Job 38

¹Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

²“Who is this who darkens counselwith words without knowledge?

³Get ready for a difficult task like a man;I will question youand you will inform me!

God’s questions to Job

⁴“Where were youwhen I laid the foundation of the earth?Tell me, if you possess understanding!

⁵Who set its measurements – if you know –or who stretched a measuring line across it?

⁶On what were its bases set,or who laid its cornerstone –

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

⁸“Who shut up the sea with doorswhen it burst forth, coming out of the womb,

⁹when I made the storm clouds its garment,and thick darkness its swaddling band,

¹⁰when I prescribed its limits,and set in place its bolts and doors,

¹¹when I said, ‘To here you may comeand no farther,here your proud waves will be confined’?

¹²Have you ever in your life commanded the morning,or made the dawn know its place,

¹³that it might seize the corners of the earth,and shake the wicked out of it?

¹⁴The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;its features are dyed like a garment.

¹⁵Then from the wicked the light is withheld,and the arm raised in violence is broken.

¹⁶Have you gone to the springs that fill the sea,or walked about in the recesses of the deep?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you?Have you seen the gates of deepest darkness?

¹⁸Have you considered the vast expanses of the earth?Tell me, if you know it all!

¹⁹“In what direction does light reside,and darkness, where is its place,

²⁰that you may take them to their bordersand perceive the pathways to their homes?

²¹You know, for you were born before them;and the number of your days is great!

²²Have you entered the storehouse of the snow,or seen the armory of the hail,

²³which I reserve for the time of trouble,for the day of war and battle?

²⁴In what direction is lightning dispersed,or the east winds scattered over the earth?

²⁵Who carves out a channel for the heavy rains,and a path for the rumble of thunder,

²⁶to cause it to rain on an uninhabited land,a desert where there are no human beings,

²⁷to satisfy a devastated and desolate land,and to cause it to sprout with vegetation?

²⁸Does the rain have a father,or who has fathered the drops of the dew?

²⁹From whose womb does the ice emerge,and the frost from the sky, who gives birth to it,

³⁰when the waters become hard like stone,when the surface of the deep is frozen solid?

³¹Can you tie the bands of the Pleiades,or release the cords of Orion?

³²Can you lead outthe constellations in their seasons,or guide the Bear with its cubs?

³³Do you know the laws of the heavens,or can you set up their rule over the earth?

³⁴Can you raise your voice to the cloudsso that a flood of water covers you?

³⁵Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go?Will they say to you, ‘Here we are’?

³⁶Who has put wisdom in the heart,or has imparted understanding to the mind?

³⁷Who by wisdom can count the clouds,and who can tip over the water jars of heaven,

³⁸when the dust hardens into a mass,and the clumps of earth stick together?

³⁹“Do you hunt prey for the lioness,and satisfy the appetite of the lions,

⁴⁰when they crouch in their dens,when they wait in ambush in the thicket?

⁴¹Who prepares prey for the raven,when its young cry out to Godand wander about for lack of food?