Job 38:4-27

4“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you possess understanding!

5Who set its measurements – if you know – or who stretched a measuring line across it?

6On what were its bases set, or who laid its cornerstone –

7when the morning stars sang in chorus, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

8“Who shut up the sea with doors when it burst forth, coming out of the womb,

9when I made the storm clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band,

10when I prescribed its limits, and set in place its bolts and doors,

11when I said, ‘To here you may come and no farther, here your proud waves will be confined’?

12Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, or made the dawn know its place,

13that it might seize the corners of the earth, and shake the wicked out of it?

14The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features are dyed like a garment.

15Then from the wicked the light is withheld, and the arm raised in violence is broken.

16Have you gone to the springs that fill the sea, or walked about in the recesses of the deep?

17Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of deepest darkness?

18Have you considered the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know it all!

19“In what direction does light reside, and darkness, where is its place,

20that you may take them to their borders and perceive the pathways to their homes?

21You know, for you were born before them; and the number of your days is great!

22Have you entered the storehouse of the snow, or seen the armory of the hail,

23which I reserve for the time of trouble, for the day of war and battle?

24In what direction is lightning dispersed, or the east winds scattered over the earth?

25Who carves out a channel for the heavy rains, and a path for the rumble of thunder,

26to cause it to rain on an uninhabited land, a desert where there are no human beings,

27to satisfy a devastated and desolate land, and to cause it to sprout with vegetation?