The Lord reveals his omnipotence to Job
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Then Yahweh called to Job out of a fierce storm and said,
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“Who is this who brings darkness to plans by means of words without knowledge?
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Now gird up your loins like a man for I will ask you questions, and you must answer me.
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Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations? Tell me, if you have so much understanding.
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Who determined its dimensions? Tell me, if you know. Who stretched the measuring line over it?
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On what were its foundations laid? Who laid its cornerstone
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when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
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Who shut up the sea with doors when it burst out, as if it had come out of the womb-
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when I made clouds its clothing, and thick darkness its swaddling bands?
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That was when I marked out for the sea my boundary, and when I placed its bars and doors,
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and when I said to it, ’You may come this far, but no farther; here is where I will put a boundary to the pride of your waves.’
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Have you ever, since your own days began, given orders to the morning to begin, and caused the morning dawn to know its place in the scheme of things,
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so that it might take hold of the sides of the earth so that wicked people might be shaken out of it?
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The earth is changed in appearance like clay changes under a seal; all things on it stand out clearly like the folds of a piece of clothing.
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From wicked people their ‘light’ is taken away; their uplifted arm is broken.
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Have you gone to the sources of the waters of the sea? Have you walked in the lowest parts 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 understood the earth in its expanse? Tell me, if you know it all.
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Where is the way to the resting place of light-as for darkness, where is its place?
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Can you lead light and darkness to their places of work? Can you find the way back to their houses for them?
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Undoubtedly you know, for you were born then; the number of your days is so large!
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Have you entered the storehouses for the snow, or have you seen the storehouses for the hail,
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these things that I have kept for times of trouble, for days of battle and war?
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What is the path to where the lightning bolts are distributed or to where the winds are scattered from the east over the earth?
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Who has created the channels for the floods of rain, or who has made the routes for the outbursts of thunder,
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to cause it to rain on lands where no person exists, and on the wilderness, in which there is no one,
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in order to meet the needs of barren and lonely regions, and to make the tender grass sprout up?
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Is there a father of the rain? Who has engendered the dewdrops?
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Out of whose womb did the ice come? Who bore the white frost out of the sky?
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The waters hide themselves and become like stone; the surface of the deep becomes frozen.
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Can you fasten chains on the Pleiades, or undo the cords of Orion?
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Can you lead the constellations to appear at their proper times? Can you guide the Bear with its children?
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Do you know the regulations of the sky? Could you set in place the sky’s rule over the earth?
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Can you raise your voice up to the clouds, so that an abundance of rainwater may cover you?
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Can you send out bolts of lightning that they may go out, that they say to you, ‘Here we are’?
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Who has put wisdom in the clouds or has given understanding to the mists?
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Who can number the clouds by his skill? Who can pour out the water skins of the sky
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when the dust runs into a hard mass and the clods of earth clump tightly together?
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Can you hunt down a victim for a lioness or satisfy the appetite of her young lion cubs,
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when they are crouching in their dens and sheltering in hiding to lie in wait?
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Who provides victims for the ravens when their young ones cry out to God and stagger about for lack of food?
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