Job 38:4-Job 40:2 - Yahweh Interrogates Job

⁴ "Where were you when I laid the foundation of my earth? Tell me, since you're so informed! ⁵ Who set its measurement? Am I to assume you know? Who stretched a boundary line over it? ⁶ On what were its bases set? Who laid its corner stone ⁷ while the morning stars sang together and all the divine beings shouted joyfully?

⁸ "Who enclosed the sea with limits when it gushed out of the womb, ⁹ when I made clouds to be its clothes and thick darkness its swaddling blanket, ¹⁰ when I proscribed a boundary for it, set in place bars and doors for it; ¹¹ and said, "You may come only this far and no more. Your majestic waves will stop here.'?

¹² "Have you ever commanded the morning at any time during your life? Do you know where the dawn lives, ¹³ where it seizes the edge of the earth and shakes the wicked out of it? ¹⁴ Like clay is molded by a signet ring, the earth's hills and valleys then stand out like the colors of a garment. ¹⁵ Then from the wicked their light is withheld and their upraised arm is broken.

¹⁶ "Have you been to the source of the sea and walked about in the recesses of the deepest ocean? ¹⁷ Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness? ¹⁸ Do you understand the breadth of the earth? Tell me, since you know it all!

¹⁹ "Where is the road to where the light lives? Or where does the darkness live? ²⁰ Can you take it to its homeland, since you know the path to his house? ²¹ You should know! After all, you had been born back then, so the number of your days is great! ²² "Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen where the hail is stored, ²³ which I've reserved for the tribulation to come, for the day of battle and war? ²⁴ Where is the lightning diffused or the east wind scattered around the earth?

²⁵ "Who cuts canals for storm floods, and paths for the lightning and thunder, ²⁶ to bring rain upon a land without inhabitants, a desert in which no human beings live, ²⁷ to satisfy a desolate and devastated desert, causing it to sprout vegetation? ²⁸ "Does the rain have a father? Who fathered the dew? ²⁹ Whose womb brings forth the ice? Who gives birth to frost out of an empty sky, ³⁰ when water solidifies like stone and the surface of the deepest sea freezes?

³¹ "Can you bind the chains of Pleiades or loosen the cords of Orion? ³² Can you bring out constellations in their season? Can you guide the Bear with her cubs? ³³ Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you regulate their authority over the earth? ³⁴ "Can you call out to the clouds, so that abundant water drenches you? ³⁵ Can you command the lightning, so that it goes forth and calls to you, "Look at us!'

³⁶ "Who sets wisdom within you, or imbues your mind with understanding? ³⁷ Who has the wisdom to be able to count the clouds, or to empty the water jars of heaven, ³⁸ when dust dries into a mass and then breaks apart into clods?

³⁹ "Can you hunt prey for the lioness to satisfy young lions ⁴⁰ when they crouch in their dens and lie in ambush in their lairs? ⁴¹ Who prepares food for the raven, when its offspring cry out to God as they wander for lack of food?"

¹ "Do you know when the mountain goat gives birth? Do you watch the doe as it calves its young? ² Can you count the months of their gestation? Do you know the time when they give birth, ³ when they crouch down to give birth to their offspring, and let go of their birth pangs? ⁴ Their young are strong; they grow up in the open field; then they go off and don't return to them."

⁵ "Who sets the wild donkey free? Who loosens the bonds of the wild donkey ⁶ to whom I've given the Arabah for a home; the salt plain for his dwelling place? ⁷ He despises city noises; he ignores the shouts of the driver. ⁸ He ranges the mountains that are his pasture to search for anything green. ⁹ Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he sleep at night near your feeding trough? ¹⁰ Can you bind the ox to plow a furrow with a rope? Will he harrow after you in the valley? ¹¹ Will you trust him because of his great strength and entrust your labor to him? ¹² Will you trust him that he'll bring in your grain, and gather it to your threshing floor?"

¹³ "The wings of the ostrich flap joyously, but aren't its pinions and feathers like the stork? ¹⁴ She abandons her eggs on the ground and lets them be warmed in the sand, ¹⁵ but she forgets that a foot might crush them or any wild animal might trample them. ¹⁶ She mistreats her young as though they're not hers, and she has no fear that her labor may be in vain, ¹⁷ because God didn't grant her wisdom and never gave her understanding. ¹⁸ And yet when she gets ready to run, she laughs at the horse and its rider."

¹⁹ Do you instill the horse with strength? Do you clothe its neck with a mane? ²⁰ Can you make him leap like the locust, and make the splendor of his snorting terrifying? ²¹ He paws the ground in the valley and rejoices in his strength; he goes out to face weapons. ²² He scoffs at fear and is never scared; he never retreats from a sword. ²³ A quiver of arrows rattles against his side, along with a flashing spear and a lance. ²⁴ Leaping in his excitement, he takes in the ground; he cannot stand still when the trumpets sound! ²⁵ When the trumpet blasts he'll neigh, "Aha! Aha!' From a distance he can sense war, the war cry of generals, and their shouting."

²⁶ "Is it by your understanding that the hawk flies, spreading its wings toward the south? ²⁷ Does the eagle soar high at your command and build its nest on the highest crags? ²⁸ He dwells on the crags where he makes his home, there on the rocky crag is his stronghold. ²⁹ From there he searches for prey, and his eyes recognize it from a distance. ³⁰ His young ones feast on blood; he'll be found wherever there's a carcass."

¹ The LORD continued his response to Job by saying: ² "Should the one who is fighting the Almighty find fault with him? Let God's accuser answer."