Dual Panel1The LORD then said to Job:
2Is it for a man who disputes with the Almighty to be stubborn? Should he who argues with God answer back?
3Job answered the LORD:
4What reply can I give you, I who carry no weight? I put my finger to my lips.
5I have spoken once; I shall not answer again; twice have I spoken; I shall do so no more.
6Then the LORD answered Job out of the tempest:
7Brace yourself and stand up like a man; I shall put questions to you, and you must answer.
8Would you dare deny that I am just, or put me in the wrong to prove yourself right?
9Have you an arm like God's arm; can you thunder with a voice like his?
10Deck yourself out, if you can, in pride and dignity, array yourself in pomp and splendour.
11Unleash the fury of your wrath, look on all who are proud, and humble them;
12look on all who are proud, and bring them low, crush the wicked where they stand;
13bury them in the earth together, and shroud them in an unknown grave.
14Then I in turn would acknowledge that your own right hand could save you.
15But consider the chief of beasts, the crocodile, who devours cattle as if they were grass:
16what strength is in his loins! What power in the muscles of his belly!
17His tail is rigid as a cedar, the sinews of his flanks are tightly knit;
18his bones are like tubes of bronze, his limbs like iron bars.
19He is the chief of God's works, made to be a tyrant over his fellow-creatures;
20for he takes the cattle of the hills for his prey and in his jaws he crunches all beasts of the wild.
21There under the thorny lotus he lies, hidden among the reeds in the swamp;
22the lotus conceals him in its shade, the poplars of the stream surround him.
23If the river is in spate, that does not perturb him; he sprawls at his ease though submerged in the torrent.
24Can anyone blind his eyes and take him or pierce his nose with the teeth of a trap?