8:1 But God remembered
VI. The Divine Speeches (38:1-42:6)
The Lord’s First Speech38:1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
38:2 “Who is this
with words without knowledge?
38:3 Get ready for a difficult task
I will question you
and you will inform me!
38:4 “Where were you
when I laid the foundation
Tell me,
38:5 Who set its measurements – if
or who stretched a measuring line across it?
38:6 On what
or who laid its cornerstone –
38:7 when the morning stars
and all the sons of God
38:8 “Who shut up
when it burst forth,
38:9 when I made
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
38:10 when I prescribed
and set
38:11 when I said, ‘To here you may come
and no farther,
here your proud waves will be confined’?
38:12 Have you ever in your life
or made the dawn know
38:13 that it might seize the corners of the earth,
and shake the wicked out of it?
38:14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
its features
38:15 Then from the wicked the light is withheld,
and the arm raised in violence
38:16 Have you gone to the springs that fill the sea,
or walked about in the recesses of the deep?
38:17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Have you seen the gates of deepest darkness?
38:18 Have you considered the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know it all!
38:19 “In what direction
and darkness, where is its place,
38:20 that you may take them to their borders
and perceive the pathways to their homes?
38:21 You know, for you were born before them;
and the number of your days is great!
38:22 Have you entered the storehouse
or seen the armory
38:23 which I reserve for the time of trouble,
for the day of war and battle?
38:24 In what direction is lightning
or the east winds scattered over the earth?
38:25 Who carves out a channel for the heavy rains,
and a path for the rumble of thunder,
38:26 to cause it to rain on an uninhabited land,
a desert where there are no human beings,
38:27 to satisfy a devastated and desolate land,
and to cause it to sprout with vegetation?
38:28 Does the rain have a father,
or who has fathered the drops of the dew?
38:29 From whose womb does the ice emerge,
and the frost from the sky,
38:30 when the waters become hard
when the surface of the deep is frozen solid?
38:31 Can you tie the bands
or release the cords of Orion?
38:32 Can you lead out
the constellations
or guide the Bear with its cubs?
38:33 Do you know the laws of the heavens,
or can you set up their rule over the earth?
38:34 Can you raise your voice to the clouds
so that a flood of water covers you?
38:35 Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go?
Will they say to you, ‘Here we are’?
38:36 Who has put wisdom in the heart,
or has imparted understanding to the mind?
38:37 Who by wisdom can count the clouds,
and who can tip over
38:38 when the dust hardens
and the clumps of earth stick together?
38:39 “Do you hunt prey for the lioness,
and satisfy the appetite
38:40 when they crouch in their dens,
when they wait in ambush in the thicket?
38:41 Who prepares prey for the raven,
when its young cry out to God
and wander about
41:1 (40:25)
and tie down
41:2 Can you put a cord through its nose,
or pierce its jaw with a hook?
41:3 Will it make numerous supplications to you,
will it speak to you with tender words?
41:4 Will it make a pact
so you could take it
41:5 Can you play
or tie it on a leash
41:6 Will partners
Will they divide it up
41:7 Can you fill its hide with harpoons
or its head with fishing spears?
41:8 If you lay your hand on it,
you will remember
and you will never do it again!
41:9 (41:1)
he is laid low even at the sight of it.
41:10 Is it not fierce
Who is he, then, who can stand before it?
41:11 (Who has confronted
Everything under heaven belongs to me!)
41:12 I will not keep silent about its limbs,
and the extent of its might,
and the grace of its arrangement.
41:13 Who can uncover its outer covering?
Who can penetrate to the inside of its armor?
41:14 Who can open the doors of its mouth?
Its teeth all around are fearsome.
41:15 Its back
shut up closely
41:16 each one is so close to the next
that no air can come between them.
41:17 They lock tightly together, one to the next;
they cling together and cannot be separated.
41:18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light;
its eyes are like the red glow
41:19 Out of its mouth go flames,
sparks of fire shoot forth!
41:20 Smoke streams from its nostrils
as from a boiling pot over burning
41:21 Its breath sets coals ablaze
and a flame shoots from its mouth.
41:22 Strength lodges in its neck,
and despair
41:23 The folds
they are firm on it, immovable.
41:24 Its heart
hard as a lower millstone.
41:25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified,
at its thrashing about they withdraw.
41:26 Whoever strikes it with a sword
will have no effect,
nor with the spear, arrow, or dart.
41:27 It regards iron as straw
and bronze as rotten wood.
41:28 Arrows
slingstones become like chaff to it.
41:29 A club is counted
it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
41:30 Its underparts
it leaves its mark in the mud
like a threshing sledge.
41:31 It makes the deep boil like a cauldron
and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment,
41:32 It leaves a glistening wake behind it;
one would think the deep had a head of white hair.
41:33 The likes of it is not on earth,
a creature
41:34 It looks on every haughty being;
it is king over all that are proud.”
36:5 O Lord, your loyal love reaches to the sky;
your faithfulness to the clouds.
36:6 Your justice is like the highest mountains,
your fairness like the deepest sea;
you preserve
145:9 The Lord is good to all,
and has compassion on all he has made.