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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?
²⁴ What is the way to the place where the light is distributed,
   or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?

²⁵ ‘Who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain,
   and a way for the thunderbolt,
²⁶ to bring rain on a land where no one lives,
   on the desert, which is empty of human life,
²⁷ to satisfy the waste and desolate land,
   and to make the ground put forth grass?

²⁸ ‘Has the rain a father,
   or who has begotten the drops of dew?
²⁹ From whose womb did the ice come forth,
   and who has given birth to the hoar-frost of heaven?
³⁰ The waters become hard like stone,
   and the face of the deep is frozen.

³¹ ‘Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,
   or loose the cords of Orion?
³² Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season,
   or can you guide the Bear with its children?
³³ Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?
   Can you establish their rule on the earth?

³⁴ ‘Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
   so that a flood of waters may cover you?
³⁵ Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go
   and say to you, “Here we are”?
³⁶ Who has put wisdom in the inward parts,^*
   or given understanding to the mind?^*
37 Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?
   Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,
³⁸ when the dust runs into a mass
   and the clods cling together?

³⁹ ‘Can you hunt the prey for the lion,
   or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
⁴⁰ when they crouch in their dens,
   or lie in wait in their covert?
⁴¹ Who provides for the raven its prey,
   when its young ones cry to God,
   and wander about for lack of food?