Job 39

⁹The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in His temple all cry, “Glory!”

¹⁸The high mountains are for the wild goats, the cliffs a refuge for the rock badgers.

²So Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to look for David and his men in the region of the Rocks of the Wild Goats.

⁵the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.

⁵Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass.

²⁴a wild donkey at home in the wilderness, sniffing the wind in the heat of her desire. Who can restrain her passion? All who seek her need not weary themselves; in mating season they will find her.

⁵Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go to work foraging for food; the wasteland is food for their children.

¹²But a witless man can no more become wise than the colt of a wild donkey can be born a man!

⁵Does a wild donkey bray over fresh grass, or an ox low over its fodder?

¹¹They give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

²¹He was driven away from mankind, and his mind was like that of a beast. He lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like an ox, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he acknowledged that the Most High God rules over the kingdom of mankind, setting over it whom He wishes.

¹⁴Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the sheepfolds.

³⁴and fruitful land into fields of salt, because of the wickedness of its dwellers.

²³All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His fierce anger.

²⁴a wild donkey at home in the wilderness, sniffing the wind in the heat of her desire. Who can restrain her passion? All who seek her need not weary themselves; in mating season they will find her.

⁵Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go to work foraging for food; the wasteland is food for their children.

⁶He will be like a shrub in the desert; he will not see when prosperity comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.

¹¹But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt.

¹⁸Now get to work. You will be given no straw, yet you must deliver the full quota of bricks.”

¹⁸The captives enjoy their ease; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.

³“Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we humbled ourselves, and You have not noticed?” “Behold, on the day of your fast, you do as you please, and you oppress all your workers.

¹³The taskmasters kept pressing them, saying, “Fulfill your quota each day, just as you did when straw was provided.”

¹⁴Then the Israelite foremen, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over the people, were beaten and asked, “Why have you not fulfilled your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as you did before?”

¹⁸Yet when she proudly spreads her wings, she laughs at the horse and its rider.

⁴For this is what the Lord has said to me: “Like a lion roaring or a young lion over its prey—and though a band of shepherds is called out against it, it is not terrified by their shouting or subdued by their clamor—so the Lord of Hosts will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and its heights.

²⁷All creatures look to You to give them their food in due season.

²⁸When You give it to them, they gather it up; when You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good things.

¹⁵The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in season.

¹⁶You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

²⁰The hills yield him their produce, while all the beasts of the field play nearby.

²¹He lies under the lotus plants, hidden among the reeds of the marsh.

¹⁵Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you. He feeds on grass like an ox.

²⁹Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit contains seed. They will be yours for food.

³⁰And to every beast of the earth and every bird of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth—everything that has the breath of life in it—I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

²²God brought them out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox.

¹⁰But You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; with fine oil I have been anointed.

¹⁷His majesty is like a firstborn bull, and his horns are like those of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even to the ends of the earth. Such are the myriads of Ephraim, and such are the thousands of Manasseh.”

²¹Save me from the mouth of the lion; at the horns of the wild oxen You have answered me!

³The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.”

³The plowmen plowed over my back; they made their furrows long.

⁵Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from the harness?

⁷He scorns the tumult of the city and never hears the shouts of a driver.

¹³Harness your chariot horses, O dweller of Lachish. You were the beginning of sin to the Daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

¹⁰I will chasten them when I please; nations will be gathered against them to put them in bondage for their double transgression.

¹¹Ephraim is a well-trained heifer that loves to thresh; but I will place a yoke on her fair neck. I will harness Ephraim, Judah will plow, and Jacob will break the hard ground.

¹⁴a messenger came and reported to Job: “While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby,

⁶This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people of no profit to them.

¹Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel; they do not seek the Lord.

²Yet He too is wise and brings disaster; He does not call back His words. He will rise up against the house of the wicked and against the allies of evildoers.

⁷Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

⁴Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but an abundant harvest comes through the strength of the ox.

²⁸God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.”

¹⁶No king is saved by his vast army; no warrior is delivered by his great strength.

¹⁷A horse is a vain hope for salvation; even its great strength cannot save.

¹⁹Is there still seed in the barn? The vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet yielded fruit. But from this day on, I will bless you.”

¹³Behold, I am about to crush you in your place as with a cart full of grain.

²and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

¹⁵In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, along with wine, grapes, and figs. All kinds of goods were being brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them against selling food on that day.

¹⁶Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.

³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat into my barn.’”

⁷Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons. The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush keep their time of migration, but My people do not know the requirements of the Lord.

⁹Then I lifted up my eyes and saw two women approaching, with the wind in their wings. Their wings were like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth.

²¹For the king had the ships of Tarshish that went with Hiram’s servants, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

¹⁷where the birds build their nests; the stork makes her home in the cypresses.

¹⁹the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat.

²⁹I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches.

³Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.

¹⁵The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city.

³¹They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.

⁵⁶The most gentle and refined woman among you, so gentle and refined she would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge the husband she embraces and her son and daughter

⁵⁷the afterbirth that comes from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within your gates.

