2 

“Who darkens my design

with a cloud of thoughtless words?

3 

Confront me like a man;

come answer me these my questions

4 

When I founded the earth, where were you then?

Answer me that, if you have wit to know

5 

Who measured out the earth?--do you know that?

Who stretched the builder's line?

6 

What were its pedestals placed on?

Who laid the corner-stone,

7 

when the morning-stars were singing,

and all the angels chanted in their joy?

8 

Who helped to shut in the sea,

when it burst from the womb of chaos,

9 

when I swathed it in mists,

and swaddled it in clouds of darkness,

10 

when I fixed its boundaries,

barred and bolted it,

11 

saying, ‘Thus far and no further!

Here your proud waves shall not pass’?

12 

Have you ever roused the morning,

given directions to the dawn,

13 

to catch earth by the corners

and shake out the wicked?--

14 

earth stands out clear like clay stamped by a seal,

in all its colours like a robe,

15 

while wicked men are robbed of their dark hours,

and their uplifted arms are broken.

19 

What path leads to the home of Light,

and where does Darkness dwell?

20 

Can you conduct them to their fields,

and lead them home again?

16 

Have you found out the fountains of the sea?

Have you set foot upon the depths of ocean?

17 

Have the gates of Death been ever shown to you?

Have the warders cowered before you?

18 

Have you grasped earth in all its breadth?

How large is it? Tell me, if you know that.

21 

Surely you know! you, born when it was made,

you who have lived so long!

22 

Have you ever entered the stores of the snow?

Have you seen the arsenals of hail--

23 

the hail I keep for stormy days,

for battery and assault?

24 

How are the mists marshalled,

that scatter fresh water on earth?

25 

Who cut a channel for the rain in torrents,

who made a path for thunderbolts--

26 

raining on lands where no man lives,

on deserts uninhabited,

27 

to gladden lonely wastes,

and clothe the dry land with green award?

28 

Have showers a human sire?

Who was the father of the dew?

29 

From whose womb came the ice?

Who gave birth to the hoarfrost,

30 

when water freezes hard as stone,

and the ice hides the depth below?

31 

Can you bind up the Pleiades in a cluster,

or loose the chains of Orion?

32 

Can you direct the signs of the Zodiac?

or guide the constellations of the Bear?

33 

Can you control the skies?

Can you prescribe their sway over the earth?

34 

Can you send orders to the clouds,

for water in abundance to be yours?

35 

Can you send out the lightning on its mission?

Does it say humbly to you, 'Here am I'?

36 

Who taught the feathery clouds, or trained the meteors?

or trained the meteors?

37 

Who has the skill to mass the clouds,

or tilt the pitchers of the sky,

38 

when the soil runs into cakes of earth,

and the clods stick fast together?

39 

Can you hunt for the lioness,

and feed her hungry cubs,

40 

Who furnishes the lion's food at evening,

when his young ones cry to God,

seeking their prey?