Job 38:16-41 - Heartlight

¹⁶Have you journeyed to the vents of the sea

or walked in the trenches of the deep?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you?

Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

¹⁸Have you surveyed the extent of the earth?

Tell Me, if you know all this.

¹⁹Where is the way to the home of light?

Do you know where darkness resides,

²⁰so you can lead it back to its border?

Do you know the paths to its home?

²¹Surely you know, for you were already born!

And the number of your days is great!

²²Have you entered the storehouses of snow

or observed the storehouses of hail,

²³which I hold in reserve for times of trouble,

for the day of war and battle?

²⁴In which direction is the lightning dispersed,

or the east wind scattered over the earth?

²⁵Who cuts a channel for the flood

or clears a path for the thunderbolt,

²⁶to bring rain on a barren land,

on a desert where no man lives,

²⁷to satisfy the parched wasteland

and make it sprout with tender grass?

²⁸Does the rain have a father?

Who has begotten the drops of dew?

²⁹From whose womb does the ice emerge?

Who gives birth to the frost from heaven,

³⁰when the waters become hard as stone

and the surface of the deep is frozen?

³¹Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades

or loosen the belt of Orion?

³²Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons

or lead out the Bear and her cubs?

³³Do you know the laws of the heavens?

Can you set their dominion over the earth?

³⁴Can you command the clouds

so that a flood of water covers you?

³⁵Can you send the lightning bolts on their way?

Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?

³⁶Who has put wisdom in the heart

or given understanding to the mind?

³⁷Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?

Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens

³⁸when the dust hardens into a mass

and the clods of earth stick together?

³⁹Can you hunt the prey for a lioness

or satisfy the hunger of young lions

⁴⁰when they crouch in their dens

and lie in wait in the thicket?

⁴¹Who provides food for the raven

when its young cry out to God

as they wander about for lack of food?

— Job 38:16-41

(BSB)

Related Resources from Heartlight

There is 1 resource related to this passage:

Sometimes We Have to Eat Our Words

Article by Alan Smith

This is not something you want to have to choke down! We can't understand everything and we can't fix everything and being in the presence of God helps humble us to that truth.

Cross References for Job 38:16-41

Cross References Provided by Open Bible

The Berean Standard Bible

The Berean Standard Bible (BSB) is a modern, clear, and faithful translation based on the best available Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. Ideal for reading, study, and sharing, it entered the public domain in 2023. For more information, visit berean.bible.