The Bible in Basic English BBE
Good News Translation GNT
1 Have you knowledge of the rock-goats? or do you see the roes giving birth to their young?
1
Do you know when mountain goats are born? Have you watched wild deer give birth?
2 Is the number of their months fixed by you? or is the time when they give birth ordered by you?
2
Do you know how long they carry their young? Do you know the time for their birth?
3 They are bent down, they give birth to their young, they let loose the fruit of their body.
3
Do you know when they will crouch down and bring their young into the world?
4 Their young ones are strong, living in the open country; they go out and do not come back again.
4
In the wilds their young grow strong; they go away and don't come back.
5 Who has let the ass of the fields go free? or made loose the bands of the loud-voiced beast?
5
Who gave the wild donkeys their freedom? Who turned them loose and let them roam?
6 To whom I have given the waste land for a heritage, and the salt land as a living-place.
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I gave them the desert to be their home, and let them live on the salt plains.
7 He makes sport of the noise of the town; the voice of the driver does not come to his ears;
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They keep far away from the noisy cities, and no one can tame them and make them work.
8 He goes looking for his grass-lands in the mountains, searching out every green thing.
8
The mountains are the pastures where they feed, where they search for anything green to eat.
9 Will the ox of the mountains be your servant? or is his night's resting-place by your food-store?
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Will a wild ox work for you? Is he willing to spend the night in your stable?
10 Will he be pulling your plough with cords, turning up the valleys after you?
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Can you hold one with a rope and make him plow? Or make him pull a harrow in your fields?
11 Will you put your faith in him, because his strength is great? will you give the fruit of your work into his care?
11
Can you rely on his great strength and expect him to do your heavy work?
12 Will you be looking for him to come back, and get in your seed to the crushing-floor?
12
Do you expect him to bring in your harvest and gather the grain from your threshing place?
13 Is the wing of the ostrich feeble, or is it because she has no feathers,
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How fast the wings of an ostrich beat! But no ostrich can fly like a stork.
14 That she puts her eggs on the earth, warming them in the dust,
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The ostrich leaves her eggs on the ground for the heat in the soil to warm them.
15 Without a thought that they may be crushed by the foot, and broken by the beasts of the field?
15
She is unaware that a foot may crush them or a wild animal break them.
16 She is cruel to her young ones, as if they were not hers; her work is to no purpose; she has no fear.
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She acts as if the eggs were not hers, and is unconcerned that her efforts were wasted.
17 For God has taken wisdom from her mind, and given her no measure of knowledge.
17
It was I who made her foolish and did not give her wisdom.
18 When she is shaking her wings on high, she makes sport of the horse and of him who is seated on him.
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But when she begins to run, she can laugh at any horse and rider.
19 Do you give strength to the horse? is it by your hand that his neck is clothed with power?
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Was it you, Job, who made horses so strong and gave them their flowing manes?
20 Is it through you that he is shaking like a locust, in the pride of his loud-sounding breath?
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Did you make them leap like locusts and frighten people with their snorting?
21 He is stamping with joy in the valley; he makes sport of fear.
21
They eagerly paw the ground in the valley; they rush into battle with all their strength.
22 In his strength he goes out against the arms of war, turning not away from the sword.
22
They do not know the meaning of fear, and no sword can turn them back.
23 The bow is sounding against him; he sees the shining point of spear and arrow.
23
The weapons which their riders carry rattle and flash in the sun.
24 Shaking with passion, he is biting the earth; he is not able to keep quiet at the sound of the horn;
24
Trembling with excitement, the horses race ahead; when the trumpet blows, they can't stand still.
25 When it comes to his ears he says, Aha! He is smelling the fight from far off, and hearing the thunder of the captains, and the war-cries.
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At each blast of the trumpet they snort; they can smell a battle before they get near, and they hear the officers shouting commands.
26 Is it through your knowledge that the hawk takes his flight, stretching out his wings to the south?
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Does a hawk learn from you how to fly when it spreads its wings toward the south?
27 Or is it by your orders that the eagle goes up, and makes his resting-place on high?
27
Does an eagle wait for your command to build its nest high in the mountains?
28 On the rock is his house, and on the mountain-top his strong place.
28
It makes its home on the highest rocks and makes the sharp peaks its fortress.
29 From there he is watching for food; his eye sees it far off.
29
From there it watches near and far for something to kill and eat.
30 His young have blood for their drink, and where the dead bodies are, there is he to be seen.
30
Around dead bodies the eagles gather, and the young eagles drink the blood.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.