And Jehovah answered Job out of the storm and said,
Who [is] this darkening counsel by words without knowledge?
Gird up now thy loins like a man,{HR}And I will ask thee, and make me know.
Where wast thou when I founded the earth?{HR}Declare if thou hast understanding.
Who fixed its measure that thou shouldest know,{HR}Or who stretched the line upon it?
Whereon are its sockets sunken,{HR}Or who laid down its corner-stone,
When the morning stars sang together,{HR}And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
And [who] shut up the sea with doors,{HR}When it burst forth — came out of the womb,
When I made the cloud its garment,{HR}And thick darkness its swaddling-band,
And broke for it my law, and set bars and doors,
And said, Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther,{HR}And here let one set against the pride of thy waves?
Hast thou, from thy days, commanded the mornings,{HR}Made the dawn to know its place,
To take hold of the wings of the earth,{HR}That the wicked might be shaken out of it,
That it may change like signet-clay,{HR}And things stand forth like a garment,
And from the wicked their light is withheld,{HR}And the uplifted arm is broken?
Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea,{HR}And walked about the secret of the deep?
Have the gates of death been disclosed to thee?{HR}And seest thou the gates of the shadow of death?
Hast thou strictly attended to the breadths of the earth?{HR}Declare if thou knowest the whole of it.
What [is] the way the light dwelleth,{HR}And darkness, where [is] its place,
That thou mightest bring it to its bound,{HR}And that thou mightest know the path [to] its house?
Thou knowest! for thou wast then born,{HR}And the number of thy days [is] great.
Hast thou entered into the storehouses of the snow,{HR}Or hast thou seen the storehouses of the hail,
Which I have reserved against the time of trouble,{HR}Against the day of battle and war?
Where is the way the light is distributed,{HR}The east wind is dispersed over the earth?
Who divideth watercourses for the torrents,{HR}Or a way for the lightning of thunder,
To cause it to rain on the land [where is] no man.{HR}The wilderness wherein [is] no man,
To satisfy the desolate and waste,{HR}And to make the place of the green herb to sprout?
Hath the rain a father?{HR}Or who begetteth the drops of dew?
Out of whose womb cometh the ice?{HR}And the frost of heaven, who bringeth it forth?
The waters hide themselves like stone,{HR}And the face of the deep cleaveth together.
Canst thou bind the bands of the Pleiades,{HR}Or unloose the traces of Orion?
Canst thou bring forth the Zodiac in his season,{HR}And as for Arcturus with its young, guide them?
Knowest thou the laws of heaven?{HR}Canst thou set its dominion over the earth?
Canst thou apply thy voice to the cloud,{HR}And abundance of water shall cover thee?
Canst thou send forth lightnings, and they shall go{HR}And say to thee, here we [are]!
Who put wisdom in the inward parts?{HR}Or who gave understanding to the perception?
Who regulateth the clouds by wisdom,{HR}Or who inclineth the pitchers of heaven,
When the dust is poured into hardness,{HR}And the clods are compacted together?
Dost thou hunt prey for the lioness,{HR}And fill the desire of the young lions,
When they couch in dens — abide in the covert in ambush?
Who provideth for the raven his meat,{HR}When his young cry to God [El] — wander without food?