Chapter 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 ?