Job Chapter 38

Job 37:14-24

¹ God answered Job out of the whirlwind:

² “Who is this that confuses my counsel

with ignorant words?

³ Gird up* like a man;

I’ll ask you some questions, and you answer me.

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

Tell me if you have any idea.

⁵ Who specified its measurements

or stretched out a line on it?

Surely you know!

⁶ What did its pylons rest on?

Who laid its cornerstone

⁷ when the morning stars sang together

and all God’s angels shouted for joy?     

Job 38:1-7

⁸ “Who shut the ocean in boundaries,

when it came bursting out of the womb,

⁹ when I clothed it with clouds

and swaddled it with deep darkness,

¹⁰ when I set its boundaries,

bolted its doors,

¹¹ and said, ‘You can’t go beyond this point;

here’s where your proud waves stop’?    

Job 38:8-11

¹² “Have you ever commanded the morning

and made dawn happen

¹³ so it can spread to the ends of the earth

and bring to an end night’s evil?

¹⁴ The earth is stamped like clay under a seal;

its features stand out like folds in a robe.

¹⁵ Light is withheld from sinners,

and their uplifted arm is broken.                         

Job 38:12-15

¹⁶ “Have you traveled to the springs of the ocean

or walked in the recesses of the deep?

¹⁷ Have the gates of death been revealed to you;

have you seen the doors into deep darkness?

¹⁸ Do you have any idea how big the earth is?

Tell me if you know that.                                      Job 38:16-18

¹⁹ “Where’s the road to where light lives?

Where’s the place for darkness,

²⁰ so you can take it to its territory

and make out the paths to its home?

²¹ You know because you were born there, right!

and you’ve lived so long!

²² Have you entered the storehouses for snow

or seen where I keep the hail

²³ I reserve for troubled times,

for the time of war and battle?

²⁴ Where’s the road to the source of light

or where the east wind scatters over the earth?  

Job 38:19-24

²⁵ “Who carved a channel for the flood

or laid out the course of a thunderbolt

²⁶ to bring rain on land with no people—

on a vacant desert—

²⁷ to satisfy desolate land

and make grass sprout?

²⁸ Does rain have a father?

Who has begotten the drops of dew?

²⁹ Whose womb did ice come out of?

Who gave birth to frost from the sky?

³⁰ Water gets as hard as rock;

its surface freezes over and imprisons the deep.

Job 38:25-30

³¹ “Can you tie up the chains of the Pleiades

or untie the cords of Orion?

³² Can you lead out the signs of the Zodiac in their seasons

and guide the Bear with her cubs?

³³ Do you know the laws of the sky

or manage the earth with them?

³⁴ “Can you shout to the clouds

to get enough water to cover you?

³⁵ Do you send out lightning bolts on their way?

Do they report to you, ‘We’re here’?                   Job 38:31-35

³⁶ “Who endowed the heart with wisdom

or gave intelligence to the mind?

³⁷ Who can count the clouds

or tip over the water jars in the sky

³⁸ when dust hardens into clumps

and forms clods?                                     

Job 38:36-38

³⁹ “Can you stalk prey for a lion

or satisfy the appetite of young lions

⁴⁰ when they crouch in their dens

and lie in wait in their lairs?

⁴¹ Who fixes feed for the ravens

when their young call out to God

and wander around with nothing to eat?            

Job 38:39-41