Where wast thou, when I founded the earth? Tell, if thou knowest understanding!

Then Yahweh responded to Job, out of a storm, and said: -

When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Who prepareth for the Raven his nourishment, - when his young ones - unto GOD - cry out, when they wander for lack of food?

When they settle down in dens, abide in covert, for lying in wait?

Canst thou bind the fetters of the Pleiades? Or, the bands of Orion, canst thou unloose?

Wilt thou hunt - for the Lioness - prey? Or, the craving of the Strong Lion, wilt thou satisfy;

Hast thou entered into the treasuries of the snow? And, the treasuries of the hail, couldst thou see?

Who is it that darkeneth counsel, by words, without knowledge?

Or who shut in, with double doors, the sea, when, bursting out of the womb, it came forth;

Whereon were the pedestals thereof sunk? Or who laid the corner stone thereof; -

Since thy days began hast thou commanded the morning? or caused the dawn to know its place;

Hast thou entered as far as the springs of the sea? Or, through the secret recesses of the resounding deep, hast thou wandered?

And said - Hitherto, shalt thou come, and no further, - and, here, shalt thou set a limit to the majesty of thy waves?

Canst thou bring forth the signs of the Zodiac each in its season? Or, the Bear and her Young, canst thou lead?

Where then is the way, the light shall abide? And, the darkness, where then is its place?

Gird, I pray thee - like a strong man - thy loins, that I may ask thee, and inform thou me:

Knowest thou, the statutes of the heavens? Or didst thou appoint his dominion over the earth?

Who hath put - into cloud-forms - wisdom? Or who hath given - to the meteor - understanding?

Who hath cloven - for the torrent - a channel? Or a way for the lightning of thunders;

And brake off for it my boundary, and fixed a bar and double doors;

Have the gates of death been disclosed to thee? And, the gates of the death-shade, couldst thou descry?

When I put a cloud as the garment thereof, and a thick cloud as the swaddling-band thereof;

That it might lay hold of the wings of the earth, and the lawless be shaken out of it?

It transformeth itself like the clay of a seal, so that things stand forth like one arrayed;

Hath the rain a father? Or who hath begotten the drops of dew?

Out of whose womb, came forth the ice? And, the hoar-frost of the heavens, who hath given it birth?

Canst thou send forth the lightnings, so that they go, and say to thee, Behold us?

Where then is the way the lightning is parted? The east wind spreadeth itself abroad over the earth.

Who set the measurements thereof, if thou knowest? Or who stretched out over it a line?

That their light may be withdrawn from the lawless, and, the lofty arm, be shivered.

To give rain over the no-man's land, the desert, where no son of earth is;

Who can count the thin clouds, in wisdom? And, the bottles of the heavens, who can empty out;

Canst thou lift up, to the thick cloud, thy voice, and the overflow of waters cover thee?

Like a stone, are the waters congealed, and, the face of the roaring deep, becometh firm!

Hast thou well considered, even the breadths of the earth? Tell - if thou knowest it all!

When the dust is cast into a clod, and the lumps are bound together?

Which I have reserved for a time of distress, for the day of conflict and of war?

To satisfy the wild and the wilderness, to cause to spring forth the meadow of young grass?

That thou mayest conduct it unto the bound thereof, and that thou mayest perceive the paths to its house.

Thou knowest, for, then, hadst thou been born! And, in number, thy days are many!