The LORD Challenges Job

1But the Lord, responding to Job from a whirlwind, said:

2Who is this that wraps sentences in unskilled words?

3Gird your waist like a man. I will question you, and you must answer me.

4Where were you, when I set the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.

5Who set its measurements, if you know, or who stretched a line over it?

6Upon what have its bases been grounded, and who set forth its cornerstone,

7when the morning stars praised me together, and all the sons of God made a joyful noise?

8Who enclosed the sea with doors, when it broke forth as if issuing from the womb,

9when I stationed a cloud as its garment and wrapped it in a mist as if swaddling an infant?

10I encircled it with my limits, and I positioned its bars and doors.

11And I said: “This far you will approach, and you will proceeded no further, and here you will break your swelling waves.”

12Did you, after your birth, command the birth of the sun and show the sunrise its place?

13And did you hold the extremities of the earth, shaking them, and have you shaken the impious out of it?

14The seal will be restored like clay, and it will remain in place like a garment.

15From the impious, the light will be taken away, and the exalted arm will be broken.

16Have you entered the depths of the sea, and have you taken a walk in the uttermost parts of the abyss?

17Have the gates of death been opened to you, and have you seen the doors of darkness?

18Have you considered the breadth of the earth? If you know all things, reveal them to me.

19Which is the way that holds the light, and which is the place of darkness?

20In this way, you might lead each thing to its final place, and understand the paths of its house.

21So then, did you know when you were to be born? And did you know the number of your days?

22Have you been admitted into the storehouses of the snows, and have you gazed upon the stockpile of the brimstone,

23which I have prepared for the time of the enemy, for the day of the battle and the war?

24In what way is the light scattered, and the heat distributed, over the earth?

25Who gave a course to the rainstorms, and a path to the resounding thunder,

26so that it would rain on the earth far from man, in the wilderness where no mortal lingers,

27so that it would fill impassable and desolate places, and would bring forth green plants?

28Who is the father of rain, or who conceived the drops of dew?

29From whose womb did the ice proceed, and who created the frost from the air?

30The waters are hardened to become like stone, and the surface of the abyss freezes over.

31Will you have the strength to join together the sparkling stars of the Pleiades, or are you able to disperse the circling of Arcturus?

32Can you bring forth the morning star, in its time, and make the evening star rise over the sons of the earth?

33Do you know the order of heaven, and can you explain its rules here on the earth?

34Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, so that an onslaught of waters will cover you?

35Can you send forth lightning bolts, and will they go, and on returning, say to you: “Here we are?”

36Who placed discernment in the guts of man, or who gave the rooster intelligence?

37Who can describe the rules of the heavens, or who can put to rest the harmony of heaven?

38When was the dust cast to become the earth, and when were its clods fastened together?

39Will you seize prey for the lioness, and will you sustain the lives of her young,

40as they rest in their dens or lie in wait in pits?

41Who provides the raven with its meal, when her chicks cry out to God, as they wander around because they have no food?