God Speaks Now to Job

1Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said,

2“Who is this that darkens counsel

By words without knowledge?

3Now gird up your loins like a man,

And I will ask you, and you instruct Me!

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

Tell Me, if you have understanding,

5Who set its measurements? Since you know.

Or who stretched the line on it?

6On 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 thick darkness its swaddling band,

10And I placed boundaries 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’?

God’s Mighty Power

12“Have you ever in your life commanded the morning,

And caused the dawn to know its place,

13That it might take hold of the ends of the earth,

And the wicked be shaken out of it?

14It is changed like clay under the seal;

And they stand forth like a garment.

15From the wicked their light is withheld,

And the uplifted arm is broken.

16“Have you entered into the springs of the sea

Or walked in the recesses of the deep?

17Have the gates of death been revealed to you,

Or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

18Have you understood the expanse of the earth?

Tell Me, if you know all this.

19“Where is the way to the dwelling of light?

And darkness, where is its place,

20That you may take it to its territory

And that you may discern the paths to its home?

21You know, for you were born then,

And the number of your days is great!

22Have 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?

24Where is the way that the light is divided,

Or the east wind scattered on the earth?

25“Who has cleft a channel for the flood,

Or a way for the thunderbolt,

26To bring rain on a land without people,

On a desert without a man in it,

27To satisfy the waste and desolate land

And to make the seeds of grass to sprout?

28Has the rain a father?

Or who has begotten the drops of dew?

29From whose womb has come the ice?

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

30Water becomes hard like stone,

And the surface of the deep is imprisoned.

31“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,

Or loose the cords of Orion?

32Can you lead forth a constellation in its season,

And guide the Bear with her satellites?

33Do you know the ordinances of the heavens,

Or fix their rule over the earth?

34“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,

So that an abundance of water will cover you?

35Can you send forth lightnings that they may go

And say to you, ‘Here we are’?

36Who has put wisdom in the innermost being

Or given understanding to the mind?

37Who 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?

39“Can you hunt the prey for the lion,

Or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

40When they crouch in their dens

And lie in wait in their lair?

41Who prepares for the raven its nourishment

When its young cry to God

And wander about without food?

God Speaks of Nature and Its Beings

1“Do you know the time the mountain goats give birth?

Do you observe the calving of the deer?

2Can you count the months they fulfill,

Or do you know the time they give birth?

3They kneel down, they bring forth their young,

They get rid of their labor pains.

4Their offspring become strong, they grow up in the open field;

They leave and do not return to them.

5“Who sent out the wild donkey free?

And who loosed the bonds of the swift donkey,

6To whom I gave the wilderness for a home

And the salt land for his dwelling place?

7He scorns the tumult of the city,

The shoutings of the driver he does not hear.

8He explores the mountains for his pasture

And searches after every green thing.

9Will the wild ox consent to serve you,

Or will he spend the night at your manger?

10Can you bind the wild ox in a furrow with ropes,

Or will he harrow the valleys after you?

11Will you trust him because his strength is great

And leave your labor to him?

12Will you have faith in him that he will return your grain

And gather it from your threshing floor?

13“The ostriches’ wings flap joyously

With the pinion and plumage of love,

14For she abandons her eggs to the earth

And warms them in the dust,

15And she forgets that a foot may crush them,

Or that a wild beast may trample them.

16She treats her young cruelly, as if they were not hers;

Though her labor be in vain, she is unconcerned;

17Because God has made her forget wisdom,

And has not given her a share of understanding.

18When she lifts herself on high,

She laughs at the horse and his rider.

19“Do you give the horse his might?

Do you clothe his neck with a mane?

20Do you make him leap like the locust?

His majestic snorting is terrible.

21He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength;

He goes out to meet the weapons.

22He laughs at fear and is not dismayed;

And he does not turn back from the sword.

23The quiver rattles against him,

The flashing spear and javelin.

24With shaking and rage he races over the ground,

And he does not stand still at the voice of the trumpet.

25As often as the trumpet sounds he says, ‘Aha!’

And he scents the battle from afar,

And the thunder of the captains and the war cry.

26“Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars,

Stretching his wings toward the south?

27Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up

And makes his nest on high?

28On the cliff he dwells and lodges,

Upon the rocky crag, an inaccessible place.

29From there he spies out food;

His eyes see it from afar.

30His young ones also suck up blood;

And where the slain are, there is he.”