Job 38

Berean Standard Bible

Chapter summary

The Lord answers Job out of a whirlwind, rebuking him for speaking without knowledge and commanding him to prepare to answer questions. God questions Job regarding his presence and knowledge during the creation of the earth, including its foundations, measurements, and cornerstone, while the heavenly beings rejoiced. The Lord then asks about His control over the seas, the morning, the depths of the earth, the sources of light and darkness, and the storehouses of snow and hail. Continuing the discourse, God challenges Job concerning his ability to direct lightning, rain, ice, constellations, and clouds over the earth. Finally, God questions Job about His provision of prey for lions and food for ravens in the wilderness.

Summary automatically generated from the Bible text.

Words of Jesus in red

¹Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: ²“Who is this who obscures My counsel by words without knowledge? ³Now brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall inform Me. ⁴Where 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, ⁷while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? ⁸Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, ⁹when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket, ¹⁰when I fixed its boundaries and 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 morning or assigned the dawn its place, ¹³that it might spread to the ends of the earth and 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 sea or 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 snow or 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 flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt, ²⁶to bring rain on a barren land, on a desert where no man lives, ²⁷to satisfy the parched wasteland and 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 stone and the surface of the deep is frozen? ³¹Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion? ³²Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear and her cubs? ³³Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth? ³⁴Can you command the clouds so 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 heart or given understanding to the mind? ³⁷Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens ³⁸when the dust hardens into a mass and the clods of earth stick together? ³⁹Can you hunt the prey for a lioness or satisfy the hunger of young lions ⁴⁰when they crouch in their dens and lie in wait in the thicket? ⁴¹Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God as they wander about for lack of food?

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Louis Segond 1910 and Berean Standard Bible: public domain. Cross references: open-cross-ref, Creative Commons BY 4.0.