JobChapter 38
Tap any verse to comment or suggest a better wording.
1Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind. He said, 2"Who is this who darkens my plans
with words that have no knowledge? 3Now get ready like a man.
I will ask you questions, and you will answer me. 4Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell me, if you understand. 5Who decided how big it would be? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it? 6What were its foundations set on?
Who laid its cornerstone 7while the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?a 8Who shut the sea behind doors
when it burst out of the womb, 9when I made the clouds its clothing
and thick darkness its blanket, 10when I set its borders
and put its bars and doors in place, 11and I said, 'You may come this far, but no farther.
Here your proud waves must stop'? 12In your life, have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place, 13so that it might spread to the ends of the earth
and shake the wicked out of it? 14The earth takes shape like clay pressed by a seal.
Its hills stand out like the folds of a robe. 15Light is kept from the wicked.
Their arm that is raised to strike is broken. 16Have you traveled to the springs at the bottom of the sea?
Have you walked in the deep valleys of the ocean? 17Have the gates of death been shown to you?
Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness? 18Do you know how big the earth is?
Tell me, if you know all this. 19What is the way to the home of light?
Where does darkness live? 20so you can lead it back to its border?
Do you know the paths to its home? 21Surely you know, because you were already born!
You have lived so many years! 22Have you gone into the storerooms of snow?
Have you seen the storerooms of hail? 23I keep them ready for times of trouble,
for days of war and battle. 24Which way does the lightning spread out?
Where does the east wind blow across the earth? 25Who cuts a ditch for the flood
or clears a path for the thunderbolt 26to bring rain on land where nothing grows,
on a desert where no one lives, 27to water the dry wasteland
and make soft grass grow there? 28Does the rain have a father?
Who is the father of the drops of dew? 29Whose womb does the ice come from?
Who gives birth to the frost from the sky 30when the waters become as hard as stone
and the top of the deep sea freezes? 31Can you tie up the chains of the Pleiades?
Can you loosen the belt of Orion?b 32Can you bring out the star groups in their seasons?
Can you lead out the Bear and her cubs? 33Do you know the laws of the skies?
Can you set up their rule over the earth? 34Can you shout orders to the clouds
so that a flood of water covers you? 35Can you send the lightning bolts on their way?
Do they come to you and say, 'Here we are'? 36Who put wisdom in the heart?
Who gave understanding to the mind? 37Who is wise enough to count the clouds?
Who can tip over the water jars of the sky 38when the dust turns hard
and the clumps of dirt stick together? 39Can you hunt food for a lioness?
Can you fill up the hungry young lions 40when they crouch in their dens
and wait in the bushes to attack? 41Who gives food to the raven
when its young cry out to God
and wander around with nothing to eat?