¹ Then Yahweh responded to Job, out of a storm, and said:—

² Who is it that darkeneth counsel, by words, without knowledge?

³ Gird, I pray thee—like a strong man—thy loins, that I may ask thee, and inform thou me:

⁴ Where wast thou, when I founded the earth? Tell, if thou knowest understanding!

⁵ Who set the measurements thereof, if thou knowest? Or who stretched out over it a line?

⁶ Whereon were the pedestals thereof sunk? Or who laid the corner stone thereof;—

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

⁸ Or [who] shut in, with double doors, the sea, when, bursting out of the womb, it came forth;

⁹ When I put a cloud as the garment thereof, and a thick cloud as the swaddling-band thereof;

¹⁰ And brake off for it my boundary, and fixed a bar and double doors;

¹¹ And said—Hitherto, shalt thou come, and no further,—and, here, shalt thou set a limit to the majesty of thy waves?

¹² Since thy days [began] hast thou commanded the morning? or caused the dawn to know its place;

¹³ That it might lay hold of the wings of the earth, and the lawless be shaken out of it?

¹⁴ It transformeth itself like the clay of a seal, so that things stand forth like one arrayed;

¹⁵ That their light may be withdrawn from the lawless, and, the lofty arm, be shivered.

¹⁶ Hast thou entered as far as the springs of the sea? Or, through the secret recesses of the resounding deep, hast thou wandered?

¹⁷ Have the gates of death been disclosed to thee? And, the gates of the death-shade, couldst thou descry?

¹⁸ Hast thou well considered, even the breadths of the earth? Tell—if thou knowest it all!

¹⁹ Where then is the way, the light shall abide? And, the darkness, where then is its place?

²⁰ That thou mayest conduct it unto the bound thereof, and that thou mayest perceive the paths to its house.

²¹ Thou knowest, for, then, hadst thou been born! And, in number, thy days are many!

²² Hast thou entered into the treasuries of the snow? And, the treasuries of the hail, couldst thou see?

²³ Which I have reserved for a time of distress, for the day of conflict and of war?

²⁴ Where then is the way the lightning is parted? The east wind spreadeth itself abroad over the earth.

²⁵ Who hath cloven—for the torrent—a channel? Or a way for the lightning of thunders;

²⁶ To give rain over the no-man’s land, the desert, where no son of earth is;

²⁷ To satisfy the wild and the wilderness, to cause to spring forth the meadow of young grass?

²⁸ Hath the rain a father? Or who hath begotten the drops of dew?

²⁹ Out of whose womb, came forth the ice? And, the hoar-frost of the heavens, who hath given it birth?

³⁰ Like a stone, are the waters congealed, and, the face of the roaring deep, becometh firm!

³¹ Canst thou bind the fetters of the Pleiades? Or, the bands of Orion, canst thou unloose?

³² Canst thou bring forth the signs of the Zodiac each in its season? Or, the Bear and her Young, canst thou lead?

³³ Knowest thou, the statutes of the heavens? Or didst thou appoint his dominion over the earth?

³⁴ Canst thou lift up, to the thick cloud, thy voice, and the overflow of waters cover thee?

³⁵ Canst thou send forth the lightnings, so that they go, and say to thee, Behold us?

³⁶ Who hath put—into cloud-forms—wisdom? Or who hath given—to the meteor—understanding?

³⁷ Who can count the thin clouds, in wisdom? And, the bottles of the heavens, who can empty out;

³⁸ When the dust is cast into a clod, and the lumps are bound together?

³⁹ Wilt thou hunt—for the Lioness—prey? Or, the craving of the Strong Lion, wilt thou satisfy;

⁴⁰ When they settle down in dens, abide in covert, for lying in wait?

⁴¹ Who prepareth for the Raven his nourishment,—when his young ones—unto GOD—cry out, [when] they wander for lack of food?