Job 38

38TH CHAPTER

The Lord Speaks:

Who Is Able to Challenge Me?

¹Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. 

²“Who is this that belittles my advice 

with words that do not show any knowledge ⸤about it⸥? 

³Brace yourself like a man! 

I will ask you, and you will teach me. 

The Lord Speaks about Creation

⁴“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? 

Tell me if you have ⸤such⸥ insight. 

⁵Who determined its dimensions? 

Certainly, you know! 

Who stretched a measuring line over it? 

⁶On what were its footings sunk? 

Who laid its cornerstone 

⁷when the morning stars sang together 

and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 

⁸“Who shut the sea behind gates 

when it burst through and came out of the womb, 

⁹when I clothed it with clouds 

and wrapped it up in dark clouds, 

¹⁰when I set a limit for it 

and put up bars and gates, 

¹¹when I said, ‘You may come this far but no farther. 

Here your proud waves will stop’? 

¹²“Have you ever given orders to the morning 

or assigned a place for the dawn 

¹³so that it could grab the earth by its edges 

and shake wicked people out of it? 

¹⁴The earth changes like clay stamped by a seal, 

and ⸤parts of it⸥ stand out like ⸤folds in⸥ clothing. 

¹⁵Wicked people are deprived of their light, 

and an arm raised ⸤in victory⸥ is broken. 

¹⁶Have you gone to the springs in the sea 

or walked through the valleys of the ocean depths? 

¹⁷Have the gateways to death been revealed to you, 

or have you seen the gateways to total darkness? 

¹⁸Have you ⸤even⸥ considered how wide the earth is? 

Tell me, if you know all of this! 

¹⁹“What is the way to the place where light lives? 

Where is the home of darkness 

²⁰so that you may lead it to its territory, 

so that you may know the path to its home? 

²¹You must know because you were born then 

and have lived such a long time! 

²²Have you been to the warehouses where snow is stored 

or seen the warehouses for hail 

²³that I have stored up for the time of trouble, 

for the day of battle and war? 

²⁴Which is the way to the place where light is scattered 

and the east wind is spread across the earth? 

²⁵“Who made a channel for the flooding rains 

and a path for the thunderstorms 

²⁶to bring rain on a land where no one lives, 

on a desert where there are no humans, 

²⁷to saturate the desolate wasteland 

in order to make it sprout with grass? 

²⁸Does the rain have a father? 

Who gave birth to the dewdrops? 

²⁹From whose womb came the ice, 

and who has given birth to the frost in the air? 

³⁰The water hardens like a stone, 

and the surface of the ocean freezes over. 

³¹“Can you connect the chains of the ⸤constellation⸥ Pleiades 

or untie the ropes of Orion? 

³²Can you bring out the constellations at the right time 

or guide Ursa Major with its cubs? 

³³Do you know the laws of the sky 

or make them rule the earth? 

³⁴Can you call to the clouds 

and have a flood of water cover you? 

³⁵Can you send lightning flashes so that they may go and say to you, 

‘Here we are’? 

³⁶Who put wisdom in the heart 

or gave understanding to the mind? 

³⁷Who is wise enough to count the clouds 

or pour out the water jars of heaven 

³⁸when the dirt hardens into clumps 

and the soil clings together? 

The Lioness

³⁹“Can you hunt prey for the lioness 

and satisfy the hunger of her cubs 

⁴⁰as they crouch in their dens 

and lie ready to ambush from their lairs? 

The Crow

⁴¹“Who provides food for the crow 

when its young ones cry to God 

and wander around in need of food?