VI. The Divine Speeches (38:1-42:6)
The Lord’s First Speech 138:1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: 2
38:2 “Who is this 3 who darkens counsel 4
with words without knowledge?
38:3 Get ready for a difficult task 5 like a man;
I will question you
and you will inform me!
38:4 “Where were you
when I laid the foundation 6 of the earth?
Tell me, 7 if you possess understanding!
38:5 Who set its measurements – if 8 you know –
or who stretched a measuring line across it?
38:6 On what 9 were its bases 10 set,
or who laid its cornerstone –
38:7 when the morning stars 11 sang 12 in chorus, 13
and all the sons of God 14 shouted for joy?
38:8 “Who shut up 15 the sea with doors
when it burst forth, 16 coming out of the womb,
38:9 when I made 17 the storm clouds its garment,
and thick darkness its swaddling band, 18
38:10 when I prescribed 19 its limits,
and set 20 in place its bolts and doors,
38:11 when I said, ‘To here you may come 21
and no farther, 22
here your proud waves will be confined’? 23
38:12 Have you ever in your life 24 commanded the morning,
or made the dawn know 25 its place,
38:13 that it might seize the corners of the earth, 26
and shake the wicked out of it?
38:14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; 27
its features 28 are dyed 29 like a garment.
38:15 Then from the wicked the light is withheld,
and the arm raised in violence 30 is broken. 31
38:16 Have you gone to the springs that fill the sea, 32
or walked about in the recesses of the deep?
38:17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you? 33
Have you seen the gates of deepest darkness? 34
38:18 Have you considered the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know it all!
38:19 “In what direction 35 does light reside,
and darkness, where is its place,
38:20 that you may take them to their borders
and perceive the pathways to their homes? 36
38:21 You know, for you were born before them; 37
and the number of your days is great!
38:22 Have you entered the storehouse 38 of the snow,
or seen the armory 39 of the hail,
38:23 which I reserve for the time of trouble,
for the day of war and battle? 40
38:24 In what direction is lightning 41 dispersed,
or the east winds scattered over the earth?
38:25 Who carves out a channel for the heavy rains,
and a path for the rumble of thunder,
38:26 to cause it to rain on an uninhabited land, 42
a desert where there are no human beings, 43
38:27 to satisfy a devastated and desolate land,
and to cause it to sprout with vegetation? 44
38:28 Does the rain have a father,
or who has fathered the drops of the dew?
38:29 From whose womb does the ice emerge,
and the frost from the sky, 45 who gives birth to it,