Job Chapter 38 (NIV)

KJV ESV NIV NASB NLT

undefined The Lord SpeaksThen the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said:

undefined “Who is this that darkens my counselwith words without knowledge?

undefined Brace yourself like a man;I will question you,and you shall answer me.

undefined “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?Tell me, if you understand.

undefined Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!Who stretched a measuring line across it?

undefined On what were its footings set,or who laid its cornerstone—

undefined while the morning stars sang togetherand all the angels shouted for joy?

undefined “Who shut up the sea behind doorswhen it burst forth from the womb,

undefined when I made the clouds its garmentand wrapped it in thick darkness,

undefined when I fixed limits for itand set its doors and bars in place,

undefined when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;here is where your proud waves halt’?

undefined “Have you ever given orders to the morning,or shown the dawn its place,

undefined that it might take the earth by the edgesand shake the wicked out of it?

undefined The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;its features stand out like those of a garment.

undefined The wicked are denied their light,and their upraised arm is broken.

undefined “Have you journeyed to the springs of the seaor walked in the recesses of the deep?

undefined Have the gates of death been shown to you?Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

undefined Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?Tell me, if you know all this.

undefined “What is the way to the abode of light?And where does darkness reside?

undefined Can you take them to their places?Do you know the paths to their dwellings?

undefined Surely you know, for you were already born!You have lived so many years!

undefined “Have you entered the storehouses of the snowor seen the storehouses of the hail,

undefined which I reserve for times of trouble,for days of war and battle?

undefined What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?

undefined Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,and a path for the thunderstorm,

undefined to water a land where no man lives,a desert with no one in it,

undefined to satisfy a desolate wastelandand make it sprout with grass?

undefined Does the rain have a father?Who fathers the drops of dew?

undefined From whose womb comes the ice?Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens

undefined when the waters become hard as stone,when the surface of the deep is frozen?

undefined “Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?Can you loose the cords of Orion?

undefined Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasonsor lead out the Bear with its cubs?

undefined Do you know the laws of the heavens?Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?

undefined “Can you raise your voice to the cloudsand cover yourself with a flood of water?

undefined Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?

undefined Who endowed the heart with wisdomor gave understanding to the mind?

undefined Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens

undefined when the dust becomes hardand the clods of earth stick together?

undefined “Do you hunt the prey for the lionessand satisfy the hunger of the lions

undefined when they crouch in their densor lie in wait in a thicket?

undefined Who provides food for the ravenwhen its young cry out to Godand wander about for lack of food?

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