^1. Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:

^2. "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?

^3. Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.

^4. "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand.

^5. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?

^6. On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone--

^7. while the morning stars sang together and all the angels [1] shouted for joy?

^8. "Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,

^9. when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness,

^10. when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place,

^11. when I said, `This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt'?

^12. "Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place,

^13. that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?

^14. The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment.

^15. The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken.

^16. "Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?

^17. Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death [2] ?

^18. Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.

^19. "What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside?

^20. Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings?

^21. Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!

^22. "Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail,

^23. which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle?

^24. What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?

^25. Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm,

^26. to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it,

^27. to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?

^28. Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew?

^29. From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens

^30. when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?

^31. "Can you bind the beautiful [3] Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion?

^32. Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons [5] or lead out the Bear [4] with its cubs?

^33. Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up [God's [6] ] dominion over the earth?

^34. "Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water?

^35. Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, `Here we are'?

^36. Who endowed the heart [8] with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind [7] ?

^37. Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens

^38. when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together?

^39. "Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions

^40. when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in a thicket?

^41. Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?