Job 38:4-21

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁴ “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
    Tell me, if you have understanding.^(A)
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
    Or who stretched the line upon it?
⁶ On what were its bases sunk,
    or who laid its cornerstone^(B)
7 when the morning stars sang together
    and all the heavenly beings^[a] shouted for joy?^(C)

⁸ “Or who shut in the sea with doors
    when it burst out from the womb,^(D)
9 when I made the clouds its garment
    and thick darkness its swaddling band,^(E)
10 and prescribed bounds for it,
    and set bars and doors,^(F)
11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come and no farther,
    and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?^(G)

¹² “Have you commanded the morning since your days began
    and caused the dawn to know its place,^(H)
13 so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
    and the wicked be shaken out of it?^(I)
14 It is changed like clay under the seal,
    and it is dyed^[b] like a garment.
¹⁵ Light is withheld from the wicked,
    and their uplifted arm is broken.^(J)

¹⁶ “Have you entered into the springs of the sea
    or walked in the recesses of the deep?^(K)
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
    or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?^(L)
18 Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
    Declare, if you know all this.^(M)

¹⁹ “Where is the way to the dwelling of light,
    and where is the place of darkness,
²⁰ that you may take it to its territory
    and that you may discern the paths to its home?^(N)
21 Surely you know, for you were born then,
    and the number of your days is great!^(O)