Job 38:1-42

HCSB

Job 38:1-42

The Lord Speaks

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1} Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind.^(A) He said:

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2}

Who is this who obscures My counsel
with ignorant words?^(B)

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3}

Get ready to answer Me like a man;
when I question^(C) you, you will inform Me.

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4}

Where were you when I established^(D) the earth?
Tell Me, if you have^(a) understanding.

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5}

Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?

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6}

What supports its foundations?
Or who laid its cornerstone

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7}

while the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God^(E) shouted for joy?

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8}

Who enclosed the sea behind doors
when it burst from the womb,

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9}

when I made the clouds its garment
and thick darkness its blanket,^(b)^(F)

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10}

when I determined its boundaries^(c)
and put its bars and doors in place,

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11}

when I declared: “You may come this far, but no farther;
your proud waves stop here”?

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12}

Have you ever in your life commanded the morning
or assigned the dawn its place,

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13}

so it may seize the edges of the earth
and shake the wicked out of it?

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14}

The earth is changed as clay is by a seal;
its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.

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15}

Light^(d) is withheld from the wicked,
and the arm raised in violence is broken.

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16}

Have you traveled to the sources of the sea
or walked in the depths of the oceans?

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17}

Have the gates^(G) of death been revealed to you?
Have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

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18}

Have you comprehended the extent of the earth?
Tell Me, if you know all this.

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19}

Where is the road to the home of light?
Do you know where darkness lives,

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20}

so you can lead it back to its border?
Are you familiar with the paths to its home?

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21}

Don’t you know? You were already born;^(H)
you have lived so long!^(e)

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22}

Have you entered the place where the snow is stored?
Or have you seen the storehouses of hail,^(I)

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23}

which I hold in reserve for times of trouble,
for the day of warfare and battle?^(J)

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24}

What road leads to the place where light is dispersed?^(f)
Where is the source of the east wind that spreads across the earth?

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25}

Who cuts a channel for the flooding rain
or clears the way for lightning,

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26}

to bring rain on an uninhabited land,
on a desert with no human life,^(g)

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27}

to satisfy the parched wasteland
and cause the grass to sprout?^(K)

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28}

Does the rain have a father?
Who fathered the drops of dew?^(L)

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29}

Whose womb did the ice come from?
Who gave birth to the frost of heaven

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30}

when water becomes as hard as stone,^(h)
and the surface of the watery depths is frozen?^(M)

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31}

Can you fasten the chains of the Pleiades
or loosen the belt of Orion?

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32}

Can you bring out the constellations⁽ⁱ⁾ in their season
and lead the Bear^(j) and her cubs?^(N)

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33}

Do you know the laws^(O) of heaven?
Can you impose its^(k) authority on earth?

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34}

Can you command^(l) the clouds
so that a flood of water covers you?^(P)

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35}

Can you send out lightning^(Q) bolts, and they go?
Do they report to you: “Here we are”?

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36}

Who put wisdom^(R) in the heart^(m)
or gave the mind understanding?

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37}

Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?
Or who can tilt the water jars of heaven

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38}

when the dust hardens like cast metal
and the clods of dirt stick together?

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39}

Can you hunt prey for a lioness
or satisfy the appetite of young lions^(S)

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40}

when they crouch in their dens
and lie in wait within their lairs?

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41}

Who provides the raven’s food^(T)
when its young cry out to God
and wander about for lack of food?

Footnotes:

a. Job 38:4: Lit know

b. Job 38:9: Lit swaddling clothes

c. Job 38:10: Lit I broke My statute on it

d. Job 38:15: Lit Their light

e. Job 38:21: Lit born; the number of your days is great

f. Job 38:24: Or where lightning is distributed

g. Job 38:26: Lit life in it

h. Job 38:30: Lit water hides itself as the stone

i. Job 38:32: Or Mazzaroth; Hb obscure

j. Job 38:32: Or lead Aldebaran

k. Job 38:33: Or God’s

l. Job 38:34: Lit lift up your voice to

m. Job 38:36: Or the inner self; Ps 51:6

Cross references:

A. Job 38:1: Job 40:6; Ezekiel 13:11; Ezekiel 13:13

B. Job 38:2: Job 34:35; Job 35:16; Job 42:3

C. Job 38:3: Job 40:7; Job 42:4

D. Job 38:4: Psalm 89:11; Psalm 102:25; Psalm 104:5

E. Job 38:7: Genesis 6:2; Genesis 6:4; Job 1:6; Job 2:1

F. Job 38:9: Job 22:13; Job 37:11

G. Job 38:17: Psalm 9:13; Psalm 107:18; Isaiah 38:10

H. Job 38:21: Job 15:7; Psalm 90:2; Proverbs 8:25

I. Job 38:22: Exodus 9:18; Psalm 105:32; Isaiah 28:17

J. Job 38:23: Joshua 10:11; Isaiah 30:30

K. Job 38:27: Genesis 1:11; Psalm 107:35

L. Job 38:28: Job 5:10; Psalm 147:8; Jeremiah 14:22

M. Job 38:29: Job 37:10; Psalm 147:16-17

N. Job 38:31: Job 9:9; Isaiah 40:26; Amos 5:8

O. Job 38:33: Jeremiah 31:35; Jeremiah 33:25

P. Job 38:34: Job 22:11; Psalm 69:1-2

Q. Job 38:35: Exodus 19:16; Psalm 18:14; Psalm 97:4

R. Job 38:36: Job 28:12; Job 28:18; Job 28:20; Psalm 51:6; Ecclesiastes 2:26

S. Job 38:39: Psalm 104:21; Psalm 145:15-16

T. Job 38:41: Psalm 147:9; Luke 12:24