1Then Yahweh answered Job out of the storm and said:
2Who is this who darkens counsel with words without knowledge?
3Now gird up your loins like a man; I will question you, and you shall inform me.
4Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
5Who set its measurements — surely you know! — or who stretched the measuring line over 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?
8Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst forth, issuing from the womb,
9when I made the cloud its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band,
10and I broke my boundary upon it and set a bar and doors,
11and said, ‘This far you may come, but no farther; here shall your proud waves be stayed’?
12Have you ever in your days commanded the morning, made the dawn know its place,
13to take hold of the skirts of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?
14It is transformed like clay under a seal, and things stand out like a garment.
15And their light is withheld from the wicked, and the uplifted arm is broken.
16Have you gone as far as the springs of the sea, or walked about in the depths of the deep?
17Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
18Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Declare it, if you know it all.
19Where is the way to where light dwells, and darkness — where is its place,
20that you might take it to its territory and 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 battle and war?
24Where is the way by which the light is distributed, or the east wind scattered over the earth?
25Who cut a channel for the torrent of rain, and a way for the thunderbolt,
26to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the wilderness in which there is no human,
27to satisfy the desolate and waste ground, and to cause the growth of grass to spring forth?
28Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29From whose womb came the ice, and the frost of heaven — who gave it birth?
30The waters hide themselves like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen fast.
31Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion?
32Can you bring out the constellations in their season, or lead out the Bear with her cubs?
33Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule over the earth?
34Can you lift up your voice to the cloud, so that a flood of waters covers you?
35Can you send out lightning bolts, so that they go, and they say to you, ‘Here we are’?
36Who put wisdom in the inward parts, or who gave understanding to the mind?
37Who can number the clouds by wisdom, and who can tip over the water-jars of the heavens,
38when the dust hardens into a mass, and the clods cling together?
39Can you hunt prey for the lioness, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
40when they crouch in their dens, or lie in wait in their lair?
41Who provides for the raven its food, when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?
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