The Lord reveals his omnipotence to Job
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Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
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“Who is this who obscures My counsel by words without knowledge?(a)
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Now brace yourself (b) like a man; I will question you, and you shall inform Me.(c)
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Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.
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Who fixed its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched a measuring line across it?
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On what were its foundations set, or who laid its cornerstone,(d)
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while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
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Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,
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when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket,
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when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors,
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and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop’?
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In your days, have you commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place,
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that it might spread to the ends of the earth and shake the wicked out of it?
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The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.
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Light is withheld from the wicked, and their upraised arm is broken.
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Have you journeyed to the vents of the sea or walked in the trenches of the deep?
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Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
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Have you surveyed the extent of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this.
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Where is the way to the home of light? Do you know where darkness resides,
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so you can lead it back to its border? Do you know the paths to its home?
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Surely you know, for you were already born! And the number of your days is great!
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Have you entered the storehouses of snow or observed the storehouses of hail,
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which I hold in reserve for times of trouble, for the day of war and battle?
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In which direction is the lightning dispersed, or the east wind scattered over the earth?
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Who cuts a channel for the flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt,
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to bring rain on a barren land, on a desert where no man lives,
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to satisfy the parched wasteland and make it sprout with tender grass?
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Does the rain have a father? Who has begotten the drops of dew?
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From whose womb does the ice emerge? Who gives birth to the frost from heaven,
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when the waters become hard as stone and the surface of the deep is frozen?
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Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?
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Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons (e) or lead out the Bear (f) and her cubs?
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Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth?
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Can you command the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?
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Can you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
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Who has put wisdom in the heart (g) or given understanding to the mind?
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Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens
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when the dust hardens into a mass and the clods of earth stick together?
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Can you hunt the prey for a lioness or satisfy the hunger of young lions
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when they crouch in their dens and lie in wait in the thicket?
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Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God as they wander about for lack of food?
Footnotes