Job 37

Elihu Proclaims God’s Majesty

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹⁸ can you, like Him, spread out the skies, as strong as a mirror of bronze?

¹⁹ Teach 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 a man ask to be swallowed up ¹?

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

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

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

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