Berean Standard Bible

Job 38

1Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

2“Who is this who obscures My counselby words without knowledge?13Now brace yourself2 like a man;I will question you, and you shall inform Me.34Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?Tell Me, if you have understanding.5Who fixed its measurements? Surely you know!Or who stretched a measuring line across it?6On what were its foundations set,or who laid its cornerstone,47while the morning stars sang togetherand all the sons of God shouted for joy?

8Who enclosed the sea behind doorswhen it burst forth from the womb,9when I made the clouds its garmentand thick darkness its blanket,10when I fixed its boundariesand set in place its bars and doors,11and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther;here your proud waves must stop’?

12In your days, have you commanded the morningor assigned the dawn its place,13that it might spread to the ends of the earthand shake the wicked out of it?14The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.15Light is withheld from the wicked,and their upraised arm is broken.

16Have you journeyed to the vents of the seaor walked in the trenches of the deep?17Have the gates of death been revealed to you?Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?18Have you surveyed the extent of the earth?Tell Me, if you know all this.

19Where is the way to the home of light?Do you know where darkness resides,20so you can lead it back to its border?Do you know the paths to its home?21Surely you know, for you were already born!And the number of your days is great!

22Have you entered the storehouses of snowor observed the storehouses of hail,23which I hold in reserve for times of trouble,for the day of war and battle?24In which direction is the lightning dispersed,or the east wind scattered over the earth?

25Who cuts a channel for the floodor clears a path for the thunderbolt,26to bring rain on a barren land,on a desert where no man lives,27to satisfy the parched wastelandand make it sprout with tender grass?28Does the rain have a father?Who has begotten the drops of dew?29From whose womb does the ice emerge?Who gives birth to the frost from heaven,30when the waters become hard as stoneand the surface of the deep is frozen?

31Can you bind the chains of the Pleiadesor loosen the belt of Orion?32Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons5or lead out the Bear6 and her cubs?33Do you know the laws of the heavens?Can you set their dominion over the earth?34Can you command the cloudsso that a flood of water covers you?35Can you send the lightning bolts on their way?Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?

36Who has put wisdom in the heart7or given understanding to the mind?37Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens38when the dust hardens into a massand the clods of earth stick together?

39Can you hunt the prey for a lionessor satisfy the hunger of young lions40when they crouch in their densand lie in wait in the thicket?41Who provides food for the ravenwhen its young cry out to Godas they wander about for lack of food?

Notes

1. Job 38:2 Cited in Job 42:3 ↩
2. Job 38:3 Hebrew gird up your loins ↩
3. Job 38:3 Cited in Job 42:4 ↩
4. Job 38:6 Or who set its core in place ↩
5. Job 38:32 Or bring forth Mazzaroth in its season ↩
6. Job 38:32 Or Leo or Arcturus ↩
7. Job 38:36 Or Who has given the ibis wisdom, that is, wisdom about the flooding of the Nile ↩

Notes

Commentaries on Job 38