¹Then the Lord answered Job from a whirlwind and said,

²“Who is this who darkens counsel

With words without knowledge?

³Gird up your waist like a man,

And I will question you,

And you can answer me.

⁴Where were you when I founded the earth?

Declare it, if you have understanding.

⁵Who sets its dimensions?

Tell me, if you know.

Or who stretched out a measuring line over it?

⁶On what are its foundations sunk?

Or who laid its cornerstone?

⁷– When the morning stars sang out together,

And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁸– And when he enclosed the sea with doors,

When it broke out?

– When it came out of the womb?

⁹– When I appointed the cloud to be its clothing,

And the dark cloud to be its swaddling clothes?

¹⁰– And when I imposed my limit on it

And appointed bolts and doors?

¹¹– And said,

‘You come this far and no further’,

And there the rising up of your waves was blocked?

¹²Have you in all your days ever commanded the morning?

Or have you informed the dawn of its place?

¹³Do you know how to take hold of the extremities of the earth

So that the wicked are shaken out of it?

¹⁴– Or how the earth is changed like clay under a seal?

– Or how morning and dawn stand out as an adornment?

¹⁵– And how their light is withheld from the wicked,

And an uplifted arm is broken?

¹⁶Have you been to the founts of the sea?

Or have you walked about in the deep for investigations?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you?

Or have you seen the portals of the shadow of death?

¹⁸Do you have understanding of the wide places of the earth?

Tell me, if you know all this.

¹⁹Where is the way to where light dwells?

And as for darkness, where is its place?

²⁰Did you take it to its boundary,

And do you understand the paths to its abode?

²¹Do you know this?

For if you did,

You would have to have been born at that time,

And your days would be very many.

²²Have you been to the treasuries of snow?

Or have you seen the repositories of hail,

²³Which I have reserved for the time of adversity?

– For the day of battle and war?

²⁴In what way does light divide itself?

In what way does the east wind spread out over the earth?

²⁵Who cut out a channel for a deluge?

– Or a route for lightning in a thunderstorm?

²⁶– To cause it to rain on an earth where no man is,

On a desert in which no person lives?

²⁷– To satiate desolate ground and desolated tracts

So as to cause the growth of sprouting grass?

²⁸Does rain have a father?

Or who begot the dewdrops?

²⁹Out of whose womb does ice come?

And who gives birth to heaven's hoarfrost?

³⁰Like a stone, the water becomes hidden,

And the surface of the deep solidifies.

³¹Can you bind the delights of the Pleiades?

Or can you loose the cords of Orion?

³²Can you bring out each sign of the zodiac in its season?

Or can you guide Arcturus with his sons?

³³Do you know the physical laws of the sky?

Can you appoint their dominion over the earth?

³⁴Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,

Commanding them that plenteous water should cover you?

³⁵Can you send lightning strikes,

So that they go and say to you,

‘Here we are’?

³⁶Who put wisdom in the inward parts?

Or who gave understanding to the mind?

³⁷Who can count the clouds in wisdom?

And who can stop up heaven's bottles?

³⁸– When dust is cast into a solid,

And clods of earth cleave together?

³⁹Can you hunt for prey for the lion?

And can you feed the lion cubs?

⁴⁰For they crouch in their den;

They lie in wait in the thicket.

⁴¹Who prepares feed for the raven?

– When its young cry out to God?

– When they are perishing for lack of food?