Job 36-38

Job 36

¹And Elihu continued:

²“Bear with me a little longer, and I will show you that there is more to be said on God’s behalf.

³I get my knowledge from afar, and I will ascribe justice to my Maker.

⁴For truly my words are free of falsehood; one perfect in knowledge is with you.

⁵Indeed, God is mighty, but He despises no one; He is mighty in strength of understanding.

⁶He does not keep the wicked alive, but He grants justice to the afflicted.

⁷He does not take His eyes off the righteous, but He enthrones them with kings and exalts them forever.

⁸And if men are bound with chains, caught in cords of affliction,

⁹then He tells them their deeds and how arrogantly they have transgressed.

¹⁰He opens their ears to correction and commands that they turn from iniquity.

¹¹If they obey and serve Him, then they end their days in prosperity and their years in happiness.

¹²But if they do not obey, then they perish by the sword and die without knowledge.

¹³The godless in heart harbor resentment; even when He binds them, they do not cry for help.

¹⁴They die in their youth, among the male shrine prostitutes.

¹⁵God rescues the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ears in oppression.

¹⁶Indeed, He drew you from the jaws of distress to a spacious and broad place, to a table full of richness.

¹⁷But now you are laden with the judgment due the wicked; judgment and justice have seized you.

¹⁸Be careful that no one lures you with riches; do not let a large bribe lead you astray.

¹⁹Can your wealth or all your mighty effort keep you from distress?

²⁰Do not long for the night, when people vanish from their homes.

²¹Be careful not to turn to iniquity, for this you have preferred to affliction.

²²Behold, God is exalted in His power. Who is a teacher like Him?

²³Who has appointed His way for Him, or told Him, ‘You have done wrong’?

²⁴Remember to magnify His work, which men have praised in song.

²⁵All mankind has seen it; men behold it from afar.

²⁶Indeed, God is great—beyond our knowledge; the number of His years is unsearchable.

²⁷For He draws up drops of water which distill the rain from the mist,

²⁸which the clouds pour out and shower abundantly on mankind.

²⁹Furthermore, who can understand how the clouds spread out, how the thunder roars from His pavilion?

³⁰See how He scatters His lightning around Him and covers the depths of the sea.

³¹For by these He judges the nations and provides food in abundance.

³²He fills His hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark.

³³The thunder declares His presence; even the cattle regard the rising storm.

Job 37

¹“At this my heart also pounds and leaps from its place.

²Listen closely to the thunder of His voice and the rumbling that comes from His mouth.

³He unleashes His lightning beneath the whole sky and sends it to the ends of the earth.

⁴Then there comes a roaring sound; He thunders with His majestic voice. He does not restrain the lightning when His voice resounds.

⁵God thunders wondrously with His voice; He does great things we cannot comprehend.

⁶For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the gentle rain, ‘Pour out a mighty downpour.’

⁷He seals up the hand of every man, so that all men may know His work.

⁸The wild animals enter their lairs; they settle down in their dens.

⁹The tempest comes from its chamber, and the cold from the driving north winds.

¹⁰By the breath of God the ice is formed and the watery expanses are frozen.

¹¹He loads the clouds with moisture; He scatters His lightning through them.

¹²They swirl about, whirling at His direction, accomplishing all that He commands over the face of all the earth.

¹³Whether for punishment or for His land, He accomplishes this in His loving devotion.

¹⁴Listen to this, O Job; stand still and consider the wonders of God.

¹⁵Do you know how God dispatches the clouds or makes the lightning flash?

¹⁶Do you understand how the clouds float, those wonders of Him who is perfect in knowledge?

¹⁷You whose clothes get hot when the land lies hushed under the south wind,

¹⁸can you, like Him, spread out the skies to reflect the heat like a mirror of bronze?

¹⁹Teach us what we should say to Him; we cannot draw up our case when our faces are in darkness.

²⁰Should He be told that I want to speak? Would a man ask to be swallowed up ?

²¹Now no one can gaze at the sun when it is bright in the skies after the wind has swept them clean.

²²Out of the north He comes in golden splendor; awesome majesty surrounds Him.

²³The Almighty is beyond our reach; He is exalted in power! In His justice and great righteousness He does not oppress.

²⁴Therefore, men fear Him, for He is not partial to the wise in heart.”

Job 38

¹Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

²“Who is this who obscures My counsel by words without knowledge?

³Now brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall inform Me.

⁴Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.

⁵Who fixed its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched a measuring line across it?

⁶On what were its foundations set, or who laid its cornerstone,

⁷while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁸Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,

⁹when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket,

¹⁰when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors,

¹¹and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop’?

¹²In your days, have you commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place,

¹³that it might spread to the ends of the earth and shake the wicked out of it?

¹⁴The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.

¹⁵Light is withheld from the wicked, and their upraised arm is broken.

¹⁶Have you journeyed to the vents of the sea or walked in the trenches of the deep?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

¹⁸Have you surveyed the extent of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this.

¹⁹Where is the way to the home of light? Do you know where darkness resides,

²⁰so you can lead it back to its border? Do you know the paths to its home?

²¹Surely you know, for you were already born! And the number of your days is great!

²²Have you entered the storehouses of snow or observed the storehouses of hail,

²³which I hold in reserve for times of trouble, for the day of war and battle?

²⁴In which direction is the lightning dispersed, or the east wind scattered over the earth?

²⁵Who cuts a channel for the flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt,

²⁶to bring rain on a barren land, on a desert where no man lives,

²⁷to satisfy the parched wasteland and make it sprout with tender grass?

²⁸Does the rain have a father? Who has begotten the drops of dew?

²⁹From whose womb does the ice emerge? Who gives birth to the frost from heaven,

³⁰when the waters become hard as stone and the surface of the deep is frozen?

³¹Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?

³²Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear and her cubs?

³³Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth?

³⁴Can you command the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?

³⁵Can you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?

³⁶Who has put wisdom in the heart or given understanding to the mind?

³⁷Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens

³⁸when the dust hardens into a mass and the clods of earth stick together?

³⁹Can you hunt the prey for a lioness or satisfy the hunger of young lions

⁴⁰when they crouch in their dens and lie in wait in the thicket?

⁴¹Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God as they wander about for lack of food?