The LORD Convinces Job of Ignorance

381 Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind, 2 “Who is this who darkens counsel
by words without knowledge? 3 Brace yourself like a man,
for I will question you, then you answer me!

4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Declare, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measures, if you know?
Or who stretched the line on it? 6 Whereupon were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone, 7 when the morning stars sang together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 8 “Or who shut up the sea with doors,
when it broke forth from the womb, 9 when I made clouds its garment,
and wrapped it in thick darkness, 10 marked out for it my bound,
set bars and doors, 11 and said, ‘Here you may come, but no further.
Here your proud waves shall be stayed?’

12 “Have you commanded the morning in your days,
and caused the dawn to know its place; 13 that it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
and shake the wicked out of it? 14 It is changed as clay under the seal,
and stands forth as a garment. 15 From the wicked, their light is withheld.
The high arm is broken. 16 “Have you entered into the springs of the sea?
Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep? 17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? 18 Have you comprehended the earth in its breadth?
Declare, if you know it all. 19 “What is the way to the dwelling of light?
As for darkness, where is its place, 20 that you should take it to its bound,
that you should discern the paths to its house? 21 Surely you know, for you were born then,
and the number of your days is great! 22 Have you entered the treasuries of the snow,
or have you seen the treasures of the hail, 23 which I have reserved against the time of trouble,
against the day of battle and war? 24 By what way is the lightning distributed,
or the east wind scattered on the earth?

25 Who has cut a channel for the flood water,
or the path for the thunderstorm; 26 To cause it to rain on a land where no man is;
on the wilderness, in which there is no man; 27 to satisfy the waste and desolate ground,
to cause the tender grass to spring forth? 28 Does the rain have a father?
Or who fathers the drops of dew? 29 Out of whose womb came the ice?
The gray frost of the sky, who has given birth to it? 30 The waters become hard like stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen. 31 “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades,
or loosen the cords of Orion? 32 Can you lead forth the constellations in their season?
Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs? 33 Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you establish its dominion over the earth? 34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
That abundance of waters may cover you? 35 Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go?
Do they report to you, ‘Here we are?’ 36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts?
Or who has given understanding to the mind? 37 Who can number the clouds by wisdom?
Or who can pour out the bottles of the sky, 38 when the dust runs into a mass,
and the clods of earth stick together? 39 “Can you hunt the prey for the lioness,
or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, 40 when they crouch in their dens,
and lie in wait in the thicket? 41 Who provides for the raven his prey,
when his young ones cry to God,
and wander for lack of food?

Job Bewails His Birth

31 After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth. 2 Job answered: 3 “Let the day perish in which I was born,
the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’ 4 Let that day be darkness.
Don’t let God from above seek for it,
neither let the light shine on it. 5 Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own.
Let a cloud dwell on it.
Let all that makes black the day terrify it. 6 As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it.
Let it not rejoice among the days of the year.
Let it not come into the number of the months. 7 Behold, let that night be barren.
Let no joyful voice come therein. 8 Let them curse it who curse the day,
who are ready to rouse up leviathan. 9 Let the stars of its twilight be dark.
Let it look for light, but have none,
neither let it see the eyelids of the morning, 10 because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb,
nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.

11 “Why didn’t I die from the womb?
Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me? 12 Why did the knees receive me?
Or why the breast, that I should suck? 13 For now should I have lain down and been quiet.
I should have slept, then I would have been at rest, 14 with kings and counselors of the earth,
who built up waste places for themselves; 15 or with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver: 16 or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been,
as infants who never saw light. 17 There the wicked cease from troubling.
There the weary are at rest. 18 There the prisoners are at ease together.
They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster. 19 The small and the great are there.
The servant is free from his master.

20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery,
life to the bitter in soul, 21 Who long for death, but it doesn’t come;
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures, 22 who rejoice exceedingly,
and are glad, when they can find the grave? 23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid,
whom God has hedged in? 24 For my sighing comes before I eat.
My groanings are poured out like water. 25 For the thing which I fear comes on me,
That which I am afraid of comes to me. 26 I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest;
but trouble comes.”