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19 Where is the home of light,
and where does darkness live?
20     Can you lead them home?
21 I'm certain you must be able to,
since you were already born
    when I created everything.

22 Have you been to the places
    where I keep snow and hail,
23 until I use them to punish
    and conquer nations?
24 From where does lightning leap,
    or the east wind blow?
25 Who carves out a path
    for thunderstorms?
Who sends torrents of rain
26 on empty deserts
    where no one lives?
27 Rain that changes barren land
    to meadows green with grass.
28 Who is the father of the dew
    and of the rain?
29 Who gives birth to the sleet
    and the frost
30 that fall in winter,
when streams and lakes
    freeze solid as a rock?

Can You Arrange Stars?

31 (A) Can you arrange stars in groups
such as Orion
    and the Pleiades?
32 Do you control the stars
or set in place the Big Dipper
    and the Little Dipper?
33 Do you know the laws
    that govern the heavens,
and can you make them rule
    the earth?
34 Can you order the clouds
    to send a downpour,
35 or will lightning flash
    at your command?
36 Did you teach birds to know
that rain or floods
    are on their way?[a]
37 Can you count the clouds
or pour out their water
38     on the dry, lumpy soil?

39 When lions are hungry,
    do you help them hunt?
40 Do you send an animal
    into their den?
41 And when starving young ravens
cry out to me for food,
    do you satisfy their hunger?

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Footnotes

  1. 38.36 way: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 36.

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