Job 38

The Lord Answers Job

³⁸Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:^*

²“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?^*

³Gird up your loins like a man;

I will question you, and you shall declare to me.^*

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

Tell me, if you have understanding.^*

⁵Who determined its measurements—surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

⁶On what were its bases sunk,

or who laid its cornerstone^*

⁷when the morning stars sang together

and all the heavenly beings^f shouted for joy?^*

⁸“Or who shut in the sea with doors

when it burst out from the womb,^*

⁹when I made the clouds its garment

and thick darkness its swaddling band,^*

¹⁰and prescribed bounds for it,

and set bars and doors,^*

¹¹and said, ‘Thus far shall you come and no farther,

and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?^*

¹²“Have you commanded the morning since your days began

and caused the dawn to know its place,^*

¹³so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,

and the wicked be shaken out of it?^*

¹⁴It is changed like clay under the seal,

and it is dyed^g like a garment.

¹⁵Light is withheld from the wicked,

and their uplifted arm is broken.^*

¹⁶“Have you entered into the springs of the sea

or walked in the recesses of the deep?^*

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you,

or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?^*

¹⁸Have 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,

²⁰that you may take it to its territory

and that you may discern the paths to its home?^*

²¹Surely 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,^*

²³which I have reserved for the time of trouble,

for the day of battle and war?^*

²⁴What is the way to the place where the light is distributed

or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?^*

²⁵“Who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain

and a way for the thunderbolt,^*

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

on the desert, which is empty of human life,^*

²⁷to satisfy the waste and desolate land,

and to make the ground put forth grass?^*

²⁸“Has the rain a father,

or who has fathered the drops of dew?^*

²⁹From whose womb did the ice come forth,

and who has given birth to the hoarfrost of heaven?^*

³⁰The waters become hard like stone,

and the face of the deep is frozen.

³¹“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades

or loose the cords of Orion?^*

³²Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season,

or can you guide the Bear with its children?

³³Do 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,

so that a flood of waters may cover you?^*

³⁵Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go

and say to you, ‘Here we are’?^*

³⁶Who has put wisdom in the inward parts^h

or given understanding to the mind?^i*

³⁷Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?

Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens

³⁸when the dust runs into a mass

and the clods cling together?

³⁹“Can you hunt the prey for the lion

or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,^*

⁴⁰when they crouch in their dens

or lie in wait in their covert?^*

⁴¹Who provides for the raven its prey,

when its young ones cry to God

and wander about for lack of food?^*