Job 38:4-41 On the Natural World“Where were you when I laid the foundation of my earth? Tell me, since you’re so informed!

ISV⁽ⁱ⁾ ⁴ On the Natural World“Where were you when I laid the foundation of my earth? Tell me, since you’re so informed! ⁵ Who set its measurement? Am I to assume you know? Who stretched a boundary line over it? ⁶ On what were its bases set? Who laid its corner stone ⁷ while the morning stars sang together and all the divine beings shouted joyfully? ⁸ “Who enclosed the sea with limits when it gushed out of the womb, ⁹ when I made clouds to be its clothes and thick darkness its swaddling blanket, ¹⁰ when I proscribed a boundary for it, set in place bars and doors for it; ¹¹ and said, ‘You may come only this far and no more. Your majestic waves will stop here.’? ¹² “Have you ever commanded the morning at any time during your life? Do you know where the dawn lives, ¹³ where it seizes the edge of the earth and shakes the wicked out of it? ¹⁴ Like clay is molded by a signet ring, the earth’s hills and valleys then stand out like the colors of a garment. ¹⁵ Then from the wicked their light is withheld and their upraised arm is broken. ¹⁶ “Have you been to the source of the sea and walked about in the recesses of the deepest ocean? ¹⁷ Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness? ¹⁸ Do you understand the breadth of the earth? Tell me, since you know it all! ¹⁹ “Where is the road to where the light lives? Or where does the darkness live? ²⁰ Can you take it to its homeland, since you know the path to his house? ²¹ You should know! After all, you had been born back then, so the number of your days is great! ²² “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen where the hail is stored, ²³ which I’ve reserved for the tribulation to come, for the day of battle and war? ²⁴ Where is the lightning diffused or the east wind scattered around the earth? ²⁵ “Who cuts canals for storm floods, and paths for the lightning and thunder, ²⁶ to bring rain upon a land without inhabitants, a desert in which no human beings live, ²⁷ to satisfy a desolate and devastated desert, causing it to sprout vegetation? ²⁸ “Does the rain have a father? Who fathered the dew? ²⁹ Whose womb brings forth the ice? Who gives birth to frost out of an empty sky, ³⁰ when water solidifies like stone and the surface of the deepest sea freezes?
³¹ On the Heavens“Can you bind the chains of Pleiades or loosen the cords of Orion? ³² Can you bring out constellations in their season? Can you guide the Bear with her cubs? ³³ Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you regulate their authority over the earth? ³⁴ “Can you call out to the clouds, so that abundant water drenches you? ³⁵ Can you command the lightning, so that it goes forth and calls to you, ‘Look at us!’ ³⁶ “Who sets wisdom within you, or imbues your mind with understanding? ³⁷ Who has the wisdom to be able to count the clouds, or to empty the water jars of heaven, ³⁸ when dust dries into a mass and then breaks apart into clods?
³⁹ On the Animal World“Can you hunt prey for the lioness to satisfy young lions ⁴⁰ when they crouch in their dens and lie in ambush in their lairs? ⁴¹ Who prepares food for the raven, when its offspring cry out to God as they wander for lack of food?”