38TH CHAPTER

The Lord Speaks:

Who Is Able to Challenge Me?

1 Then 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⸥? 

3  Brace 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. 

5  Who determined its dimensions? 

Certainly, you know! 

Who stretched a measuring line over it? 

6  On what were its footings sunk? 

Who laid its cornerstone 

7  when 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, 

9  when I clothed it with clouds 

and wrapped it up in dark clouds, 

10  when I set a limit for it 

and put up bars and gates, 

11  when 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 

13  so that it could grab the earth by its edges 

and shake wicked people out of it? 

14  The earth changes like clay stamped by a seal, 

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

15  Wicked people are deprived of their light, 

and an arm raised ⸤in victory⸥ is broken. 

16  Have you gone to the springs in the sea 

or walked through the valleys of the ocean depths? 

17  Have the gateways to death been revealed to you, 

or have you seen the gateways to total darkness? 

18  Have 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 

20  so that you may lead it to its territory, 

so that you may know the path to its home? 

21  You must know because you were born then 

and have lived such a long time! 

22  Have you been to the warehouses where snow is stored 

or seen the warehouses for hail 

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

for the day of battle and war? 

24  Which 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 

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

on a desert where there are no humans, 

27  to saturate the desolate wasteland 

in order to make it sprout with grass? 

28  Does the rain have a father? 

Who gave birth to the dewdrops? 

29  From whose womb came the ice, 

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

30  The 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? 

32  Can you bring out the constellations at the right time 

or guide Ursa Major with its cubs? 

33  Do you know the laws of the sky 

or make them rule the earth? 

34  Can you call to the clouds 

and have a flood of water cover you? 

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

‘Here we are’? 

36  Who put wisdom in the heart 

or gave understanding to the mind? 

37  Who is wise enough to count the clouds 

or pour out the water jars of heaven 

38  when 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 

40  as 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?