Bible Stories: Job (Chapter Xxxix) Poem by Dr John Celes

Do you know how the young are born
Of mountain-goats ‘midst desert-thorn?
The months it takes to deliver,
And grow, when they leave forever?

Who gives the wild asses freedom
And frees them from the town’s boredom?
The wilderness is dwelling place;
No one shouts at their lazy pace.

They head for mountain-pastures green,
Where human beings have not been;
Will wild oxen remain docile
And pass the nights in town’s exile?

Can ropes bind them in the furrow?
Will they in valleys, too harrow?
Can you trust strength of theirs that’s great?
Leave your labor’s fruits at their feet?

Will they thresh grain all by themselves?
Or stack the yield neatly in shelves?
The wings of Ostrich beat idly;
She leaves her eggs on ground freely!

If feet crush them, she does not care;
But in the sands, she leaves them bare;
Disowning young, so ruthlessly,
She leaves her brood so cruelly!

Withheld has God from her wisdom;
Yet, given swiftness and freedom;
Who gives the horse its strength to run,
And neck with splendor next to none?

Who can make the steed to quiver
While loud snorting spreads great terror?
With joy, he gallops on the plain,
And darts forward when foes are slain.

Despite the quivers and the spears,
He heads with frenzy when he hears
The trumpet-noise and battle-cry,
As many clash, to fight and die.

Who tells the hawk to soar up high
And spread its wings, to south to fly?
Do eagles build their nests aloft,
When you command them in words soft?

He spends the nights on cliffs, ledges;
It eyes its prey in far hedges;
Its young ones drink blood without fear,
Where slain remain, eagles are near!