Job 38:2-41 ▼

2 “Who is this darkening counsel with words lacking knowledge?

3 Gird up your loins now like a man, and I will question you, and you shall answer Me.

4 Where were you at my founding of the earth? Declare it if you know with understanding.

5 Who set its measurements? Surely you must know! Or who stretched over it a line?

6 On what were its bases made to sink in, or who cast the stone of its corner,

7 at the singing together by the stars of the morning, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

8 Or who shut in the sea with doors, at its coming forth in its bursting from the womb,

9 in my setting for the cloud its garment, and for the dark cloud its swaddling band,

10 when I broke forth over it My decree, and set in place a bar and doors,

11 and I said, ‘Up to here you may come, and you shall not go further; and here shall be set the pride of your waves’?

12 have you commanded the morning from your days, and made the dawn to know its place,

13 for it to take hold of the edges of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it?

14 It is turned over like clay under a seal, and they stand out like a garment.

15 And their light is withheld from the wicked, and the arm upraised is broken.

16 Have you come to the springs of the sea, or in search of the depths have you walked about?

17 Have the gates of death been uncovered to you, or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?

18 Have you comprehended to the breadths of the earth? Declare it if you know all of it.

19 Where is this way to the dwelling of light? And of darkness, where is this its place,

20 that you may take it to its border, that you may know the paths to its home?

21 You must know it, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!

22 Have you come to the treasury of snow, or have you seen the treasury of hail,

23 that I have held back for a time of trouble, for a day of battle and war?

24 Where is this, the way light is apportioned? The east wind is scattered over the earth.

25 Who has divided out a channel for the flood, or a path for the lightning of the thunderings,

26 to make rain come upon a land without man, a desert without man in it,

27 to satisfy the waste and the desolation, and to make sprout the shoot of the grass?

28 Is there a father for the rain? Or who has begotten the drops of dew?

29 From whose womb comes forth the ice? And the frost of the heavens, who gives birth to it?

30 Like stone, the waters hide themselves, and the face of the deep is seized.

31 Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or can you open the cords of Orion?

32 Can you bring forth Mazzaroth in its time? Or can you lead out the Bear with her cubs?

33 Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Or can you set its rule over the earth?

34 Can you raise to the cloud your voice, and an abundance of waters will cover you?

35 Can you send out lightnings, that they may go and say to you, ‘Behold us’?

36 Who has put wisdom in the inner parts? Or who has given to the heart understanding?

37 Who can count the clouds by wisdom? Or the water skins of the heavens, who can tilt,

38 in the pouring of the dust into a mass, and the clods clinging together?

39 Can you hunt prey for a lion, or satisfy the life of young lions,

40 when they crouch in the dens, dwelling in a thicket, lying in wait in it?

41 Who provides to the raven its food when its children cry out to God and wander for lack of food?