Beginning
The Lord’s Challenge to Job
38 Then the Lord responded to Job out of a violent storm. He said:
2 Who is this who spreads darkness over my plans
with his ignorant words?
3 Get ready for action[a] like a man!
Then I will ask you questions,
and you will inform me.
4 Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you understand anything about it.
5 Who determined its dimensions?
I am sure you know.
Who stretched out the surveying line over it?
6 What supports its foundation?
Who set its cornerstone in place,
7 when the morning stars sang loud songs together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?[b]
8 Who locked up the sea behind doors
when it burst out of the womb?
9 When I clothed the sea with clouds,
when I wrapped it with thick darkness as its swaddling cloths,
10 when I broke its power with my decree,
when I locked it up behind barred, double doors,
11 I said, “You may come this far, but no farther.
Here is the barrier for your proud waves.”
12 Have you ever in all your days given a command to the morning?
Have you ever set a time for the sun to rise,
13 so it may grab the earth by its edges
and shake the wicked out of it?
14 The earth’s shapes become visible like designs impressed on clay,
and its decorations can be seen like those on a garment.
15 Their light is withheld from the wicked,
and an uplifted arm is broken.
16 Have you ever traveled to the sources of the sea
or walked around in the dark depths of the ocean?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?[c]
18 Do you comprehend the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.
19 How can someone get to the dwelling of light?
Where is the place for darkness?
20 Could you lead it to its property?
Do you know the way to its house?
21 You must know that, since you were born before it,
and you have lived for so many days!
22 Have you visited the warehouses where the snow is kept?
Have you seen the warehouses[d] where the hail is stored?
23 I have reserved them for troubled times,
for days of battle and war.
24 What is the way to the place where the lightning divides,[e]
where the east wind is scattered over the earth?
25 Who has excavated a channel for the floodwaters
and a road for the rolling thunder?
26 They bring rain to lands where no one lives,
to a wilderness without a person in it.
27 The rain satisfies the wilderness and wasteland
and causes the dry ground to produce green plants.
28 Does the rain have a father?
Who is the father of the drops of dew?
29 Whose womb produces the ice?
Who gives birth to the heavy frost from the sky?
30 The water is disguised as stone,
and the surface of the deep is trapped under ice.
31 Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,
or loosen the belt of Orion?
32 Can you lead out the constellations at the right season
and guide the Bear with her cubs?[f]
33 Do you know the laws that govern the skies?
Can you establish God’s rule on earth?
34 Can you raise your voice to the clouds,
so that a flood of water submerges you?
35 Can you unleash the lightning bolts,
so that they come and say to you, “Here we are”?
36 Who has placed wisdom in the human heart
and given understanding to the mind?[g]
37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds
and to empty the water jars of the sky,
38 when the loose dust has been poured into molds to harden,
and the clods of dirt are cemented together?
39 Can you hunt prey for a lioness?
Can you satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
40 when they crouch in their dens,
or they lie in wait in the thicket?
41 Who prepares its provisions for the raven,
when its young are screaming to God,
while they thrash around in the nest waiting for food?
39 Do you know the time when the antelope on the cliffs gives birth?
Do you keep watch over the doe as she is in labor?
2 Do you count how many months they carry their young?
Do you know when it is time for them to give birth?
3 They crouch down.
They give birth to their fawns.
Their labor pains are over.
4 Their young are lively and live in the open countryside.
They go out, and they do not return to them.
5 Who set the wild donkey free?
Who untied the restraints on the onager?[h]
6 I have given it the wasteland[i] as its home,
the salt flats as its dwelling place.
7 It brays at the commotion in a town.
It does not listen to the shouting of the driver.
8 It explores the mountains as its pasture,
while it searches for anything green.
9 Is a wild ox willing to serve you?
Will it spend the night at your manger?
10 Can you lead the wild ox down a furrow with a rope?
Will it work the fields in the valleys behind you?
11 Will you depend on it because it is so strong?
Will you rely on it to labor for you?
12 Will you trust it to return your seed grain
and to bring it to your threshing floor?
13 The wings of a screeching ostrich flap wildly,
but they do not have feathers and plumage like a stork’s.
14 She leaves her eggs on the ground.
She keeps them warm in the dust.
15 She forgets that a foot may crush them,
or a wild animal may trample them.
16 She is hard-hearted toward her children.
It is as if they were not hers.
It does not bother her if her labor is for nothing,
17 because God made her forget wisdom,
and he has not given her any understanding.
18 But as soon as she jumps up to run,
she laughs at the horse and the rider.
19 Did you give strength to the horse?
Did you clothe its neck with a flowing mane?
20 Did you give it the ability to jump like a locust?
Its snorting and neighing are frightening.
21 It paws at the ground in the valley.[j]
It rejoices in its strength.
It goes out to meet the weapons of war.
22 It laughs at danger and is not afraid.
It does not turn away from the sword.
23 A quiver rattles against it.
A spear and a javelin[k] flash.
24 Shaking with excitement, it swallows up ground.
It doesn’t just stand there when the ram’s horn sounds.
25 As often as the horn sounds, it neighs and snorts!
From a distance it smells the battle,
the thunder of the commanders and the war cries.
26 Did you teach the hawk how to soar,
as it spreads out its wings to the south?
27 Is it at your command that the eagle flies high
and makes its nest in a lofty place?
28 On a rocky cliff it settles down to spend the night,
on a pinnacle of rock in a mountain stronghold.
29 From there it spies its food.
Its eyes spot it far away.
30 Its young ones drink up the blood.
Wherever the carcasses are—there it is.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.