Job 37

At this indeed my heart quakes,

   Leers from its place.

Listen, Listen, to the thundering of His voice,

   To the rumbling emerging from His mouth.

Unleashed beneath the entire heavens,

   His lightning reaches the ends of the earth.

After it comes a roaring sound,

   As He thunders with His majestic voice.

He does not restrain them,

   When His voice resounds.

God thunders wondrously with His voice,

   Doing great things we cannot grasp.

For to the snow He says, ‘Fall on the earth.’

   Likewise, to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’

Sealing everyone inside,

   So that all may know His work.

Even the beasts enter their lair,

   Remaining within their den.

From its chamber comes the tempest,

   The cold from the scattering wind.

By the breath of El, ice is formed,

   The broad waters are frozen fast.

He unloads the thick clouds of their moisture,

   Scatters the lightning filled clouds.

They turn around and about under his guidance,

   To accomplish whatsoever He commands,

      Over the face of the habitable world.

Whether a scourge of His earth,

   Or a blessing, He brings it all to pass.

Listen, O Job, to this,

   Stop, consider the wonders of El.

Do you know how God lays a charge upon them,

   Causes the thunderhead’s lightning to flash?

Do you grasp, through the balancing of the clouds,

   The wonders of the Perfect in Knowledge?

Why your garments become stifling,

   When the South wind is still over the land?

Can you, like Him, spread out the skies,

   Harden the land as a molten mirror?

Inform us then, ‘What shall we say of Him?’,

   We cannot order our speech in darkness.

Is anything conveyed when I speak to Him,

   If when I talk, my words are swallowed up?

But now, one cannot look upon the light,

   Bright as it is in the heavens,

      After the wind has passed and cleared them.

By the North wind, the golden rays charge,

   The awesome majesty surrounding God.

Shaddai – whom we cannot grasp –

   Is great in power and in justice,

The one abounding in righteousness,

      He does not torment.

Therefore, mortals, fear Him,

   Whom even the wise of heart cannot perceive.

 

Posted 2/26/25, Job 362