Beginning

² “Who is this ignorant person
    saying these foolish things?^[a]
3 Prepare yourself for an attack!
    Get ready to answer the questions I will ask you.

⁴ “Where were you when I made the earth?
    If you are so smart, answer me.
⁵ And who decided how big the earth should be?
    Who measured it with a measuring line?
⁶ What is the earth resting on?
    Who put the first stone in its place
⁷ when the morning stars sang together
    and the angels^[b] shouted with joy?

⁸ “Who closed the flood gates
    as the sea gushed from the womb?
⁹ Who covered it with clouds
    and wrapped it in darkness?
¹⁰ I set the limits for the sea
    and put it behind locked gates.
¹¹ I said to the sea, ‘You can come this far, but no farther.
    This is where your proud waves will stop.’

¹² “Did you ever in your life command the morning to begin
    or the day to dawn?
¹³ Did you ever tell the morning light to grab the earth
    and shake those who are evil out of their hiding places?
¹⁴ The morning light makes the hills
    and valleys easy to see.
When the daylight comes to the earth,
    the shapes of these places stand out like the folds of a coat.
They take shape like soft clay
    that is pressed with a stamp.
¹⁵ Evil people don’t like the daylight.
    When it shines bright, it keeps them from doing the bad things they do.

¹⁶ “Have you ever gone to the deepest parts of the sea?
    Have you ever walked on the ocean bottom?
¹⁷ Has anyone shown you the gates to the world of the dead?
    Have you ever seen those gates that lead to the dark place of death?
¹⁸ Do you really understand how big the earth is?
    Tell me, if you know all this.

¹⁹ “Where does light come from?
    Where does darkness come from?
²⁰ Can you take them back to where they belong?
    Do you know how to get there?
²¹ Surely you know these things, since you are so old and wise.
    You were alive when I made them, weren’t you?^[c]

²² “Have you ever gone into the storerooms
    where I keep the snow and the hail?
²³ I save them there for times of trouble,
    for the times of war and battle.
²⁴ Have you ever gone to the place where the sun comes up,
    where it makes the east wind blow all over the earth?^[d]
25 Who dug ditches in the sky for the heavy rain?
    Who made a path for the thunderstorm?
²⁶ Who makes it rain even in desert places
    where no one lives?
²⁷ The rain gives that dry empty land all the water it needs,
    and grass begins to grow.
²⁸ Does the rain have a father?
    Who produces the drops of dew?
²⁹ Does ice have a mother?
    Who gives birth to the frost?
³⁰ That’s when the water freezes as hard as a rock.
    Even the deep sea freezes over!

³¹ “Can you tie up the Pleiades^[e]?
    Can you unfasten the belt of Orion^[f]?
³² Can you bring out the other constellations^[g] at the right times?
    Can you lead out the Bear^[h] with its cubs?
³³ Do you know the laws that control the sky?
    Can you put each star in its place above the earth?^[i]

³⁴ “Can you shout at the clouds
    and command them to cover you with rain?
³⁵ Can you give a command to the lightning?
    Will it come to you and say, ‘Here we are; what do you want, sir?’
    Will it go wherever you want it to go?

³⁶ “Who makes people wise?
    Who puts wisdom deep inside them?
³⁷ Who is wise enough to count the clouds
    and tip them over to pour out their rain?
³⁸ The rain makes the dust become mud,
    and the clumps of dirt stick together.

³⁹ “Do you find food for the lions?
    Do you feed their hungry babies?
⁴⁰ No, they hide in their caves
    or wait in the grass, ready to attack their prey.
⁴¹ Who feeds the ravens when their babies cry out to God
    and wander around without food?

39 “Do you know when the mountain goats are born?
    Do you watch when the mother deer gives birth?
² Do you know how many months they must carry their babies?
    Do you know when it is the right time for them to be born?
³ These animals lie down, they feel their birth pains,
    and their babies are born.
⁴ Their babies grow strong out in the wild.
    Then they leave their mothers and never come back.

⁵ “Who let the wild donkeys go free?
    Who untied their ropes and let them loose?
⁶ I let the wild donkey have the desert for a home.
    I gave the salt lands to them for a place to live.
⁷ They are happy to be away from the noise of the city.
    They never have to listen to their drivers shouting at them.
⁸ They live in the mountains.
    That is their pasture.
    That is where they look for food to eat.

⁹ “Will a wild bull agree to serve you?
    Will he stay in your barn at night?
¹⁰ Will he let you put ropes on him
    to plow your fields?
¹¹ A wild bull is very strong,
    but can you trust him to do your work?
¹² Can you trust him to gather your grain
    and bring it to your threshing place?

¹³ “An ostrich gets excited and flaps its wings, but it cannot fly.
    Its wings and feathers are not like the wings of a stork.
¹⁴ An ostrich lays her eggs on the ground
    and lets the sand keep them warm.
¹⁵ The ostrich forgets that someone might step on her eggs
    or that a wild animal might break them.
¹⁶ An ostrich leaves her little babies.
    She treats them as if they were not her own.
    If her babies die, she does not care that all her work was for nothing.
¹⁷ That’s because I did not give wisdom to the ostrich.
    She is foolish, and I made her that way.
¹⁸ But when the ostrich gets up to run, she laughs at the horse and its rider,
    because she can run faster than any horse.

¹⁹ “Did you give the horse its strength?
    Did you put the mane^[j] on its neck?
²⁰ Did you make it able to jump like a locust
    or snort^[k] so loudly that it scares people?
²¹ A horse is happy to be so strong.
    It scratches the ground with its foot and runs into battle.
²² It laughs at fear; nothing makes it afraid!
    It does not run away from battle.
²³ The soldier’s quiver shakes on the horse’s side.
    The spear and weapons its rider carries shine in the sun.
²⁴ The horse gets very excited and races over the ground.^[l]
    When it hears the trumpet blow, it cannot stand still.
²⁵ When the trumpet sounds, it snorts, ‘Hurray!’
    It can smell the battle from far away
    and hear the shouts of commanders with all the other sounds of battle.

²⁶ “Did you teach the hawk how to spread its wings and fly south^[m]?
²⁷ Are you the one who told the eagle^[n] to fly high into the sky?
    Did you tell it to build its nest high in the mountains?
²⁸ It lives high on a peak at the top of a cliff.
    That is its fortress.
²⁹ From there it looks far into the distance,
    searching for its food.
³⁰ The eagles gather around dead bodies,
    and their young eat the blood.”