Book of Job - Ferrar Fenton Bible Translation page 856

39-· 2

]OB. no rx :2 16 18 21 24* 22 26 28

39-29

And count the full period they breed, And observe at the time they bring forth! They contract, and their children leap out They cast all their sorrows away! Their children are hardy and strong, And run off to reside by themselves. Who sent out the wild asses free P From the zebra who loosened the chain P Whose house I have fixedin the waste And in the salt-marshes its home P It laughs at thecrowd of the town, Regards not the call of the groom; It feeds on the chance of the hills And hunts after anything green! Do you wish for the Reem as your slave? Would he lodge at the side of your crib? lf you harness the Reem to your plough Will he harrow the plain after you? Will you trust him because he is strong And abandon your earnings to him P Or trust him that he will come back And pile up your grain in your barn ? Would you trust the loud wing of the ostrich? On her pinions desiring to fly ? Who abandons her eggs on the earth, And hatches them out on the dust; And forgets, that the footstep may crush Or the beast of the pasture may break ? Who is hard to her young, as not hers, And cares not if she labour in vain ? For GOD has withheld from her sense, And gave her no mind to reflect; Yet when she has risen to run She laughs at the rider and horse! Did you give his strength to the horse ? Clothe his neck with the quivering mane? And make him like a grasshopper leap And snort in his terrible pride? He paws on the plain, and is glad ; With his vigour he charges in fight, Eats the ground in his iierceness and rage, ` Um·estrained at the sound of the horn; At the blast of the trumpet he neighs And snorts for the battle from far,; For the thundering captains and cheers! He laughs und-ismayed at its woes, Nor shrinks from the face of the sword, Tho' on him the arrows may pour And the hash of the spear and the dart! By your intellect do swallows fly,

And spread out their wings for the South ? Does the eagle mount up at your word And build up his nest on the peak, And settle his home on the crag And his foot on the ledge of a cliff, From where he can spy out his prey, Whence his eyes can perceive it from far; N0’r¤.—Cl1. gg, v. 24. Verses 22 and 23 evidently been displaced by some old tran-

should come after verses 24 and 25, as they scriber. This has been noted by forms! are the climax of the description, and have critics.-—F. F. $l::F¤