1Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm.

2"Who is this that belittles my advice with words that do not show any knowledge [about it]?

3Brace yourself like a man! I will ask you, and you will teach me.

4"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have [such] insight.

5Who determined its dimensions? Certainly, you know! Who stretched a measuring line over it?

6On what were its footings sunk? Who laid its cornerstone

7when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

8"Who shut the sea behind gates when it burst through and came out of the womb,

9when I clothed it with clouds and wrapped it up in dark clouds,

10when I set a limit for it and put up bars and gates,

11when I said, 'You may come this far but no farther. Here your proud waves will stop'?

12"Have you ever given orders to the morning or assigned a place for the dawn

13so that it could grab the earth by its edges and shake wicked people out of it?

14The earth changes like clay stamped by a seal, and [parts of it] stand out like [folds in] clothing.

15Wicked people are deprived of their light, and an arm raised [in victory] is broken.

16Have you gone to the springs in the sea or walked through the valleys of the ocean depths?

17Have the gateways to death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gateways to total darkness?

18Have you [even] considered how wide the earth is? Tell me, if you know all of this!

19"What is the way to the place where light lives? Where is the home of darkness

20so that you may lead it to its territory, so that you may know the path to its home?

21You must know because you were born then and have lived such a long time!

22Have you been to the warehouses where snow is stored or seen the warehouses for hail

23that I have stored up for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?

24Which is the way to the place where light is scattered and the east wind is spread across the earth?

25"Who made a channel for the flooding rains and a path for the thunderstorms

26to bring rain on a land where no one lives, on a desert where there are no humans,

27to saturate the desolate wasteland in order to make it sprout with grass?

28Does the rain have a father? Who gave birth to the dewdrops?

29From whose womb came the ice, and who has given birth to the frost in the air?

30The water hardens like a stone, and the surface of the ocean freezes over.

31"Can you connect the chains of the [constellation] Pleiades or untie the ropes of Orion?

32Can you bring out the constellations at the right time or guide Ursa Major with its cubs?

33Do you know the laws of the sky or make them rule the earth?

34Can you call to the clouds and have a flood of water cover you?

35Can you send lightning flashes so that they may go and say to you, 'Here we are'?

36Who put wisdom in the heart or gave understanding to the mind?

37Who is wise enough to count the clouds or pour out the water jars of heaven

38when the dirt hardens into clumps and the soil clings together?

39"Can you hunt prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of her cubs

40as they crouch in their dens and lie ready to ambush from their lairs?

41"Who provides food for the crow when its young ones cry to God and wander around in need of food?