19 “What is the way to the abode of light?
    And where does darkness reside?(A)
20 Can you take them to their places?
    Do you know the paths(B) to their dwellings?
21 Surely you know, for you were already born!(C)
    You have lived so many years!

22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow(D)
    or seen the storehouses(E) of the hail,(F)
23 which I reserve for times of trouble,(G)
    for days of war and battle?(H)
24 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,(I)
    or the place where the east winds(J) are scattered over the earth?(K)
25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
    and a path for the thunderstorm,(L)
26 to water(M) a land where no one lives,
    an uninhabited desert,(N)
27 to satisfy a desolate wasteland
    and make it sprout with grass?(O)
28 Does the rain have a father?(P)
    Who fathers the drops of dew?
29 From whose womb comes the ice?
    Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens(Q)
30 when the waters become hard as stone,
    when the surface of the deep is frozen?(R)

31 “Can you bind the chains[a] of the Pleiades?
    Can you loosen Orion’s belt?(S)
32 Can you bring forth the constellations(T) in their seasons[b]
    or lead out the Bear[c] with its cubs?(U)
33 Do you know the laws(V) of the heavens?(W)
    Can you set up God’s[d] dominion over the earth?

34 “Can you raise your voice to the clouds
    and cover yourself with a flood of water?(X)
35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?(Y)
    Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who gives the ibis wisdom[e](Z)
    or gives the rooster understanding?[f](AA)
37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
    Who can tip over the water jars(AB) of the heavens(AC)
38 when the dust becomes hard(AD)
    and the clods of earth stick together?(AE)

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Footnotes

  1. Job 38:31 Septuagint; Hebrew beauty
  2. Job 38:32 Or the morning star in its season
  3. Job 38:32 Or out Leo
  4. Job 38:33 Or their
  5. Job 38:36 That is, wisdom about the flooding of the Nile
  6. Job 38:36 That is, understanding of when to crow; the meaning of the Hebrew for this verse is uncertain.

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