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

⁴ "Where wast thou, when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell plainly if thou hast understanding. ⁵ Who hath measured it, knowest thou? Or, who hath spread the line upon it? ⁶ Where upon stand the pillars of it? Or, who laid the corner stone? ⁷ Where wast thou, when the morning stars praised me together, and all the children of God rejoiced triumphantly?

⁸ Who shut the sea with doors, when it brake forth as a child out of his mother's womb? ⁹ When I made the clouds to be a covering for it, and swaddled it with the dark; ¹⁰ When I gave it my commandment, making doors and bars for it; ¹¹ saying, 'Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shalt thou lay down thy proud and high waves.'

¹² "Hast thou given the morning his charge, as soon as thou wast born, and showed the day spring his place, ¹³ that it might take hold of the corners of the earth, and that the ungodly might be shaken out? ¹⁴ Their tokens and weapons hast thou turned like clay, and set them up again as the changing of a garment. ¹⁵ Yea, thou hast spoiled the ungodly of their light, and broken the arm of the proud.

¹⁶ Camest thou ever into the ground of the sea: or hast thou walked in the low corners of the deep? ¹⁷ Have the gates of death been open unto thee, or hast thou seen the door of everlasting treasure? ¹⁸ Hast thou also perceived how broad the earth is? Now if thou hast knowledge of all,

¹⁹ then show me where light dwelleth, and where darkness is: ²⁰ that thou mayest bring us unto their quarters, if thou canst tell the way to their houses. ²¹ Knowest thou, when thou wast born, how old thou shouldest be? ²² Wentest thou ever into the treasures of the snow? Or hast thou seen the secret places of the hail, ²³ which I have prepared against the time of trouble, against the time of battle and war? ²⁴ By what way is the light parted, and the heat dealt out upon the earth?

²⁵ "Who divideth the abundance of waters into rivers, or who maketh a way for the stormy weather, ²⁶ that it watereth and moistureth the dry and barren ground: ²⁷ to make the grass grow in places where no body dwelleth, and in the wilderness where no man remaineth? ²⁸ Who is the father of rain? Or who hath begotten the drops of dew? ²⁹ Out of whose womb came the ice? Who hath gendered the coldness of the air? ³⁰ That the waters are as hard as stones, and lie congealed above the deep.

³¹ Hast thou brought the seven stars together? Or art thou able to loose the bands of Orion? ³² Canst thou bring forth the morning star or the evening star at convenient times, and convey them home again? ³³ Knewest thou the course of heaven, that thou mayest set up the ordinance thereof upon the earth? ³⁴ Moreover, canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that they may pour down a great rain upon thee? ³⁵ Canst thou thunder also that they may go their way, and be obedient unto thee, saying, 'Lo here are we'?

³⁶ Who giveth sure wisdom or steadfast understanding? ³⁷ Who numbereth the clouds in wisdom? Who stilleth the vehement waters of heaven? ³⁸ Who turneth the clots to dust, and then to be clots again?

³⁹ Huntest thou the prey from the lion, or feedest thou his whelps ⁴⁰ living in their dens, and lurking in their couches? ⁴¹ Who provideth meat for the raven, when his young ones cry unto God, and fly about for want of meat?

¹ Knowest thou the time when the wild goats bring forth their young among the stony rocks? Or layest thou wait when the hinds use to fawn? ² Reckonest thou the months after they engender, that thou knowest the time of their bearing? ³ Or when they lie down, when they cast their young ones, and when they are delivered of their travail and pain? ⁴ How their young ones grow up and wax great through good feeding?

⁵ Who letteth the wild ass go free, or who looseth the bonds of the mule? ⁶ Unto whom I have given the wilderness to be their house, and the untilled land to be their dwelling place: ⁷ That they may give no force for the multitude of people in the cities, neither regard the crying of the driver, ⁸ but seek their pasture about the mountains and follow the green grass. ⁹ Will the unicorn be so tame as to do the service, or to abide still by thy crib? ¹⁰ Canst thou bind the yoke about him in thy furrows, to make him plow after thee in the valleys? ¹¹ Mayest thou trust him because he is strong, or commit thy labour unto him? ¹² Mayest thou believe him, that he will bring home thy corn, or to carry anything unto thy barn?

¹³ "Gavest thou the fair wings unto the peacocks, or wings and feathers unto the Ostrich? ¹⁴ For she leaveth her eggs upon the ground, and heateth them in the dust. ¹⁵ She remembereth not that they might be trodden with feet or broken with some wild beast. ¹⁶ So hard is she to her young ones, as though they were not hers, and laboureth in vain without any fear. ¹⁷ And that because God hath taken wisdom from her, and hath not given her understanding. ¹⁸ When her time is, she flyeth up on high, and careth neither for horse nor man.

¹⁹ "Hast thou given the horse his strength? Or learned him to bow down his neck with fear: ²⁰ that he letteth himself be driven forth like a grasshopper, whereas the stout neighing that he maketh, is fearful? ²¹ He breaketh the ground with the hooves of his feet cheerfully in his strength, and runneth to meet the harness men. ²² He layeth aside all fear, his stomach is not abated, neither starteth he a back for any sword. ²³ Though the quivers rattle upon him, though the spear and shield glister; ²⁴ yet rusheth he in fearlessly, and beateth upon the ground. He feareth not the noise of the trumpets, ²⁵ but as soon as he heareth the shawmes blow, 'Tush,' sayeth he; for he smelleth the battle afar off, the noise, the Captains and the shouting.

²⁶ "Cometh it through thy wisdom, that the Goshawk flyeth toward the South? ²⁷ Doth the Eagle mount up, and make his nest on high, at thy commandment? ²⁸ He abideth in the stony rocks, and upon the high tops of hard mountains, where no man can come. ²⁹ From thence may he behold his pray, and look far about with his eyes. ³⁰ His young ones are fed with blood, and where any dead body lieth, there is he immediately."

¹ Moreover, God spake unto Job, and said, ² "Can he that striveth with the Almighty be at rest? Should not he which disputeth with God, give him an answer?"