Job
Chapter 38
1 Then God answered Job from the storm and said,
2 Who is this who gives advice with words but has no understanding?
3 Get ready like a man; I will question you, and you must answer me.
4 Where were you when I set the earth’s foundations? Tell me if you understand.
5 Who set its measurements, if you know? Or who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 Where are its foundations fixed? Or who put its cornerstone in place?
7 When the morning stars sang together and all of God’s children shouted for joy.
8 Who closed in the sea with gates when it burst forth, as though coming out of the womb?
9 When I wrapped it in clouds like clothes, and a thick dark blanket covered it,
10 I broke open a place for it, and put in bars and doors.
11 God said, “You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop.”
12 Have you ever ordered the morning to begin or shown the dawn its place?
13 So it can grab the edges of the world and shake the bad people from it.
14 It changes like clay under a seal; and they settle into place like clothes.
15 The wicked are denied light, and their strong arm will be broken.
16 Have you gone into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked looking for the depths?
17 Have you seen the gates of death or the doors where death’s shadow falls?
18 Have you understood how wide the earth is? Tell me if you know everything about it.
19 Where is the place where light lives? And where is the home of darkness?
20 You should take it to its limit and know the ways to its home.
21 Do you know this because you were born then? Or because you have lived many days?
22 Have you entered the storehouses of the snow? Or have you seen the storehouses of the hail?
23 I have kept for a time of trouble, for a day of battle and war.
24 How is light spread, or the east wind scattered over the earth?
25 Who has made channels for the flood, or a path for thunder’s lightning?
26 To make it rain on the land where no one lives; on the desert where there is no one;
27 To make the lonely, barren land fertile and to help young plants start to grow.
28 Does the rain have a father? Or who has created the dewdrops?
29 Who made ice come from the womb? Who created the frost from the heavens?
30 The waters are covered like with a stone, and the surface of the deep water is solid like ice.
31 Can you control the beautiful patterns of the stars or untie the ropes of the constellations?
32 Can you make the constellations appear in their season? Or can you lead the Great Bear and its cubs?
33 Do you know the laws of the sky? Can you establish their rule on the earth?
34 Can you call out to the clouds to make them pour down water on you?
35 Can you make lightning strike and have it report to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who has placed wisdom inside us? Or who has given the heart understanding?
37 Who can count the clouds wisely? Or who can hold back the rain from the sky?
38 When the soil turns hard, and lumps stick tightly together?
39 Will you hunt food for the lion or satisfy the hunger of the young lions?
40 When they crouch in their lairs and stay hidden to ambush?
41 Who gives the raven its food? When its young cry out to God, they roam because they have no food.