Job 38 (A Chapter a Day)

The LORD Speaks

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 ^[a] shouted for joy?

⁸ “Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,

⁹ when 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 ^[b] ?

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 ^[c] Pleiades?
Can you loose the cords of Orion?

³² Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons ^[d]
or lead out the Bear ^[e] with its cubs?

³³ Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you set up God’s ^[f] 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 ^[g] with wisdom
or gave understanding to the mind ^[h] ?

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?

Job 37 (A Chapter a Day)

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

² Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice,
to the rumbling that comes from his mouth.

³ He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven
and sends it to the ends of the earth.

⁴ After that comes the sound of his roar;
he thunders with his majestic voice.
When his voice resounds,
he holds nothing back.

⁵ God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways;
he does great things beyond our understanding.

⁶ He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’
and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’

⁷ So that all men he has made may know his work,
he stops every man from his labor. ^[a]

⁸ The animals take cover;
they remain in their dens.

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

¹⁰ The breath of God produces ice,
and the broad waters become frozen.

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

¹² At his direction they swirl around
over the face of the whole earth
to do whatever he commands them.

¹³ He brings the clouds to punish men,
or to water his earth ^[b] and show his love.

¹⁴ “Listen to this, Job;
stop and consider God’s wonders.

¹⁵ Do you know how God controls the clouds
and makes his lightning flash?

¹⁶ Do you know how the clouds hang poised,
those wonders of him who is perfect in knowledge?

¹⁷ You who swelter in your clothes
when the land lies hushed under the south wind,

¹⁸ can you join him in spreading out the skies,
hard as a mirror of cast bronze?

¹⁹ “Tell us what we should say to him;
we cannot draw up our case because of our darkness.

²⁰ Should he be told that I want to speak?
Would any man ask to be swallowed up?

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

²² Out of the north he comes in golden splendor;
God comes in awesome majesty.

²³ The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power;
in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress.

²⁴ Therefore, men revere him,
for does he not have regard for all the wise in heart? ^[c] ”