 1 The Lord answered Job out of the tempest and said, 2 Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Now gird up your loins like a man. For I will ask of you, and you teach me. 4 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell if you have understanding. 5 Who has set its measurements, for you know? Or who has stretched the line on it? 6 On what are its bases sunk, or who cast its cornerstone, 7 when 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 forth as it came from the womb? 9 When I made the clouds its robe, and darkness its navel band, 10 and set my limit on it, and set bars and doors, 11 I said, You will come here but no further. Here your proud waves will stop. 12 Have you commanded the morning from your days, and caused the dawn to know its place, 13 that it might take hold of the ends of the earth. That the wicked might be shaken out of it? 14 It is turned like clay under a seal. They stand forth like a garment. 15 From the wicked their light is withheld, and the high arm will be broken. 16 Have you gone to the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depths? 17 Have the gates of death been opened to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? 18 Have you understood the width of the earth? Tell, if you know it all. 19 Where is the way to where light lives? And where is the place of darkness, 20 that you should take it to its boundary, and that you should know the paths to its house? 21 you know, because you were born then. And the number of your days is great? 22 Have you entered into the storehouses of the snow? Or have you seen the storehouses of the hail 23 that I have kept for the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war? 24 How is it, way the light distributed, and how does the east wind spread itself on the earth? 25 Who has cut a channel for the flood, or a way for the thunderclaps; 26 to cause rain to fall on the earth where no man is, a wilderness and no man in it; 27 to satisfy the desolate and waste ground, and to cause the source of grass to spring forth? 28 Has the rain a father? Or who has brought forth the drops of dew? 29 Out of whose womb came the ice? And the frost of the heavens, who fathered it? 30 The waters are hidden like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen. 31 Can you bind the bands of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion? 32 Can you bring the constellations in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with its sons? 33 Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you set up their rulership on the earth? 34 Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, so that floods of waters may cover you? 35 Can you send lightnings, that they may go, and say to you, Here we are? 36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind? 37 Who can number the clouds by wisdom. Or who can empty out the jars of the heavens, 38 when the dust is melted into hardness, and the clods cling fast together? 39 Will you hunt the prey for the lion, or fill the appetite of the young lions, 40 when they crouch in dens, and sit in the cover of their hiding place? 41 Who provides food for the raven, when its young ones cry to God and wander about without food?
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