Job 38

1 Then the LORD addressed Job out of the storm and said:
2 Who is this that obscures divine plans with words of ignorance?
3 Gird up your loins now, like a man; I will question you, and you tell me the answers!
4 Where were you when I founded the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its size; do you know? Who stretched out the measuring line for it?
6 Into what were its pedestals sunk, and who laid the cornerstone,
7 While the morning stars sang in chorus and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 And who shut within doors the sea, when it burst forth from the womb;
9 When I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling bands?
10 When I set limits for it and fastened the bar of its door,
11 And said: Thus far shall you come but no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stilled!
12 Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the morning and shown the dawn its place
13 For taking hold of the ends of the earth, till the wicked are shaken from its surface?
14 The earth is changed as is clay by the seal, and dyed as though it were a garment;
15 But from the wicked the light is withheld, and the arm of pride is shattered.
16 Have you entered into the sources of the sea, or walked about in the depths of the abyss?
17 Have the gates of death been shown to you, or have you seen the gates of darkness?
18 Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell me, if you know all:
19 Which is the way to the dwelling place of light, and where is the abode of darkness,
20 That you may take them to their boundaries and set them on their homeward paths?
21 You know, because you were born before them, and the number of your years is great!
22 Have you entered the storehouse of the snow, and seen the treasury of the hail
23 Which I have reserved for times of stress, for the days of war and of battle?
24 Which way to the parting of the winds, whence the east wind spreads over the earth?
25 Who has laid out a channel for the downpour and for the thunderstorm a path
26 To bring rain to no man's land, the unpeopled wilderness;
27 To enrich the waste and desolate ground till the desert blooms with verdure?
28 Has the rain a father; or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29 Out of whose womb comes the ice, and who gives the hoarfrost its birth in the skies,
30 When the waters lie covered as though with stone that holds captive the surface of the deep?
31 Have you fitted a curb to the Pleiades, or loosened the bonds of Orion?
32 Can you bring forth the Mazzaroth in their season, or guide the Bear with its train?
33 Do you know the ordinances of the heavens; can you put into effect their plan on the earth?
34 Can you raise your voice among the clouds, or veil yourself in the waters of the storm?
35 Can you send forth the lightnings on their way, or will they say to you, Here we are?
36 Who puts wisdom in the heart, and gives the cock its understanding?
37 Who counts the clouds in his wisdom? Or who tilts the water jars of heaven
38 So that the dust of earth is fused into a mass and its clods made solid?
39 Do you hunt the prey for the lioness or appease the hunger of her cubs,
40 While they crouch in their dens, or lie in wait in the thicket?
41 Who provides nourishment for the ravens when their young ones cry out to God, and they rove abroad without food?

Job 39

1 Do you know about the birth of the mountain goats, watch for the birth pangs of the hinds,
2 Number the months that they must fulfill, and fix the time of their bringing forth?
3 They crouch down and bear their young; they deliver their progeny in the desert.
4 When their offspring thrive and grow, they leave and do not return.
5 Who has given the wild ass his freedom, and who has loosed him from bonds?
6 I have made the wilderness his home and the salt flats his dwelling.
7 He scoffs at the uproar of the city, and hears no shouts of a driver.
8 He ranges the mountains for pasture, and seeks out every patch of green.
9 Will the wild ox consent to serve you, and to pass the nights by your manger?
10 Will a rope bind him in the furrow, and will he harrow the valleys after you?
11 Will you trust him for his great strength and leave to him the fruits of your toil?
12 Can you rely on him to thresh out your grain and gather in the yield of your threshing floor?
13 The wings of the ostrich beat idly; her plumage is lacking in pinions.
14 When she leaves her eggs on the ground and deposits them in the sand,
15 Unmindful that a foot may crush them, that the wild beasts may trample them,
16 She cruelly disowns her young and ruthlessly makes nought of her brood;
17 For God has withheld wisdom from her and has given her no share in understanding.
18 Yet in her swiftness of foot she makes sport of the horse and his rider.
19 Do you give the horse his strength, and endow his neck with splendor?
20 Do you make the steed to quiver while his thunderous snorting spreads terror?
21 He jubilantly paws the plain and rushes in his might against the weapons.
22 He laughs at fear and cannot be deterred; he turns not back from the sword.
23 Around him rattles the quiver, flashes the spear and the javelin.
24 Frenzied and trembling he devours the ground; he holds not back at the sound of the trumpet,
25 but at each blast he cries, Aha! Even from afar he scents the battle, the roar of the chiefs and the shouting.
26 Is it by your discernment that the hawk soars, that he spreads his wings toward the south?
27 Does the eagle fly up at your command to build his nest aloft?
28 On the cliff he dwells and spends the night, on the spur of the cliff or the fortress.
29 From thence he watches for his prey; his eyes behold it afar off.
30 His young ones greedily drink blood; where the slain are, there is he.

