Chapter 38

¹Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,

²“Who is this who darkens counsel

By words without knowledge?

³Brace 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.

⁵Who determined the measures of it, if you know?

Or who stretched the line on it?

⁶Whereupon were the foundations of it fastened?

Or who laid its cornerstone,

⁷When 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 forth from the womb,

⁹When I made clouds the garment of it,

And wrapped it in thick darkness,

¹⁰Marked out for it my bound,

Set bars and doors,

¹¹And said, ‘Here you may come, but no further;

Here shall your proud waves be stayed?’

¹²“Have you commanded the morning in your days,

And caused the dawn to know its place;

¹³That it might take hold of the ends of the earth,

And shake the wicked out of it?

¹⁴It is changed as clay under the seal,

And stands forth as a garment.

¹⁵From 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?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you?

Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

¹⁸Have you comprehended the earth in its breadth?

Declare, if you know it all.

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

As for darkness, where is the place of it,

²⁰That you should take it to the bound of it,

That you should discern the paths to the house of it?

²¹Surely you know, for you were born then,

And the number of your days is great!

²²Have you entered the treasuries of the snow,

Or have you seen the treasures of the hail,

²³Which I have reserved against the time of trouble,

Against the day of battle and war?

²⁴By what way is the lightning distributed,

Or the east wind scattered on the earth?

²⁵Who has cut a channel for the flood water,

Or the path for the thunderstorm;

²⁶To cause it to rain on a land where no man is;

On the wilderness, in which there is no man;

²⁷To satisfy the waste and desolate ground,

To cause the tender grass to spring forth?

²⁸Does the rain have a father?

Or who fathers the drops of dew?

²⁹Out of whose womb came the ice?

The gray frost of the sky, who has given birth to it?

³⁰The 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?

³²Can you lead forth the constellations in their season?

Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?

³³Do you know the laws of the heavens?

Can you establish the dominion of it over the earth?

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

That abundance of waters may cover you?

³⁵Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go?

Do they report to you, ‘Here we are?’

³⁶Who has put wisdom in the inward parts?

Or who has given understanding to the mind?

³⁷Who can number the clouds by wisdom?

Or who can pour out the bottles of the sky,

³⁸When 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,

⁴⁰When they crouch in their dens,

And lie in wait in the thicket?

⁴¹Who provides for the raven his prey,

When his young ones cry to God,

And wander for lack of food?