66 Books

¹ Or can you mark when the deer gives birth? ² Or do you know the time when they bear young? ³ They deliver their offspring. ⁴ They depart and do not return to them. ⁵ Who loosed the bonds of the onager, ⁶ And the barren land his dwelling? ⁷ He does not heed the shouts of the driver. ⁸ And he searches after every green thing. ⁹ Will he bed by your manger? ¹⁰ Or will he plow the valleys behind you? ¹¹ Or will you leave your labor to him? ¹² And gather it to your threshing floor? ¹³ But are her wings and pinions like the kindly stork’s? ¹⁴ And warms them in the dust; ¹⁵ Or that a wild beast may break them. ¹⁶ Her labor is in vain, without concern, ¹⁷ And did not endow her with understanding. ¹⁸ She scorns the horse and its rider. ¹⁹ Have you clothed his neck with thunder? ²⁰ His majestic snorting strikes terror. ²¹ He gallops into the clash of arms. ²² Nor does he turn back from the sword. ²³ The glittering spear and javelin. ²⁴ Nor does he come to a halt because the trumpet has sounded. ²⁵ The thunder of captains and shouting. ²⁶ And spread its wings toward the south? ²⁷ And make its nest on high? ²⁸ On the crag of the rock and the stronghold. ²⁹ Its eyes observe from afar. ³⁰ And where the slain are, there it is.”