Job 38:1-17
Common English Bible
The Lord answers from a whirlwind
38 Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind:
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.
The establishing of order
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[a] 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[b] 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”?
12 In your lifetime have you commanded the morning,
informed the dawn of its place
13 so it would take hold of earth by its edges
and shake the wicked out of it?
14 Do you turn it over like clay for a seal,
so it stands out like a colorful garment?
15 Light is withheld from the wicked,
the uplifted arm broken.
The vast beyond
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?
Job 38:34-41
Common English Bible
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?[a]
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?
Lion and raven
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?
Footnotes
- Job 38:36 Heb uncertain
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