¹Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,

• ²“Who is this who darkens counsel
• by words without knowledge?

• ³Brace yourself like a man,
• for I will question you, then you answer me!

• ⁴“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
• Declare, if you have understanding.

• ⁵Who determined its measures, if you know?
• Or who stretched the line on it?

• ⁶Whereupon were its foundations fastened?
• Or who laid its cornerstone,

• ⁷when the morning stars sang together,
• and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

• ⁸“Or who shut up the sea with doors,
• when it broke forth from the womb,

• ⁹when I made clouds its garment,
• and wrapped it in thick darkness,

• ¹⁰marked out for it my bound,
• set bars and doors,

• ¹¹and said, ‘Here you may come, but no further.
• Here your proud waves shall be stayed?’

• ¹²“Have you commanded the morning in your days,
• and caused the dawn to know its place;

• ¹³that it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
• and shake the wicked out of it?

• ¹⁴It is changed as clay under the seal,
• and stands forth as a garment.

• ¹⁵From the wicked, their light is withheld.
• The high arm is broken.

• ¹⁶“Have you entered into the springs of the sea?
• Or have you 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 comprehended the earth in its breadth?
• Declare, if you know it all.

• ¹⁹“What is the way to the dwelling of light?
• As for darkness, where is its place,

• ²⁰that you should take it to its bound,
• that you should discern the paths to its house?

• ²¹Surely you know, for you were born then,
• and the number of your days is great!

• ²²Have you entered the treasuries of the snow,
• or have you seen the treasures of the hail,

• ²³which I have reserved against the time of trouble,
• against the day of battle and war?

• ²⁴By what way is the lightning distributed,
• or the east wind scattered on the earth?

• ²⁵Who has cut a channel for the flood water,
• or the path for the thunderstorm;

• ²⁶To cause it to rain on a land where no man is;
• on the wilderness, in which there is no man;

• ²⁷to satisfy the waste and desolate ground,
• to cause the tender grass to spring forth?

• ²⁸Does the rain have a father?
• Or who fathers the drops of dew?

• ²⁹Out of whose womb came the ice?
• The gray frost of the sky, who has given birth to it?

• ³⁰The waters become hard like stone,
• when the surface of the deep is frozen.

• ³¹“Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades,
• or loosen the cords of Orion?

• ³²Can you lead forth the constellations in their season?
• Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?

• ³³Do you know the laws of the heavens?
• Can you establish its dominion over the earth?

• ³⁴“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
• That abundance of waters may cover you?

• ³⁵Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go?
• Do they report to you, ‘Here we are?’

• ³⁶Who has put wisdom in the inward parts?
• Or who has given understanding to the mind?

• ³⁷Who can number the clouds by wisdom?
• Or who can pour out the bottles of the sky,

• ³⁸when the dust runs into a mass,
• and the clods of earth stick together?

• ³⁹“Can you hunt the prey for the lioness,
• or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

• ⁴⁰when they crouch in their dens,
• and lie in wait in the thicket?

• ⁴¹Who provides for the raven his prey,
• when his young ones cry to God,
• and wander for lack of food?