Yahweh Answers Job

¹Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind and said,[#38:1 Or storm]

²“Who is this that darkens counsel

By words without knowledge?

³“Now gird up your loins like a man,

And I will ask you, and you make Me know!

⁴“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell Me , if you know understanding,

⁵Who set its measurements? Since you know.

Or who stretched the line on it?

⁶“On what were its bases sunk?

Or who laid its cornerstone,

⁷When the morning stars sang together

And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁸¶“Or who enclosed the sea with doors

When, bursting forth, it went out from the womb,

⁹When I made a cloud its garment

And dense gloom its swaddling band,

¹⁰And I placed boundaries on it[#38:10 Lit broke My decree on it]

And set a bolt and doors,

¹¹And I said, ‘Thus far you shall come, but no farther;

And here shall your proud waves stop’?

Yahweh Answers Job, “Have You?”

¹²¶“Have you ever in your life commanded the morning,[#38:12 Lit from your days]

And caused the dawn to know its place,

¹³That it might seize the ends of the earth,

And the wicked be shaken out of it?

¹⁴“It is changed like clay under the seal;

And they stand forth like clothing.

¹⁵“From the wicked their light is withheld,

And the arm raised high 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 the shadow of death?

¹⁸“Have you carefully considered the expanse of the earth?[#38:18 Or width]

Tell Me , if you know all this.

¹⁹¶“Where is the way to where the light dwells?

And darkness, where is its place,

²⁰That you may take it to its territory

And that you may discern the paths to its home?

²¹“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,

²³Which I have reserved for the time of distress,

For the day of war and battle?

²⁴“Where is the way that the light is divided,

Or the east wind scattered on the earth?

²⁵¶“Who has cleft a conduit for the flood,

Or a way for the thunderbolt,

²⁶To bring rain on a land without people,[#38:26 Lit man]

On a desert without a man in it,

²⁷To satisfy the waste and desolate land

And to make the growth of grass to sprout?

²⁸“Has the rain a father?

Or who has begotten the drops of dew?

²⁹“From whose womb has come the ice?

And the frost of heaven, who has given it birth?

³⁰“Water becomes hard like stone,[#38:30 Lit hides itself]

And the surface of the deep is interlocked.

³¹¶“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,

Or loose the cords of Orion?

³²“Can you lead forth a constellation in its season,[#38:32 Heb Mazzaroth]

And guide the Bear with her satellites?

³³“Do you know the statutes of the heavens,

Or fix their rule over the earth?

³⁴¶“Can you raise your voice up to the clouds,

So that an abundance of water will cover you?

³⁵“Can you send forth lightnings that they may go

And say to you, ‘Here we are’?

³⁶“Who has given wisdom in the innermost being[#38:36 Or ibis]

Or given understanding to the mind?

³⁷“Who can count the clouds by wisdom,

Or tip the water jars of the heavens,

³⁸When the dust hardens into a mass

And the clods stick together?

Yahweh Answers Job, “Where Were You?”

³⁹¶“Can you hunt the prey for the lion,

Or fulfill the appetite of the young lions,

⁴⁰When they crouch in their dens

And lie in wait in their lair?

⁴¹“Who prepares for the raven its provision

When its young cry for help to God

And wander about without food?