Yahweh Challenges Job

1And YHWH answered Job out of the whirlwind, and He said:

2“Who is this darkening counsel

with words lacking knowledge?†

3Gird up your loins now like a man,

and I will question you, and you shall answer Me.†

4Where were you at my founding of the earth?

Declare it if you know with understanding.

5Who set its measurements? Surely you must know!

Or who stretched over it a line?

6On what were its bases made to sink in,

or who cast the stone of its corner,†

7at the singing together by the stars of the morning,

and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

8Or who shut in the sea with doors,

at its coming forth in its bursting from the womb,

9in my setting for the cloud its garment,

and for the dark cloud its swaddling band,

10when I broke forth over it My decree,

and set in place a bar and doors,

11and I said, ‘Up to here you may come, and you shall not go further;

and here shall be set the pride of your waves’?

12have you commanded the morning from your days,

and made the dawn to know its place,

13for it to take hold of the edges of the earth,

and the wicked be shaken out of it?

14It is turned over like clay under a seal,

and they stand out like a garment.

15And their light is withheld from the wicked,

and the arm upraised is broken.

16Have you come to the springs of the sea,

or in search of the depths have you walked about?

17Have the gates of death been uncovered to you,

or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?

18Have you comprehended to the breadths of the earth?

Declare it if you know all of it.

19Where is this way to the dwelling of light?

And of darkness, where is this its place,

20that you may take it to its border,

that you may know the paths to its home?

21You must know it, for you were born then,

and the number of your days is great!

22Have you come to the treasury of snow,

or have you seen the treasury of hail,

23that I have held back for a time of trouble,

for a day of battle and war?

24Where is this, the way light is apportioned?

The east wind is scattered over the earth.

25Who has divided out a channel for the flood,

or a path for the lightning of the thunderings,

26to make rain come upon a land without man,

a desert without man in it,

27to satisfy the waste and the desolation,

and to make sprout the shoot of the grass?

28Is there a father for the rain?

Or who has begotten the drops of dew?

29From whose womb comes forth the ice?

And the frost of the heavens, who gives birth to it?

30Like stone, the waters hide themselves,

and the face of the deep is seized.

31Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,

or can you open the cords of Orion?

32Can you bring forth Mazzaroth in its time?†

Or can you lead out the Bear† with her cubs?

33Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?

Or can you set its rule over the earth?

34Can you raise to the cloud your voice,

and an abundance of waters will cover you?

35Can you send out lightnings,

that they may go and say to you, ‘Behold us’?

36Who has put wisdom in the inner parts?†

Or who has given to the heart understanding?

37Who can count the clouds by wisdom?

Or the water skins of the heavens, who can tilt,

38in the pouring of the dust into a mass,

and the clods clinging together?

39Can you hunt prey for a lion,

or satisfy the life of young lions,

40when they crouch in the dens,

dwelling in a thicket, lying in wait in it?

41Who provides to the raven its food

when its children cry out to God

and wander for lack of food?