1 When do mountain goats

and deer give birth?

Have you been there

when their young are born?

* 2 How long are they pregnant

3 before they deliver?

4 Soon their young grow strong

and then leave

to be on their own.

5 Who set wild donkeys free?

6 I alone help them survive

in salty desert sand.

7 They stay far from crowded cities

and refuse to be tamed.

8 Instead, they roam the hills,

searching for pastureland.

9 Would a wild ox agree

to live in your barn

and labor for you?

10 Could you force him to plow

or to drag a heavy log

to smooth out the soil?

11 Can you depend on him

to use his great strength

and do your heavy work?

12 Can you trust him

to harvest your grain

or take it to your barn

from the threshing place?

13 An ostrich proudly

flaps her wings,

but not because

she loves her young.*

14 She abandons her eggs

and lets the dusty ground

keep them warm.

15 And she doesn't seem to worry

that the feet of an animal

could crush them all.

16 She treats her eggs as though

they were not her own,

unconcerned that her work

might be for nothing.

17 I myself made her foolish

and without common sense.

18 But once she starts running,*

she laughs at a rider

on the fastest horse.

19 Did you give horses their strength

and the flowing hair

along their necks?

20 Did you make them able

to jump like grasshoppers

or to frighten people

with their snorting?

21 Before horses are ridden

into battle,

they paw at the ground,

proud of their strength.

22 Laughing at fear, they rush

toward the fighting,

23 while the weapons of their riders

rattle and flash in the sun.

24 Unable to stand still,

they gallop eagerly into battle

when trumpets blast.

25 Stirred by the distant smells

and sounds of war, they snort

in reply to the trumpet.

26 Did you teach hawks to fly south

for the winter?

* 27 Did you train eagles* to build

28 their nests on rocky cliffs,

29 where they can look down

to spot their next meal?

30 * Then their young gather to feast

wherever the victim lies.