² Who is this who spreads darkness over my plans
    with his ignorant words?
³ Get ready for action^[a] like a man!
Then I will ask you questions,
and you will inform me.

⁴ Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you understand anything about it.
⁵ Who determined its dimensions?
I am sure you know.
Who stretched out the surveying line over it?
⁶ What supports its foundation?
Who set its cornerstone in place,
⁷     when the morning stars sang loud songs together,
        and all the sons of God shouted for joy?^[b]
8 Who locked up the sea behind doors
    when it burst out of the womb?
⁹ When I clothed the sea with clouds,
when I wrapped it with thick darkness as its swaddling cloths,
¹⁰ when I broke its power with my decree,
when I locked it up behind barred, double doors,
¹¹ I said, “You may come this far, but no farther.
Here is the barrier for your proud waves.”

¹² Have you ever in all your days given a command to the morning?
Have you ever set a time for the sun to rise,
¹³ so it may grab the earth by its edges
and shake the wicked out of it?
¹⁴ The earth’s shapes become visible like designs impressed on clay,
and its decorations can be seen like those on a garment.
¹⁵ Their light is withheld from the wicked,
and an uplifted arm is broken.

¹⁶ Have you ever traveled to the sources of the sea
or walked around in the dark depths of the ocean?

¹⁷ Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?^[c]

¹⁸ Do you comprehend the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.

¹⁹ How can someone get to the dwelling of light?
Where is the place for darkness?
²⁰ Could you lead it to its property?
Do you know the way to its house?
²¹ You must know that, since you were born before it,
and you have lived for so many days!

²² Have you visited the warehouses where the snow is kept?
Have you seen the warehouses^[d] where the hail is stored?
²³ I have reserved them for troubled times,
for days of battle and war.

²⁴ What is the way to the place where the lightning divides,^[e]
where the east wind is scattered over the earth?
²⁵ Who has excavated a channel for the floodwaters
and a road for the rolling thunder?
²⁶ They bring rain to lands where no one lives,
to a wilderness without a person in it.
²⁷ The rain satisfies the wilderness and wasteland
and causes the dry ground to produce green plants.
²⁸ Does the rain have a father?
Who is the father of the drops of dew?
²⁹ Whose womb produces the ice?
Who gives birth to the heavy frost from the sky?
³⁰ The water is disguised as stone,
and the surface of the deep is trapped under ice.

³¹ Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,
or loosen the belt of Orion?
³² Can you lead out the constellations at the right season
and guide the Bear with her cubs?^[f]
33 Do you know the laws that govern the skies?
Can you establish God’s rule on earth?
³⁴ Can you raise your voice to the clouds,
so that a flood of water submerges you?
³⁵ Can you unleash the lightning bolts,
so that they come and say to you, “Here we are”?

³⁶ Who has placed wisdom in the human heart
and given understanding to the mind?^[g]

³⁷ Who has the wisdom to count the clouds
and to empty the water jars of the sky,
³⁸ when the loose dust has been poured into molds to harden,
and the clods of dirt are cemented together?

³⁹ Can you hunt prey for a lioness?
Can you satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
⁴⁰ when they crouch in their dens,
or they lie in wait in the thicket?

⁴¹ Who prepares its provisions for the raven,
when its young are screaming to God,
while they thrash around in the nest waiting for food?