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1.
Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:
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2.
"Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?
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3.
Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.
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4.
"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand.
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5.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?
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6.
On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone--
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7.
while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
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8.
"Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,
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9.
when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness,
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10.
when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place,
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11.
when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt'?
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12.
"Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place,
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13.
that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?
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14.
The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment.
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15.
The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken.
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16.
"Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?
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17.
Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
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18.
Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.
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19.
"What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside?
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20.
Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
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21.
Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!
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22.
"Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail,
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23.
which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle?
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24.
What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
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25.
Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm,
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26.
to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it,
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27.
to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?
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28.
Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew?
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29.
From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
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30.
when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?
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31.
"Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion?
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32.
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
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33.
Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God'sdominion over the earth?
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34.
"Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water?
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35.
Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, 'Here we are'?
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36.
Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind?
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37.
Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
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38.
when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together?
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39.
"Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions
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40.
when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in a thicket?
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41.
Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?
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