391 "Do you know the month when mountain goats give birth? Have you ever watched a doe bear her fawn? 2 Do you know how many months she is pregnant? Do you know the season of her delivery, 3 when she crouches down and drops her offspring? 4 Her young ones flourish and are soon on their own; they leave and don't come back. 5 "Who do you think set the wild donkey free, opened the corral gates and let him go? 6 I gave him the whole wilderness to roam in, the rolling plains and wide-open places. 7 He laughs at his city cousins, who are harnessed and harried. He's oblivious to the cries of teamsters. 8 He grazes freely through the hills, nibbling anything that's green. 9 "Will the wild buffalo condescend to serve you, volunteer to spend the night in your barn? 10 Can you imagine hitching your plow to a buffalo and getting him to till your fields? 11 He's hugely strong, yes, but could you trust him, would you dare turn the job over to him? 12 You wouldn't for a minute depend on him, would you, to do what you said when you said it?

13 "The ostrich flaps her wings futilely - all those beautiful feathers, but useless! 14 She lays her eggs on the hard ground, leaves them there in the dirt, exposed to the weather, 15 Not caring that they might get stepped on and cracked or trampled by some wild animal. 16 She's negligent with her young, as if they weren't even hers. She cares nothing about anything. 17 She wasn't created very smart, that's for sure, wasn't given her share of good sense. 18 But when she runs, oh, how she runs, laughing, leaving horse and rider in the dust.

19 "Are you the one who gave the horse his prowess and adorned him with a shimmering mane? 20 Did you create him to prance proudly and strike terror with his royal snorts? 21 He paws the ground fiercely, eager and spirited, then charges into the fray. 22 He laughs at danger, fearless, doesn't shy away from the sword. 23 The banging and clanging of quiver and lance don't faze him. 24 He quivers with excitement, and at the trumpet blast races off at a gallop. 25 At the sound of the trumpet he neighs mightily, smelling the excitement of battle from a long way off, catching the rolling thunder of the war cries.

26 "Was it through your know how that the hawk learned to fly, soaring effortlessly on thermal updrafts? 27 Did you command the eagle's flight, and teach her to build her nest in the heights, 28 Perfectly at home on the high cliff-face, invulnerable on pinnacle and crag? 29 From her perch she searches for prey, spies it at a great distance. 30 Her young gorge themselves on carrion; wherever there's a roadkill, you'll see her circling."

Job Bewails His Birth

31 Then Job broke the silence. He spoke up and cursed his fate: 2  3 "Obliterate the day I was born. Blank out the night I was conceived! 4 Let it be a black hole in space. May God above forget it ever happened. Erase it from the books! 5 May the day of my birth be buried in deep darkness, shrouded by the fog, swallowed by the night. 6 And the night of my conception - the devil take it! Rip the date off the calendar, delete it from the almanac. 7 Oh, turn that night into pure nothingness - no sounds of pleasure from that night, ever! 8 May those who are good at cursing curse that day. Unleash the sea beast, Leviathan, on it. 9 May its morning stars turn to black cinders, waiting for a daylight that never comes, never once seeing the first light of dawn. 10 And why? Because it released me from my mother's womb into a life with so much trouble.

11 "Why didn't I die at birth, my first breath out of the womb my last? 12 Why were there arms to rock me, and breasts for me to drink from? 13 I could be resting in peace right now, asleep forever, feeling no pain, 14 In the company of kings and statesmen in their royal ruins, 15 Or with princes resplendent in their gold and silver tombs. 16 Why wasn't I stillborn and buried with all the babies who never saw light, 17 Where the wicked no longer trouble anyone and bone-weary people get a long-deserved rest? 18 Prisoners sleep undisturbed, never again to wake up to the bark of the guards. 19 The small and the great are equals in that place, and slaves are free from their masters.

20 "Why does God bother giving light to the miserable, why bother keeping bitter people alive, 21 Those who want in the worst way to die, and can't, who can't imagine anything better than death, 22 Who count the day of their death and burial the happiest day of their life? 23 What's the point of life when it doesn't make sense, when God blocks all the roads to meaning? 24 "Instead of bread I get groans for my supper, then leave the table and vomit my anguish. 25 The worst of my fears has come true, what I've dreaded most has happened. 26 My repose is shattered, my peace destroyed. No rest for me, ever - death has invaded life."