1Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
2"Who is this that darkens my counsel with words that have no knowledge in them?"
3"Get ready now like a man. I will ask you questions, and you shall answer me."
4"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding."
5"Who decided how big it should be? Surely you know. Or who stretched the measuring line across it?"
6"What are its foundations fastened to? Or who laid its corner stone,"
7"when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"
8"Or who shut the sea in behind doors, when it burst out as if it came from the womb?"
9"It was I who made the cloud its clothing, and thick darkness the cloth that wrapped it,"
10"and I broke open for it the place I had decreed, and set bars and doors,"
11"and said, 'You may come this far, but no further. Here your proud waves shall stop.'"
12"Have you ever in your life given orders to the morning, and shown the dawn its place,"
13"so that it takes hold of the edges of the earth, and the wicked are shaken out of it?"
14"The earth is changed like clay under a seal, and everything stands out like a garment."
15"The wicked are kept from their light, and the raised arm is broken."
16"Have you gone into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked about searching the deep?"
17"Have the gates of death been opened to you? Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?"
18"Have you understood how wide the earth is? Tell me, if you know it all."
19"Where is the way to the place where light lives? And darkness, where is its home,"
20"so that you could take it to its own country, and know the paths to its house?"
21"You know, of course, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great."
22"Have you gone into the storehouses of the snow? Or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,"
23"which I have kept back for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?"
24"Which way does the light spread out? Which way does the east wind scatter over the earth?"
25"Who has cut a channel for the flooding rain, or a path for the thunderbolt,"
26"to bring rain on land where no one lives, on the wilderness, where there is no man,"
27"to fill the empty, wasted ground, and make the young grass spring up?"
28"Has the rain a father? Or who was the father of the drops of dew?"
29"Out of whose womb came the ice? And the white frost of heaven, who gave it birth?"
30"The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen."
31"Can you bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades, or loosen the bands of Orion?"
32"Can you bring out Mazzaroth in its season? Or can you guide Arcturus with his sons?"
33"Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their rule over the earth?"
34"Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, so that plenty of water covers you?"
35"Can you send out the lightnings, so that they go and say to you, 'Here we are'?"
36"Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the heart?"
37"Who is wise enough to count the clouds? Or who can tip over the water jars of heaven,"
38"when the dust grows hard, and the lumps of soil stick fast together?"
39"Will you hunt the prey for the lion, or fill the hunger of the young lions,"
40"when they crouch in their dens, and wait hidden, ready to spring?"
41"Who provides food for the raven, when its young ones cry to God and wander about for lack of food?"