Yahweh Answers Job

1Then Yahweh 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 make Me know!

4Where 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?

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 dense gloom 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’?

Yahweh Answers Job, ‘Have You?‘

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

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?

14It is changed like clay under the seal;

And they stand forth like clothing.

15From 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?

17Have the gates of death been revealed to you,

Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

18Have you carefully considered the [†]expanse of the earth?

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?

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 conduit 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 growth 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 interlocked.

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 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?

35Can you send forth lightnings that they may go

And say to you, ‘Here we are’?

36Who has given 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?

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?

41Who prepares for the raven its provision

When its young cry for help to God

And wander about without food?