NETtext - Job - 38

38:1  Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind:

38:2  "Who is this who darkens counsel with words without knowledge?

38:3  Get ready for a difficult task like a man; I will question you and you will inform me!

38:4  "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you possess understanding!

38:5  Who set its measurements - if you know - or who stretched a measuring line across it?

38:6  On what were its bases set, or who laid its cornerstone -

38:7  when the morning stars sang in chorus, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

38:8  "Who shut up the sea with doors when it burst forth, coming out of the womb,

38:9  when I made the storm clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band,

38:10  when I prescribed its limits, and set in place its bolts and doors,

38:11  when I said, 'To here you may come and no farther, here your proud waves will be confined'?

38:12  Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, or made the dawn know its place,

38:13  that it might seize the corners of the earth, and shake the wicked out of it?

38:14  The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features are dyed like a garment.

38:15  Then from the wicked the light is withheld, and the arm raised in violence is broken.

38:16  Have you gone to the springs that fill the sea, or walked about in the recesses of the deep?

38:17  Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of deepest darkness?

38:18  Have you considered the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know it all!

38:19  "In what direction does light reside, and darkness, where is its place,

38:20  that you may take them to their borders and perceive the pathways to their homes?

38:21  You know, for you were born before them; and the number of your days is great!

38:22  Have you entered the storehouse of the snow, or seen the armory of the hail,

38:23  which I reserve for the time of trouble, for the day of war and battle?

38:24  In what direction is lightning dispersed, or the east winds scattered over the earth?

38:25  Who carves out a channel for the heavy rains, and a path for the rumble of thunder,

38:26  to cause it to rain on an uninhabited land, a desert where there are no human beings,

38:27  to satisfy a devastated and desolate land, and to cause it to sprout with vegetation?

38:28  Does the rain have a father, or who has fathered the drops of the dew?

38:29  From whose womb does the ice emerge, and the frost from the sky, who gives birth to it,

38:30  when the waters become hard like stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen solid?

38:31  Can you tie the bands of the Pleiades, or release the cords of Orion?

38:32  Can you lead out the constellations in their seasons, or guide the Bear with its cubs?

38:33  Do you know the laws of the heavens, or can you set up their rule over the earth?

38:34  Can you raise your voice to the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?

38:35  Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go? Will they say to you, 'Here we are'?

38:36  Who has put wisdom in the heart, or has imparted understanding to the mind?

38:37  Who by wisdom can count the clouds, and who can tip over the water jars of heaven,

38:38  when the dust hardens into a mass, and the clumps of earth stick together?

38:39  "Do you hunt prey for the lioness, and satisfy the appetite of the lions,

38:40  when they crouch in their dens, when they wait in ambush in the thicket?

38:41  Who prepares prey for the raven, when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?