Job 38–41

THE LORD SPEAKS

38Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind.ⁿ He said:

²Who is this who obscures my counsel

with ignorant words?^o

³Get ready to answer me like a man;

when I question^p you, you will inform me.

⁴Where were you when I established^q the earth?

Tell me, if you have^A understanding.

⁵Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know!

Who stretched a measuring line across it?

⁶What supports its foundations?

Or who laid its cornerstone

⁷while the morning stars sang together

and all the sons of God^a shouted for joy?

⁸Who enclosed the sea behind doors

when it burst from the womb,

⁹when I made the clouds its garment

and total darkness its blanket,^Bb

¹⁰when I determined its boundaries^C

and put its bars and doors in place,

¹¹when I declared, “You may come this far, but no farther;

your proud waves stop here”?

¹²Have you ever in your life commanded the morning

or assigned the dawn its place,

¹³so it may seize the edges of the earth

and shake the wicked out of it?

¹⁴The earth is changed as clay is by a seal;

its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.

¹⁵Light^D is withheld from the wicked,

and the arm raised in violence is broken.

¹⁶Have you traveled to the sources of the sea

or walked in the depths of the oceans?

¹⁷Have the gates^c of death been revealed to you?

Have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

¹⁸Have you comprehended the extent of the earth?

Tell me, if you know all this.

¹⁹Where is the road to the home of light?

Do you know where darkness lives,

²⁰so you can lead it back to its border?

Are you familiar with the paths to its home?

²¹Don’t you know? You were already born;^d

you have lived so long!^A

²²Have you entered the place where the snow is stored?

Or have you seen the storehouses of hail,^e

²³which I hold in reserve for times of trouble,

for the day of warfare and battle?^f

²⁴What road leads to the place where light is dispersed?^B

Where is the source of the east wind that spreads across the earth?

²⁵Who cuts a channel for the flooding rain

or clears the way for lightning,

²⁶to bring rain on an uninhabited land,

on a desert with no human life,^C

²⁷to satisfy the parched wasteland

and cause the grass to sprout?^g

²⁸Does the rain have a father?

Who fathered the drops of dew?^h

²⁹Whose womb did the ice come from?

Who gave birth to the frost of heaven

³⁰when water becomes as hard as stone,^D

and the surface of the watery depths is frozen?ⁱ

³¹Can you fasten the chains of the Pleiades

or loosen the belt of Orion?

³²Can you bring out the constellations^E in their season

and lead the Bear^F and her cubs?^j

³³Do you know the laws^k of heaven?

Can you impose its^G authority on earth?

³⁴Can you command^H the clouds

so that a flood of water covers you?^l

³⁵Can you send out lightning^m bolts, and they go?

Do they report to you, “Here we are”?

³⁶Who put wisdomⁿ in the heart

or gave the mind understanding?

³⁷Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?

Or who can tilt the water jars of heaven

³⁸when the dust hardens like cast metal

and the clods of dirt stick together?

³⁹Can you hunt prey for a lioness

or satisfy the appetite of young lions^a

⁴⁰when they crouch in their dens

and lie in wait within their lairs?

⁴¹Who provides the raven’s food^b

when its young cry out to God

and wander about for lack of food?

39Do you know when mountain goats give birth?

Have you watched the deer in labor?

²Can you count the months they are pregnant^A

so you can know the time they give birth?

³They crouch down to give birth to their young;

they deliver their newborn.^B

⁴Their offspring are healthy and grow up in the open field.

They leave and do not return.^C

⁵Who set the wild donkey free?

Who released the swift donkey from its harness?

⁶I made the desert^c its home,

and the salty^d wasteland its dwelling.

⁷It scoffs at the noise of the village

and never hears the shouts of a driver.^e

⁸It roams the mountains for its pastureland,

searching for anything green.

⁹Would the wild ox be willing to serve you?

Would it spend the night by your feeding trough?

¹⁰Can you hold the wild ox^f to a furrow by its harness?

Will it plow the valleys behind you?

¹¹Can you depend on it because its strength is great?

Would you leave it to do your hard work?

¹²Can you trust the wild ox to harvest your grain

and bring it to your threshing floor?

¹³The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully,

but are her feathers and plumage like the stork’s?^Dg

¹⁴She abandons her eggs on the ground

and lets them be warmed in the sand.

¹⁵She forgets that a foot may crush them

or that some wild animal may trample them.

¹⁶She treats her young harshly, as if they were not her own,

with no fear that her labor may have been in vain.

¹⁷For God has deprived her of wisdom;

he has not endowed her with understanding.^h

¹⁸When she proudly^A spreads her wings,

she laughs at the horse and its rider.

¹⁹Do you give strength to the horse?

Do you adorn his neck with a mane?^A

²⁰Do you make him leap like a locust?

His proud snorting fills one with terror.

²¹He paws^B in the valley and rejoices in his strength;

he charges into battle.^C

²²He laughs at fear, since he is afraid of nothing;

he does not run from the sword.

