Yahweh Answers Job
Then Yahweh aanswered Job out of the whirlwind and said,
2 “Who is this that adarkens counsel
By words without knowledge?
3 Now agird up your loins like a man,
And bI will ask you, and you make Me know!
4 Where were you awhen I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell Me, if you know understanding,
5 Who set its ameasurements? Since you know.
Or who stretched the line on it?
6 On what awere its bases sunk?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
7 When the morning stars sang together
And all the asons of God shouted for joy?
8 “Or who aenclosed the sea with doors
When, bursting forth, it went out from the womb,
9 When I made a cloud its garment
And dense gloom its swaddling band,
10 And I aplaced boundaries on it
And set a bolt and doors,
11 And I said, ‘Thus far you shall come, but no farther;
And here shall your proud waves stop’?
Yahweh Answers Job, “Have You?”
12 “Have you ever in your life commanded the morning,
And caused the dawn to know its place,
13 That it might seize athe ends of the earth,
And bthe wicked be shaken out of it?
14 It is changed like clay under the seal;
And they stand forth like clothing.
15 aFrom the wicked their light is withheld,
And the arm braised high is broken.
16 “Have you entered into athe springs of the sea
Or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
Or have you seen the gates of the ashadow of death?
18 Have you carefully considered the expanse of athe earth?
Tell Me, if you know all this.
19 “Where is the way to where the light dwells?
And darkness, where is its place,
20 That you may take it to aits territory
And that you may discern the paths to its home?
21 You know, for ayou were born then,
And the number of your days is great!
22 Have you entered the storehouses aof the snow,
Or have you seen the storehouses of the bhail,
23 Which I have reserved for the time of distress,
For the day of war and battle?
24 Where is the way that athe light is divided,
Or the east wind scattered on the earth?
25 “Who has cleft a conduit for the flood,
Or a way for the thunderbolt,
26 To bring arain on a land without people,
On a desert without a man in it,
27 To asatisfy the waste and desolate land
And to make the growth of grass to sprout?
28 Has athe rain a father?
Or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29 From whose womb has come the aice?
And the frost of heaven, who has given it birth?
30 Water becomes hard like stone,
And the surface of the deep is interlocked.
31 “Can you bind the chains of the aPleiades,
Or loose the cords of Orion?
32 Can you lead forth a constellation in its season,
And guide the Bear with her satellites?
33 Do you know the astatutes of the heavens,
Or fix their rule over the earth?
34 “Can you raise your voice up to the clouds,
So that an aabundance of water will cover you?
35 Can you asend forth lightnings that they may go
And say to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who has agiven wisdom in the innermost being
Or given bunderstanding to the mind?
37 Who can count the clouds by wisdom,
Or atip the water jars of the heavens,
38 When the dust hardens into a mass
And the clods stick together?
Yahweh Answers Job, “Where Were You?”
39 “Can you hunt the aprey for the lion,
Or fulfill the appetite of the young lions,
40 When they acrouch in their dens
And lie in wait in their lair?
41 Who prepares for athe raven its provision
When its young cry for help to God
And wander about without food?
“Do you know the time the amountain goats give birth?
Do you keep watch over the calving of the bdeer?
2 Can you count the months they fulfill,
Or do you know the time they give birth?
3 They kneel down; they bring forth their young;
They send out their labor pains.
4 Their children become strong; they grow up in the open field;
They leave and do not return to them.
5 “Who sent out the awild donkey free?
And who loosed the bonds of the swift donkey,
6 For whom I have set athe desert plain as a home
And the salt land as his dwelling place?
7 He laughs at the tumult of the city;
The shoutings of the driver he does not hear.
8 He explores the mountains for his pasture
And searches after every green thing.
9 Will the awild ox consent to serve you,
Or will he spend the night at your manger?
10 Can you bind the wild ox in a furrow with ropes,
Or will he harrow the valleys after you?
11 Will you trust him because his power is great
And leave your labor to him?
12 Will you believe him that he will return your seed of grain
And gather it from your threshing floor?
13 “The ostriches’ wings flap joyously
But are they the pinion and plumage of a stork?
14 For she leaves her eggs to the earth
And warms them in the dust,
15 And she forgets that a foot may crush them,
Or that a beast of the field may trample them.
16 She treats her children acruelly, as if they were not hers;
Though her labor be empty, she is without dread,
17 Because God has made her forget wisdom,
And has not given her a share of understanding.
18 When she raises herself up high,
She laughs at the horse and his rider.
19 “Do you give the horse his might?
Do you clothe his neck with a mane?
20 Do you make him aleap like the locust?
His splendid bsnorting is terrible.
21 He paws in the valley and rejoices in his power;
He agoes out to meet the weapons.
22 He laughs at dread and is not dismayed;
And he does not turn back from the sword.
23 The quiver rattles against him,
The flashing spear and javelin.
24 With shaking and rage he races over the ground,
And he does not stand still at the sound of the trumpet.
25 As often as the trumpet sounds he says, ‘Aha!’
And he scents the battle from afar,
And the thunder of the commanders and the shout of war.
26 “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars,
Stretching his wings toward the south?
27 Is it at your command that the eagle goes on high
And raises ahis nest high?
28 On the cliff he dwells and lodges,
Upon the rocky crag, a fortress.
29 From there he aspies out food;
His eyes see it from afar.
30 His young ones also suck up blood;
And awhere the slain are, there is he.”