Job 36–37

36Be patient and listen a little longer

to what I am saying on God’s behalf.

³My knowledge is wide; I will use what I know

to show that God, my Creator, is just.

⁴Nothing I say to you is false;

you see before you a truly wise man.

⁵How strong God is! He despises no one;

there is nothing he doesn’t understand.

⁶He does not let sinners live on,

and he always treats the poor with justice.

⁷He protects those who are righteous;

he allows them to rule like kings

and lets them be honoured for ever.

⁸But if people are bound in chains,

suffering for what they have done,

⁹God shows them their sins and their pride.

¹⁰He makes them listen to his warning

to turn away from evil.

¹¹If they obey God and serve him,

they live out their lives in peace and prosperity.

¹²But if not, they will die in ignorance

and cross the stream into the world of the dead.

¹³Those who are godless keep on being angry,

and even when punished, they don’t pray for help.

¹⁴They die while they are still young,

worn out by a life of disgrace.

¹⁵But God teaches people through suffering

and uses distress to open their eyes.

¹⁶God brought you out of trouble,

and let you enjoy security;

your table was piled high with food.

¹⁷But now you are being punished as you deserve.

¹⁸Be careful not to let bribes deceive you,

or riches lead you astray.

¹⁹It will do you no good to cry out for help;

all your strength can’t help you now.

²⁰Don’t wish for night to come,

the time when nations will perish.

²¹Be careful not to turn to evil;

your suffering was sent to keep you from it.

²²Remember how great is God’s power;

he is the greatest teacher of all.

²³No one can tell God what to do

or accuse him of doing evil.

²⁴He has always been praised for what he does;

you also must praise him.

²⁵Everyone has seen what he has done;

but we can only watch from a distance.^m

²⁶We cannot fully know his greatness

or count the number of his years.

²⁷It is God who takes water from the earth

and turns it into drops of rain.

²⁸He lets the rain pour from the clouds

in showers for the whole human race.

²⁹No one knows how the clouds move

or how the thunder roars

through the sky, where God dwells.

³⁰He sends lightning through all the sky,

but the depths of the sea remain dark.

³¹This is how he feedsⁿ the people

and provides an abundance of food.

³²He seizes the lightning with his hands

and commands it to hit the mark.

³³Thunder announces the approaching storm,

and the cattle know it is coming.

37The storm makes my heart beat wildly.

²Listen, all of you,

to the voice of God, to the thunder that comes from his mouth.

³He sends the lightning across the sky,

from one end of the earth to the other.

⁴Then the roar of his voice is heard,

the majestic sound of thunder,

and all the while the lightning flashes.

⁵At God’s command amazing things happen,

wonderful things that we can’t understand.

⁶He commands snow to fall on the earth,

and sends torrents of drenching rain.

⁷He brings our work to a stop;

he shows us what he can do.^o

⁸The wild animals go to their dens.

⁹The storm winds come from the south,

and the biting cold from the north.

¹⁰The breath of God freezes the waters,

and turns them to solid ice.

¹¹Lightning flashes from the clouds,^p

¹²as they move at God’s will.

They do all that God commands,

everywhere throughout the world.

¹³God sends rain to water the earth;

he may send it to punish us,

or to show us his favour.

¹⁴Pause a moment, Job, and listen;

consider the wonderful things God does.

¹⁵Do you know how God gives the command

and makes lightning flash from the clouds?

¹⁶Do you know how clouds float in the sky,

the work of God’s amazing skill?

¹⁷No, you can only suffer in the heat

when the south wind oppresses the land.

¹⁸Can you help God stretch out the sky

and make it as hard as polished metal?

¹⁹Teach us what to say to God;

our minds are blank; we have nothing to say.

²⁰I won’t ask to speak with God;

why should I give him a chance to destroy me?

²¹And now the light in the sky is dazzling,

too bright for us to look at it;

and the sky has been swept clean by the wind.

²²A golden glow is seen in the north,

and the glory of God fills us with awe.

²³God’s power is so great that we cannot come near him;

he is righteous and just in his dealings with us.

²⁴No wonder, then, that everyone stands in awe of him,

and that he ignores those who claim to be wise.