²³A quiver rattles at his side,

along with a flashing spear and a javelin.

²⁴He charges ahead^D with trembling rage;

he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

²⁵When the trumpet blasts, he snorts defiantly.^E

He smells the battle from a distance;

he hears the officers’ shouts and the battle cry.

²⁶Does the hawk take flight by your understanding

and spread its wings to the south?

²⁷Does the eagle soar at your command

and make its nestⁱ on high?

²⁸It lives on a cliff where it spends the night;

its stronghold is on a rocky crag.

²⁹From there it searches for prey;^a

its eyes penetrate the distance.

³⁰Its brood gulps down blood,

and where the slain are, it is there.^b

40The Lord answered Job:

²Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?

Let him who argues with God give an answer.^F

³Then Job answered the Lord:

⁴I am so insignificant. How can I answer you?^c

I place my hand over my mouth.

⁵I have spoken once, and I will not reply;

twice, but now I can add nothing.^d

⁶Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind:^e

⁷Get ready to answer me like a man;

when I question^f you, you will inform me.

⁸Would you really challenge my justice?

Would you declare me guilty^g to justify yourself?^h

⁹Do you have an arm like God’s?

Can you thunder with a voice like his?

¹⁰Adorn yourself with majestyⁱ and splendor,

and clothe yourself with honor and glory.

¹¹Pour out your raging anger;^j

look on every proud person and humiliate him.^k

¹²Look on every proud person and humble him;^l

trample the wicked where they stand.^A

¹³Hide them together in the dust;

imprison them in the grave.^B

¹⁴Then I will confess to you

that your own right hand^m can deliver you.ⁿ

¹⁵Look at Behemoth,

which I made along with you.

He eats grass like cattle.

¹⁶Look at the strength of his back^C

and the power in the muscles of his belly.

¹⁷He stiffens his tail like a cedar tree;

the tendons of his thighs are woven firmly together.

¹⁸His bones are bronze tubes;

his limbs are like iron rods.

¹⁹He is the foremost of God’s works;^o

only his Maker can draw the sword against him.

²⁰The hills yield food for him,

while all sorts of wild animals play there.

²¹He lies under the lotus plants,

hiding in the protection^D of marshy reeds.

²²Lotus plants cover him with their shade;

the willows by the brook surround him.

²³Though the river rages, Behemoth is unafraid;

he remains confident, even if the Jordan surges up to his mouth.

²⁴Can anyone capture him while he looks on,^E

or pierce his nose with snares?

41Can you pull in Leviathan^p with a hook^q

or tie his tongue down with a rope?

²Can you put a cord^F through his nose

or pierce his jaw with a hook?^r

³Will he beg you for mercy

or speak softly to you?

⁴Will he make a covenant with you

so that you can take him as a slave forever?^s

⁵Can you play with him like a bird

or put him on a leash^G for your girls?

⁶Will traders bargain for him

or divide him among the merchants?

⁷Can you fill his hide with harpoons

or his head with fishing spears?

⁸Lay a^H hand on him.

You will remember the battle

and never repeat it!

⁹Any hope of capturing him proves false.

Does a person not collapse at the very sight of him?

¹⁰No one is ferocious enough to rouse Leviathan;^t

who then can stand against me?

¹¹Who confronted me, that I should repay him?

Everything under heaven belongs to me.^a

¹²I cannot be silent about his limbs,

his power, and his graceful proportions.

¹³Who can strip off his outer covering?

Who can penetrate his double layer of armor?^Ab

¹⁴Who can open his jaws,^B

surrounded by those terrifying teeth?

¹⁵His pride is in his rows of scales,

closely sealed together.

¹⁶One scale is so close to another^C

that no air can pass between them.

¹⁷They are joined to one another,

so closely connected^D they cannot be separated.

¹⁸His snorting^E flashes with light,

while his eyes are like the rays^F of dawn.

¹⁹Flaming torches shoot from his mouth;

fiery sparks fly out!

²⁰Smoke billows from his nostrils^c

as from a boiling pot or burning reeds.

²¹His breath sets coals ablaze,

and flames pour out of his mouth.

²²Strength resides in his neck,

and dismay dances before him.

²³The folds of his flesh are joined together,

solid as metal^G and immovable.

²⁴His heart is as hard as a rock,

as hard as a lower millstone!

²⁵When Leviathan rises, the mighty^H are terrified;

they withdraw because of his thrashing.

²⁶The sword that reaches him will have no effect,

nor will a spear, dart, or arrow.

²⁷He regards iron as straw,

and bronze as rotten wood.

²⁸No arrow can make him flee;

slingstones become like stubble to him.

²⁹A club is regarded as stubble,

and he laughs^d at the sound of a javelin.

³⁰His undersides are jagged potsherds,

spreading the mud like a threshing sledge.^e

³¹He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron;

he makes the sea like an ointment…