⁴ “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
    Tell me, if you know so much.
⁵ Who determined its dimensions
    and stretched out the surveying line?
⁶ What supports its foundations,
    and who laid its cornerstone
⁷ as the morning stars sang together
    and all the angels^[a] shouted for joy?

⁸ “Who kept the sea inside its boundaries
    as it burst from the womb,
⁹ and as I clothed it with clouds
    and wrapped it in thick darkness?
¹⁰ For I locked it behind barred gates,
    limiting its shores.
¹¹ I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come.
    Here your proud waves must stop!’

¹² “Have you ever commanded the morning to appear
    and caused the dawn to rise in the east?
¹³ Have you made daylight spread to the ends of the earth,
    to bring an end to the night’s wickedness?
¹⁴ As the light approaches,
    the earth takes shape like clay pressed beneath a seal;
    it is robed in brilliant colors.^[b]
15 The light disturbs the wicked
    and stops the arm that is raised in violence.