38:2 “Who is this
with words without knowledge?
38:3 Get ready for a difficult task
I will question you
and you will inform me!
38:4 “Where were you
when I laid the foundation
Tell me,
38:5 Who set its measurements – if
or who stretched a measuring line across it?
38:6 On what
or who laid its cornerstone –
38:7 when the morning stars
and all the sons of God
38:8 “Who shut up
when it burst forth,
38:9 when I made
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
38:10 when I prescribed
and set
38:11 when I said, ‘To here you may come
and no farther,
here your proud waves will be confined’?
38:12 Have you ever in your life
or made the dawn know
38:13 that it might seize the corners of the earth,
and shake the wicked out of it?
38:14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
its features
38:15 Then from the wicked the light is withheld,
and the arm raised in violence
38:16 Have you gone to the springs that fill the sea,
or walked about in the recesses of the deep?
38:17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Have you seen the gates of deepest darkness?
38:18 Have you considered the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know it all!
38:19 “In what direction
and darkness, where is its place,
38:20 that you may take them to their borders
and perceive the pathways to their homes?
38:21 You know, for you were born before them;
and the number of your days is great!
38:22 Have you entered the storehouse
or seen the armory
38:23 which I reserve for the time of trouble,
for the day of war and battle?
38:24 In what direction is lightning
or the east winds scattered over the earth?
38:25 Who carves out a channel for the heavy rains,
and a path for the rumble of thunder,
38:26 to cause it to rain on an uninhabited land,
a desert where there are no human beings,
38:27 to satisfy a devastated and desolate land,
and to cause it to sprout with vegetation?
38:28 Does the rain have a father,
or who has fathered the drops of the dew?
38:29 From whose womb does the ice emerge,
and the frost from the sky,
38:30 when the waters become hard
when the surface of the deep is frozen solid?
38:31 Can you tie the bands
or release the cords of Orion?
38:32 Can you lead out
the constellations
or guide the Bear with its cubs?
38:33 Do you know the laws of the heavens,
or can you set up their rule over the earth?
38:34 Can you raise your voice to the clouds
so that a flood of water covers you?
38:35 Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go?
Will they say to you, ‘Here we are’?
38:36 Who has put wisdom in the heart,
or has imparted understanding to the mind?
38:37 Who by wisdom can count the clouds,
and who can tip over
38:38 when the dust hardens
and the clumps of earth stick together?
38:39 “Do you hunt prey for the lioness,
and satisfy the appetite
38:40 when they crouch in their dens,
when they wait in ambush in the thicket?
38:41 Who prepares prey for the raven,
when its young cry out to God
and wander about
39:1 “Are you acquainted with the way
the mountain goats
Do you watch as the wild deer give birth to their young?
39:2 Do you count the months they must fulfill,
and do you know the time they give birth?
39:3 They crouch, they bear
they bring forth the offspring they have carried.
39:4 Their young grow strong, and grow up in the open;
they go off, and do not return to them.
39:5 Who let the wild donkey go free?
Who released the bonds of the donkey,
39:6 to whom I appointed the steppe for its home,
the salt wastes as its dwelling place?
39:7 It scorns the tumult in the town;
it does not hear the shouts of a driver.
39:8 It ranges the hills as its pasture,
and searches after every green plant.
39:9 Is the wild ox willing to be your servant?
Will it spend the night at your feeding trough?
39:10 Can you bind the wild ox
will it till the valleys, following after you?
39:11 Will you rely on it because its strength is great?
Will you commit
39:12 Can you count on
and gather the grain
39:13
but are they the pinions and plumage of a stork?
39:14 For she leaves
and lets them be warmed on the soil.
39:15 She forgets that a foot might crush them,
or that a wild animal
39:16 She is harsh
as if they were not hers;
she is unconcerned
about the uselessness of her labor.
39:17 For God deprived her of wisdom,
and did not impart understanding to her.
39:18 But as soon as she springs up,
she laughs at the horse and its rider.
39:19 “Do you give the horse its strength?
Do you clothe its neck with a mane?
39:20 Do you make it leap
Its proud neighing
39:21 It
exulting mightily,
it goes out to meet the weapons.
39:22 It laughs at fear and is not dismayed;
it does not shy away from the sword.
39:23 On it the quiver rattles;
the lance and javelin
39:24 In excitement and impatience it consumes the ground;
it cannot stand still
39:25 At the sound of the trumpet, it says, ‘Aha!’
And from a distance it catches the scent of battle,
the thunderous shouting of commanders,
and the battle cries.
39:26 “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars,
and spreads its wings toward the south?
39:27 Is it at your command
and builds its nest on high?
39:28 It lives on a rock and spends the night there,
on a rocky crag
39:29 From there it spots
its eyes gaze intently from a distance.
39:30 And its young ones devour the blood,
and where the dead carcasses
there it is.”