Capítulo 38

1 - Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:

2 - "Who is this that obscures my plans 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 Hebrew [the sons of God] 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 deepest darkness?

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 one lives, an uninhabited desert,

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 chains Septuagint; Hebrew [beauty] of the Pleiades? Can you loosen Orion's belt?

32 - Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons Or [the morning star in its season] or lead out the Bear Or [out Leo] with its cubs?

33 - Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God's Or [their] 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 gives the ibis wisdom That is, wisdom about the flooding of the Nile or gives the rooster understanding? That is, understanding of when to crow; the meaning of the Hebrew for this verse is uncertain.

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?