God Challenges Job

1And after Elius had ceased from speaking, the Lord spoke to Job through the whirlwind and clouds, saying,

2Who is this that hides counsel from me, and confines words in his heart, and thinks to conceal them from me?

3Gird thy loins like a man; and I will ask thee, and do thou answer me.

4Where wast thou when I founded the earth? tell me now, if thou hast knowledge,

5who set the measures of it, if thou knowest? or who stretched a line upon it?

6On what are its rings fastened? and who is he that laid the corner-stone upon it?

7When the stars were made, all my angels praised me with a loud voice.

8And I shut up the sea with gates, when it rushed out, coming forth out its mother's womb.

9And I made a cloud its clothing, and swathed it in mist.

10And I set bounds to it, surrounding it with bars and gates.

11And I said to it, Hitherto shalt thou come, but thou shalt not go beyond, but thy waves shall be confined within thee.

12Or did I order the morning light in thy time; and did the morning star then first see his appointed place;

13to lay hold of the extremities of the earth, to cast out the ungodly out of it?

14Or didst thou take clay of the ground, and form a living creature, and set it with the power of speech upon the earth?

15And hast thou removed light from the ungodly, and crushed the arm of the proud?

16Or hast thou gone to the source of the sea, and walked in the tracks of the deep?

17And do the gates of death open to thee for fear; and did the porters of hell quake when they saw thee?

18And hast thou been instructed in the breadth of the whole earth under heaven? tell me now, what is the extent of it?

19And in what kind of a land does the light dwell? and of what kind is the place of darkness?

20If thou couldest bring me to their utmost boundaries, and if also thou knowest their paths;

21I know then that thou wert born at that time, and the number of thy years is great.

22But hast thou gone to the treasures of snow? and hast thou seen the treasures of hail?

23And is there a store of them, for thee against the time of thine enemies, for the day of wars and battle?

24And whence proceeds the frost? or whence is the south wind dispersed over the whole world under heaven?

25And who prepared a course for the violent rain, and a way for the thunders;

26to rain upon the land where there is no man, the wilderness, where there is not a man in it; so as to feed the untrodden and uninhabited land,

27and cause it to send forth a crop of green herbs?

28Who is the rain's father? and who has generated the drops of dew?

29And out of whose womb comes the ice? and who has produced the frost in the sky,

30which descends like flowing water? who has terrified the face of the ungodly?

31And dost thou understand the band of Pleias, and hast thou opened the barrier of Orion?

32Or wilt thou reveal Mazuroth in his season, and the evening star with his rays? Wilt thou guide them?

33And knowest thou the changes of heaven, or the events which take place together under heaven?

34And wilt thou call a cloud with thy voice, and will it obey thee with a violent shower of much rain?

35And wilt thou send lightnings, and they shall go? and shall they say to thee, What is thy pleasure?

36And who has given to women skill in weaving, or knowledge of embroidery?

37And who is he that numbers the clouds in wisdom, and has bowed the heaven down to the earth?

38For it is spread out as dusty earth, and I have cemented it as one hewn stone to another.

39And wilt thou hunt a prey for the lions? and satisfy the desires of the serpents?

40For they fear in their lairs, and lying in wait couch in the woods.

41And who has prepared food for the raven? for its young ones wander and cry to the Lord, in search of food.