Job 38

¹ Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

² Who is this who darkens counsel
with words that are without knowledge?

³ Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.

⁴ Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.

⁵ Who determined its measurements — surely you know!
Or who stretched the measuring line across it?

⁶ On what were its bases sunk?
Or who laid its cornerstone,

⁷ when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁸ Who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb,

⁹ when I made clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,

¹⁰ and prescribed limits for it
and set bars and doors,

¹¹ and said, 'This far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stayed'?

¹² Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
and caused the dawn to know its place,

¹³ that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
and the wicked be shaken out of it?

¹⁴ It is changed like clay under the seal,
and its features stand out like a garment.

¹⁵ From the wicked their light is withheld,
and the uplifted arm is broken.

¹⁶ Have you entered into the springs of the sea,
or walked in the recesses of the deep?

¹⁷ Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

¹⁸ Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
Declare, if you know all this.

¹⁹ Where is the way to the dwelling of light,
and where is the place of darkness,

²⁰ that you may take it to its territory
and that you may discern the paths to its home?

²¹ You know, for you were born then,
and the number of your days is great!

²² Have you entered the storehouses of the snow,
or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,

²³ which I have reserved for the time of trouble,
for the day of battle and war?

²⁴ What is the way to the place where the light is distributed,
or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?

²⁵ Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain
and a way for the thunderbolt,

²⁶ to bring rain on a land where no man lives,
on the desert in which there is no man,

²⁷ to satisfy the waste and desolate land,
and to make the ground sprout with grass?

²⁸ Has the rain a father?
Or who has fathered the drops of dew?

²⁹ From whose womb did the ice come?
And the frost of heaven — who has given it birth?

³⁰ The waters harden like stone;
the face of the deep is frozen fast.

³¹ Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades
or loose the belt of Orion?

³² Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season,
or can you guide the Bear with its children?

³³ Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?
Can you establish their rule on the earth?

³⁴ Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
that a flood of water may cover you?

³⁵ Can you send out lightnings, that they may go
and say to you, 'Here we are'?

³⁶ Who has put wisdom in the inward parts
or given understanding to the mind?

³⁷ Who can number the clouds with wisdom?
Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,

³⁸ when the dust runs into a mass
and the clods stick together?

³⁹ Can you hunt the prey for the lion,
or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

⁴⁰ when they crouch in their dens
or lie in wait in their thicket?

⁴¹ Who provides for the raven its prey,
when its young ones cry to God for help
and wander about for lack of food?