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Job 38

The Lord Challenges Job

¹Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind:

²“Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words?

³Brace yourself like a man, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.

⁴“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much.

⁵Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line?

⁶What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone

⁷as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

⁸“Who kept the sea inside its boundaries as it burst from the womb,

⁹and as I clothed it with clouds and wrapped it in thick darkness?

¹⁰For I locked it behind barred gates, limiting its shores.

¹¹I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come. Here your proud waves must stop!’

¹²“Have you ever commanded the morning to appear and caused the dawn to rise in the east?

¹³Have you made daylight spread to the ends of the earth, to bring an end to the night’s wickedness?

¹⁴As the light approaches, the earth takes shape like clay pressed beneath a seal; it is robed in brilliant colors.

¹⁵The light disturbs the wicked and stops the arm that is raised in violence.

¹⁶“Have you explored the springs from which the seas come? Have you explored their depths?

¹⁷Do you know where the gates of death are located? Have you seen the gates of utter gloom?

¹⁸Do you realize the extent of the earth? Tell me about it if you know!

¹⁹“Where does light come from, and where does darkness go?

²⁰Can you take each to its home? Do you know how to get there?

²¹But of course you know all this! For you were born before it was all created, and you are so very experienced!

²²“Have you visited the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of hail?

²³(I have reserved them as weapons for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war.)

²⁴Where is the path to the source of light? Where is the home of the east wind?

²⁵“Who created a channel for the torrents of rain? Who laid out the path for the lightning?

²⁶Who makes the rain fall on barren land, in a desert where no one lives?

²⁷Who sends rain to satisfy the parched ground and make the tender grass spring up?

²⁸“Does the rain have a father? Who gives birth to the dew?

²⁹Who is the mother of the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens?

³⁰For the water turns to ice as hard as rock, and the surface of the water freezes.

³¹“Can you direct the movement of the stars— binding the cluster of the Pleiades or loosening the cords of Orion?

³²Can you direct the constellations through the seasons or guide the Bear with her cubs across the heavens?

³³Do you know the laws of the universe? Can you use them to regulate the earth?

³⁴“Can you shout to the clouds and make it rain?

³⁵Can you make lightning appear and cause it to strike as you direct?

³⁶Who gives intuition to the heart and instinct to the mind?

³⁷Who is wise enough to count all the clouds? Who can tilt the water jars of heaven

³⁸when the parched ground is dry and the soil has hardened into clods?

³⁹“Can you stalk prey for a lioness and satisfy the young lions’ appetites

⁴⁰as they lie in their dens or crouch in the thicket?

⁴¹Who provides food for the ravens when their young cry out to God and wander about in hunger?

Job 38 (NLT)

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Job

Chapter 38

38 of 42