¹ Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, ² Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? ³ Gird up now your loins like a man; for I will demand of you, and answer you me. ⁴ Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if you have understanding. ⁵ Who has laid the measures of it, if you know ? or who has stretched the line on it? ⁶ Whereupon are the foundations of it fastened ? or who laid the corner stone of it ⁷ When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? ⁸ Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forward, as if it had issued out of the womb? ⁹ When I made the cloud the garment of it, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it, ¹⁰ And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, ¹¹ And said, To this day will you come, but no further: and here will your proud waves be stayed? ¹² have you commanded the morning since your days and caused the dayspring to know his place ¹³ That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it? ¹⁴ It is turned as clay to the seal and they stand as a garment. ¹⁵ And from the wicked their light is withheld, and the high arm will be broken. ¹⁶ have you entered into the springs of the sea? or have you walked in the search of the depth? ¹⁷ Have the gates of death been opened to you? or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? ¹⁸ have you perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if you know it all. ¹⁹ Where is the way where light dwells ? and as for darkness, where is the place of it, ²⁰ That you should take it to the bound of it, and that you should know the paths to the house of it? ²¹ know you it, because you were then born ? or because the number of your days is great? ²² have you entered into the treasures of the snow? or have you seen the treasures of the hail, ²³ Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war? ²⁴ By what way is the light parted, which scatters the east wind on the earth? ²⁵ Who has divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder; ²⁶ To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, in which there is no man; ²⁷ To satisfy the desolate and waste ground and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forward? ²⁸ has the rain a father? or who has born the drops of dew? ²⁹ Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who has gendered it? ³⁰ The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen. ³¹ Can you bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? ³² Can you bring forward Mazzaroth in his season? Or can you guide Arcturus with his sons? ³³ Do you know the ordinances of heaven? Can you set the dominion of it in the earth? ³⁴ Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover you? ³⁵ Can you send lightnings, that they may go, and say to you, Here we [are]? ³⁶ Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? or who has given understanding to the heart? ³⁷ Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven, ³⁸ When the dust grows into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together? ³⁹ Will you hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions, ⁴⁰ When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait? ⁴¹ Who provides for the raven his food? when his young ones cry to God, they wander for lack of meat.