1 | Then the Lord answered Job out of a whirlwind, and said: |
2 | Who is this that wrappeth up sentences in unskillful words? |
3 | Gird up thy loins like a man: I will ask thee, and answer thou me. |
4 | Where wast thou when I laid up the foundations of the earth? tell me if thou hast understanding. |
5 | Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? |
6 | Upon what are its bases grounded? or who laid the corner stone thereof, |
7 | When the morning stars praised me together, and all the sons of God made a joyful melody? |
8 | Who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth as issuing out of the womb: |
9 | When I made a cloud the garment thereof, and wrapped it in a mist as in swaddling bands? |
10 | I set my bounds around it, and made it bars and doors: |
11 | And I said: Hitherto thou shalt come, and shalt go no further, and here thou shalt break thy swelling waves. |
12 | Didst thou since thy birth command the morning, and shew the dawning of the day its place? |
13 | And didst thou hold the extremities of the earth shaking them, and hast thou shaken the ungodly out of it? |
14 | The seal shall be restored as clay, and shall stand as a garment: |
15 | From the wicked their light shall be taken away, and the high arm shall be broken. |
16 | Hast thou entered into the depths of the sea, and walked in the lowest parts of the deep? |
17 | Have the gates of death been opened to thee, and hast thou seen the darksome doors? |
18 | Hast thou considered the breadth of the earth? tell me, if thou knowest all things? |
19 | Where is the way where light dwelleth, and where is the place of darkness: |
20 | That thou mayst bring every thing to its own bounds, and understand the paths of the house thereof. |
21 | Didst thou know then that thou shouldst be born? and didst thou know the number of thy days? |
22 | Hast thou entered into the storehouses of the snow, or has thou beheld the treasures of the hail: |
23 | Which I have prepared for the time of the enemy, against the day of battle and war? |
24 | By what way is the light spread, and heat divided upon the earth? |
25 | Who gave a course to violent showers, or a way for noisy thunder: |
26 | That it should rain on the earth without man in the wilderness, where no mortal dwelleth: |
27 | That it should fill the desert and desolate land, and should bring forth green grass? |
28 | Who is the father of rain? or who begot the drops of dew? |
29 | Out of whose womb came the ice; and the frost from heaven who hath gendered it? |
30 | The waters are hardened like a stone, and the surface of the deep is congealed. |
31 | Shalt thou be able to join together the shining stars the Pleiades, or canst thou stop the turning about of Arcturus? |
32 | Canst thou bring forth the day star in its time, and make the evening star to rise upon the children of the earth? |
33 | Dost thou know the order of heaven, and canst thou set down the reason thereof on the earth? |
34 | Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that an abundance of waters may cover thee? |
35 | Canst thou send lightnings, and will they go, and will they return and say to thee: Here we are? |
36 | Who hath put wisdom in the heart of man? or who gave the cock understanding? |
37 | Who can declare the order of the heavens, or who can make the harmony of heaven to sleep? |
38 | When was the dust poured on the earth, and the clods fastened together? |
39 | Wilt thou take the prey for the lioness, and satisfy the appetite of her whelps, |
40 | When they couch in the dens and lie in wait in holes? |
41 | Who provideth food for the raven, when her young ones cry to God, wandering about, because they have no meat? |