38 Then the Lord answered Job out of a whirlwind, and said:

² Who is this that wrappeth up sentences in unskillful words?

³ Gird up thy loins like a man: I will ask thee, and answer thou me.

⁴ Where wast thou when I laid up the foundations of the earth? tell me if thou hast understanding.

⁵ Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?

⁶ Upon what are its bases grounded? or who laid the corner stone thereof,

⁷ When the morning stars praised me together, and all the sons of God made a joyful melody?

⁸ Who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth as issuing out of the womb:

⁹ When I made a cloud the garment thereof, and wrapped it in a mist as in swaddling bands?

¹⁰ I set my bounds around it, and made it bars and doors:

¹¹ And I said: Hitherto thou shalt come, and shalt go no further, and here thou shalt break thy swelling waves.

¹² Didst thou since thy birth command the morning, and shew the dawning of the day its place?

¹³ And didst thou hold the extremities of the earth shaking them, and hast thou shaken the ungodly out of it?

¹⁴ The seal shall be restored as clay, and shall stand as a garment:

¹⁵ From the wicked their light shall be taken away, and the high arm shall be broken.

¹⁶ Hast thou entered into the depths of the sea, and walked in the lowest parts of the deep?

¹⁷ Have the gates of death been opened to thee, and hast thou seen the darksome doors?

¹⁸ Hast thou considered the breadth of the earth? tell me, if thou knowest all things?

¹⁹ Where is the way where light dwelleth, and where is the place of darkness:

²⁰ That thou mayst bring every thing to its own bounds, and understand the paths of the house thereof.

²¹ Didst thou know then that thou shouldst be born? and didst thou know the number of thy days?

²² Hast thou entered into the storehouses of the snow, or has thou beheld the treasures of the hail:

²³ Which I have prepared for the time of the enemy, against the day of battle and war?

²⁴ By what way is the light spread, and heat divided upon the earth?

²⁵ Who gave a course to violent showers, or a way for noisy thunder:

²⁶ That it should rain on the earth without man in the wilderness, where no mortal dwelleth:

²⁷ That it should fill the desert and desolate land, and should bring forth green grass?

²⁸ Who is the father of rain? or who begot the drops of dew?

²⁹ Out of whose womb came the ice; and the frost from heaven who hath gendered it?

³⁰ The waters are hardened like a stone, and the surface of the deep is congealed.

³¹ Shalt thou be able to join together the shining stars the Pleiades, or canst thou stop the turning about of Arcturus?

³² Canst thou bring forth the day star in its time, and make the evening star to rise upon the children of the earth?

³³ Dost thou know the order of heaven, and canst thou set down the reason thereof on the earth?

³⁴ Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that an abundance of waters may cover thee?

³⁵ Canst thou send lightnings, and will they go, and will they return and say to thee: Here we are?

³⁶ Who hath put wisdom in the heart of man? or who gave the cock understanding?

³⁷ Who can declare the order of the heavens, or who can make the harmony of heaven to sleep?

³⁸ When was the dust poured on the earth, and the clods fastened together?

³⁹ Wilt thou take the prey for the lioness, and satisfy the appetite of her whelps,

⁴⁰ When they couch in the dens and lie in wait in holes?

⁴¹ Who provideth food for the raven, when her young ones cry to God, wandering about, because they have no meat?