GodsWord - Job - 38

38:1  Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm.

38:2  "Who is this that belittles my advice with words that do not show any knowledge about it?

38:3  Brace yourself like a man! I will ask you, and you will teach me.

38:4  "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have such insight.

38:5  Who determined its dimensions? Certainly, you know! Who stretched a measuring line over it?

38:6  On what were its footings sunk? Who laid its cornerstone

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

38:8  "Who shut the sea behind gates when it burst through and came out of the womb,

38:9  when I clothed it with clouds and wrapped it up in dark clouds,

38:10  when I set a limit for it and put up bars and gates,

38:11  when I said, 'You may come this far but no farther. Here your proud waves will stop'?

38:12  "Have you ever given orders to the morning or assigned a place for the dawn

38:13  so that it could grab the earth by its edges and shake wicked people out of it?

38:14  The earth changes like clay stamped by a seal, and parts of it stand out like folds in clothing.

38:15  Wicked people are deprived of their light, and an arm raised in victory is broken.

38:16  Have you gone to the springs in the sea or walked through the valleys of the ocean depths?

38:17  Have the gateways to death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gateways to total darkness?

38:18  Have you even considered how wide the earth is? Tell me, if you know all of this!

38:19  "What is the way to the place where light lives? Where is the home of darkness

38:20  so that you may lead it to its territory, so that you may know the path to its home?

38:21  You must know because you were born then and have lived such a long time!

38:22  Have you been to the warehouses where snow is stored or seen the warehouses for hail

38:23  that I have stored up for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?

38:24  Which is the way to the place where light is scattered and the east wind is spread across the earth?

38:25  "Who made a channel for the flooding rains and a path for the thunderstorms

38:26  to bring rain on a land where no one lives, on a desert where there are no humans,

38:27  to saturate the desolate wasteland in order to make it sprout with grass?

38:28  Does the rain have a father? Who gave birth to the dewdrops?

38:29  From whose womb came the ice, and who has given birth to the frost in the air?

38:30  The water hardens like a stone, and the surface of the ocean freezes over.

38:31  "Can you connect the chains of the constellation Pleiades or untie the ropes of Orion?

38:32  Can you bring out the constellations at the right time or guide Ursa Major with its cubs?

38:33  Do you know the laws of the sky or make them rule the earth?

38:34  Can you call to the clouds and have a flood of water cover you?

38:35  Can you send lightning flashes so that they may go and say to you, 'Here we are'?

38:36  Who put wisdom in the heart or gave understanding to the mind?

38:37  Who is wise enough to count the clouds or pour out the water jars of heaven

38:38  when the dirt hardens into clumps and the soil clings together?

38:39  "Can you hunt prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of her cubs

38:40  as they crouch in their dens and lie ready to ambush from their lairs?

38:41  "Who provides food for the crow when its young ones cry to God and wander around in need of food?