1Then Yahweh called to Job out of a fierce storm and said,

2“Who is this who brings darkness to plans
by means of words without knowledge?

3Now gird up your loins like a man
for I will ask you questions, and you must answer me.

4Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations?
Tell me, if you have so much understanding.

5Who determined its dimensions? Tell me, if you know.
Who stretched the measuring line over it?

6On what were its foundations laid?
Who laid its cornerstone

7when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

8Who shut up the sea with doors
when it burst out, as if it had come out of the womb—

9when I made clouds its clothing,
and thick darkness its swaddling bands?

10That was when I marked out for the sea my boundary,
and when I placed its bars and doors,

11and when I said to it, 'You may come this far, but no farther;
here is where I will put a boundary to the pride of your waves.'

12Have you given orders to the morning,
or caused the dawn to know its place,

13so that it might take hold of the edges of the earth
and shake the wicked out of it?

14The earth is changed in appearance like clay changes under a seal;
all things on it stand out clearly like the folds of a piece of clothing.

15From wicked people their 'light' is taken away;
their uplifted arm is broken.

16Have you gone to the sources of the waters of the sea?
Have you walked in the lowest parts of the deep?

17Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

18Have you understood the earth in its expanse?
Tell me, if you know it all.

19Where is the way to the resting place of light—
as for darkness, where is its place?

20Can you lead light and darkness to their places of work?
Can you find the way back to their houses for them?

21Undoubtedly you know, for you were born then;
the number of your days is so large!

22Have you entered the storehouses for the snow,
or have you seen the storehouses for the hail,

23these things that I have kept for times of trouble,
for days of battle and war?

24What is the path to where the lightning bolts are distributed
or to where the winds are scattered from the east over the earth?

25Who has created the channels for the floods of rain,
or who has made a path for the thunder,

26to cause it to rain on lands where no person exists,
and on the wilderness, in which there is no one,

27to satisfy the devastated and desolate places,
and to make the ground sprout with grass?

28Does the rain have a father,
or, who fathers the drops of dew?

29Out of whose womb did the ice come?
Who bore the white frost out of the sky?

30The waters hide themselves and become like stone;
the surface of the deep becomes frozen.

31Can you fasten chains on the Pleiades,
or undo the cords of Orion?

32Can you lead the constellations to appear at their proper times?
Can you guide the Bear with its children?

33Do you know the regulations of the sky?
Could you set in place the sky's rule over the earth?

34Can you raise your voice up to the clouds,
so that an abundance of rainwater may cover you?

35Can you send out bolts of lightning that they may go out,
that they say to you, 'Here we are'?

36Who has put wisdom in the clouds
or has given understanding to the mists?

37Who can number the clouds by his skill?
Who can pour out the water skins of the sky

38when the dust runs into a hard mass
and the clods of earth clump tightly together?

39Can you hunt down a victim for a lioness
or satisfy the appetite of her young lion cubs

40when they are crouching in their dens
and sheltering in hiding to lie in wait?

41Who provides victims for the ravens
when their young ones cry out to God
and stagger about for lack of food?