Yahweh Interrogates Job

• 4 “Where were you at my laying the foundation of the earth?
• Tell me, if you possess understanding.
• 5 Who determined its measurement? Yes, you do know.
• Or who stretched the measuring line upon it?
• 6 On what were its bases sunk?
• Or who laid its cornerstone,
• 7 when the morning stars were singing together
• and all the sons of God[fn] shouted for joy?
• 8 “Or who shut the sea in with doors
• at its bursting, when it went out of the womb,
• 9 at my making the clouds its garment
• and thick darkness its swaddling band,
• 10 and I prescribed my rule for it,
• and I set bars and doors,
• 11 and I said, ‘You shall come up to here, but[fn] you shall not go further,
• and here it will set a boundary for your proud surging waves ’?[fn]
• 12 “Have you ever in your life[fn] commanded the morning?
• Have you made the dawn know its place,
• 13 to take hold of the earth’s skirts
• so that[fn] the wicked might be shaken off from it?
• 14 It is changed like clay under a seal,
• and they appear like a garment.
• 15 And their light is withheld from the wicked,
• and their uplifted arm is broken.
• 16 “Have you entered into the sea’s sources?
• Or have you walked around in the recesses of the deep?
• 17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
• Or have you seen the gates of deep shadow?
• 18 Have you considered closely the earth’s vast expanse?
• Declare it, if you know all of it.
• 19 “Where then[fn] is the way where the light dwells?
• And where then[fn] is its place,
• 20 that you may take it to its territory,
• and that you might discern the paths to its home?
• 21 You know, for you were born then,
• and the number of your days is great.
• 22 Have you entered into the storehouses of the snow,
• or[fn] have you seen the storehouses of the hail,
• 23 which I have reserved for the time of trouble,
• for the day of battle and war?
• 24 Where then[fn] is the way where the light is distributed,
• where he scatters the east wind upon the earth?
• 25 “Who has cut open a channel for the torrents
• and a way for the thunder bolts ,[fn]
• 26 to bring rain on a land where no one lives ,[fn]
• a desert where no humans live ,[fn]
• 27 to satisfy desert and wasteland,
• and to cause the ground to put forth the rising of grass?
• 28 Is there a father for the rain,
• or who fathered the drops of dew?
• 29 From whose womb did the ice come forth,
• and who fathered the frost of heaven?
• 30 Like stone the waters become hard,
• and the faces of the deep freeze.
• 31 “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,
• or can you loosen the cords of Orion?
• 32 Can you lead forth the southern constellations at their appointed time,
• or[fn] can you lead the Bear with its children?
• 33 Do you know heaven’s statutes,
• or can you establish their rule on the earth?
• 34 Can you lift up your voice to the clouds
• so that[fn] a flood of water may cover you?
• 35 Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go?
• And will they say to you, ‘Here we are’?
• 36 Who has put wisdom in the ibis,[fn]
• or who has given understanding to the rooster?[fn]
• 37 Who can number the clouds with wisdom?
• Or[fn] who can tilt heaven’s jars,
• 38 at the flowing of the dust into a cast
• and the clods cling together?
• 39 “Can you hunt prey for the lion?
• And can you satisfy the hunger of strong lions
• 40 when they are crouched in the dens,
• when they lie in the thicket in an ambush?
• 41 Who prepares for the crow its prey,
• when its young ones cry to God for help,
• and they wander around for lack of food ?[fn]


• 39 “Do you know the time when the goats of the rocks give birth?
• Do you observe the doe deer’s giving birth?
• 2 Can you number the months they fulfill,
• and do you know the time of its giving birth?
• 3 When they crouch, they bring forth their young ones;
• they get rid of their labor pains.[fn]
• 4 Their young ones grow strong; they grow up in the open;
• they go forth and do not return to them.
• 5 “Who has sent forth the wild ass free?
• And who has released the wild donkey’s bonds,
• 6 to which I have given the wilderness as its house
• and the salt flat as its dwelling place?
• 7 It scorns the city’s turmoil;
• it does not hear the driver’s shouts.
• 8 It explores the mountains as its pasture
• and searches after every kind of green plant.
• 9 “Is the wild ox willing to serve you,
• or will he spend the night at your feeding trough?
• 10 Can you tie the wild ox with its rope to a furrow,
• or will it harrow the valleys after you?
• 11 Can you trust it because its strength is great,
• or will you hand your labor over to it?
• 12 Can you rely on it that it will return your grain
• and that it will gather it to your threshing floor?
• 13 “ The wings[fn] of the female ostrich flap[fn]—
• are they[fn] the pinions of the stork or[fn] the falcon?
• 14 Indeed, it leaves its eggs to the earth,
• and it lets them be warmed on the ground,
• 15 and it forgets that a foot might crush an egg,[fn]
• and a wild animal[fn] might trample it.[fn]
• 16 It deals cruelly with its young ones, as if they were not its own,
• as if without fear that its labor were in vain,
• 17 because God made it forget wisdom,
• and he did not give it a share in understanding.
• 18 When it spreads its wings aloft ,[fn]
• it laughs at the horse and its rider.
• 19 “Do you give power to the horse?
• Do you clothe its neck with a mane?
• 20 Do you make it leap like the locust?
• The majesty of its snorting is terrifying.
• 21 They paw in the valley, and it exults with strength;
• it goes out to meet the battle.
• 22 It laughs at danger and is not dismayed,
• and it does not turn back from before[fn] the sword.
• 23 Upon it the quiver rattles
• along with the flash of the spear and the short sword.
• 24 With roar and rage it races over the ground ,[fn]
• and it cannot stand still at the sound of the horn.
• 25 Whenever[fn] a horn sounds, it says, ‘Aha!’
• And it smells the battle from a distance—
• the thunder of the commanders and the war cry.
• 26 “Does the hawk soar by your wisdom?
• Does it spread its wings to the south?
• 27 Or does the eagle fly high at your command
• and construct its nest high?
• 28 It lives on the rock and spends the night
• on the rock point and the mountain stronghold .[fn]
• 29 From there it spies out the prey;
• its eyes look from far away.
• 30 And its young ones lick blood greedily,
• and where the dead carcasses are, there they are.”

40 Then[fn] Yahweh answered Job and said,

• 2 “Shall a faultfinder contend with Shaddai?
• Anyone who argues with God must answer it.”