| Chapter 38 |
1 |
And the Lord made answer to Job out of the storm-wind, and said, --
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2 |
Who is this who makes the purpose of God dark by words without knowledge? --
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3 |
Get your strength together like a man of war; I will put questions to you, and you will give me the answers. --
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4 |
Where were you when I put the earth on its base? Say, if you have knowledge. --
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5 |
By whom were its measures fixed? Say, if you have wisdom; or by whom was the line stretched out over it? --
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6 |
On what were its pillars based, or who put down its angle-stone, --
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7 |
When the morning stars made songs together, and all the sons of the gods gave cries of joy? --
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8 |
Or where were you when the sea came to birth, pushing out from its secret place; --
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9 |
When I made the cloud its robe, and put thick clouds as bands round it, --
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10 |
Ordering a fixed limit for it, with locks and doors; --
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11 |
And said, So far you may come, and no farther; and here the pride of your waves will be stopped? --
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12 |
Have you, from your earliest days, given orders to the morning, or made the dawn conscious of its place; --
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13 |
So that it might take a grip of the skirts of the earth, shaking all the evil-doers out of it? --
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14 |
It is changed like wet earth under a stamp, and is coloured like a robe; --
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15 |
And from the evil-doers their light is kept back, and the arm of pride is broken. --
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16 |
Have you come into the springs of the sea, walking in the secret places of the deep? --
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17 |
Have the doors of death been open to you, or have the door-keepers of the dark ever seen you? --
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18 |
Have you taken note of the wide limits of the earth? Say, if you have knowledge of it all. --
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19 |
Which is the way to the resting-place of the light, and where is the store-house of the dark; --
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20 |
So that you might take it to its limit, guiding it to its house? --
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21 |
No doubt you have knowledge of it, for then you had come to birth, and the number of your days is great. --
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22 |
Have you come into the secret place of snow, or have you seen the store-houses of the ice-drops, --
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23 |
Which I have kept for the time of trouble, for the day of war and fighting? --
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24 |
Which is the way to the place where the wind is measured out, and the east wind sent out over the earth? --
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25 |
By whom has the way been cut for the flowing of the rain, and the flaming of the thunder; --
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26 |
Causing rain to come on a land where no man is living, on the waste land which has no people; --
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27 |
To give water to the land where there is waste and destruction, and to make the dry land green with young grass? --
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28 |
Has the rain a father? or who gave birth to the drops of night mist? --
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29 |
Out of whose body came the ice? and who gave birth to the cold mist of heaven? --
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30 |
The waters are joined together, hard as a stone, and the face of the deep is covered. --
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31 |
Are the bands of the Pleiades fixed by you, or are the cords of Orion made loose? --
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32 |
Do you make Mazzaroth come out in its right time, or are the Bear and its children guided by you? --
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33 |
Have you knowledge of the laws of the heavens? did you give them rule over the earth? --
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34 |
Is your voice sent up to the cloud, so that you may be covered by the weight of waters? --
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35 |
Do you send out the thunder-flames, so that they may go, and say to you, Here we are? --
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36 |
Who has put wisdom in the high clouds, or given knowledge to the lights of the north? --
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37 |
By whose wisdom are the clouds numbered, or the water-skins of the heavens turned to the earth, --
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38 |
When the earth becomes hard as metal, and is joined together in masses? --
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39 |
Do you go after food for the she-lion, or get meat so that the young lions may have enough, --
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40 |
When they are stretched out in their holes, and are waiting in the brushwood? --
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41 |
Who gives in the evening the meat he is searching for, when his young ones are crying to God; when the young lions with loud noise go wandering after their food? --
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