VI. The Divine Speeches (38:1-42:6)
The LORD’s First Speech30
38:1 Then the LORD answered Job
out of the whirlwind,1
and said:
38:2 Who is this2
who darkens counsel3
with words without knowledge?
38:3 Gird up your loins4
like a man;
I will question you
and you will inform me!
God’s questions to Job
38:4 Where were you
when I laid the foundation5
of the earth?
Tell me,6
if you know understanding!
38:5 Who set its measurements—if7
you know—
or who stretched a measuring line over it?
38:6 On what8
were its bases9
set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
38:7 when the morning stars10
sang11
in chorus,12
and all the sons of God13
shouted for joy!
38:8 Who shut up14
the sea with doors
when it burst forth,15
coming out of the womb;
38:9 when I made16
a storm cloud its garment,
and thick darkness its swaddling band;17
38:10 when I prescribed18
its limits,
and set19
in place its bars and doors;
38:11 when I said, “To here you may come20
and no farther,21
here your proud waves will be confined”?22
38:12 Have you ever in your life23
commanded the morning,
or made the dawn know24
its place,
38:13 that it might seize the corners of the earth,25
and shake the wicked out of it?
38:14 The earth takes shape like clay of a seal.26
they27
stand up28
like a garment.
38:15 Then from the wicked their light is withheld,
and the raised arm is broken.29
38:16 Have you gone to the springs of the sea,
or walked about in the recesses of the deep?
38:17 Have the gates of death been revealed to
you?30
Have you seen the gates of deep darkness?31
38:18 Have you considered the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all of it.
38:19 In what way32
does light reside,
and darkness, where is its place,
38:20 that you may take them to their borders
and perceive the pathways to their home?33
38:21 You know, for you were already born;34
and the number of your days is great.
38:22 Have you entered the storehouse35
of the snow,
or seen the storehouse of the hail,
38:23 which I reserve for the time of trouble,
for day of battle and battle?
38:24 In what way is lightning36
dispersed,
or the east winds scattered over the earth?
38:25 Who divides a channel for the heavy rains,
and a path for the rumble of thunder,
38:26 to cause it to rain on an uninhabited land,37
a desert where there are no human beings,38
38:27 to satisfy a devastated and desolate land,
and to cause it to sprout with vegetation?39
38:28 Does the rain have a father,
or who begets the drops of the dew?
38:29 From whose womb emerges the ice,
And the frost of heaven, who gives birth to it,
38:30 when the waters become hard40
like stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen?
38:31 Can you tie the bands41
of the Pleiades,
or loosen the cords of Orion?
38:32 Can you bring forth the constellations42
in their seasons,
or lead out the Bear with its cubs?43
38:33 Do you know the laws of the heavens,
or can you set up its rule in the earth?
38:34 Can you raise your voice to the clouds
so that a flood of water covers you?44
38:35 Can you send forth lightning bolts, and they go?
And will they say to you, “Here we are”?
38:36 Who has put wisdom in the heart,45
or who has imparted understanding to the mind?
38:37 Who by wisdom can number the clouds,
and who can tip over46
the water jars of heaven,
38:38 when the dust hardens47
into a mass,
and the clods of earth stick together?
38:39 Do you hunt prey for the lioness,
and satisfy the appetite48
of the lions,
38:40 when they crouch in their dens,
when they wait in ambush in the thicket?
38:41 Who prepares for the raven its prey,
when its young cry out to God
and wander about49
for lack of food?