Chapter 38

¹ And after Elius had ceased from speaking, the Lord spoke to Job through the whirlwind and clouds, saying,

² Who is this that hides counsel from me, and confines words in his heart, and thinks to conceal them from me? ³ Gird thy loins like a man; and I will ask thee, and do thou answer me.

⁴ Where wast thou when I founded the earth? tell me now, if thou hast knowledge, ⁵ who set the measures of it, if thou knowest? or who stretched a line upon it? ⁶ On what are its ¹rings fastened? and who is he that laid the ²corner-stone upon it? ⁷ When the stars were made, all my angels praised me with a loud voice. ⁸ And I shut up the sea with gates, when it rushed out, coming forth out its mother's womb. ⁹ And I made a cloud its clothing, and

694

swathed it in mist. ¹⁰ And I set bounds to it, surrounding it with bars and gates. ¹¹ And I said to it, Hitherto shalt thou come, but thou shalt not go beyond, but thy waves shall be confined within thee.

¹² Or did I order the morning light in thy time; and did the morning star then first see his appointed place; ¹³ to lay hold of the extremities of the earth, to ³cast out the ungodly out of it? ¹⁴ Or didst thou take clay of the ground, and form a living creature, and set ⁴it with the power of speech upon the earth? ¹⁵ And hast thou removed light from the ungodly, and crushed the arm of the proud?

¹⁶ Or hast thou gone to the source of the sea, and walked in the tracks of the deep? ¹⁷ And do the gates of death open to thee for fear; and did the porters of hell quake when they saw thee? ¹⁸ And hast thou been instructed in the breadth of the whole earth under heaven? tell me now, what is the extent of it?

¹⁹ And in what kind of a land does the light dwell? and of what kind is the place of darkness? ²⁰ If thou couldest bring me to their utmost boundaries, and if also thou knowest their paths; ²¹ I know then that thou wert born at that time, and the number of thy years is great.

²² But hast thou gone to the treasures of snow? and hast thou seen the treasures of hail? ²³ And is there a store of them, for thee against the time of thine enemies, for the day of wars and battle? ²⁴ And whence proceeds the frost? or whence is the south wind dispersed over the whole world under heaven? ²⁵ And who prepared a course for the violent rain, and a way for the ⁵thunders; ²⁶ to rain upon the land where there is no man, the wilderness, where there is not a man in it; so as to feed the untrodden and uninhabited land, ²⁷ and cause it to send forth a crop of green herbs?

²⁸ Who is the rain's father? and who has generated the drops of dew? ²⁹ And out of whose womb comes the ice? and who has produced the frost in the sky, ³⁰ which descends like flowing water? who has terrified the face of the ungodly?

³¹ And dost thou understand the band of Pleias, and hast thou opened the barrier of Orion? ³² Or wilt thou reveal Mazuroth in his season, and the evening star with his rays? Wilt thou guide them? ³³ And knowest thou the changes of heaven, or the events which take place together under heaven? ³⁴ And wilt thou call a cloud with thy voice, and will it obey thee with a violent shower of much rain? ³⁵ And wilt thou send lightnings, and they shall go? and shall they say to thee, What is thy pleasure? ³⁶ And who has given to women skill in weaving, or knowledge of embroidery? ³⁷ And who is he that numbers the clouds in wisdom, and has bowed the heaven down to the earth? ³⁸ For it is spread out as ⁶dusty earth, and I have cemented it as ⁷one hewn stone to another.

³⁹ And wilt thou hunt a prey for the lions? and satisfy the ⁸desires of the serpents? ⁴⁰ For they fear in their lairs, and lying in wait couch in the woods. ⁴¹ And who has prepared food for the raven? for its young ones wander and cry to the Lord, in search of food.