Job 38

38 ¹Then our Father answered Job out of the whirlwind: ^a a v1 After thirty-five chapters of Job's friends arguing about a distant deity they never knew as Father, our Father himself speaks from the storm — face to face with his suffering child.

²"Who is this that darkens counsel with words without knowledge? ³Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you will answer me. ⁴Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. ⁵Who set its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the measuring line across it? ⁶On what were its footings sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, ⁷when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? ⁸Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst forth from the womb, ⁹when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling cloth, ¹⁰when I fixed my limit for it and set its bars and doors, ¹¹and said, 'This far you may come, but no farther; here your proud waves must halt'? ¹²Have you ever commanded the morning, or assigned the dawn its place, ¹³that it might seize the edges of the earth and shake the wicked out of it? ¹⁴The earth takes shape like clay under a seal, and its features stand out like the folds of a garment. ¹⁵From the wicked their light is withheld, and their upraised arm is broken. ¹⁶Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? ¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? ¹⁸Have you grasped the vast expanse of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this. ¹⁹Where is the way to the home of light, and where is the dwelling of darkness, ²⁰that you could lead it to its territory and know the paths to its house? ²¹Surely you know, for you were already born, and the number of your days is great! ²²Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or seen the storehouses of the hail, ²³which I have reserved for times of trouble, for the day of battle and war? ²⁴What is the way to the place where the light is parted, or the east wind scattered over the earth? ²⁵Who cut a channel for the flooding rain and a path for the thunderstorm, ²⁶to bring rain on a land where no one lives, on a desert with no human in it, ²⁷to satisfy the parched and desolate ground and make the thirsty land sprout with grass? ²⁸Does the rain have a father? Who fathered the drops of dew? ²⁹From whose womb did the ice come, and who gave birth to the frost of heaven, ³⁰when the waters harden like stone and the surface of the deep freezes solid? ³¹Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion? ^b b v31 The Pleiades is a tight cluster of stars; Orion is a prominent constellation — both familiar landmarks of the night sky. ³²Can you bring out the constellations in their season, or lead the Bear with her cubs? ³³Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their rule over the earth? ³⁴Can you raise your voice to the clouds and make a flood of water cover you? ³⁵Can you send out the lightning bolts so they go, reporting to you, 'Here we are'? ³⁶Who put wisdom in the heart, or gave understanding to the mind? ³⁷Who has the wisdom to number the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of heaven, ³⁸when the dust hardens into a mass and the clods cling together? ³⁹Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, or satisfy the hunger of the young lions, ⁴⁰when they crouch in their dens or lie waiting in the thicket? ⁴¹Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to me and wander about for lack of food?"