²⁸Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him, and tomorrow we will eat my son.’

²⁹So we boiled my son and ate him, and the next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him.’ But she had hidden her son.”

¹³Is it not indeed from the Lord of Hosts that the labor of the people only feeds the fire, and the nations weary themselves in vain?

¹¹who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’

¹⁷Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.

¹⁷I was enraged by his sinful greed, so I struck him and hid My face in anger; yet he kept turning back to the desires of his heart.

³¹And so when ambassadors of the rulers of Babylon were sent to him to inquire about the wonder that had happened in the land, God left him alone to test him, that He might know all that was in Hezekiah’s heart.

³⁰But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the Lord your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as is the case this day.

¹¹The princes of Zoan are mere fools; Pharaoh’s wise counselors give senseless advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am one of the wise, a son of eastern kings”?

¹²Where are your wise men now? Let them tell you and reveal what the Lord of Hosts has planned against Egypt.

²¹This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him: ‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you.

²²You will laugh at destruction and famine, and need not fear the beasts of the earth.

²⁹A club is regarded as straw, and he laughs at the sound of the lance.

²²He laughs at fear, frightened of nothing; he does not turn back from the sword.

⁷He scorns the tumult of the city and never hears the shouts of a driver.

¹⁰He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.

¹The Lord reigns! He is robed in majesty; the Lord has clothed and armed Himself with strength. The world indeed is firmly established; it cannot be moved.

¹Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty.

²⁵At the blast of the horn, he snorts with fervor. He catches the scent of battle from afar, the shouts of captains and the cry of war.

¹Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: “I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted. The horse and rider He has thrown into the sea.

¹⁷James son of Zebedee and his brother John (whom He named Boanerges, meaning “Sons of Thunder”),

¹⁶The snorting of enemy horses is heard from Dan. At the sound of the neighing of mighty steeds, the whole land quakes. They come to devour the land and everything in it, the city and all who dwell in it.

⁵With a sound like that of chariots they bound over the mountaintops, like the crackling of fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army deployed for battle.

²⁰Smoke billows from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.

²¹His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames pour from his mouth.

⁶I have listened and heard; they do not speak what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, asking, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone has pursued his own course like a horse charging into battle.

⁴Then a champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out from the Philistine camp. He was six cubits and a span in height,

⁵and he had a bronze helmet on his head. He wore a bronze coat of mail weighing five thousand shekels,

²²Then the hooves of horses thundered—the mad galloping of his stallions.

⁵Like a bridegroom emerging from his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course,

⁴²When the Philistine looked and saw David, he despised him because he was just a boy, ruddy and handsome.

³¹A horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory is of the Lord.

³³Nothing on earth is his equal—a creature devoid of fear!

¹⁸Yet when she proudly spreads her wings, she laughs at the horse and its rider.

¹⁶She treats her young harshly, as if not her own, with no concern that her labor was in vain.

²⁶The sword that reaches him has no effect, nor does the spear or dart or arrow.

²⁷He regards iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood.

¹⁹My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the pain in my chest! My heart pounds within me; I cannot be silent. For I have heard the sound of the horn, the alarm of battle.

¹⁶If I summoned Him and He answered me, I do not believe He would listen to my voice.

²⁰Should He be told that I want to speak? Would a man ask to be swallowed up?

⁶If a ram’s horn sounds in a city, do the people not tremble? If calamity comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?

²⁴If I smiled at them, they did not believe it; the light of my countenance was precious.

⁴¹While they were still in disbelief because of their joy and amazement, He asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”

²This is what the Lord God says: Because the enemy has said of you, ‘Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession,’

²“Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, ‘Aha! The gate to the nations is broken; it has swung open to me; now that she lies in ruins I will be filled,’

³May those who say, “Aha, aha!” retreat because of their shame.

¹²The flowers have appeared in the countryside; the season of singing has come, and the cooing of turtledoves is heard in our land.

¹¹When Aaron presents the bull for his sin offering and makes atonement for himself and his household, he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering.

¹⁵the ostrich, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,

⁷Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons. The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush keep their time of migration, but My people do not know the requirements of the Lord.

¹⁶The terror you cause and the pride of your heart have deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks, O occupiers of the mountain summit. Though you elevate your nest like the eagle, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the Lord.

⁴Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the Lord.

⁴‘You have seen for yourselves what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.

³¹But those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.

¹Put the ram’s horn to your lips! An eagle looms over the house of the Lord, because the people have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law.

⁵who satisfies you with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

⁴Now there were cliffs on both sides of the pass that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost. One was named Bozez and the other Seneh.

²⁶They sweep by like boats of papyrus, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.

²⁸Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

³⁷“Where, Lord?” they asked. Jesus answered, “Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.”

¹⁷And as for you, son of man, this is what the Lord God says: Call out to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field: ‘Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great feast on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood.

¹⁸You will eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth as though they were rams, lambs, goats, and bulls—all the fattened animals of Bashan.