Job 38:4-39:30 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.

BSB⁽ⁱ⁾ ⁴ Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. ⁵ Who fixed its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched a measuring line across it? ⁶ On what were its foundations set, or who laid its cornerstone, ⁷ while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? ⁸ Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, ⁹ when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket, ¹⁰ when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors, ¹¹ and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop’? ¹² In your days, have you commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place, ¹³ that it might spread to the ends of the earth and shake the wicked out of it? ¹⁴ The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its hills stand out like the folds of a garment. ¹⁵ Light is withheld from the wicked, and their upraised arm is broken. ¹⁶ Have you journeyed to the vents of the sea or walked in the trenches of the deep? ¹⁷ Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? ¹⁸ Have you surveyed the extent of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this. ¹⁹ Where is the way to the home of light? Do you know where darkness resides, ²⁰ so you can lead it back to its border? Do you know the paths to its home? ²¹ Surely you know, for you were already born! And the number of your days is great! ²² Have you entered the storehouses of snow or observed the storehouses of hail, ²³ which I hold in reserve for times of trouble, for the day of war and battle? ²⁴ In which direction is the lightning dispersed, or the east wind scattered over the earth? ²⁵ Who cuts a channel for the flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt, ²⁶ to bring rain on a barren land, on a desert where no man lives, ²⁷ to satisfy the parched wasteland and make it sprout with tender grass? ²⁸ Does the rain have a father? Who has begotten the drops of dew? ²⁹ From whose womb does the ice emerge? Who gives birth to the frost from heaven, ³⁰ when the waters become hard as stone and the surface of the deep is frozen? ³¹ Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion? ³² Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear and her cubs? ³³ Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth? ³⁴ Can you command the clouds so that a flood of water covers you? ³⁵ Can you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’? ³⁶ Who has put wisdom in the heart or given understanding to the mind? ³⁷ Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens ³⁸ when the dust hardens into a mass and the clods of earth stick together? ³⁹ Can you hunt the prey for a lioness or satisfy the hunger of young lions ⁴⁰ when they crouch in their dens and lie in wait in the thicket? ⁴¹ Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God as they wander about for lack of food? ³⁹ ¹ “Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the doe bear her fawn? ² Can you count the months they are pregnant? Do you know the time they give birth? ³ They crouch down and bring forth their young; they deliver their newborn. ⁴ Their young ones thrive and grow up in the open field; they leave and do not return. ⁵ Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from the harness? ⁶ I made the wilderness his home and the salt flats his dwelling. ⁷ He scorns the tumult of the city and never hears the shouts of a driver. ⁸ He roams the mountains for pasture, searching for any green thing. ⁹ Will the wild ox consent to serve you? Will he stay by your manger at night? ¹⁰ Can you hold him to the furrow with a harness? Will he plow the valleys behind you? ¹¹ Can you rely on his great strength? Will you leave your hard work to him? ¹² Can you trust him to bring in your grain and gather it to your threshing floor? ¹³ The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but cannot match the pinions and feathers of the stork. ¹⁴ For she leaves her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand. ¹⁵ She forgets that a foot may crush them, or a wild animal may trample them. ¹⁶ She treats her young harshly, as if not her own, with no concern that her labor was in vain. ¹⁷ For God has deprived her of wisdom; He has not endowed her with understanding. ¹⁸ Yet when she proudly spreads her wings, she laughs at the horse and its rider. ¹⁹ Do you give strength to the horse or adorn his neck with a mane? ²⁰ Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting? ²¹ He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength; he charges into battle. ²² He laughs at fear, frightened of nothing; he does not turn back from the sword. ²³ A quiver rattles at his side, along with a flashing spear and lance. ²⁴ Trembling with excitement, he devours the distance; he cannot stand still when the ram’s horn sounds. ²⁵ At the blast of the horn, he snorts with fervor. He catches the scent of battle from afar—the shouts of captains and the cry of war. ²⁶ Does the hawk take flight by your understanding and spread his wings toward the south? ²⁷ Does the eagle soar at your command and make his nest on high? ²⁸ He dwells on a cliff and lodges there; his stronghold is on a rocky crag. ²⁹ From there he spies out food; his eyes see it from afar. ³⁰ His young ones feast on blood; and where the slain are, there he is.”