⁴ “Where were you at my laying the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you possess understanding.
⁵ Who determined its measurement? Yes, you do know.
Or who stretched the measuring line upon it?
⁶ On what were its bases sunk?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
⁷ when the morning stars were singing together
and all the sons of God^[c] shouted for joy?
⁸ “Or who shut the sea in with doors
at its bursting, when it went out of the womb,
⁹ at my making the clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
¹⁰ and I prescribed my rule for it,
and I set bars and doors,
¹¹ and I said, ‘You shall come up to here, but^[d] you shall not go further,
and here it will set a boundary for your proud surging waves’?^[e]
12 “Have you ever in your life^[f] commanded the morning?
Have you made the dawn know its place,
¹³ to take hold of the earth’s skirts
so that^[g] the wicked might be shaken off from it?
¹⁴ It is changed like clay under a seal,
and they appear like a garment.
¹⁵ And their light is withheld from the wicked,
and their uplifted arm is broken.
¹⁶ “Have you entered into the sea’s sources?
Or have you walked around in the recesses of the deep?
¹⁷ Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Or have you seen the gates of deep shadow?
¹⁸ Have you considered closely the earth’s vast expanse?
Declare it, if you know all of it.
¹⁹ “Where then^[h] is the way where the light dwells?
And where then^[i] is its place,
²⁰ that you may take it to its territory,
and that you might discern the paths to its home?
²¹ You know, for you were born then,
and the number of your days is great.
²² Have you entered into the storehouses of the snow,
or^[j] have you seen the storehouses of the hail,
²³ which I have reserved for the time of trouble,
for the day of battle and war?
²⁴ Where then^[k] is the way where the light is distributed,
where he scatters the east wind upon the earth?
²⁵ “Who has cut open a channel for the torrents
and a way for the thunder bolts,^[l]
26 to bring rain on a land where no one lives,^[m]
a desert where no humans live,^[n]
27 to satisfy desert and wasteland,
and to cause the ground to put forth the rising of grass?
²⁸ Is there a father for the rain,
or who fathered the drops of dew?
²⁹ From whose womb did the ice come forth,
and who fathered the frost of heaven?
³⁰ Like stone the waters become hard,
and the faces of the deep freeze.
³¹ “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,
or can you loosen the cords of Orion?
³² Can you lead forth the southern constellations at their appointed time,
or^[o] can you lead the Bear with its children?
³³ Do you know heaven’s statutes,
or can you establish their rule on the earth?
³⁴ Can you lift up your voice to the clouds
so that^[p] a flood of water may cover you?
³⁵ Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go?
And will they say to you, ‘Here we are’?
³⁶ Who has put wisdom in the ibis,^[q]
or who has given understanding to the rooster?^[r]
37 Who can number the clouds with wisdom?
Or^[s] who can tilt heaven’s jars,
³⁸ at the flowing of the dust into a cast
and the clods cling together?
³⁹ “Can you hunt prey for the lion?
And can you satisfy the hunger of strong lions
⁴⁰ when they are crouched in the dens,
when they lie in the thicket in an ambush?
⁴¹ Who prepares for the crow its prey,
when its young ones cry to God for help,
and they wander around for lack of food?^[t]