Job

DISCOURSES OF THE LORD

First Speech of the Lord

Then the Lord answered Job from the storm:

Who is this that obscures divine plans with ignorant words?

Gird up your loins like a man; I will question you and you must answer.

Where were you when I founded the earth? Answer, and show me your knowledge.

Do you know who decided its size, who stretched out its measuring line?

On what were its foundations built? Who laid its cornerstone,

while the morning stars sang together and the heavenly beings shouted for joy?

Who shut the sea behind closed doors when it burst forth from the womb,

when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling clothes;

when I set its limits with doors and bars in place,

when I said: “You will not go beyond these bounds; here is where your proud waves must halt?”

Have you ever commanded the morning, or shown the dawn its place,

that it might grasp the earth by its edges and shake the wicked out of it,

when it takes on a clay color and changes its tint like a garment;

when the wicked are denied their own light, and their proud arm is shattered?

Have you traveled to where the sea begins Or walked into its deepest corners?

Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of Shadow?

Do you have an idea of how wide the earth is? Tell me if you know all this.

Where is the way to the home of light, and where does darkness dwell?

Can you guide them to their own regions and lead them on their homeward paths?

You know, for you were born before them, and your years are many!

Have you entered the storehouse of snow or seen the storehouse of hail,

which I keep for times of trouble, for days of war and battle?

What is the way to the place where lightning is scattered, or the origin of the east wind that spreads over the earth?

Who has carved a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm,

to bring rain to no-man’s-land and to wild, uninhabited wilderness,

to nourish the barren and deserted ground, to make the desert burst into green?

Does the rain have a father? Who is the father of the dew drops?

From whose womb does the ice emerge, and who gives birth to frost from the skies

when the waters lie as hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?

Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loosen the bonds of Orion?

Can you guide the Morning Star in its season, or lead the Bear with its train?

Do you understand the laws of the heavens, and can you establish their rule on the earth?

Can you raise your voice to the clouds and command their waters to pour down?

Will lightning flash at your command and report to you: “Here we are?”

Who has given the ibis foresight or endowed the cock with knowledge?

Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who tilts the water jars of heaven

so that the dust cakes into a mass and clods of earth stick together?

Can you hunt in the woods to appease the hunger of the lioness and her whelps,

as they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in the thicket?

Who provides prey for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander desperately for food?