Job 38:1–18

The First Speech of the Lord

38The Lord spoke to Job out of a storm. He said,

²“Who do you think you are to disagree with my plans?

You do not know what you are talking about.

³Get ready to stand up for yourself.

I will ask you some questions.

Then I want you to answer me.

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

Tell me, if you know.

⁵Who measured it? I am sure you know!

Who stretched a measuring line across it?

⁶What was it built on?

Who laid its most important stone?

⁷When it happened, the morning stars sang together.

All of the angels shouted with joy.

⁸“Who created the ocean?

Who caused it to be born?

⁹I put clouds over it as if they were its clothes.

I wrapped it in thick darkness.

¹⁰I set limits for it.

I put its doors and metal bars in place.

¹¹I said, ‘You can come this far.

But you can’t come any farther.

Here is where your proud waves have to stop.’

¹²“Job, have you ever commanded the morning to come?

Have you ever shown the sun where to rise?

¹³The daylight takes the earth by its edges

as if it were a blanket.

Then it shakes sinful people out of it.

¹⁴The earth takes shape like clay under a seal.

Its features stand out

like the different parts of your clothes.

¹⁵Sinners would rather have darkness than light.

When the light comes, their power is broken.

¹⁶“Have you traveled to the springs at the bottom of the ocean?

Have you walked in its deepest parts?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been shown to you?

Have you seen the gates of darkness?

¹⁸Do you understand how big the earth is?

Tell me, if you know all of those things.