1Then Yahweh answered Job from the strong wind,
2"Who is this who clouds my wise plans with words that show no knowledge?
3Prepare yourself like a man, for I will question you, and then you answer me!
4Where were you when I created the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you understand.
5Who decided its measurements, if you know? Or who stretched the measuring line over it?
6What were its bases set upon? Or who laid its cornerstone,
7when the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
8Or who closed off the sea with doors when it burst out as if from a womb,
9when I made clouds its clothing and wrapped it in thick darkness,
10when I set a boundary for it, and put in place bars and doors,
11and said, 'You may come this far, but no further. Here your proud waves must stop'?
12Have you ever, in your lifetime, commanded the morning or told the dawn where its place was;
13so that it could grab hold of the edges of the earth and shake the wicked out of it?
14The earth changes like clay under a seal, and it stands out like a garment.
15The wicked are deprived of their light. Their powerful arm is broken.
16Have you gone to the springs at the bottom of the sea? Or have you walked in the deepest parts of the ocean?
17Have the gates of death been shown to you? Or have you seen the gates of the darkest gloom?
18Have you understood how wide the earth is? Tell me, if you know all this.
19What is the way to where light lives? As for darkness, where is its place,
20so that you can take it to its boundary, and understand the paths to its home?
21Surely you know, for you were born then, and you have lived for many years!
22Have you entered the storage rooms where I keep the snow, or have you seen the treasures of hail?
23I have saved them for times of trouble, for days of battle and war.
24Which way does lightning spread? How is the east wind scattered across the earth?
25Who cut a channel for the floodwaters or a path for the thunderstorm?
26Who makes it rain on land where no one lives, on the wilderness where there are no people?
27Who satisfies the dry and empty ground, causing tender grass to grow?
28Does the rain have a father? Who gives birth to the drops of dew?
29From whose womb did the ice come? Who gave birth to the gray frost of the sky?
30The waters become hard like stone when the surface of the deep is frozen solid.
31Can you tie up the cluster of the Pleiades stars, or loosen the cords of the Orion constellation?
32Can you bring out the constellations in their proper season? Or can you guide the Great Bear constellation with its cubs?
33Do you know the laws that govern the heavens? Can you establish their rule over the earth?
34Can you shout to the clouds so that an abundance of water covers you?
35Can you send out lightning bolts, and do they go? Do they report back to you, 'Here we are!'?
36Who put wisdom in people's inner being? Or who gave understanding to the mind?
37Who can count the clouds with wisdom? Or who can pour out the waters from the sky
38when the dust hardens into a mass and the clumps of earth stick together?
39Can you hunt prey for the lioness or satisfy the hunger of the young lions?
40They crouch in their dens and lie in wait in the thicket.
41Who provides food for the raven when its young ones cry out to God and wander around because they have no food?