The Lord Speaks
2Who is this who obscures My counsel
with ignorant words? Jb 34:35; 35:16; 42:3
3Get ready to answer Me like a man;
when I question 2Sm 11:7; Jb 40:7; 42:4 you, you will inform Me.
4Where were you when I established Ps 89:11; 102:25; 104:5 the earth?
Tell Me, if you have Lit know understanding.
5Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6What supports its foundations?
Or who laid its cornerstone
7while the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God Gn 6:2,4; Jb 1:6; 2:1 shouted for joy?
8Who enclosed the sea behind doors
when it burst from the womb,
9when I made the clouds its garment
and thick darkness its blanket, Lit swaddling clothes 2Sm 22:10; Jb 22:13; 37:11
10when I determined its boundaries Lit I broke My statute on it
and put its bars and doors in place,
11when I declared: “You may come this far, but no farther;
your proud waves stop here”?
12Have you ever in your life commanded the morning
or assigned the dawn its place,
13so it may seize the edges of the earth
and shake the wicked out of it?
14The earth is changed as clay is by a seal;
its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.
15Light Lit Their light is withheld from the wicked,
and the arm raised in violence is broken.
16Have you traveled to the sources of the sea
or walked in the depths of the oceans?
17Have the gates Ps 9:13; 107:18; Is 38:10 of death been revealed to you?
Have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
18Have you comprehended the extent of the earth?
Tell Me, if you know all this.
19Where is the road to the home of light?
Do you know where darkness lives,
20so you can lead it back to its border?
Are you familiar with the paths to its home?
21Don’t you know? You were already born; Jb 15:7; Ps 90:2; Pr 8:25
you have lived so long! Lit born; the number of your days is great
22Have you entered the place where the snow is stored?
Or have you seen the storehouses of hail, Ex 9:18; Ps 105:32; Is 28:17
23which I hold in reserve for times of trouble,
for the day of warfare and battle? Jos 10:11; Is 30:30; Rv 16:21
24What road leads to the place where light is dispersed? Or where lightning is distributed
Where is the source of the east wind that spreads across the earth?
25Who cuts a channel for the flooding rain
or clears the way for lightning,
26to bring rain on an uninhabited land,
on a desert with no human life, Lit life in it
27to satisfy the parched wasteland
and cause the grass to sprout? Gn 1:11; 2Sm 23:4; Ps 107:35
28Does the rain have a father?
Who fathered the drops of dew? Jb 5:10; Ps 147:8; Jr 14:22
29Whose womb did the ice come from?
Who gave birth to the frost of heaven
30when water becomes as hard as stone, Lit water hides itself as the stone
and the surface of the watery depths is frozen? Jb 37:10; Ps 147:16-17
31Can you fasten the chains of the Pleiades
or loosen the belt of Orion?
32Can you bring out the constellations Or Mazzaroth ; Hb obscure in their season
and lead the Bear Or lead Aldebaran and her cubs? Jb 9:9; Is 40:26; Am 5:8
33Do you know the laws Jr 31:35; 33:25 of heaven?
Can you impose its Or God’s authority on earth?
34Can you command Lit lift up your voice to the clouds
so that a flood of water covers you? Jb 22:11; Ps 69:1-2; Lm 3:54
35Can you send out lightning Ex 19:16; Ps 18:14; 97:4 bolts, and they go?
Do they report to you: “Here we are”?
or gave the mind understanding?
37Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?
Or who can tilt the water jars of heaven
38when the dust hardens like cast metal
and the clods of dirt stick together?
39Can you hunt prey for a lioness
or satisfy the appetite of young lions Ps 104:21; 145:15-16
40when they crouch in their dens
and lie in wait within their lairs?
41Who provides the raven’s food 1Kg 17:4,6; Ps 147:9; Lk 12:24
when its young cry out to God
and wander about for lack of food?
Holman Christian Standard Bible®
Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009
by Holman Bible Publishers
