The LORD Speaks of His Creation

1Knowest thou the tyme when the wilde gotes brige forth their yoge amoge the stony rockes? Or layest thou wayte when the hindes vse to fawne?

2Rekenest thou the monethes after they ingendre, yt thou knowest the tyme of their bearinge?

3Or when they lye downe, when they cast their yonge ones, & when they are delyuered off their trauayle & payne?

4How their yoge ones growe vp & waxe greate thorow good fedinge?

5who letteth the wilde asse go fre, or who lowseth the bodes of the Moole?

6Vnto who I haue geuen the wyldernes to be their house, & the vntilled londe to be their dwellinge place.

7That they maye geue no force for the multitude off people in the cities, nether to regarde the crienge of the dryuer:

8but to seke their pasture aboute the moutaynes, & to folowe vpon the grene grasse.

9Wyll the vnicorne be so tame as to do ye seruyce, or to abyde still by thy cribbe?

10Cast thou bynde ye yock aboute him in thy forowes, to make him plowe after the in ye valleis?

11Mayest thou trust hi (because he is stroge) or comitte thy labor vnto hi?

12Mayest thou beleue hi, yt he wil brige home yi corne, or to cary eny thinge vnto yi barne?

13The Estrich (whose fethers are fayrer the ye wynges of the sparow hauke)

14whe he hath layed his egges vpon the grounde, he bredeth them in the dust,

15and forgetteth them: so that they might be troden with fete, or broken with somme wilde beast.

16So harde is he vnto his yong ones, as though they were not his, and laboureth in vayne without eny feare.

17And that because God hath taken wisdome from him, & hath not geuen him vnderstondinge.

18When his tyme is, he flyeth vp an hye, and careth nether for horse ner man.

19Hast thou geuen the horse is strength, or lerned him to bowe downe his neck with feare:

20that he letteth him self be dryuen forth like a greshopper, where as the stoute neyenge that he maketh, is fearfull?

21he breaketh ye grounde with the hoffes of his fete chearfully in his strength, and runneth to mete the harnest men.

22He layeth asyde all feare, his stomack is not abated, nether starteth he a back for eny swerde.

23Though the quyuers rattle vpon him, though the speare and shilde glistre:

24yet russheth he in fearsly, and beateth vpon the grounde. He feareth not the noyse of the trompettes,

25but as soone as he heareth the shawmes blowe, tush (sayeth he) for he smelleth the batell afarre of, ye noyse, the captaynes and the shoutinge.

26Commeth it thorow thy wysdome, that the goshauke flyeth towarde the south?

27Doth the Aegle mounte vp & make his nest on hye at thy commaundement?

28He abydeth in the stony rockes, ad vpon the hye toppes of harde mountaynes, where no man can come.

29From thence maye he beholde his praye, and loke farre aboute with his eyes.

30His yonge ones are fed with bloude, and where eny deed body lyeth, there is he immediatly.