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the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind. He said:
2 “Who is this that darkens counsel,
speaking words without knowledge?
3 Tuck your mantle under your belt like a man now,
for I will question you, and you will answer Me!
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
5 Who decided its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 What were its foundations laid on?
And who laid its cornerstone
7 when the morning stars sang together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 “Who shut in the sea with doors,
when it burst forth from the womb,
9 when I made the clouds its garment,
and thick darkness its blanket,
10 when I fixed boundaries for it,
and set its bars and doors in place,
11 and said, ‘Thus far you shall come, but no farther;
here is where your proud waves stop’?
12 “Have you ever commanded the morning since your days began,
or made the dawn to know its place,
13 so it may grip the edges of the earth,
and shake the wicked out of it?
14 The earth is changed like clay by a seal,
and its features stand out like those of a garment.
15 From the wicked their light is withheld,
and their upraised arm is broken.
16 “Have you travelled to the springs of the sea,
or walked through the depths of the oceans?
17 Have the gates of death been displayed to you?
Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell Me, if you know all this.
19 “Where is the path that leads to the abode of light?
And where is the place of darkness?
20 Can you return them to the boundaries of their domains?
Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
21 Do you know? Were you were already born?
Are the number of your years so many?
22 “Have you entered into the storehouses of the snow,
or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,
23 which I have reserved for times of trouble,
for the day of battle and war?
24 Where is the way to the place where light is dispersed,
or the east wind scattered on the earth?
25 “Who has cut a channel for the flooding of waters,
or a path for a thunderbolt,
26 to bring rain on a land where no man lives,
on a desert where there is no one,
27 to satisfy the desolate wasteland,
and to cause the grass to sprout forth?
28 Does the rain have a father?
Or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29 From whose womb comes the ice?
Who gives birth to the hoary frosts from the heavens?
30 The waters become hard like stone,
and the surface of the deep is frozen.
31 “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,
or loose the cord of Orion?
32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their season?
Or can you guide the Bear with its cubs?
33 Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?
Can you set their dominion over the earth?
34 Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
that a flood of waters may cover you?
35 Can you send out lightning bolts,
so that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 “Who has put wisdom in the inward parts?
Who has given understanding to the heart?
37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds for number?
Who can topple the water jars of the heavens,
38 when the dust becomes hard
and the clods cleave together?
39 Can you hunt the prey for the lion,
or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
40 when they crouch in their dens
and lie in wait in their lairs?
41 Who provides food for the raven,
when its young ones cry to God,
and wander about for lack of food?”