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¹“Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the deer?

²Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth,

³when they crouch to give birth to their offspring, and are delivered of their young?

⁴Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open; they go forth, and do not return to them.

⁵“Who has let the wild ass go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift ass,

⁶to which I have given the steppe for its home, the salt land for its dwelling place?

⁷It scorns the tumult of the city; it does not hear the shouts of the driver.

⁸It ranges the mountains as its pasture, and it searches after every green thing.

⁹“Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will it spend the night at your crib?

¹⁰Can you tie it in the furrow with ropes, or will it harrow the valleys after you?

¹¹Will you depend on it because its strength is great, and will you hand over your labor to it?

¹²Do you have faith in it that it will return, and bring your grain to your threshing floor?

¹³“The ostrich’s wings flap wildly, though its pinions lack plumage.

¹⁴For it leaves its eggs to the earth, and lets them be warmed on the ground,

¹⁵forgetting that a foot may crush them, and that a wild animal may trample them.

¹⁶It deals cruelly with its young, as if they were not its own; though its labor should be in vain, yet it has no fear;

¹⁷because God has made it forget wisdom, and given it no share in understanding.

¹⁸When it spreads its plumes aloft, it laughs at the horse and its rider.

¹⁹“Do you give the horse its might? Do you clothe its neck with mane?

²⁰Do you make it leap like the locust? Its majestic snorting is terrible.

²¹It paws violently, exults mightily; it goes out to meet the weapons.

²²It laughs at fear, and is not dismayed; it does not turn back from the sword.

²³Upon it rattle the quiver, the flashing spear, and the javelin.

²⁴With fierceness and rage it swallows the ground; it cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

²⁵When the trumpet sounds, it says ‘Aha!’ From a distance it smells the battle, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

²⁶“Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and spreads its wings toward the south?

²⁷Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes its nest on high?

²⁸It lives on the rock and makes its home in the fastness of the rocky crag.

²⁹From there it spies the prey; its eyes see it from far away.

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

¹And the LORD said to Job:

²“Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Anyone who argues with God must respond.”

³Then Job answered the LORD:

⁴“See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.

⁵I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but will proceed no further.”

⁶Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind:

⁷“Gird up your loins like a man; I will question you, and you declare to me.

⁸Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be justified?

⁹Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?

¹⁰“Deck yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor.

¹¹Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on all who are proud, and abase them.

¹²Look on all who are proud, and bring them low; tread down the wicked where they stand.

¹³Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below.

¹⁴Then I will also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can give you victory.

¹⁵“Look at Behemoth, which I made just as I made you; it eats grass like an ox.

¹⁶Its strength is in its loins, and its power in the muscles of its belly.

¹⁷It makes its tail stiff like a cedar; the sinews of its thighs are knit together.

¹⁸Its bones are tubes of bronze, its limbs like bars of iron.

¹⁹“It is the first of the great acts of God — only its Maker can approach it with the sword.

²⁰For the mountains yield food for it where all the wild animals play.

²¹Under the lotus plants it lies, in the covert of the reeds and in the marsh.

²²The lotus trees cover it for shade; the willows of the wadi surround it.

²³Even if the river is turbulent, it is not frightened; it is confident though Jordan rushes against its mouth.

²⁴Can one take it with hooks or pierce its nose with a snare?

¹“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, or press down its tongue with a cord?

²Can you put a rope in its nose, or pierce its jaw with a hook?

³Will it make many supplications to you? Will it speak soft words to you?

⁴Will it make a covenant with you to be taken as your servant forever?

⁵Will you play with it as with a bird, or will you put it on leash for your girls?

⁶Will traders bargain over it? Will they divide it up among the merchants?

⁷Can you fill its skin with harpoons, or its head with fishing spears?

⁸Lay hands on it; think of the battle; you will not do it again!

⁹Any hope of capturing it will be disappointed; were not even the gods overwhelmed at the sight of it?

¹⁰No one is so fierce as to dare to stir it up. Who can stand before it?

¹¹Who can confront it and be safe? — under the whole heaven, who?

¹²“I will not keep silence concerning its limbs, or its mighty strength, or its splendid frame.

¹³Who can strip off its outer garment? Who can penetrate its double coat of mail?

¹⁴Who can open the doors of its face? There is terror all around its teeth.

¹⁵Its back is made of shields in rows, shut up closely as with a seal.

¹⁶One is so near to another that no air can come between them.

¹⁷They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated.

¹⁸Its sneezes flash forth light, and its eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.

¹⁹From its mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap out.

²⁰Out of its nostrils comes smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.

²¹Its breath kindles coals, and a flame comes out of its mouth.

²²In its neck abides strength, and terror dances before it.

²³The folds of its flesh cling together; it is firmly cast and immovable.

²⁴Its heart is as hard as stone, as hard as the lower millstone.

²⁵When it raises itself up the gods are afraid; at the crashing they are beside themselves.

²⁶Though the sword reaches it, it does not avail, nor does the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

²⁷It counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.

²⁸The arrow cannot make it flee; slingstones, for it, are turned to chaff.

²⁹Clubs are counted as chaff; it laughs at the rattle of javelins.

³⁰Its underparts are like sharp potsherds; it spreads itself like a threshing sledge on the mire.

³¹It makes the deep boil like a pot; it makes the sea like a pot of ointment.

³²It leaves a shining wake behind it; one would think the deep to be white-haired.

³³On earth it has no equal, a creature without fear.

³⁴It surveys everything that is lofty; it is king over all that are proud.”

¹Then Job answered the LORD:

²“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

³‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

⁴‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.’

⁵I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;

⁶therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

⁷After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.

⁸Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has done.”

⁹So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the LORD had told them; and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer.

¹⁰And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.

¹¹Then there came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house; they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him; and each of them gave him a piece of money and a gold ring.

¹²The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys.

¹³He also had seven sons and three daughters.

¹⁴He named the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch.

¹⁵In all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers.

¹⁶After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children, and his children’s children, four generations.

¹⁷And Job died, old and full of days.