The LORD answers from a whirlwind

¹Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind:

²Who is this darkening counsel

with words lacking knowledge?

³Prepare yourself like a man;

I will interrogate you, and you will respond to me.

The establishing of order

⁴Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?

Tell me if you know.

⁵Who set its measurements? Surely you know.

Who stretched a measuring tape on it?

⁶On what were its footings sunk;

who laid its cornerstone,

⁷while the morning stars sang in unison

⁸Who enclosed the Sea behind doors[#38.8 Heb , a sea god]

when it burst forth from the womb,

⁹when I made the clouds its garment,

¹⁰when I imposed my limit for it,[#38.10 Heb uncertain]

¹¹and said, “You may come this far, no farther;

¹²In your lifetime have you commanded the morning,

¹³so it would take hold of earth by its edges

¹⁴Do you turn it over like clay for a seal,

¹⁵Light is withheld from the wicked,

the uplifted arm broken.

The vast beyond

¹⁶Have you gone to the sea’s sources,

walked in the chamber of the deep?

¹⁷Have death’s gates been revealed to you;

can you see the gates of deep darkness?

¹⁸Have you surveyed earth’s expanses?

Tell me if you know everything about it.

¹⁹Where’s the road to the place where light dwells;

²⁰Can you take it to its territory;

²¹You know, for you were born then;

you have lived such a long time!

²²Have you gone to snow’s storehouses,

²³that I have reserved for a time of distress,

²⁴What is the way to the place where light is divided up;

Meteorological facts

²⁵Who cut a channel for the downpours

²⁶to bring water to uninhabited land,

²⁷to saturate dry wasteland

²⁸Has the rain a father

who brought forth drops of dew?

²⁹From whose belly does ice come;

who gave birth to heaven’s frost?

³⁰Water hardens like stone;

the surface of the deep thickens.

³¹Can you bind Pleiades’ chains

or loosen the reins of Orion?

³²Can you guide the stars

at their proper times,

lead the Bear with her cubs?

³³Do you know heaven’s laws,

or can you impose its rule on earth?

³⁴Can you issue an order to the clouds

so their abundant waters cover you?

³⁵Can you send lightning so that it goes

and then says to you, “I’m here”?

³⁶Who put wisdom in remote places,

or who gave understanding to a rooster?

³⁷Who is wise enough to count the clouds,

³⁸so that dust becomes mud

Lion and raven

³⁹Can you hunt prey for the lion

or fill the cravings of lion cubs?

⁴⁰They lie in their den,

lie in ambush in their lair.

⁴¹Who provides food for the raven

when its young cry to God,

move about without food?