June 16
Job 36:1 — 38:41
36 And Elihu proceeded to say further:
2 “Have patience with me a little while, and I shall declare to you
That there are yet words [to say] for God.
3 I shall carry my knowledge from far off,
And to my Fashioner I shall ascribe righteousness.
4 For my words are for a fact no falsehood;
The One perfect in knowledge is with you.
5 Look! God is mighty and will not reject;
[He is] mighty in power of heart;
6 He will not preserve anyone wicked alive,
But the judgment of the afflicted ones he will give.
7 He will not take away his eyes from anyone righteous;
Even kings on the throne—
He will also seat them forever, and they will be exalted.
8 And if they are bound in fetters,
They are captured with ropes of affliction.
9 Then he will tell them about the way they act
And their transgressions, because they take a superior air.
10 And he will uncover their ear to exhortation,
And he will say that they should turn back from what is hurtful.
11 If they obey and serve,
They will finish their days in what is good
And their years in pleasantness.
12 But if they do not obey, they will pass away even by a missile,
And they will expire without knowledge.
13 And those apostate in heart will themselves lay up anger.
They should not cry for help because he has bound them.
14 Their soul will die in youth itself,
And their life among male temple prostitutes.
15 He will rescue the afflicted one in his affliction,
And he will uncover their ear in the oppression.
16 And he will also certainly allure you from the mouth of distress!
Broader space, not constraint, will be in its place,
And the consolation of your table will be full of fatness.
17 With the judicial sentence upon the wicked one you will certainly be filled;
Judicial sentence and justice will themselves take hold.
18 For [take care] that rage does not allure you into [spiteful] handclapping,
And let not a large ransom itself lead you astray.
19 Will your cry for help take effect? No, nor in distress
Even all [your] powerful efforts.
20 Do not pant for the night,
For peoples to retreat [from] where they are.
21 Be on your guard that you do not turn to what is hurtful,
For this you have chosen rather than affliction.
22 Look! God himself acts exaltedly with his power;
Who is an instructor like him?
23 Who has called his way to account against him,
And who has said, ‘You have committed unrighteousness’?
24 Remember that you should magnify his activity
Of which men have sung.
25 All mankind themselves have gazed upon it;
Mortal man himself keeps looking from far off.
26 Behold! God is more exalted than we can know;
In number his years are beyond searching.
27 For he draws up the drops of water;
They filter as rain for his mist,
28 So that the clouds trickle,
They drip upon mankind abundantly.
29 Indeed, who can understand the cloud layers,
The crashings from his booth?
30 Look! He has spread out over it his light,
And the roots of the sea he has covered.
31 For by them he pleads the cause of peoples;
He gives food in abundance.
32 In his hands he has covered over the lightning,
And he lays a command upon it against an assailant.
33 His booming tells about him,
The livestock also concerning the one coming up.
37 “Indeed at this my heart begins to tremble,
And it leaps up from its place.
2 Listen attentively, YOU men, to the rumbling of his voice,
And the growling that goes forth from his mouth.
3 Under the whole heavens he lets it loose,
And his lightning is to the extremities of the earth.
4 After it a sound roars;
He thunders with the sound of his superiority,
And he does not hold them back when his voice is heard.
5 God thunders with his voice in a wonderful way,
Doing great things that we cannot know.
6 For to the snow he says, ‘Fall earthward,’
And [to] the downpour of rain, even [to] the downpour of his strong rains.
7 On the hand of every earthling man he puts a seal
For every mortal man to know his work.
8 And the wild beast comes into the ambush,
And in its hiding places it dwells.
9 Out of the interior room comes the storm wind
And out of the north winds the cold.
10 By the breath of God the ice is given
And the breadth of waters is under constraint.
11 Yes, with moisture he burdens the cloud,
His light scatters the cloud mass,
12 And it is being turned round about by his steering [them] for their performance
Wherever he commands them upon the face of the productive land of the earth.
13 Whether for a rod or for his land
Or for loving-kindness, he makes it produce effects.
14 Do give ear to this, O Job;
Stand still and show yourself attentive to the wonderful works of God.
15 Do you know when God laid an appointment upon them,
And when he caused the light of his cloud to beam?
16 Do you know about the poisings of the cloud,
The wonderful works of the One perfect in knowledge?
