Job 37-39

Common English Bible

²¹ For now, no one can look at the sun;
    it is bright in the sky;
        the wind has passed and cleared away the clouds.
²² From the north comes golden light,
    the awesome splendor of God.
²³ As for the Almighty, we can’t find him—
    he is powerful and just, abundantly righteous—
    he won’t respond.
²⁴ Therefore, people fear him;
    none of the wise^[d] can see him.

² Who is this darkening counsel
    with words lacking knowledge?
³ Prepare yourself like a man;
    I will interrogate you, and you will respond to me.

⁴ Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?
    Tell me if you know.
⁵ Who set its measurements? Surely you know.
    Who stretched a measuring tape on it?
⁶ On what were its footings sunk;
    who laid its cornerstone,
⁷     while the morning stars sang in unison
        and all the divine beings shouted?
⁸ Who enclosed the Sea^[e] behind doors
    when it burst forth from the womb,
⁹     when I made the clouds its garment,
        the dense clouds its wrap,
¹⁰     when I imposed^[f] my limit for it,
        put on a bar and doors
¹¹     and said, “You may come this far, no farther;
        here your proud waves stop”?

¹⁶ Have you gone to the sea’s sources,
    walked in the chamber of the deep?
¹⁷ Have death’s gates been revealed to you;
    can you see the gates of deep darkness?
¹⁸ Have you surveyed earth’s expanses?
    Tell me if you know everything about it.
¹⁹ Where’s the road to the place where light dwells;
        darkness, where’s it located?
²⁰     Can you take it to its territory;
        do you know the paths to its house?
²¹ You know, for you were born then;
    you have lived such a long time!^[g]
22 Have you gone to snow’s storehouses,
        seen the storehouses of hail
²³     that I have reserved for a time of distress,
        for a day of battle and war?
²⁴ What is the way to the place where light is divided up;
        the east wind scattered over earth?

²⁵ Who cut a channel for the downpours
        and a way for blasts of thunder
²⁶     to bring water to uninhabited land,
        a desert with no human
²⁷     to saturate dry wasteland
        and make grass sprout?
²⁸ Has the rain a father
    who brought forth drops of dew?
²⁹ From whose belly does ice come;
    who gave birth to heaven’s frost?
³⁰ Water hardens like stone;
    the surface of the deep thickens.
³¹ Can you bind Pleiades’ chains
    or loosen the reins of Orion?
³² Can you guide the stars
at their proper times,
    lead the Bear with her cubs?
³³ Do you know heaven’s laws,
    or can you impose its rule on earth?
³⁴ Can you issue an order to the clouds
    so their abundant waters cover you?
³⁵ Can you send lightning so that it goes
    and then says to you, “I’m here”?
³⁶ Who put wisdom in remote places,
    or who gave understanding to a rooster?^[h]
37 Who is wise enough to count the clouds,
        and who can tilt heaven’s water containers
³⁸     so that dust becomes mud
        and clods of dirt adhere?

³⁹ Can you hunt prey for the lion
    or fill the cravings of lion cubs?
⁴⁰ They lie in their den,
    lie in ambush in their lair.
⁴¹ Who provides food for the raven
    when its young cry to God,
    move about without food?

39 Do you know when mountain goats give birth;
    do you observe the birthing of does?
² Can you count the months of pregnancy;
    do you know when they give birth?
³ They crouch, split open for their young,
    send forth their offspring.
⁴ Their young are healthy; they grow up in the open country,
    leave and never return.

⁵ Who freed the wild donkey,
        loosed the ropes of the onager
⁶     to whom I gave the desert as home,
        his dwelling place in the salt flats?
⁷ He laughs at the clamor of the town,
        doesn’t hear the driver’s shout,
⁸     searches the hills for food
        and seeks any green sprout.

⁹ Will the wild ox agree to be your slave,
    or will it spend the night in your crib?
¹⁰ Can you bind it with a rope to a plowed row;
    will it plow the valley behind you?
¹¹ Will you trust it because its strength is great
    so that you can leave your work to it?
¹² Can you rely on it to bring back your grain
    to gather into your threshing floor?

¹³ The ostrich’s wings flap joyously,
    but her wings and plumage are like a stork.
¹⁴ She leaves her eggs on the earth,
    lets them warm in the dust,
¹⁵     then forgets that a foot may crush them
        or a wild animal trample them.
¹⁶ She treats her young harshly as if they were not hers,
    without worrying that her labor might be in vain;
¹⁷ God didn’t endow her with sense,
    didn’t give her some good sense.
¹⁸ When she flaps her wings high,
    she laughs at horse and rider.

¹⁹ Did you give strength to the horse,
        clothe his neck with a mane,
²⁰     cause him to leap like a locust,
        his majestic snorting, a fright?
²¹ He^[i] paws in the valley, prances proudly,
        charges at battle weapons,
²²     laughs at fear, unafraid.
He doesn’t turn away from the sword;
²³     a quiver of arrows flies by him,
        flashing spear and dagger.
²⁴ Excitedly, trembling, he swallows the ground;
    can’t stand still at a trumpet’s blast.
²⁵ At a trumpet’s sound, he says, “Aha!”
    smells the battle from afar,
        hears^[j] officers’ shouting and the battle cry.

²⁶ Is it due to your understanding that the hawk flies,
    spreading its wings to the south?
²⁷ Or at your command does the eagle soar,
    the vulture build a nest on high?
²⁸ They dwell on an outcropping of rock,
    their fortress on rock’s edge.
²⁹ From there they search for food;
    their eyes notice it from afar,
³⁰     and their young lap up blood;
        where carcasses lie, there they are.