²⁰ Where then does wisdom come from,
and where is understanding located?
²¹ It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing
and concealed from the birds of the sky.
²² Abaddon and Death^(A) say,
“We have heard news of it with our ears.”
²³ But God understands the way to wisdom,
and He knows its location.
²⁴ For He looks to the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
²⁵ When God fixed the weight of the wind
and limited the water by measure,^(B)
26 when He established a limit^[a] for the rain^(C)
and a path for the lightning,
²⁷ He considered wisdom and evaluated it;
He established it and examined it.

² Who is this who obscures My counsel
with ignorant words?^(B)
3 Get ready to answer Me like a man;
when I question^(C) you, you will inform Me.
⁴ Where were you when I established^(D) the earth?
Tell Me, if you have^[a] understanding.
⁵ Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
⁶ What supports its foundations?
Or who laid its cornerstone
⁷ while the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God^(E) shouted for joy?

⁸ Who enclosed the sea behind doors
when it burst from the womb,
⁹ when I made the clouds its garment
and thick darkness its blanket,^[b](F)
10 when I determined its boundaries^[c]
and put its bars and doors in place,
¹¹ when I declared: “You may come this far, but no farther;
your proud waves stop here”?

¹² Have you ever in your life commanded the morning
or assigned the dawn its place,
¹³ so it may seize the edges of the earth
and shake the wicked out of it?
¹⁴ The earth is changed as clay is by a seal;
its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.
¹⁵ Light^[d] is withheld from the wicked,
and the arm raised in violence is broken.

¹⁶ Have you traveled to the sources of the sea
or walked in the depths of the oceans?
¹⁷ Have the gates^(G) of death been revealed to you?
Have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
¹⁸ Have you comprehended the extent of the earth?
Tell Me, if you know all this.

¹⁹ Where is the road to the home of light?
Do you know where darkness lives,
²⁰ so you can lead it back to its border?
Are you familiar with the paths to its home?
²¹ Don’t you know? You were already born;^(H)
you have lived so long!^[e]
22 Have you entered the place where the snow is stored?
Or have you seen the storehouses of hail,^(I)
23 which I hold in reserve for times of trouble,
for the day of warfare and battle?^(J)
24 What road leads to the place where light is dispersed?^[f]
Where is the source of the east wind that spreads across the earth?

²⁵ Who cuts a channel for the flooding rain
or clears the way for lightning,
²⁶ to bring rain on an uninhabited land,
on a desert with no human life,^[g]
27 to satisfy the parched wasteland
and cause the grass to sprout?^(K)
28 Does the rain have a father?
Who fathered the drops of dew?^(L)
29 Whose womb did the ice come from?
Who gave birth to the frost of heaven
³⁰ when water becomes as hard as stone,^[h]
and the surface of the watery depths is frozen?^(M)

³¹ Can you fasten the chains of the Pleiades
or loosen the belt of Orion?
³² Can you bring out the constellations^[i] in their season
and lead the Bear^[j] and her cubs?^(N)
33 Do you know the laws^(O) of heaven?
Can you impose its^[k] authority on earth?
³⁴ Can you command^[l] the clouds
so that a flood of water covers you?^(P)
35 Can you send out lightning^(Q) bolts, and they go?
Do they report to you: “Here we are”?

³⁶ Who put wisdom^(R) in the heart^[m]
or gave the mind understanding?
³⁷ Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?
Or who can tilt the water jars of heaven
³⁸ when the dust hardens like cast metal
and the clods of dirt stick together?

³⁹ Can you hunt prey for a lioness
or satisfy the appetite of young lions^(S)
40 when they crouch in their dens
and lie in wait within their lairs?
⁴¹ Who provides the raven’s food^(T)
when its young cry out to God
and wander about for lack of food?

39 Do you know when mountain goats give birth?
Have you watched the deer in labor?
² Can you count the months they are pregnant^[n]
so you can know the time they give birth?
³ They crouch down to give birth to their young;
they deliver their newborn.^[o]
4 Their offspring are healthy and grow up in the open field.
They leave and do not return.^[p]

⁵ Who set the wild donkey free?
Who released the swift donkey from its harness?
⁶ I made the wilderness^(U) its home,
and the salty^(V) wasteland its dwelling.
⁷ It scoffs at the noise of the village
and never hears the shouts of a driver.^(W)
8 It roams the mountains for its pastureland,
searching for anything green.
⁹ Would the wild ox be willing to serve you?
Would it spend the night by your feeding trough?
¹⁰ Can you hold the wild ox^(X) to a furrow by its harness?
Will it plow the valleys behind you?
¹¹ Can you depend on it because its strength is great?
Would you leave it to do your hard work?
¹² Can you trust the wild ox to harvest your grain
and bring it to your threshing floor?

¹³ The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully,
but are her feathers and plumage like the stork’s?^[q](Y)
14 She abandons her eggs on the ground
and lets them be warmed in the sand.
¹⁵ She forgets that a foot may crush them
or that some wild animal may trample them.
¹⁶ She treats her young harshly, as if they were not her own,
with no fear that her labor may have been in vain.
¹⁷ For God has deprived her of wisdom;
He has not endowed her with understanding.^(Z)
18 When she proudly^[r] spreads her wings,
she laughs at the horse and its rider.

¹⁹ Do you give strength to the horse?
Do you adorn his neck with a mane?^[s]
20 Do you make him leap like a locust?
His proud snorting fills one with terror.
²¹ He paws^[t] in the valley and rejoices in his strength;
He charges into battle.^[u]
22 He laughs at fear, since he is afraid of nothing;
he does not run from the sword.
²³ A quiver rattles at his side,
along with a flashing spear and a lance.^[v]
24 He charges ahead^[w] with trembling rage;
he cannot stand still at the trumpet’s sound.
²⁵ When the trumpet blasts, he snorts defiantly.^[x]
He smells the battle from a distance;
he hears the officers’ shouts and the battle cry.

²⁶ Does the hawk take flight by your understanding
and spread its wings to the south?
²⁷ Does the eagle soar at your command
and make its nest^(AA) on high?
²⁸ It lives on a cliff where it spends the night;
its stronghold is on a rocky crag.
²⁹ From there it searches for prey;^(AB)
its eyes penetrate the distance.
³⁰ Its brood gulps down blood,
and where the slain are, it is there.^(AC)

¹⁹ The Lord founded the earth by wisdom^(A)
and established the heavens by understanding.
²⁰ By His knowledge the watery depths broke open,^(B)
and the clouds dripped with dew.^(C)

¹² He made the earth by His power,
established the world^(A) by His wisdom,^(B)
and spread out the heavens by His understanding.^(C)

¹⁵ He made the earth by His power,
established the world^(A) by His wisdom,^(B)
and spread out the heavens by His understanding.^(C)

⁷ Sword, awake against My shepherd,
against the man who is My associate—
this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.
Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered;^(A)
I will also turn My hand against the little ones.