Job 38

1. Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,

2. “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

3. Now gird up your loins like a man; for I will demand of you, and you shall answer Me.

4. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare it, if you have understanding!

5. Who has determined its measurements, if you know? Or who has stretched the line upon it?

6. On what are the foundations fastened to? Or who laid its cornerstone,

7. When 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 as it came from the womb?

9. When I made the clouds its robe, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it,

10. And prescribed My limit on it, and set bars and doors,

11. And I said, ‘You shall come to here, but no further; and here your proud waves shall stop.’

12. Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place,

13. That it might take hold of the ends of the earth; that the wicked might be shaken out of it?

14. It is changed like clay under a seal; and they stand forth like a garment.

15. But from the wicked their light is withheld, and the uplifted arm is broken.

16. Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depths?

17. Have the gates of death been opened to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

18. Have you surveyed the breadth of the earth? Declare it, if you know it all!

19. Where is the way where light dwells? And as for darkness, where is the place thereof,

20. That you should take it to its boundary, and that you should know the paths to its home?

21. Do you know it, because you were then born? Or are the number of your days great?

22. Have you entered into the treasures of the snow? Or have you seen the treasures of the hail,

23. Which I have reserved for the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?

24. By what way is the light distributed, and how does the east wind spread itself upon the earth?

25. Who has cut a channel for the overflowing of waters, or a pathway for the thunderbolts;

26. To cause rain to fall upon the earth where no man is, a wilderness and no man in it;

27. To satisfy the desolate and waste ground, and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?

28. Has the rain a father? Or who has brought forth the drops of dew?

29. Out of whose womb came the ice? And the frost of the heavens, who engendered it?

30. The waters are hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.

31. Can you bind the bands of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion?

32. Can you bring the constellations in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with its sons?

33. Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you set up their dominion on the earth?

34. Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, so that floods of waters may cover you?

35. Can you send lightnings, that they may go, and say to you, ‘Here we are?’

36. Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind?

37. Who can number the clouds by wisdom; or who can pour out the bottles of the heavens,

38. When the dust is melted into hardness, and the clods cling fast together?

39. Will you hunt the prey for the lion, or fill the appetite of the young lions,

40. When they crouch in dens, and sit in the cover of their hiding place?

41. Who provides food for the raven, when its young ones cry to God and wander about without food?”