3. Brace yourself like a man;I will question you,and you shall answer me.
4. ‘Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?Tell me, if you understand.
5. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6. On what were its footings set,or who laid its cornerstone –
7. while the morning stars sang togetherand all the angels shouted for joy?
8. ‘Who shut up the sea behind doorswhen it burst forth from the womb,
9. when I made the clouds its garmentand wrapped it in thick darkness,
10. when I fixed limits for itand set its doors and bars in place,
11. when I said, “This far you may come and no farther;here is where your proud waves halt”?
12. ‘Have you ever given orders to the morning,or shown the dawn its place,
13. that it might take the earth by the edgesand shake the wicked out of it?
14. The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;its features stand out like those of a garment.
15. The wicked are denied their light,and their upraised arm is broken.
16. ‘Have you journeyed to the springs of the seaor walked in the recesses of the deep?
17. Have the gates of death been shown to you?Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
18. Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?Tell me, if you know all this.