Bible Browser

The Lord Answers Job

38Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
² ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
³ Gird up your loins like a man,
   I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

⁴ ‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
   Tell me, if you have understanding.
⁵ Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
   Or who stretched the line upon it?
⁶ On what were its bases sunk,
   or who laid its cornerstone
⁷ when the morning stars sang together
   and all the heavenly beings^* shouted for joy?

⁸ ‘Or who shut in the sea with doors
   when it burst out from the womb?—
⁹ when I made the clouds its garment,
   and thick darkness its swaddling band,
¹⁰ and prescribed bounds for it,
   and set bars and doors,
¹¹ and said, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
   and here shall your proud waves be stopped”?

¹² ‘Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
   and caused the dawn to know its place,
¹³ so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
   and the wicked be shaken out of it?
¹⁴ It is changed like clay under the seal,
   and it is dyed^* like a garment.
¹⁵ Light is withheld from the wicked,
   and their uplifted arm is broken.

¹⁶ ‘Have you entered into the springs of the sea,
   or walked in the recesses of the deep?
¹⁷ Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
   or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
¹⁸ Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
   Declare, if you know all this.

¹⁹ ‘Where is the way to the dwelling of light,
   and where is the place of darkness,
²⁰ that you may take it to its territory
   and that you may discern the paths to its home?
²¹ Surely you know, for you were born then,
   and the number of your days is great!

²² ‘Have you entered the storehouses of the snow,
   or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,
²³ which I have reserved for the time of trouble,
   for the day of battle and war?

Job Is Humbled and Satisfied

42Then Job answered the Lord:
² ‘I know that you can do all things,
   and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
³ “Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?”
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
   things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
⁴ “Hear, and I will speak;
   I will question you, and you declare to me.”
⁵ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
   but now my eye sees you;