Job 38

The Lord's First Speech

¹Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind,

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

³Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer me!

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

⁵Who determined its measures, if you know? Or who stretched the line on it?

⁶What were its foundations fastened on? Or who laid its cornerstone,

⁷when 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 out of the womb,

⁹when I made clouds its garment, and wrapped it in thick darkness,

¹⁰marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors,

¹¹and said, ‘You may come here, but no further. Your proud waves shall be stopped here’?

¹²“Have you commanded the morning in your days, and caused the dawn to know its place,

¹³that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and shake the wicked out of it?

¹⁴It is changed as clay under the seal, and presented as a garment.

¹⁵From the wicked, their light is withheld. The high arm is broken.

¹⁶“Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?

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

¹⁸Have you comprehended the earth in its width? Declare, if you know it all.

¹⁹“What is the way to the dwelling of light? As for darkness, where is its place,

²⁰that you should take it to its bound, that you should discern the paths to its house?

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

²²Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,

²³which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?

²⁴By what way is the lightning distributed, or the east wind scattered on the earth?

²⁵Who has cut a channel for the flood water, or the path for the thunderstorm,

²⁶to cause it to rain on a land where there is no man, on the wilderness, in which there is no man,

²⁷to satisfy the waste and desolate ground, to cause the tender grass to grow?

²⁸Does the rain have a father? Or who fathers the drops of dew?

²⁹Whose womb did the ice come out of? Who has given birth to the gray frost of the sky?

³⁰The waters become hard like stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen.

³¹“Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion?

³²Can you lead the constellations out in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?

³³Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish its dominion over the earth?

³⁴“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover you?

³⁵Can you send out lightnings, that they may go? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?

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

³⁷Who can count the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the containers of the sky,

³⁸when the dust runs into a mass, and the clods of earth stick together?

³⁹“Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

⁴⁰when they crouch in their dens, and lie in wait in the thicket?

⁴¹Who provides for the raven his prey, when his young ones cry to God, and wander for lack of food?