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38:1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
38:2 “Who is this who darkens counsel with words without knowledge? 38:3 Get ready for a difficult task like a man; I will question you, and you will inform me.
38:4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you possess understanding. 38:5 Who set its measurements—if you know— or who stretched a measuring line across it? 38:6 On what were its bases set, or who laid its cornerstone— 38:7 when the morning stars sang in chorus, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 38:8 “Who shut up the sea with doors when it burst forth, coming out of the womb, 38:9 when I made the storm clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, 38:10 when I prescribed its limits and set in place its bolts and doors, 38:11 when I said, ‘To here you may come and no farther, here your proud waves will be confined’? 38:12 Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, or made the dawn know its place, 38:13 that it might seize the corners of the earth and shake the wicked out of it? 38:14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features are dyed like a garment. 38:15 Then from the wicked the light is withheld, and the arm raised in violence is broken. 38:16 Have you gone to the springs that fill the sea or walked about in the recesses of the deep? 38:17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of deepest darkness? 38:18 Have you considered the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know it all. 38:19 “In what direction does light reside, and darkness, where is its place, 38:20 that you may take them to their borders and perceive the pathways to their homes? 38:21 You know, for you were born before them; and the number of your days is great! 38:22 Have you entered the storehouse of the snow or seen the armory of the hail, 38:23 which I reserve for the time of trouble, for the day of war and battle? 38:24 In what direction is lightning dispersed, or the east winds scattered over the earth? 38:25 Who carves out a channel for the heavy rains and a path for the rumble of thunder, 38:26 to cause it to rain on an uninhabited land, a wilderness where there are no human beings, 38:27 to satisfy a devastated and desolate land, and to cause it to sprout with vegetation? 38:28 Does the rain have a father, or who has fathered the drops of the dew? 38:29 From whose womb does the ice emerge, and the frost from the sky, who gives birth to it, 38:30 when the waters become hard like stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen solid? 38:31 Can you tie the bands of the Pleiades or release the cords of Orion? 38:32 Can you lead out the constellations in their seasons or guide the Bear with its cubs? 38:33 Do you know the laws of the heavens, or can you set up their rule over the earth? 38:34 Can you raise your voice to the clouds so that a flood of water covers you? 38:35 Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go? Will they say to you, ‘Here we are’? 38:36 Who has put wisdom in the heart or has imparted understanding to the mind? 38:37 Who by wisdom can count the clouds, and who can tip over the water jars of heaven, 38:38 when the dust hardens into a mass, and the clumps of earth stick together? 38:39 “Do you hunt prey for the lioness and satisfy the appetite of the lions 38:40 when they crouch in their dens, when they wait in ambush in the thicket? 38:41 Who prepares prey for the raven, when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?
NET Bible Second Edition. Copyright 2017 Biblical Studies Press
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