38:1
Then from the heart of the tempest Yahweh gave Job his answer. He said:
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Who is this, obscuring my intentions with his ignorant words?
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Brace yourself like a fighter; I am going to ask the questions, and you are to inform me!
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Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations? Tell me, since you are so well-informed!
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Who decided its dimensions, do you know? Or who stretched the measuring line across it?
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What supports its pillars at their bases? Who laid its cornerstone
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to the joyful concert of the morning stars and unanimous acclaim of the sons of God?
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Who pent up the sea behind closed doors when it leapt tumultuous from the womb,
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when I wrapped it in a robe of mist and made black clouds its swaddling bands;
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when I cut out the place I had decreed for it and imposed gates and a bolt?
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'Come so far,' I said, 'and no further; here your proud waves must break!'
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Have you ever in your life given orders to the morning or sent the dawn to its post,
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to grasp the earth by its edges and shake the wicked out of it?
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She turns it as red as a clay seal, she tints it as though it were a dress,
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stealing the light from evil-doers and breaking the arm raised to strike.
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Have you been right down to the sources of the sea and walked about at the bottom of the Abyss?
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Have you been shown the gates of Death, have you seen the janitors of the Shadow dark as death?
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Have you an inkling of the extent of the earth? Tell me all about it if you have!
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Which is the way to the home of the Light, and where does darkness live? -
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You could then show them the way to their proper places, you could put them on the path home again!
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If you do know, you must have been born when they were, you must be very old by now!
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Have you visited the place where the snow is stored? Have you seen the stores of hail,
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which I keep for times of distress, for days of battle and war?
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From which direction does the lightning fork, where in the world does the east wind blow itself out?
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Who bores a channel for the downpour or clears the way for the rolling thunder
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so that rain may fall on lands where no one lives, and the deserts void of human dwelling,
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to meet the needs of the lonely wastes and make grass sprout on the thirsty ground?
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Has the rain a father? Who begets the dewdrops?
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What womb brings forth the ice, who gives birth to the frost of heaven,
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when the waters grow hard as stone and the surface of the deep congeals?
38:31
Can you fasten the harness of the Pleiades, or untie Orion's bands?
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Can you guide the Crown season by season and show the Bear and its cubs which way to go?
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Have you grasped the celestial laws? Could you make their writ run on the earth?
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Can your voice carry as far as the clouds and make the pent-up waters do your bidding?
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Will lightning flashes come at your command and answer, 'Here we are'?
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Who endowed the ibis with wisdom and gave the cock his intelligence?
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Whose skill details every cloud and tilts the water-skins of heaven
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until the dust solidifies and the cracks in the ground close up?
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Do you go hunting prey for the lioness; do you satisfy the hunger of young lions
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where they crouch in their den, waiting eagerly in the bushes?
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Who makes provision for the raven when his little ones cry out to God craning their necks in search of food?
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