Chapter 38

God Speaks Now to Job

1 Then the Lord aanswered Job out of the whirlwind 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 instruct Me!

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

Tell Me, if you 1have understanding,

5 Who 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,

7 When 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;

9 When I made a cloud its garment

And thick darkness its swaddling band,

10 And I 1aplaced boundaries on it

And set a bolt and doors,

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

And here shall your proud waves stop’?

God’s Mighty Power

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

And caused the dawn to know its place,

13 That it might take hold of 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 a garment.

15 “aFrom the wicked their light is withheld,

And the buplifted arm 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 adeep darkness?

18 “Have you understood the 1expanse of athe earth?

Tell Me, if you know all this.

19 “Where is the way to the dwelling of light?

And darkness, where is its place,

20 That you may take it to aits territory

And that you may discern the paths to its 1home?

21 “You know, for ayou were born then,

And the number of your days is great!

22 “Have you entered the storehouses aof the snow,

Or have you seen the storehouses of the bhail,

23 Which I have reserved for the time of distress,

For the day of war and battle?

24 “Where is the way that athe light is divided,

Or the east wind scattered on the earth?

25 “Who has cleft a channel for the flood,

Or a way for the thunderbolt,

26 To bring arain on a land without 1people,

On a desert without a man in it,

27 To asatisfy the waste and desolate land

And to make the 1seeds of grass to sprout?

28 “Has athe rain a father?

Or who has begotten the drops of dew?

29 “From whose womb has come the aice?

And the frost of heaven, who has given it birth?

30 “Water 1becomes hard like stone,

And the surface of the deep is imprisoned.

31 “Can you bind the chains of the aPleiades,

Or loose the cords of Orion?

32 “Can you lead forth a 1constellation in its season,

And guide the Bear with her 2satellites?

33 “Do you know the aordinances of the heavens,

Or fix their rule over the earth?

34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,

So that an aabundance of water will cover you?

35 “Can you asend forth lightnings that they may go

And say to you, ‘Here we are’?

36 “Who has aput wisdom in the innermost being

Or given bunderstanding to the 1mind?

37 “Who can count the clouds by wisdom,

Or atip the water jars of the heavens,

38 When the dust hardens into a mass

And the clods stick together?

39 “Can you hunt the aprey for the lion,

Or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

40 When they acrouch in their dens

And lie in wait in their lair?

41 “Who prepares for athe raven its nourishment

When its young cry to God

And wander about without food?