² Who is this who spreads darkness over my plans
    with his ignorant words?
³ Get ready for action ^[1] like a man!
Then I will ask you questions,
and you will inform me.

⁴ Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you understand anything about it.
⁵ Who determined its dimensions?
I am sure you know.
Who stretched out the surveying line over it?
⁶ What supports its foundation?
Who set its cornerstone in place,
⁷     when the morning stars sang loud songs together,
        and all the sons of God shouted for joy? ^[2]
8 Who locked up the sea behind doors
    when it burst out of the womb?
⁹ When I clothed the sea with clouds,
when I wrapped it with thick darkness as its swaddling cloths,
¹⁰ when I broke its power with my decree,
when I locked it up behind barred, double doors,
¹¹ I said, “You may come this far, but no farther.
Here is the barrier for your proud waves.”

¹² Have you ever in all your days given a command to the morning?
Have you ever set a time for the sun to rise,
¹³ so it may grab the earth by its edges
and shake the wicked out of it?
¹⁴ The earth’s shapes become visible like designs impressed on clay,
and its decorations can be seen like those on a garment.
¹⁵ Their light is withheld from the wicked,
and an uplifted arm is broken.

¹⁶ Have you ever traveled to the sources of the sea
or walked around in the dark depths of the ocean?

¹⁷ Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? ^[3]

¹⁸ Do you comprehend the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.

¹⁹ How can someone get to the dwelling of light?
Where is the place for darkness?
²⁰ Could you lead it to its property?
Do you know the way to its house?
²¹ You must know that, since you were born before it,
and you have lived for so many days!

²² Have you visited the warehouses where the snow is kept?
Have you seen the warehouses ^[4] where the hail is stored?
²³ I have reserved them for troubled times,
for days of battle and war.

²⁴ What is the way to the place where the lightning divides, ^[5]
where the east wind is scattered over the earth?
²⁵ Who has excavated a channel for the floodwaters
and a road for the rolling thunder?
²⁶ They bring rain to lands where no one lives,
to a wilderness without a person in it.
²⁷ The rain satisfies the wilderness and wasteland
and causes the dry ground to produce green plants.
²⁸ Does the rain have a father?
Who is the father of the drops of dew?
²⁹ Whose womb produces the ice?
Who gives birth to the heavy frost from the sky?
³⁰ The water is disguised as stone,
and the surface of the deep is trapped under ice.

³¹ Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,
or loosen the belt of Orion?
³² Can you lead out the constellations at the right season
and guide the Bear with her cubs? ^[6]
33 Do you know the laws that govern the skies?
Can you establish God’s rule on earth?
³⁴ Can you raise your voice to the clouds,
so that a flood of water submerges you?
³⁵ Can you unleash the lightning bolts,
so that they come and say to you, “Here we are”?

³⁶ Who has placed wisdom in the human heart
and given understanding to the mind? ^[7]

³⁷ Who has the wisdom to count the clouds
and to empty the water jars of the sky,
³⁸ when the loose dust has been poured into molds to harden,
and the clods of dirt are cemented together?

³⁹ Can you hunt prey for a lioness?
Can you satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
⁴⁰ when they crouch in their dens,
or they lie in wait in the thicket?

⁴¹ Who prepares its provisions for the raven,
when its young are screaming to God,
while they thrash around in the nest waiting for food?

Job 39

¹ Do you know the time when the antelope on the cliffs gives birth?
Do you keep watch over the doe as she is in labor?
² Do you count how many months they carry their young?
Do you know when it is time for them to give birth?
³ They crouch down.
They give birth to their fawns.
Their labor pains are over.
⁴ Their young are lively and live in the open countryside.
They go out, and they do not return to them.
⁵ Who set the wild donkey free?
Who untied the restraints on the onager? ^[8]
6 I have given it the wasteland ^[9] as its home,
the salt flats as its dwelling place.
⁷ It brays at the commotion in a town.
It does not listen to the shouting of the driver.
⁸ It explores the mountains as its pasture,
while it searches for anything green.

⁹ Is a wild ox willing to serve you?
Will it spend the night at your manger?
¹⁰ Can you lead the wild ox down a furrow with a rope?
Will it work the fields in the valleys behind you?
¹¹ Will you depend on it because it is so strong?
Will you rely on it to labor for you?
¹² Will you trust it to return your seed grain
and to bring it to your threshing floor?

¹³ The wings of a screeching ostrich flap wildly,
but they do not have feathers and plumage like a stork’s.
¹⁴ She leaves her eggs on the ground.
She keeps them warm in the dust.
¹⁵ She forgets that a foot may crush them,
or a wild animal may trample them.
¹⁶ She is hard-hearted toward her children.
It is as if they were not hers.
It does not bother her if her labor is for nothing,
¹⁷ because God made her forget wisdom,
and he has not given her any understanding.
¹⁸ But as soon as she jumps up to run,
she laughs at the horse and the rider.

¹⁹ Did you give strength to the horse?
Did you clothe its neck with a flowing mane?
²⁰ Did you give it the ability to jump like a locust?
Its snorting and neighing are frightening.
²¹ It paws at the ground in the valley. ^[10]
It rejoices in its strength.
It goes out to meet the weapons of war.
²² It laughs at danger and is not afraid.
It does not turn away from the sword.
²³ A quiver rattles against it.
A spear and a javelin ^[11] flash.
²⁴ Shaking with excitement, it swallows up ground.
It doesn’t just stand there when the ram’s horn sounds.
²⁵ As often as the horn sounds, it neighs and snorts!
From a distance it smells the battle,
the thunder of the commanders and the war cries.

²⁶ Did you teach the hawk how to soar,
as it spreads out its wings to the south?
²⁷ Is it at your command that the eagle flies high
and makes its nest in a lofty place?
²⁸ On a rocky cliff it settles down to spend the night,
on a pinnacle of rock in a mountain stronghold.
²⁹ From there it spies its food.
Its eyes spot it far away.
³⁰ Its young ones drink up the blood.
Wherever the carcasses are—there it is.

² Will the one who makes charges against the Almighty
    dare to correct him?
The one who accuses God should make his case!

⁴ No, I am insignificant. ^[12]
How could I reply to you?
I will put my hand over my mouth.
⁵ I spoke once, but I cannot defend it.
Twice, but I will not go any further.