Common English Bible CEB
The Message Bible MSG
1 Do you know when mountain goats give birth; do you observe the birthing of does?
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"Do you know the month when mountain goats give birth? Have you ever watched a doe bear her fawn?
2 Can you count the months of pregnancy; do you know when they give birth?
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Do you know how many months she is pregnant? Do you know the season of her delivery,
3 They crouch, split open for their young, send forth their offspring.
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when she crouches down and drops her offspring?
4 Their young are healthy; they grow up in the open country, leave and never return.
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Her young ones flourish and are soon on their own; they leave and don't come back.
5 Who freed the wild donkey, loosed the ropes of the onager
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"Who do you think set the wild donkey free, opened the corral gates and let him go?
6 to whom I gave the desert as home, his dwelling place in the salt flats?
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I gave him the whole wilderness to roam in, the rolling plains and wide-open places.
7 He laughs at the clamor of the town, doesn't hear the driver's shout,
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He laughs at his city cousins, who are harnessed and harried. He's oblivious to the cries of teamsters.
8 searches the hills for food and seeks any green sprout.
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He grazes freely through the hills, nibbling anything that's green.
9 Will the wild ox agree to be your slave, or will it spend the night in your crib?
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"Will the wild buffalo condescend to serve you, volunteer to spend the night in your barn?
10 Can you bind it with a rope to a plowed row; will it plow the valley behind you?
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Can you imagine hitching your plow to a buffalo and getting him to till your fields?
11 Will you trust it because its strength is great so that you can leave your work to it?
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He's hugely strong, yes, but could you trust him, would you dare turn the job over to him?
12 Can you rely on it to bring back your grain to gather into your threshing floor?
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You wouldn't for a minute depend on him, would you, to do what you said when you said it?
13 The ostrich's wings flap joyously, but her wings and plumage are like a stork.
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"The ostrich flaps her wings futilely - all those beautiful feathers, but useless!
14 She leaves her eggs on the earth, lets them warm in the dust,
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She lays her eggs on the hard ground, leaves them there in the dirt, exposed to the weather,
15 then forgets that a foot may crush them or a wild animal trample them.
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Not caring that they might get stepped on and cracked or trampled by some wild animal.
16 She treats her young harshly as if they were not hers, without worrying that her labor might be in vain;
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She's negligent with her young, as if they weren't even hers. She cares nothing about anything.
17 God didn't endow her with sense, didn't give her some good sense.
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She wasn't created very smart, that's for sure, wasn't given her share of good sense.
18 When she flaps her wings high, she laughs at horse and rider.
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But when she runs, oh, how she runs, laughing, leaving horse and rider in the dust.
19 Did you give strength to the horse, clothe his neck with a mane,
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"Are you the one who gave the horse his prowess and adorned him with a shimmering mane?
20 cause him to leap like a locust, his majestic snorting, a fright?
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Did you create him to prance proudly and strike terror with his royal snorts?
21 He paws in the valley, prances proudly, charges at battle weapons,
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He paws the ground fiercely, eager and spirited, then charges into the fray.
22 laughs at fear, unafraid. He doesn't turn away from the sword;
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He laughs at danger, fearless, doesn't shy away from the sword.
23 a quiver of arrows flies by him, flashing spear and dagger.
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The banging and clanging of quiver and lance don't faze him.
24 Excitedly, trembling, he swallows the ground; can't stand still at a trumpet's blast.
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He quivers with excitement, and at the trumpet blast races off at a gallop.
25 At a trumpet's sound, he says, "Aha!" smells the battle from afar, hears officers' shouting and the battle cry.
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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 Is it due to your understanding that the hawk flies, spreading its wings to the south?
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"Was it through your know how that the hawk learned to fly, soaring effortlessly on thermal updrafts?
27 Or at your command does the eagle soar, the vulture build a nest on high?
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Did you command the eagle's flight, and teach her to build her nest in the heights,
28 They dwell on an outcropping of rock, their fortress on rock's edge.
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Perfectly at home on the high cliff-face, invulnerable on pinnacle and crag?
29 From there they search for food; their eyes notice it from afar,
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From her perch she searches for prey, spies it at a great distance.
30 and their young lap up blood; where carcasses lie, there they are.
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Her young gorge themselves on carrion; wherever there's a roadkill, you'll see her circling."
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.