Job Chapter 39
The question" Why do innocent people suffer?" Is addressed in this biblical story.
A Conservative Version
39 : 1 Do thou know the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? Or can thou mark when the hinds do calve?
39 : 2 Can thou number the months that they fulfill? Or do thou know the time when they bring forth?
39 : 3 They bow themselves. They bring forth their young. They cast out their pains.
39 : 4 Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open field. They go forth, and return not again.
39 : 5 Who has sent out the wild donkey free? Or who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey
39 : 6 whose home I have made the wilderness, and the salt land his dwelling-place?
39 : 7 He scorns the tumult of the city, neither does he hear the shoutings of the driver.
39 : 8 The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searches after every green thing.
39 : 9 Will the wild-ox be content to serve thee? Or will he abide by thy crib?
39 : 10 Can thou bind the wild-ox with his band in the furrow? Or will he harrow the valleys after thee?
39 : 11 Will thou trust him because his strength is great? Or will thou leave to him thy labor?
39 : 12 Will thou confide in him that he will bring home thy seed, and gather the grain of thy threshing-floor?
39 : 13 The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love?
39 : 14 For she leaves her eggs on the ground, and warms them in the dust.
39 : 15 And she forgets that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may trample them.
39 : 16 She deals hardly with her young ones, as if they were not hers. Though her labor be in vain, she is without fear,
39 : 17 because God has deprived her of wisdom, nor has he imparted understanding to her.
39 : 18 The time she lifts up herself on high she scorns the horse and his rider.
39 : 19 Have thou given the horse his might? Have thou clothed his neck with the quivering mane?
39 : 20 Have thou made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is awesome.
39 : 21 He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength. He goes out to meet the armed men.
39 : 22 He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed. Neither does he turn back from the sword.
39 : 23 The quiver rattles against him, the flashing spear and the javelin.
39 : 24 He swallows the ground with fierceness and rage, nor does he believe that it is the voice of the trumpet.
39 : 25 As often as the trumpet sounds he says, Aha! And he smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
39 : 26 Is it by thy wisdom that the hawk soars, and stretches her wings toward the south?
39 : 27 Is it at thy command that the eagle mounts up, and makes her nest on high?
39 : 28 She dwells on the cliff, and makes her home upon the point of the cliff and the stronghold.
39 : 29 From there she spies out the prey. Her eyes behold it afar off.
39 : 30 Her young ones also suck up blood. And where the slain are, there is she.