² Can you number the months that they fulfill?
Or do you know the time when they bear young?

³ They bow down,
They bring forth their young,
They deliver their offspring.^[a]

⁴ Their young ones are healthy,
They grow strong with grain;
They depart and do not return to them.

⁵ “Who set the wild donkey free?
Who loosed the bonds of the onager,

⁶ Whose home I have made the wilderness,
And the barren land his dwelling?

⁷ He scorns the tumult of the city;
He does not heed the shouts of the driver.

⁸ The range of the mountains is his pasture,
And he searches after every green thing.

⁹ “Will the wild ox be willing to serve you?
Will he bed by your manger?

¹⁰ Can you bind the wild ox in the furrow with ropes?
Or will he plow the valleys behind you?

¹¹ Will you trust him because his strength is great?
Or will you leave your labor to him?

¹² Will you trust him to bring home your grain,
And gather it to your threshing floor?

¹³ “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly,
But are her wings and pinions like the kindly stork’s?

¹⁴ For she leaves her eggs on the ground,
And warms them in the dust;

¹⁵ She forgets that a foot may crush them,
Or that a wild beast may break them.

¹⁶ She treats her young harshly, as though they were not hers;
Her labor is in vain, without concern,

¹⁷ Because God deprived her of wisdom,
And did not endow her with understanding.

¹⁸ When she lifts herself on high,
She scorns the horse and its rider.

¹⁹ “Have you given the horse strength?
Have you clothed his neck with thunder?^[b]

²⁰ Can you frighten him like a locust?
His majestic snorting strikes terror.

²¹ He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength;
He gallops into the clash of arms.

²² He mocks at fear, and is not frightened;
Nor does he turn back from the sword.

²³ The quiver rattles against him,
The glittering spear and javelin.

²⁴ He devours the distance with fierceness and rage;
Nor does he come to a halt because the trumpet has sounded.

²⁵ At the blast of the trumpet he says, ‘Aha!’
He smells the battle from afar,
The thunder of captains and shouting.

²⁶ “Does the hawk fly by your wisdom,
And spread its wings toward the south?

²⁷ Does the eagle mount up at your command,
And make its nest on high?

²⁸ On the rock it dwells and resides,
On the crag of the rock and the stronghold.

²⁹ From there it spies out the prey;
Its eyes observe from afar.

³⁰ Its young ones suck up blood;
And where the slain are, there it is.”