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“Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?
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Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
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Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.
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“What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside?
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Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
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Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!
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“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail,
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which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle?
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What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
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Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm,
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to water a land where no one lives, an uninhabited desert,
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to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?
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Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew?
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From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
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when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?
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“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades? Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
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Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasonsor lead out the Bear with its cubs?
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Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?
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“Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water?
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Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
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Who gives the ibis wisdomor gives the rooster understanding?
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Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
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when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together?
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“Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions
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when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in a thicket?
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Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?