1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: |
2 "Who is this that darkens my counsel
with words without knowledge? |
3 Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me. |
4 "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand. |
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it? |
6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone- |
7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels1 38:7 Hebrew the sons of God shouted for joy? |
8 "Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb, |
9 when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness, |
10 when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place, |
11 when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt'? |
12 "Have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place, |
13 that it might take the earth by the edges
and shake the wicked out of it? |
14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
its features stand out like those of a garment. |
15 The wicked are denied their light,
and their upraised arm is broken. |
16 "Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
or walked in the recesses of the deep? |
17 Have the gates of death been shown to you?
Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death2 38:17 Or gates of deep shadows ? |
18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this. |
19 "What is the way to the abode of light?
And where does darkness reside? |
20 Can you take them to their places?
Do you know the paths to their dwellings? |
21 Surely you know, for you were already born!
You have lived so many years! |
22 "Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
or seen the storehouses of the hail, |
23 which I reserve for times of trouble,
for days of war and battle? |
24 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? |
25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
and a path for the thunderstorm, |
26 to water a land where no man lives,
a desert with no one in it, |
27 to satisfy a desolate wasteland
and make it sprout with grass? |
28 Does the rain have a father?
Who fathers the drops of dew? |
29 From whose womb comes the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens |
30 when the waters become hard as stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen? |
31 "Can you bind the beautiful3 38:31 Or the twinkling; or the chains of the Pleiades?
Can you loose the cords of Orion? |
32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons4 38:32 Or the morning star in its season
or lead out the Bear5 38:32 Or out Leo with its cubs? |
33 Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you set up God's6 38:33 Or his ; or their dominion over the earth? |
34 "Can you raise your voice to the clouds
and cover yourself with a flood of water? |
35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
Do they report to you, 'Here we are'? |
36 Who endowed the heart7 38:36 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain. with wisdom
or gave understanding to the mind8 38:36 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain. ? |
37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens |
38 when the dust becomes hard
and the clods of earth stick together? |
39 "Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
and satisfy the hunger of the lions |
40 when they crouch in their dens
or lie in wait in a thicket? |
41 Who provides food for the raven
when its young cry out to God
and wander about for lack of food? |
