Job 38

1 Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,⋮

2 “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?⋮

3 Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer me!⋮

4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.⋮

5 Who determined its measures, if you know? Or who stretched the line on it?⋮

6 What were its foundations fastened on? Or who laid its cornerstone,⋮

7 when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?⋮

8 “Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke out of the womb,⋮

9 when I made clouds its garment, and wrapped it in thick darkness,⋮

10 marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors,⋮

11 and said, ‘You may come here, but no further. Your proud waves shall be stopped here’?⋮

12 “Have you commanded the morning in your days, and caused the dawn to know its place,⋮

13 that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and shake the wicked out of it?⋮

14 It is changed as clay under the seal, and presented as a garment.⋮

15 From the wicked, their light is withheld. The high arm is broken.⋮

16 “Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?⋮

17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?⋮

18 Have you comprehended the earth in its width? Declare, if you know it all.⋮

19 “What is the way to the dwelling of light? As for darkness, where is its place,⋮

20 that you should take it to its bound, that you should discern the paths to its house?⋮

21 Surely 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,⋮

23 which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?⋮

24 By what way is the lightning distributed, or the east wind scattered on the earth?⋮

25 Who has cut a channel for the flood water, or the path for the thunderstorm,⋮

26 to cause it to rain on a land where there is no man, on the wilderness, in which there is no man,⋮

27 to satisfy the waste and desolate ground, to cause the tender grass to grow?⋮

28 Does the rain have a father? Or who fathers the drops of dew?⋮

29 Whose womb did the ice come out of? Who has given birth to the gray frost of the sky?⋮

30 The waters become hard like stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen.⋮

31 “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion?⋮

32 Can you lead the constellations out in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?⋮

33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish its dominion over the earth?⋮

34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover you?⋮

35 Can you send out lightnings, that they may go? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?⋮

36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind?⋮

37 Who can count the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the containers of the sky,⋮

38 when the dust runs into a mass, and the clods of earth stick together?⋮

39 “Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,⋮

40 when they crouch in their dens, and lie in wait in the thicket?⋮

41 Who provides for the raven his prey, when his young ones cry to God, and wander for lack of food?⋮