Open English Translation JOB Chapter 38

38 Then Yahweh answered Iyyov from the storm:

2 Who is this giving bad advice,

with words that are lacking knowledge?

3 Get ready to battle[fn]like a man,

and I’ll question you and you can answer me.

4 Where were you when I laid the world’s foundations?

Do tell me, if you understand that.

5 Who decided on it’s measurements, if you know?

≈ Or who stretched out a tape measure over it?

6 What were its footings attached to?

≈ Who put its reference stone in place

7 when the morning stars sung together,

≈ and God’s children shouted happily?

8 Who was the one who confined the ocean with gates[ref]

when it burst its way out from the womb?

9 I covered it with clouds as its clothing,

≈ and thick darkness as its tight blanket.

10 I assigned my boundaries for the ocean,

and put a latch on its gates,

11 and I said, ‘You can only come this far and no further.

≈ Your proud waves will be stopped here.’

12 In all your life, have you ever commanded the morning to come,

≈ or helped the dawn to know its place

13 so that it might take hold of the bottom edges of the earth

and shake the wicked out of it?[fn]

14 After dawn, the earth takes shape like clay when a seal is pressed into it,

and its features stand out like folds in a cloak.

15 Their light is withheld from wicked people,

and their arm raised in violence gets broken.

16 Have you visited the springs under the sea?

≈ Have you walked around in the trenches of the deep ocean?

17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you?

≈ Have you seen the gates that open into deep darkness?

18 Have you taken note of the width of the earth?

Do tell me if you know all those things.

19 How do you get to where light lives,

≈ and where is the place that darkness comes from?

20 Can you take it to its territory,

≈ and how would you figure out the paths to its house?

21 You’d know because surely you were born before then, ☺

≈ and you’re so very, very old. ☺

22 Have you entered the warehouses where snow is stored,

≈ and have you seen the bunker where hail is kept,

23 which I keep there ready for troubled times—

≈ for the day of war and battle?

24 Where’s the way to find where light is distributed,

≈ or where the east wind gets scattered all over the earth?

25 Who cuts out the channels for the downpours to flow in,

≈ and makes the path for thunderbolts?

26 Who sends rain to regions where nobody lives,

≈ or to a wilderness that has nobody in it,

27 to satisfy the parched wasteland

and to cause fresh grass to shoot up?

28 Does the rain have a father,

≈ or who gave birth to the dew drops?

29 ≈ Whose womb does the ice come from,

≈ and who gives birth to the frost that descends from the sky,

30 when the waters become hard like stone,

≈ and the surface of the deep ocean freezes?

31 Can you tie together the stars of Pleiades,[ref]

≈ or loosen Orion’s belt?

32 Can you lead each constellation out in its season,

≈ and can you guide the Bear with her cubs?

33 Do you understand the physical laws of the universe,

≈ or can you establish their rule over the earth?

34 Can you command the clouds with your voice,

≈ and cause a flood of water to cover you?

35 Can you send out flashes of lightning,

so they go off then tell you, ‘Here we are’?

36 Who put wisdom into people’s minds,

≈ or can give understanding to the mind?

37 Who has enough wisdom to number the clouds,

≈ and who will tip over the water jars of the sky

38 when the dust solidifies into a lump,

≈ and the clods of soil stick together?

39 Can you hunt for prey for the lioness,

and satisfy the appetite of her cubs,

40 when they crouch in their dens—

≈ lying in wait in the thicket?

41 Who prepares prey for the raven

when its chicks cry out to God for help,

when they stagger around for lack of food?