Job 38:1–18

Yahweh Answers Job

¹Then Yahweh ^aanswered Job out of the ¹whirlwind and said,

²“Who is this that ^adarkens counsel

By words without knowledge?

³“Now ^agird up your loins like a man,

And ^bI will ask you, and you make Me know!

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

Tell Me, if you know understanding,

⁵Who set its ^ameasurements? Since you know.

Or who stretched the line on it?

⁶“On what ^awere its bases sunk?

Or who laid its cornerstone,

⁷When the morning stars sang together

And all the ^asons of God shouted for joy?

⁸“Or who ^aenclosed the sea with doors

When, bursting forth, it went out from the womb,

⁹When I made a cloud its garment

And dense gloom its swaddling band,

¹⁰And I ^1aplaced boundaries on it

And set a bolt and doors,

¹¹And I said, ‘Thus far you shall come, but no farther;

And here shall your proud waves stop’?

Yahweh Answers Job, “Have You?”

¹²“Have you ¹ever in your life commanded the morning,

And caused the dawn to know its place,

¹³That it might seize ^athe ends of the earth,

And ^bthe wicked be shaken out of it?

¹⁴“It is changed like clay under the seal;

And they stand forth like clothing.

¹⁵“^aFrom the wicked their light is withheld,

And the arm ^braised high is broken.

¹⁶“Have you entered into ^athe springs of the sea

Or walked ¹in the recesses of the deep?

¹⁷“Have the gates of death been revealed to you,

Or have you seen the gates of the ^ashadow of death?

¹⁸“Have you carefully considered the ¹expanse of ^athe earth?

Tell Me, if you know all this.