Job 38
1 Then the LORD answered Job from the storm:
2 “Who is this who darkens my plan with words without knowledge?
3 Brace yourself like a man: I will question you, and you will answer me.
4 Where were you when I founded the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who set its measurements? Do you know? Who stretched a measuring line over it?
6 On what were its foundations set, or who laid its cornerstone?
7 It was when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.
8 Who shut the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb?
9 It was when I clothed it with clouds and wrapped it in thick darkness.
10 I set my boundary for it and put in place bars and doors.
11 I said, ‘You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop.’
12 Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, or shown the dawn its place?
13 Was it to take hold of the earth by its edges and shake the wicked out of it?
14 It changes like clay beneath a seal, and everything stands out like a garment.”
15 “The wicked are denied their light, and the raised arm is broken.
16 Have you reached the springs of the sea or walked the depths of the abyss?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
18 Have you understood the breadth of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.
19 Where is the way to the place where light lives? And where is the place of darkness?
20 Can you take it to its territory and learn the paths to its house?
21 You know, for you were already born then, and the number of your days is great!
22 Have you entered the storehouses of snow, or seen the storehouses of hail?
23 I have kept them for a time of trouble, for a day of battle and war.
24 Where is the way by which light is scattered and the east wind spreads across the earth?
25 Who cut a channel for the flood, or a path for the thunderbolt?
26 Was it to make rain fall on a land without people, on a wilderness where no one lives?
27 Was it to satisfy the desolate, empty place and make fresh grass sprout?”
28 “Does the rain have a father? Who fathered the drops of dew?
29 From whose womb came the ice? Who gave birth to the frost of heaven?
30 The waters hide like stone, and the surface of the abyss freezes fast.
31 Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen Orion’s cords?
32 Can you bring out Mazzaroth in its season? Can you guide the Bear with its young?
33 Do you know the laws of heaven? Can you establish its rule over the earth?
34 Can you raise your voice to the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?
35 Can you send out lightning, and will it go? Will it say to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who put wisdom in the inward parts, or gave understanding to the rooster?
37 Who counts the clouds with wisdom, or tips out the waterskins of heaven?
38 It is when the dust hardens into a mass and the clods cling together.
39 Do you hunt prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of her cubs?
40 It is when they crouch in their dens and lie in wait in their hiding places.
41 Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about without food?”
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