Chapter 39
| Collection: | The Book of Job and 42 Paintings |
| Author: | Fr. Antonio Oteiza |
| Type: | Painting |
| Location: | Cataloguing Room |
| Characteristics: | Acrylic paint on cardboard |
| Artwork: |
Click to enlarge |
| Description: |
Do you know when the mountain goats give birth, or have you watched the deer give birth? Do you count the months of their pregnancy, or do you know the time when they give birth? They crouch down and strain to bring forth their young; they deliver their offspring. Their young grow and become strong; they go out into the open country and do not return. Who gives the wild donkey its freedom and loosens the bonds of the onager? I have given it the desert for its home and the salt plain for its dwelling. It laughs at the bustle of the city and does not hear the shouts of the driver. It ranges over the mountains in search of pasture, seeking out every patch of green. Is the wild ox willing to serve you and spend the night in your stable? Can you bind it in the fertile furrows so that it ploughs the valleys behind you? Because it is strong, can you trust it and leave your work to it? Do you believe it will return to gather the grain on your threshing floor? The ostrich proudly flaps its wings; its feathers are like the plumage of the stork. When it leaves its eggs on the ground and lets them incubate in the sand, it does not consider that a foot may crush them or a wild beast trample them. It is cruel to its young, as though they were not its own; it does not care if its labour has been in vain. For God denied it wisdom and gave it no share of understanding. Yet when it rises and beats its flanks, it laughs at horse and rider. Do you give the horse its strength or clothe its neck with a mane? Do you make it leap like a locust, with its terrible and majestic snorting? It paws the ground in the valley and rejoices in its strength; it charges out to meet the weapons. It laughs at fear and is not frightened; it does not turn back before the sword. The quiver rattles against it, and spear and javelin flash. With fury and thunder it devours the distance and does not stop when the trumpet sounds. At the blast of the trumpet it answers with a neigh; it smells the battle from afar, the shouted commands and the cries of war. Do you teach the hawk to fly and spread its wings toward the south? Do you command the eagle to soar and the vulture to build its nest on high? It lives and takes refuge on a rock; a rocky crag is its stronghold. From there it watches for its prey, and its eyes behold it from afar. Its young suck up blood; wherever there is carrion, there it is.” |
