Job 38

Yahweh answers Job out of the whirlwind

1Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 2Who is this, darkening counsel with words that have no knowledge in them? 3Brace yourself like a valiant man. I will question you, and you will inform me. 4Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Say so, if you understand. 5Who fixed its measurements? Surely you know. Who stretched the line across it? 6On what were its bases sunk? Who laid its cornerstone, 7when the stars of the morning sang out together and all the sons of God raised a shout? 8Who shut the sea in behind doors when it came bursting out of the womb, 9when I made cloud its clothing and thick darkness its swaddling band, 10when I fixed my limit upon it and set up bars and doors, 11and said, “This far you come, and no farther; here your proud waves stop”?

Have you ever commanded the morning?

12Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, shown the dawn its place, 13so that it takes the earth by its skirts and shakes the wicked out of it? 14The earth turns like clay under a seal, and everything stands out like a garment. 15The wicked are denied their light, and the raised arm is broken. 16Have you gone down to the springs of the sea or walked about in the depths of the abyss? 17Have the gates of death been opened to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? 18Have you taken in the breadth of the earth? Say so, if you know it all. 19Which is the road to where light lives? And darkness — where is its place, 20that you could take it to its border, that you could know the paths to its house? 21You know, of course: you were born back then, and the number of your days is great.

The storehouses of the snow and the hail

22Have you gone into the storehouses of the snow, or seen the storehouses of the hail 23that I have kept back for a time of trouble, for a day of combat and war? 24Which is the road to where the light is shared out, where the east wind is scattered over the earth? 25Who cut a channel for the downpour and a road for the thunderbolt, 26to bring rain on a land where no one is, on a desert with no man in it, 27to fill the waste and the wasteland and make the parched ground sprout with grass? 28Does the rain have a father? Who fathered the drops of dew? 29Out of whose belly came the ice? The frost of heaven — who gave it birth? 30The waters go hard as stone, and the face of the abyss locks tight.

Can you tie the cords of the Pleiades?

31Can you tie the cords of the Pleiades or loosen the ropes of Orion? 32Can you bring out the Mazzaroth in its season or lead the Bear and her cubs? 33Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their rule over the earth? 34Can you lift your voice to the cloud so that a flood of water covers you? 35Can you send out the lightning, and it goes, and says to you, “Here we are”? 36Who put wisdom in the hidden parts? Who gave understanding to what is covered?* 37Who can count the clouds with wisdom? Who can tip over the water jars of heaven, 38when the dust runs together into a mass and the clods stick fast?

Who hunts for the lioness and the raven?

39Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and fill the hunger of the young lions, 40when they crouch in their dens and lie in the thicket, waiting? 41Who provides the raven its catch when its young cry out to God and wander for lack of anything to eat?