For you shall be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field shall be at peace with you.
Which are black by reason of the ice, in which the snow hides itself.
What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him,
“Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the rushes grow without water?
He is green before the sun. His shoots go out along his garden.
Behold, this is the joy of his way: out of the earth, others shall spring.
He removes the mountains, and they don’t know it, when he overturns them in his anger.
He shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble.
He commands the sun, and it doesn’t rise, and seals up the stars.
He alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea.
He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the rooms of the south.
He does great things past finding out; yes, marvelous things without number.
“‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.
Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?
Haven’t you poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?
You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
“But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you.
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you. The fish of the sea shall declare to you.
Who doesn’t know that in all these, Yahweh’s hand has done this,
in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?
Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.
You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire to the work of your hands.
The waters wear the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man.
“Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought out before the hills?
Don’t you know this from old time, since man was placed on earth,
The heavens shall reveal his iniquity. The earth shall rise up against him.
“Isn’t God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are!
Can his armies be counted? On whom does his light not arise?
Behold, even the moon has no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his sight;
“The departed spirits tremble, those beneath the waters and all that live in them.
He stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs the earth on nothing.
He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not burst under them.
He encloses the face of his throne, and spreads his cloud on it.
He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters, and to the confines of light and darkness.
The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his rebuke.
He stirs up the sea with his power, and by his understanding he strikes through Rahab.
By his Spirit the heavens are garnished. His hand has pierced the swift serpent.
Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. How small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”
“Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine.
Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted out of the ore.
Man sets an end to darkness, and searches out, to the furthest bound, the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.
He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.
As for the earth, out of it comes bread; Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
Sapphires come from its rocks. It has dust of gold.
That path no bird of prey knows, neither has the falcon’s eye seen it.
The proud animals have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed by there.
He puts his hand on the flinty rock, and he overturns the mountains by the roots.
He cuts out channels among the rocks. His eye sees every precious thing.
He binds the streams that they don’t trickle. The thing that is hidden he brings out to light.
The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’ The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’
“God understands its way, and he knows its place.
For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole sky.
He establishes the force of the wind. Yes, he measures out the waters by measure.
When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder;
Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him? Didn’t one fashion us in the womb?
if I have seen the sun when it shined, or the moon moving in splendor,
If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together;
The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
Behold, I am toward God even as you are. I am also formed out of the clay.
Who put him in charge of the earth? or who has appointed him over the whole world?
all flesh would perish together, and man would turn again to dust.
Who doesn’t respect the persons of princes, nor respects the rich more than the poor; for they all are the work of his hands.
Look to the heavens, and see. See the skies, which are higher than you.
But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,
who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’
“Remember that you magnify his work, whereof men have sung.
All men have looked on it. Man sees it afar off.
Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.
For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor,
Which the skies pour down and which drop on man abundantly.
Yes, can any understand the spreading of the clouds, and the thunderings of his pavilion?
Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea.
He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark.
Its noise tells about him, and the livestock also concerning the storm that comes up.
“Yes, at this my heart trembles, and is moved out of its place.
He sends it out under the whole sky, and his lightning to the ends of the earth.
After it a voice roars. He thunders with the voice of his majesty. He doesn’t hold back anything when his voice is heard.
God thunders marvelously with his voice. He does great things, which we can’t comprehend.
For he says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth;’ likewise to the shower of rain, and to the showers of his mighty rain.
He seals up the hand of every man, that all men whom he has made may know it.
Then the animals take cover, and remain in their dens.
Out of its room comes the storm, and cold out of the north.
By the breath of God, ice is given, and the width of the waters is frozen.
Yes, he loads the thick cloud with moisture. He spreads abroad the cloud of his lightning.
It is turned around by his guidance, that they may do whatever he commands them on the surface of the habitable world,
“Listen to this, Job. Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.
Do you know how God controls them, and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?
Do you know the workings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge?
You whose clothing is warm, when the earth is still by reason of the south wind?
Can you, with him, spread out the sky, which is strong as a cast metal mirror?
Now men don’t see the light which is bright in the skies, but the wind passes, and clears them.
Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measures, if you know? Or who stretched the line on it?
Whereupon were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
“Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke out of the womb,
when I made clouds its garment, and wrapped it in thick darkness,
marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors,












