions with loud noise go wandering after their food?
- 4
- Have you knowledge of the rock-goats?
or do you see the roes giving birth to their young?
- 5
- Is the number of their months fixed by you?
or is the time when they give birth ordered by you?
- 6
- They are bent down, they give birth to their young, they let loose the fruit of their body.
- 7
- Their young ones are strong, living in the open country;
they go out and do not come back again.
- 8
- Who has let the ass of the fields go free?
or made loose the bands of the loud-voiced beast?
- 9
- To whom I have given the waste land for a heritage, and the salt land as a living-place.
- 10
- He makes sport of the noise of the town;
the voice of the driver does not come to his ears;
- 11
- He goes looking for his grass-lands in the mountains, searching out every green thing.
- 12
- Will the ox of the mountains be your servant?
or is his night's resting-place by your food-store?
- 13
- Will he be pulling your plough with cords, turning up the valleys after you?
- 14
- Will you put your faith in him, because his strength is great?
will you give the fruit of your work into his care?
- 15
- Will you be looking for him to come back, and get in your seed to the crushing-floor?
- 16
- Is the wing of the ostrich feeble, or is it because she has no feathers,
- 17
- That she puts her eggs on the earth, warming them in the dust,
- 18
- Without a thought that they may be crushed by the foot, and broken by the beasts of the field?
- 19
- She is cruel to her young ones, as if they were not hers;
her work is to no purpose; she has no fear.
- 20
- For God has taken wisdom from her mind, and given her no measure of knowledge.
- 21
- When she is shaking her wings on high, she makes sport of the horse and of him who is seated on him.
- 22
- Do you give strength to the horse?
is it by your hand that his neck is clothed with power?
- 23
- Is it through you that he is shaking like a locust, in the pride of his loud-sounding breath?
- 24
- He is stamping with joy in the valley;
he makes sport of fear.
- 25
- In his strength he goes out against the arms of war, turning not away from the sword.
- 26
- The bow is sounding against him;
he sees the shining point of spear and arrow.
- 27
- Shaking with passion, he is biting the earth;
he is not able to keep quiet at the sound of the horn;
- 28
- 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.
- 29
- Is it through your knowledge that the hawk takes his flight, stretching out his wings to the south?
- 30
- Or is it by your orders that the eagle goes up, and makes his resting-place on high?
- 31
- On the rock is his house, and on the mountain-top his strong place.
- 32
- From there he is watching for food;
his eye sees it far off.
- 33
- His young have blood for their drink, and where the dead bodies are, there is he to be seen.
- 34
- …
- 35
- Will he who is protesting give teaching to the Ruler of all?
Let him who has arguments to put forward against God give an answer.
- 36
- And Job said in answer to the Lord,
- 37
- Truly, I am of no value;
what answer may I give to you? I will put my hand on my mouth.
- 38
- I have said once, and even twice, what was in my mind, but I will not do so again.
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