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