איוב לח

Then GOD replied to Job out of the tempest and said:

Who is this who darkens counsel,
Speaking without knowledge?

Gird your loins like a man;—prepare to defend yourself (verbally), for I am about to challenge you.
I will ask and you will inform Me.

Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?
Speak if you have understanding.

Do you know who fixed its dimensions
Or who measured it with a line?

Onto what were its bases sunk?
Who set its cornerstone

When the morning stars sang together
And all the divine beings shouted for joy?

Who closed the sea behind doors
When it gushed forth out of the womb,

When I clothed it in clouds,
Swaddled it in dense clouds,

When I made breakers My limit for it,
And set up its bar and doors,

And said, “You may come so far and no farther;
Here your surging waves will stop”?

Have you ever commanded the day to break,
Assigned the dawn its place,

So that it seizes the corners of the earth
And shakes the wicked out of it?

It changes like clay under the seal
Till [its hues] are fixed like those of a garment.

Their light is withheld from the wicked,
And the upraised arm is broken.

Have you penetrated to the sources of the sea,
Or walked in the recesses of the deep?

Have the gates of death been disclosed to you?
Have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

Have you surveyed the expanses of the earth?
If you know of these—tell Me.

Which path leads to where light dwells,
And where is the place of darkness,

That you may take it to its domain
And know the way to its home?

Surely you know, for you were born then,
And the number of your years is many!

Have you penetrated the vaults of snow,
Seen the vaults of hail,

Which I have put aside for a time of adversity,
For a day of war and battle?

By what path is the west wind. dispersed,
The east wind scattered over the earth?

Who cut a channel for the torrents
And a path for the thunderstorms,

To rain down on uninhabited land,
On the wilderness where no one lives,

To saturate the desolate wasteland,
And make the crop of grass sprout forth?

Does the rain have a progenitor?
Who begot the dewdrops?

From whose belly came forth the ice?
Who gave birth to the frost of heaven?

Water congeals like stone,
And the surface of the deep compacts.

Can you tie cords to Pleiades
Or undo the reins of Orion?

Can you lead out Mazzaroth in its season,
Conduct the Bear with her children?

Do you know the laws of heaven
Or impose its authority on earth?

Can you send up an order to the clouds
For an abundance of water to cover you?

Can you dispatch the lightning on a mission
And have it answer you, “I am ready”?

Who put wisdom in the hidden parts?
Who gave understanding to the mind?

Who is wise enough to give an account of the heavens?
Who can tilt the bottles of the sky,

Whereupon the earth melts into a mass,
And its clods stick together.

Can you hunt prey for the lion,
And satisfy the appetite of the king of beasts?

They crouch in their dens,
Lie in ambush in their lairs.

Who provides food for the raven
When its young cry out to God
And wander about without food?