| 38:1 |
Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: |
| 38:2 |
"Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? |
| 38:3 |
Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. |
| 38:4 |
"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. |
| 38:5 |
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? |
| 38:6 |
On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone-- |
| 38:7 |
while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? |
| 38:8 |
"Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, |
| 38:9 |
when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, |
| 38:10 |
when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, |
| 38:11 |
when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt'? |
| 38:12 |
"Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, |
| 38:13 |
that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? |
| 38:14 |
The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment. |
| 38:15 |
The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken. |
| 38:16 |
"Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? |
| 38:17 |
Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? |
| 38:18 |
Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this. |
| 38:19 |
"What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? |
| 38:20 |
Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings? |
| 38:21 |
Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years! |
| 38:22 |
"Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, |
| 38:23 |
which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle? |
| 38:24 |
What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? |
| 38:25 |
Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, |
| 38:26 |
to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, |
| 38:27 |
to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass? |
| 38:28 |
Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew? |
| 38:29 |
From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens |
| 38:30 |
when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen? |
| 38:31 |
"Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion? |
| 38:32 |
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs? |
| 38:33 |
Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God'sdominion over the earth? |
| 38:34 |
"Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? |
| 38:35 |
Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, 'Here we are'? |
| 38:36 |
Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind? |
| 38:37 |
Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens |
| 38:38 |
when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together? |
| 38:39 |
"Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions |
| 38:40 |
when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in a thicket? |
| 38:41 |
Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food? |
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