God challenges Job to answer.

38:1 Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,

38:2 “Who is this who darkens counsel
by words without knowledge?

38:3 Brace yourself like a man,
for I will question you, then you answer me!

God, by his mighty works, convinces Job of ignorance,

38:4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Declare, if you have understanding.

38:5 Who determined its measures, if you know?
Or who stretched the line on it?

38:6 Whereupon were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,

38:7 when the morning stars sang together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

38:8 “Or who shut up the sea with doors,
when it broke forth from the womb,

38:9 when I made clouds its garment,
and wrapped it in thick darkness,

38:10 marked out for it my bound,
set bars and doors,

38:11 and said, ‘Here you may come, but no further.
Here your proud waves shall be stayed?’

38:12 “Have you commanded the morning in your days,
and caused the dawn to know its place;

38:13 that it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
and shake the wicked out of it?

38:14 It is changed as clay under the seal,
and stands forth as a garment.

38:15 From the wicked, their light is withheld.
The high arm is broken.

38:16 “Have you entered into the springs of the sea?
Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?

38:17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

38:18 Have you comprehended the earth in its breadth?
Declare, if you know it all.

38:19 “What is the way to the dwelling of light?
As for darkness, where is its place,

38:20 that you should take it to its bound,
that you should discern the paths to its house?

38:21 Surely you know, for you were born then,
and the number of your days is great!

38:22 Have you entered the treasuries of the snow,
or have you seen the treasures of the hail,

38:23 which I have reserved against the time of trouble,
against the day of battle and war?

38:24 By what way is the lightning distributed,
or the east wind scattered on the earth?

38:25 Who has cut a channel for the flood water,
or the path for the thunderstorm;

38:26 To cause it to rain on a land where no man is;
on the wilderness, in which there is no man;

38:27 to satisfy the waste and desolate ground,
to cause the tender grass to spring forth?

38:28 Does the rain have a father?
Or who fathers the drops of dew?

38:29 Out of whose womb came the ice?
The gray frost of the sky, who has given birth to it?

38:30 The waters become hard like stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen.

and of imbecility.

38:31 “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades,
or loosen the cords of Orion?

38:32 Can you lead forth the constellations in their season?
Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?

38:33 Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you establish its dominion over the earth?

38:34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
That abundance of waters may cover you?

38:35 Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go?
Do they report to you, ‘Here we are?’

38:36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts?
Or who has given understanding to the mind?

38:37 Who can number the clouds by wisdom?
Or who can pour out the bottles of the sky,

38:38 when the dust runs into a mass,
and the clods of earth stick together?

38:39 “Can you hunt the prey for the lioness,
or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

38:40 when they crouch in their dens,
and lie in wait in the thicket?

38:41 Who provides for the raven his prey,
when his young ones cry to God,
and wander for lack of food?