Job 38
Holman Christian Standard Bible  Par ▾ 

The Lord Speaks

1Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind. a He said:

2Who is this who obscures My counsel

with ignorant words? b

3Get ready to answer Me like a man;

when I questionc you, you will inform Me.

4Where were you when I establishedd the earth?

Tell Me, if you have e understanding.

5Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know!

Who stretched a measuring line across it?

6What supports its foundations?

Or who laid its cornerstone

7while the morning stars sang together

and all the sons of Godf shouted for joy?

8Who enclosed the sea behind doors

when it burst from the womb,

9when I made the clouds its garment

and thick darkness its blanket, g  h

10when I determined its boundariesi

and put its bars and doors in place,

11when I declared: “You may come this far, but no farther;

your proud waves stop here”?

12Have you ever in your life commanded the morning

or assigned the dawn its place,

13so it may seize the edges of the earth

and shake the wicked out of it?

14The earth is changed as clay is by a seal;

its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.

15Lightj is withheld from the wicked,

and the arm raised in violence is broken.

16Have you traveled to the sources of the sea

or walked in the depths of the oceans?

17Have the gatesk of death been revealed to you?

Have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

18Have you comprehended the extent of the earth?

Tell Me, if you know all this.

19Where is the road to the home of light?

Do you know where darkness lives,

20so you can lead it back to its border?

Are you familiar with the paths to its home?

21Don’t you know? You were already born; l

you have lived so long! m

22Have you entered the place where the snow is stored?

Or have you seen the storehouses of hail, n

23which I hold in reserve for times of trouble,

for the day of warfare and battle? o

24What road leads to the place where light is dispersed? p

Where is the source of the east wind that spreads across the earth?

25Who cuts a channel for the flooding rain

or clears the way for lightning,

26to bring rain on an uninhabited land,

on a desert with no human life, q

27to satisfy the parched wasteland

and cause the grass to sprout? r

28Does the rain have a father?

Who fathered the drops of dew? s

29Whose womb did the ice come from?

Who gave birth to the frost of heaven

30when water becomes as hard as stone, t

and the surface of the watery depths is frozen? u

31Can you fasten the chains of the Pleiades

or loosen the belt of Orion?

32Can you bring out the constellationsv in their season

and lead the Bearw and her cubs?x

33Do you know the lawsy of heaven?

Can you impose itsz authority on earth?

34Can you commandaa the clouds

so that a flood of water covers you?ab

35Can you send out lightning ac bolts, and they go?

Do they report to you: “Here we are”?

36Who put wisdomad in the heartae

or gave the mind understanding?

37Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?

Or who can tilt the water jars of heaven

38when the dust hardens like cast metal

and the clods of dirt stick together?

39Can you hunt prey for a lioness

or satisfy the appetite of young lionsaf

40when they crouch in their dens

and lie in wait within their lairs?

41Who provides the raven’s foodag

when its young cry out to God

and wander about for lack of food?


Footnotes:
a. 38:1 2Kg 2:11; Jb 40:6; Ezk 13:11,13
b. 38:2 Jb 34:35; 35:16; 42:3
c. 38:3 2Sm 11:7; Jb 40:7; 42:4
d. 38:4 Ps 89:11; 102:25; 104:5
e. 38:4 Lit know
f. 38:7 Gn 6:2,4; Jb 1:6; 2:1
g. 38:9 Lit swaddling clothes
h. 38:9 2Sm 22:10; Jb 22:13; 37:11
i. 38:10 Lit I broke My statute on it
j. 38:15 Lit Their light
k. 38:17 Ps 9:13; 107:18; Is 38:10
l. 38:21 Jb 15:7; Ps 90:2; Pr 8:25
m. 38:21 Lit born; the number of your days is great
n. 38:22 Ex 9:18; Ps 105:32; Is 28:17
o. 38:23 Jos 10:11; Is 30:30; Rv 16:21
p. 38:24 Or where lightning is distributed
q. 38:26 Lit life in it
r. 38:27 Gn 1:11; 2Sm 23:4; Ps 107:35
s. 38:28 Jb 5:10; Ps 147:8; Jr 14:22
t. 38:30 Lit water hides itself as the stone
u. 38:29-30 Jb 37:10; Ps 147:16-17
v. 38:32 Or Mazzaroth ; Hb obscure
w. 38:32 Or lead Aldebaran
x. 38:31-32 Jb 9:9; Is 40:26; Am 5:8
y. 38:33 Jr 31:35; 33:25
z. 38:33 Or God’s
aa. 38:34 Lit lift up your voice to
ab. 38:34 Jb 22:11; Ps 69:1-2; Lm 3:54
ac. 38:35 Ex 19:16; Ps 18:14; 97:4
ad. 38:36 Jb 28:12,18,20; Ps 51:6; Ec 2:26
ae. 38:36 Or the inner self ; Ps 51:6
af. 38:39 Ps 104:21; 145:15-16
ag. 38:41 1Kg 17:4,6; Ps 147:9; Lk 12:24
Job 37
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