17 How your garments are hot
When the earth shows quietness from the south?
18 With him can you beat out the skies
Hard like a molten mirror?
19 Let us know what we should say to him;
We cannot produce [words] because of darkness.
20 Should it be related to him that I would speak?
Or has any man said that it will be communicated?
21 And now they do not really see the light;
It is brilliant in the skies,
When a wind itself has passed by and proceeded to cleanse them.
22 Out of the north golden splendor comes.
Upon God dignity is fear-inspiring.
23 As for the Almighty, we have not found him out;
He is exalted in power,
And justice and abundance of righteousness he will not belittle.
24 Therefore let men fear him.
He does not regard any who are wise in [their own] heart.”
38 And Jehovah proceeded to answer Job out of the windstorm and say:
2 “Who is this that is obscuring counsel
By words without knowledge?
3 Gird up your loins, please, like an able-bodied man,
And let me question you, and you inform me.
4 Where did you happen to be when I founded the earth?
Tell [me], if you do know understanding.
5 Who set its measurements, in case you know,
Or who stretched out upon it the measuring line?
6 Into what have its socket pedestals been sunk down,
Or who laid its cornerstone,
7 When the morning stars joyfully cried out together,
And all the sons of God began shouting in applause?
8 And [who] barricaded the sea with doors,
Which began to go forth as when it burst out from the womb;
9 When I put the cloud as its garment
And thick gloom as its swaddling band,
10 And I proceeded to break up my regulation upon it
And to set a bar and doors,
11 And I went on to say, ‘This far you may come, and no farther;
And here your proud waves are limited’?
12 Was it from your days onward that you commanded the morning?
Did you cause the dawn to know its place,
13 To take hold on the extremities of the earth,
That the wicked ones might be shaken out from it?
14 It transforms itself like clay under a seal,
And things take their station as in clothing.
15 And from the wicked ones their light is held back,
And the high arm itself gets broken.
16 Have you come to the sources of the sea,
Or in search of the watery deep have you walked about?
17 Have the gates of death been uncovered to you,
Or the gates of deep shadow can you see?
18 Have you intelligently considered the broad spaces of the earth?
Tell, if you have come to know it all.
19 Where, now, is the way to where light resides?
As for darkness, where, now, is its place,
20 That you should take it to its boundary
And that you should understand the roadways to its house?
21 Have you come to know because at that time you were being born,
And [because] in number your days are many?
22 Have you entered into the storehouses of the snow,
Or do you see even the storehouses of the hail,
23 Which I have kept back for the time of distress,
For the day of fight and war?
24 Where, now, is the way by which the light distributes itself,
[And] the east wind scatters about upon the earth?
25 Who has divided a channel for the flood
And a way for the thunderous storm cloud,
26 To make it rain upon the land where there is no man,
[Upon] the wilderness in which there is no earthling man,
27 To satisfy storm-stricken and desolate places
And to cause the growth of grass to sprout?
28 Does there exist a father for the rain,
Or who gave birth to the dewdrops?
29 Out of whose belly does the ice actually come forth,
And as for the hoarfrost of heaven, who indeed brings it to birth?
30 The very waters keep themselves hidden as by stone,
And the surface of the watery deep makes itself compact.
31 Can you tie fast the bonds of the Kimah constellation,
Or can you loosen the very cords of the Kesil constellation?
32 Can you bring forth the Mazzaroth constellation in its appointed time?
And as for the Ash constellation alongside its sons, can you conduct them?
33 Have you come to know the statutes of the heavens,
Or could you put its authority in the earth?
34 Can you raise your voice even to the cloud,
So that a heaving mass of water itself may cover you?
35 Can you send forth lightnings that they may go
And say to you, ‘Here we are!’?
36 Who put wisdom in the cloud layers,
Or who gave understanding to the sky phenomenon?
37 Who can exactly number the clouds in wisdom,
Or the water jars of heaven—who can tip [them] over,
38 When the dust pours out as into a molten mass,
And the clods of earth themselves get stuck together?
39 Can you hunt prey for a lion itself
And can you satisfy the lively appetite of young lions,
40 When they crouch in the hiding places,
[Or] keep lying in the covert for an ambush?
41 Who prepares for the raven its food
When its own young ones cry to God for help,
[When] they keep wandering about because there is nothing to eat?