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

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