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