Yahweh replied to Job

38 Then Yahweh spoke to Job from inside a great windstorm. He said to him,

2 “◄Who are you to question what I plan to do?/You have no right/authority to question what I plan to do.► [RHQ]

You are speaking ignorantly!

3 I want to ask you some questions,

so, just like men prepare themselves for a difficult task [MET],

prepare to answer my questions.

4 ◄“Where were you/Were you there with me► long ago when I ◄laid the foundations of/created► the earth?

Since you know so much, tell me where you were at that time.

5 Do you know how I decided how large the earth would be?

Do you know who stretched a measuring tape around the earth?

Surely since you think that you know so much, you should know that!

6-7 6-7What supports the pillars on which the earth rests?

When the stars that shine early in the morning sang together,

and someone put in place the stone that causes the earth to stay in its place,

and all the angels shouted joyfully when they saw that happening,

who laid that cornerstone? Did you?

8 “When the seas poured forth from inside the earth,

who prevented the water from flooding over the land?

9 It was I, not you, who caused clouds to come over the seas

and caused it to become very dark under those clouds.

10 I set limits for the seas,

and I put barriers so that the water would not come over the land.

11 I pointed to the shore and said to the water,

‘I permit you to come up to here, but I do not permit you to come any farther.

Your powerful waves must stop there!’

12 “Job, have you ever commanded the morning to begin?

Have you ever told the dawn to start a new day?

13 Have you ever told the dawn to spread out over the whole earth,

with the result that wicked people run away from the light?

14 When it becomes light after the dawn,

the hills and the valleys become clear like the folds in a cloth.

15 When it becomes daylight, the wicked do not have the darkness that they like;

in the daylight they no longer are able to raise up their arms, ready to hurt people.

16 “Job, have you traveled to the springs in the bottom of the ocean from which the water in the seas comes?

Have you investigated/explored the very bottom of the oceans?

17 Has someone shown you the gates to the place where dead people are,

the gates to the place where it is very dark?

18 Do you know how big the earth is?

Tell me, if you know all these things!

19 “Where is the road to the place where light comes from?

And can you tell me where darkness lives?

20 Can take me to its home?

Do you know where the road is that goes there?

21 I am sure that you know these things,

because you talk as though you were born before the time when all things were created;

you must be very old!

22 “Have you entered the place where I store the snow

and the place where I keep the hail?

23 I store the snow and the hail in order that I can use them to help my people when they have troubles,

in times when they are fighting wars [DOU].

24 And where is the road to the place from which I cause the lightning to flash?

Where is the place from where the east wind begins to blow over all the earth?

25 Who created the channels in which the rain comes down from the sky?

Who makes the roads for the thunder/lightning?

26 Who causes rain to fall in the desert,

in places where no one lives?

27 Who sends the rain that gives moisture/water to areas where nothing has grown,

with the result that grass begins to grow again?

28 Does the rain have a father?

Does the dew also have a father?

29 And from whose womb does ice come in the ◄winter/cold season►?

Who gives birth to the frost that comes down from the sky?

30 In the winter, the water freezes and becomes hard, like a rock,

and the surface of lakes becomes frozen.

31 “Job, can you fasten the chains that hold the stars together in clusters/groups in the sky?

32 Can you tell the stars when they should shine?

Can you guide the stars in the groups in the northern sky whose names are the Big Bear and the Little Bear?

33 Do you know the laws that the stars must obey?

Can you cause those same laws to rule everything here on the earth?

34 “Can you shout to the clouds and cause rain to pour down on you?

35 Can you cause flashes of lightning to come down and strike where you want it to strike?

Do those flashes say to you, ‘Where do you want us to strike next?’

36 Who enables the clouds to know when they should cause rain to fall?

37 And who is skilled/wise enough to be able to count the clouds?

Who can tilt the jugs of water in the sky to cause the rain to fall,

38 with the result that the dry ground becomes hard

as the dry ◄clods/lumps of soil► become wet and stick together?

39-40 39-40“When a lioness and her cubs crouch in their dens or hide in a thicket, waiting for some animal to pass by that they can kill,

can you find animals for a lioness to kill

so that she and her cubs can eat the meat and not be hungry any more?

41 Who provides dead animals for crows,

when the baby crows are calling out to me for food,

when they are so weak because of their lack of food that they ◄stagger around/can hardly stand up► in their nests?”