Job 37
Elihu wraps up by bragging about God
Shaking in God’s presence
1I’m shaking.My heart is drumming in my chest.
2Can you hear that thunder outside?
It’s his voice.
3Words are rumbling out of his mouth,
Spreading in all directions on earth.
4He fills the sky with lightning as he speaks
With majestic thunder in his voice.
5God’s voice erupts as thunder.
He does incredible things
We can’t understand or explain.
6He tells the snow, “Jump and fall.”
He tells the falling rain,
“More. Turn it up.”
7Everyone sees what he has done.
They know where all this came from.
8Animals run for cover.
They sit out the storm,
Sheltered in lairs and dens.
God’s answer is blowing in the wind
9The wind blasts out of storage [1]With blustering whirls
And a frosty bite.
10God can create ice
And hard-freeze the water
With the mere breath of a word.
11He pumps the clouds with water,
And the clouds light the skies
With wide-scattered bolts of lightning.
12Clouds pulse through the sky
On the wings of his command
As they blanket the world below.
13He may send them on a mission
To nourish the land,
Punish a person,
Or to spread a little cheer. [2]
What Job doesn’t know
14Listen to me, Job.You’ve got to stop, look, and listen.
Consider all the great things God has done.
15Come on Job, tell me something.
How does God control the clouds?
Do you know?
How does he fire lightning from out of the clouds?
Do you know?
16How does he fan the clouds across the sky?
Do you know anything about his knowledge?
Do you know it is marvelous and perfect?
17Do you know any of these?
Of course not. You’re just another human,
Forced to wear sunbaked clothes
Into a hot, sirocco [3] desert wind.
18Can you do what God does?
Can you flatten the clouds
Like hammering a plate of polished bronze
And then spread it across the sky?
”Job, teach us how to talk to God”
19Job, you who talk so much to God,Tell us what to say to him.
We don't have any idea.
We're completely in the dark.
20If I tell him something,
Will it teach him anything?
If I made a point,
Would that point be news to him?
21There are times when clouds hide the sun.
But eventually the wind picks them up
And carries them away.
22Then out of the north we see a golden glow
That represents [4] the incredible majesty and glory of God.
23We humans can't find God.
He’s that much greater than we are.
He is just and thoroughly good,
Character traits he will never lose.
24This is why humans respect him.
But he does not respect humans
Who pump themselves up in conceit,
And who brag about their own wisdom.
Footnotes
Literally, “out of its chambers.” In ancient times, many taught that God stored rain and snow in the sky, but wind in storage chambers on earth, perhaps in caves or valleys. One chamber was the Arabian Deserts south of Israel and Palestinian Territories.
The meaning of the Hebrew word hesed, in this context, is uncertain. It’s often translated as lovingkindness. But it can also mean, among other words: devotion, loyalty, and mercy. In any case, whatever it is, it’s upbeat and usually welcome.
The verse doesn’t specifically identify the sirocco wind that blows in from the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. But many scholars say that’s the very wind the author probably had in mind.
Some scholars say this light doesn’t simply represent God. They say the writer is imagining an appearance that God makes to the people—a divine epiphany.
Discussion Questions
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