Job 38

Good News Translation

^8 (B)Who closed the gates to hold back the sea^[b]
    when it burst from the womb of the earth?
⁹ It was I who covered the sea with clouds
    and wrapped it in darkness.
¹⁰ I marked a boundary for the sea
    and kept it behind bolted gates.
¹¹ I told it, “So far and no farther!
    Here your powerful waves must stop.”
¹² Job, have you ever in all your life
    commanded a day to dawn?
¹³ Have you ordered the dawn to seize the earth
    and shake the wicked from their hiding places?
¹⁴ Daylight makes the hills and valleys stand out
    like the folds of a garment,
    clear as the imprint of a seal on clay.
¹⁵ The light of day is too bright for the wicked
    and restrains them from doing violence.

¹⁶ Have you been to the springs in the depths of the sea?
    Have you walked on the floor of the ocean?
¹⁷ Has anyone ever shown you the gates
    that guard the dark world of the dead?
¹⁸ Have you any idea how big the world is?
    Answer me if you know.

¹⁹ Do you know where the light comes from
    or what the source of darkness is?
²⁰ Can you show them how far to go,
    or send them back again?
²¹ I am sure you can, because you're so old
    and were there when the world was made!

²² Have you ever visited the storerooms,
    where I keep the snow and the hail?
²³ I keep them ready for times of trouble,
    for days of battle and war.
²⁴ Have you been to the place where the sun comes up,
    or the place from which the east wind blows?

²⁵ Who dug a channel for the pouring rain
    and cleared the way for the thunderstorm?
²⁶ Who makes rain fall where no one lives?
²⁷ Who waters the dry and thirsty land,
    so that grass springs up?
²⁸ Does either the rain or the dew have a father?
²⁹ Who is the mother of the ice and the frost,
³⁰     which turn the waters to stone
    and freeze the face of the sea?

^31 (C)Can you tie the Pleiades together
    or loosen the bonds that hold Orion?
³² Can you guide the stars season by season
    and direct the Big and the Little Dipper?
³³ Do you know the laws that govern the skies,
    and can you make them apply to the earth?

³⁴ Can you shout orders to the clouds
    and make them drench you with rain?
³⁵ And if you command the lightning to flash,
    will it come to you and say, “At your service”?
³⁶ Who tells the ibis^[c] when the Nile will flood,
    or who tells the rooster that rain will fall?^[d]
37 Who is wise enough to count the clouds
    and tilt them over to pour out the rain,
³⁸     rain that hardens the dust into lumps?

³⁹ Do you find food for lions to eat,
    and satisfy hungry young lions
⁴⁰     when they hide in their caves,
    or lie in wait in their dens?
⁴¹ Who is it that feeds the ravens
    when they wander about hungry,
    when their young cry to me for food?