Job 40

1 The LORD then said to Job:
2 Will we have arguing with the Almighty by the critic? Let him who would correct God give answer!
3 Then Job answered the LORD and said:
4 Behold, I am of little account; what can I answer you? I put my hand over my mouth.
5 Though I have spoken once, I will not do so again; though twice, I will do so no more.
6 Then the LORD addressed Job out of the storm and said:
7 Gird up your loins now, like a man. I will question you, and you tell me the answers!
8 Would you refuse to acknowledge my right? Would you condemn me that you may be justified?
9 Have you an arm like that of God, or can you thunder with a voice like his?
10 Adorn yourself with grandeur and majesty, and array yourself with glory and splendor.
11 Let loose the fury of your wrath;
12 tear down the wicked and shatter them. Bring down the haughty with a glance;
13 bury them in the dust together; in the hidden world imprison them.
14 Then will I too acknowledge that your own right hand can save you.
15 See, besides you I made Behemoth, that feeds on grass like an ox.
16 Behold the strength in his loins, and his vigor in the sinews of his belly.
17 He carries his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are like cables.
18 His bones are like tubes of bronze; his frame is like iron rods.
19 He came at the beginning of God's ways, and was made the taskmaster of his fellows;
20 For the produce of the mountains is brought to him, and of all wild animals he makes sport.
21 Under the lotus trees he lies, in coverts of the reedy swamp.
22 The lotus trees cover him with their shade; all about him are the poplars on the bank.
23 If the river grows violent, he is not disturbed; he is tranquil though the torrent surges about his mouth.
24 Who can capture him by his eyes, or pierce his nose with a trap? (25) Can you lead about Leviathan with a hook, or curb his tongue with a bit? (26) Can you put a rope into his nose, or pierce through his cheek with a gaff? (27) Will he then plead with you, time after time, or address you with tender words? (28) Will he make an agreement with you that you may have him as a slave forever? (29) Can you play with him, as with a bird? Can you put him in leash for your maidens? (30) Will the traders bargain for him? Will the merchants divide him up? (31) Can you fill his hide with barbs, or his head with fish spears? (32) Once you but lay a hand upon him, no need to recall any other conflict!

Job 41

1 Whoever might vainly hope to do so need only see him to be overthrown.
2 Is he not relentless when aroused; who then dares stand before him?
3 Who has assailed him and come off safe--Who under all the heavens?
4 I need hardly mention his limbs, his strength, and the fitness of his armor.
5 Who can strip off his outer garment, or penetrate his double corselet?
6 Who can force open the doors of his mouth, close to his terrible teeth?
7 Rows of scales are on his back, tightly sealed together;
8 They are fitted each so close to the next that no space intervenes;
9 So joined one to another that they hold fast and cannot be parted.
10 When he sneezes, light flashes forth; his eyes are like those of the dawn.
11 Out of his mouth go forth firebrands; sparks of fire leap forth.
12 From his nostrils issues steam, as from a seething pot or bowl.
13 His breath sets coals afire; a flame pours from his mouth.
14 Strength abides in his neck, and terror leaps before him.
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16 His heart is hard as stone; his flesh, as the lower millstone.
17 When he rises up, the mighty are afraid; the waves of the sea fall back.
18 Should the sword reach him, it will not avail; nor will the spear, nor the dart, nor the javelin.
19 He regards iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.
20 The arrow will not put him to flight; slingstones used against him are but straws.
21 Clubs he esteems as splinters; he laughs at the crash of the spear.
22 His belly is sharp as pottery fragments; he spreads like a threshing sledge upon the mire.
23 He makes the depths boil like a pot; the sea he churns like perfume in a kettle.
24 Behind him he leaves a shining path; you would think the deep had the hoary head of age.
25 Upon the earth there is not his like, intrepid he was made.
26 All, however lofty, fear him; he is king over all proud beasts.
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Job 42

1 Then Job answered the LORD and said:
2 I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be hindered.
3 I have dealt with great things that I do not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know.
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5 I had heard of you by word of mouth, but now my eye has seen you.
6 Therefore I disown what I have said, and repent in dust and ashes.
7 And it came to pass after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, I am angry with you and with your two friends; for you have not spoken rightly concerning me, as has my servant Job.
8 Now, therefore, take seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up a holocaust for yourselves; and let my servant Job pray for you; for his prayer I will accept, not to punish you severely. For you have not spoken rightly concerning me, as has my servant Job.
9 Then Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, went and did as the LORD had commanded them. And the LORD accepted the intercession of Job.
10 Also, the LORD restored the prosperity of Job, after he had prayed for his friends; the LORD even gave to Job twice as much as he had before.
11 Then all his brethren and his sisters came to him, and all his former acquaintances, and they dined with him in his house. They condoled with him and comforted him for all the evil which the LORD had brought upon him; and each one gave him a piece of money and a gold ring.
12 Thus the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his earlier ones. For he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses.
13 And he had seven sons and three daughters,
14 of whom he called the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch.
15 In all the land no other women were as beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brethren.
16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; and he saw his children, his grandchildren, and even his great-grandchildren.
17 Then Job died, old and full of years.