(1) Then the Eternal One replied to Job out of the tempest and said:

 

(2) Who is this who darkens counsel, speaking words without knowledge?

 

(3) Gird your loins like a man;

I will ask and you can inform Me.

 

(4) Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?

Speak if you have understanding.

 

(5) Do you know who fixed its dimensions Or who measured it with a line?

 

(6) Onto what were its sockets sunk?

Who laid its cornerstone?

 

(7) When the morning stars sang together And all the divine beings shouted for joy?

 

(8) Who closed the sea behind doors

When it gushed forth out of the womb,

 

(9) When I clothed it in clouds, Swaddled it in dense clouds,

 

(10) When I made breakers My limit for it, And set a bolt with double doors,

 

(11) And said, “You may come so far and no farther; Here your surging waves will stop”?

 

(12) Have you ever commanded the day to break, Assigned the dawn its place,

 

(13) So that it seizes the corners of the earth And shakes the wicked out of it?

 

(14) It changes like clay under the seal

Till [its hues] are fixed like those of a garment.

 

(15) Their light is withheld from the wicked, And the upraised arm is broken.

 

(16) Have you penetrated to the sources of the sea, Or walked in the recesses of the deep?

 

(17) Have the gates of death been disclosed to you? Have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

 

(18) Have you surveyed the expanses of the earth? If you know of these—tell Me.

 

(19) Which path leads to where light dwells, And where is the place of darkness,

 

(20) That you may take it to its domain And know the way to its home?

 

(21) Surely you know, for you were born then, And the number of your years is many!

 

(22) Have you penetrated the vaults of snow, Seen the vaults of hail,

 

(23) Which I have put aside for a time of adversity, For a day of war and battle?

 

(24) By what path is the west wind dispersed, The east wind scattered over the earth?

 

(25) Who cut a channel for the torrents And a path for the thunderstorms,

 

(26) To rain down on uninhabited land, On the wilderness where no man is,

 

(27) To saturate the desolate wasteland, And make the crop of grass sprout forth?

 

(28) Does the rain have a father? Who begot the dewdrops?

 

(29) From whose belly came forth the ice? Who gave birth to the frost of heaven?

 

(30) Water congeals like stone, And the surface of the deep compacts.

 

(31) Can you tie cords of the Pleiades, or loose Orion's reins?

 

(32) Can you bring out constellations in its season, and lead the Great Bear with her cubs?

 

(33) Do you know the laws of heaven Or impose its authority on earth?

 

(34) Can you send up an order to the clouds For an abundance of water to cover you?

 

(35) Can you dispatch the lightning on a mission And have it answer you, “I am ready”?

 

(36) Who put wisdom in the hidden parts? Who gave understanding to the mind? 

 

(37) Who is wise enough to give an account of the heavens? Who can tilt the bottles of the sky,

 

(38) Whereupon the earth melts into a mass, And its clods stick together.

 

(39) Can you hunt prey for the lion, And satisfy the appetite of the king of beasts?

 

(40) They crouch in their dens, Lie in ambush in their lairs.

 

(41) Who provides food for the raven

When his young cry out to God And wander about without food?

 

(1) Do you know the season when the mountain goats give birth? Can you mark the time when the hinds calve?

 

(2) Can you count the months they must complete? Do you know the season they give birth,

 

(3) When they couch to bring forth their offspring, To deliver their young?

 

(4) Their young are healthy; they grow up in the open; They leave and return no more.

 

(5) Who sets the wild ass free? Who loosens the bonds of the onager,

 

(6) Whose home I have made the wilderness, The salt land his dwelling-place?

 

(7) He scoffs at the tumult of the city, Does not hear the shouts of the driver.

 

(8) He roams the hills for his pasture; He searches for any green thing.

 

(9) Would the wild ox agree to serve you? Would he spend the night at your crib?

 

(10) Can you hold the wild ox by ropes to the furrow? Would he plow up the valleys behind you?

 

(11) Would you rely on his great strength And leave your toil to him?

 

(12) Would you trust him to bring in the seed And gather it in from your threshing floor?

 

(13) The wing of the ostrich beats joyously; Are her pinions and plumage like the stork’s?

 

(14) She leaves her eggs on the ground, Letting them warm in the dirt,

 

(15) Forgetting they may be crushed underfoot, Or trampled by a wild beast.

 

(16) Her young are cruelly abandoned as if they were not hers; Her labor is in vain for lack of concern.

 

(17) For God deprived her of wisdom, Gave her no share of understanding,

 

(18) Else she would soar on high, Scoffing at the horse and its rider.

 

(19) Do you give the horse his strength? Do you clothe his neck with a mane?

 

(20) Do you make him quiver like locusts, His majestic snorting [spreading] terror?

 

(21) He paws with force, he runs with vigor, Charging into battle.

 

(22) He scoffs at fear; he cannot be frightened; He does not recoil from the sword.

 

(23) A quiverful of arrows whizzes by him, And the flashing spear and the javelin.

 

(24) Trembling with excitement, he swallows the land; He does not turn aside at the blast of the trumpet.

 

(25) As the trumpet sounds, he says, “Aha!” From afar he smells the battle, The roaring and shouting of the officers.

 

(26) Is it by your wisdom that the hawk grows pinions, Spreads his wings to the south?

 

(27) Does the eagle soar at your command, Building his nest high,

 

(28) Dwelling in the rock, Lodging upon the fastness of a jutting rock?

 

(29) From there he spies out his food; From afar his eyes see it.

 

(30) His young gulp blood; Where the slain are, there is he.

(1) The Eternal One said in reply to Job.

 

(2) Shall one who has been disciplined complain against Shaddai?

He who arraigns God must respond.