Job 38; Job 39

Job 38

1 Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind:

2 Who is this darkening counsel with words lacking knowledge?

3 Prepare yourself like a man; I will interrogate you, and you will respond to me.

4 Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations? Tell me if you know.

5 Who set its measurements? Surely you know. Who stretched a measuring tape on it?

6 On what were its footings sunk; who laid its cornerstone,

7 while the morning stars sang in unison and all the divine beings shouted?

8 Who enclosed the Sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,

9 when I made the clouds its garment, the dense clouds its wrap,

10 when I imposed my limit for it, put on a bar and doors

11 and said, "You may come this far, no farther; here your proud waves stop"?

12 In your lifetime have you commanded the morning, informed the dawn of its place

13 so it would take hold of earth by its edges and shake the wicked out of it?

14 Do you turn it over like clay for a seal, so it stands out like a colorful garment?

15 Light is withheld from the wicked, the uplifted arm broken.

16 Have you gone to the sea's sources, walked in the chamber of the deep?

17 Have death's gates been revealed to you; can you see the gates of deep darkness?

18 Have you surveyed earth's expanses? Tell me if you know everything about it.

19 Where's the road to the place where light dwells; darkness, where's it located?

20 Can you take it to its territory; do you know the paths to its house?

21 You know, for you were born then; you have lived such a long time!

22 Have you gone to snow's storehouses, seen the storehouses of hail

23 that I have reserved for a time of distress, for a day of battle and war?

24 What is the way to the place where light is divided up; the east wind scattered over earth?

25 Who cut a channel for the downpours and a way for blasts of thunder

26 to bring water to uninhabited land, a desert with no human

27 to saturate dry wasteland and make grass sprout?

28 Has the rain a father who brought forth drops of dew?

29 From whose belly does ice come; who gave birth to heaven's frost?

30 Water hardens like stone; the surface of the deep thickens.

31 Can you bind Pleiades' chains or loosen the reins of Orion?

32 Can you guide the stars at their proper times, lead the Bear with her cubs?

33 Do you know heaven's laws, or can you impose its rule on earth?

34 Can you issue an order to the clouds so their abundant waters cover you?

35 Can you send lightning so that it goes and then says to you, "I'm here"?

36 Who put wisdom in remote places, or who gave understanding to a rooster?

37 Who is wise enough to count the clouds, and who can tilt heaven's water containers

38 so that dust becomes mud and clods of dirt adhere?

39 Can you hunt prey for the lion or fill the cravings of lion cubs?

40 They lie in their den, lie in ambush in their lair.

41 Who provides food for the raven when its young cry to God, move about without food?

Job 39

1 Do you know when mountain goats give birth; do you observe the birthing of does?

2 Can you count the months of pregnancy; do you know when they give birth?

3 They crouch, split open for their young, send forth their offspring.

4 Their young are healthy; they grow up in the open country, leave and never return.

5 Who freed the wild donkey, loosed the ropes of the onager

6 to whom I gave the desert as home, his dwelling place in the salt flats?

7 He laughs at the clamor of the town, doesn't hear the driver's shout,

8 searches the hills for food and seeks any green sprout.

9 Will the wild ox agree to be your slave, or will it spend the night in your crib?

10 Can you bind it with a rope to a plowed row; will it plow the valley behind you?

11 Will you trust it because its strength is great so that you can leave your work to it?

12 Can you rely on it to bring back your grain to gather into your threshing floor?

13 The ostrich's wings flap joyously, but her wings and plumage are like a stork.

14 She leaves her eggs on the earth, lets them warm in the dust,

15 then forgets that a foot may crush them or a wild animal trample them.

16 She treats her young harshly as if they were not hers, without worrying that her labor might be in vain;

17 God didn't endow her with sense, didn't give her some good sense.

18 When she flaps her wings high, she laughs at horse and rider.

19 Did you give strength to the horse, clothe his neck with a mane,

20 cause him to leap like a locust, his majestic snorting, a fright?

21 He paws in the valley, prances proudly, charges at battle weapons,

22 laughs at fear, unafraid. He doesn't turn away from the sword;

23 a quiver of arrows flies by him, flashing spear and dagger.

24 Excitedly, trembling, he swallows the ground; can't stand still at a trumpet's blast.

25 At a trumpet's sound, he says, "Aha!" smells the battle from afar, hears officers' shouting and the battle cry.

26 Is it due to your understanding that the hawk flies, spreading its wings to the south?

27 Or at your command does the eagle soar, the vulture build a nest on high?

28 They dwell on an outcropping of rock, their fortress on rock's edge.

29 From there they search for food; their eyes notice it from afar,

30 and their young lap up blood; where carcasses lie, there they are.