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38:1  Then the Lord responded to Job out of a violent storm. He said:
38:2  Who is this who spreads darkness over my plans with his ignorant words?
38:3  Get ready for action like a man! Then I will ask you questions, and you will inform me.
38:4  Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you understand anything about it.
38:5  Who determined its dimensions? I am sure you know. Who stretched out the surveying line over it?
38:6  What supports its foundation? Who set its cornerstone in place,
38:7  when the morning stars sang loud songs together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
38:8  Who locked up the sea behind doors when it burst out of the womb?
38:9  When I clothed the sea with clouds, when I wrapped it with thick darkness as its swaddling cloths,
38:10  when I broke its power with my decree, when I locked it up behind barred, double doors,
38:11  I said, “You may come this far, but no farther. Here is the barrier for your proud waves.”
38:12  Have you ever in all your days given a command to the morning? Have you ever set a time for the sun to rise,
38:13  so it may grab the earth by its edges and shake the wicked out of it?
38:14  The earth’s shapes become visible like designs impressed on clay, and its decorations can be seen like those on a garment.
38:15  Their light is withheld from the wicked, and an uplifted arm is broken.
38:16  Have you ever traveled to the sources of the sea or walked around in the dark depths of the ocean?
38:17  Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
38:18  Do you comprehend the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.
38:19  How can someone get to the dwelling of light? Where is the place for darkness?
38:20  Could you lead it to its property? Do you know the way to its house?
38:21  You must know that, since you were born before it, and you have lived for so many days!
38:22  Have you visited the warehouses where the snow is kept? Have you seen the warehouses where the hail is stored?
38:23  I have reserved them for troubled times, for days of battle and war.
38:24  What is the way to the place where the lightning divides, where the east wind is scattered over the earth?
38:25  Who has excavated a channel for the floodwaters and a road for the rolling thunder?
38:26  They bring rain to lands where no one lives, to a wilderness without a person in it.
38:27  The rain satisfies the wilderness and wasteland and causes the dry ground to produce green plants.
38:28  Does the rain have a father? Who is the father of the drops of dew?
38:29  Whose womb produces the ice? Who gives birth to the heavy frost from the sky?
38:30  The water is disguised as stone, and the surface of the deep is trapped under ice.
38:31  Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loosen the belt of Orion?
38:32  Can you lead out the constellations at the right season and guide the Bear with her cubs?
38:33  Do you know the laws that govern the skies? Can you establish God’s rule on earth?
38:34  Can you raise your voice to the clouds, so that a flood of water submerges you?
38:35  Can you unleash the lightning bolts, so that they come and say to you, “Here we are”?
38:36  Who has placed wisdom in the human heart and given understanding to the mind?
38:37  Who has the wisdom to count the clouds and to empty the water jars of the sky,
38:38  when the loose dust has been poured into molds to harden, and the clods of dirt are cemented together?
38:39  Can you hunt prey for a lioness? Can you satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
38:40  when they crouch in their dens, or they lie in wait in the thicket?
38:41  Who prepares its provisions for the raven, when its young are screaming to God, while they thrash around in the nest waiting for food?