² “Who is this who darkens counsel
    by words without knowledge?
³ Brace yourself like a man,
    for I will question you, then you answer me!

⁴ “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
    Declare, if you have understanding.
⁵ Who determined its measures, if you know?
    Or who stretched the line on it?
⁶ What were its foundations fastened on?
    Or who laid its cornerstone,
⁷ when the morning stars sang together,
    and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁸ “Or who shut up the sea with doors,
    when it broke out of the womb,
⁹ when I made clouds its garment,
    and wrapped it in thick darkness,
¹⁰ marked out for it my bound,
    set bars and doors,
¹¹ and said, ‘You may come here, but no further.
    Your proud waves shall be stopped here’?

¹² “Have you commanded the morning in your days,
    and caused the dawn to know its place,
¹³ that it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
    and shake the wicked out of it?
¹⁴ It is changed as clay under the seal,
    and presented as a garment.
¹⁵ From the wicked, their light is withheld.
    The high arm is broken.

¹⁶ “Have you entered into the springs of the sea?
    Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?
¹⁷ Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
    Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
¹⁸ Have you comprehended the earth in its width?
    Declare, if you know it all.

¹⁹ “What is the way to the dwelling of light?
    As for darkness, where is its place,
²⁰ that you should take it to its bound,
    that you should discern the paths to its house?
²¹ Surely you know, for you were born then,
    and the number of your days is great!
²² Have you entered the treasuries of the snow,
    or have you seen the treasures of the hail,
²³ which I have reserved against the time of trouble,
    against the day of battle and war?
²⁴ By what way is the lightning distributed,
    or the east wind scattered on the earth?

²⁵ Who has cut a channel for the flood water,
    or the path for the thunder storm,
²⁶ to cause it to rain on a land where there is no man,
    on the wilderness, in which there is no man,
²⁷ to satisfy the waste and desolate ground,
    to cause the tender grass to grow?
²⁸ Does the rain have a father?
    Or who fathers the drops of dew?
²⁹ Whose womb did the ice come out of?
    Who has given birth to the gray frost of the sky?
³⁰ The waters become hard like stone,
    when the surface of the deep is frozen.

³¹ “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades,
    or loosen the cords of Orion?
³² Can you lead the constellations out in their season?
    Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?
³³ Do you know the laws of the heavens?
    Can you establish its dominion over the earth?

³⁴ “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
    That abundance of waters may cover you?
³⁵ Can you send out lightnings, that they may go?
    Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
³⁶ Who has put wisdom in the inward parts?
    Or who has given understanding to the mind?
³⁷ Who can count the clouds by wisdom?
    Or who can pour out the containers of the sky,
³⁸ when the dust runs into a mass,
    and the clods of earth stick together?

³⁹ “Can you hunt the prey for the lioness,
    or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
⁴⁰ when they crouch in their dens,
    and lie in wait in the thicket?
⁴¹ Who provides for the raven his prey,
    when his young ones cry to God,
    and wander for lack of food?