Job 38:1–41 (NIV84)

¹ Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said: ² “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? ³ Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. ⁴ “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. ⁵ Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? ⁶ On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— ⁷ while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? ⁸ “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, ⁹when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, ¹⁰ when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, ¹¹ when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’? ¹² “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, ¹³ that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? ¹⁴ The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment. ¹⁵ The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken. ¹⁶ “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? ¹⁷ Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? ¹⁸ Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this. ¹⁹ “What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? ²⁰ Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings? ²¹ Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years! ²² “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, ²³ which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle? ²⁴ What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? ²⁵ Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, ²⁶ to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, ²⁷ to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass? ²⁸ Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew? ²⁹ From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens ³⁰ when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen? ³¹ “Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion? ³² Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs? ³³ Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth? ³⁴ “Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? ³⁵ Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’? ³⁶ Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind? ³⁷ Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens ³⁸ when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together? ³⁹ “Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions ⁴⁰ when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in a thicket? ⁴¹ Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?

Mark 3:7–19 (NIV84)

⁷ Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. ⁸ When they heard all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. ⁹ Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. ¹⁰ For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. ¹¹ Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” ¹² But he gave them strict orders not to tell who he was. ¹³ Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. ¹⁴ He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach ¹⁵and to have authority to drive out demons. ¹⁶ These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); ¹⁷ James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder); ¹⁸ Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot ¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.