The Reading
Job 37
"About this also my heart trembles,
and it leaps from its place.
Listen carefully to his voice's thunder
and the rumbling that goes out from his mouth.
He lets it loose under all the heavens,
and his lightning to the earth's corners.
After it, his voice roars;
it thunders with his majestic voice,
and he does not restrain it when his voice is heard.
"God thunders with his voice in marvelous ways;
he does great things, and we cannot comprehend.
For to the snow he says, 'Fall on the earth';
and the shower of rain, his heavy shower of rain—
he stops all human beings from working
so that everyone whom he has made may know it.
Then the animal goes into its den,
and it remains in its den.
"The storm wind comes from its chamber
and cold from the north wind.
By God's breath, ice is given,
and the broad waters are frozen.
Also, he loads down thick clouds with moisture;
his lightning scatters the clouds.
And they turn around by his guidance
to accomplish all that he has commanded them
on the face of the habitable world.
Whether as correction or for his land,
or as loyal love, he lets it happen.
"Hear this, Job;
stand still and consider carefully God's wondrous works.
Do you know how God commands them
and how he causes his cloud's lightning to shine?
Do you know about the hovering of the clouds,
the marvelous works of the one with perfect knowledge?
You whose garments are hot,
when the earth is being still because of the south wind,
with him can you spread out the skies,
hard as a molten mirror?
"Teach us what we should say to him;
we cannot draw up our case because of the presence of darkness.
Should he be told that I want to speak?
Or did a man say that he would be communicated with?
So then, they do not look at the light when it is bright in the skies,
when the wind has passed and has cleansed them.
From the north comes gold—
awesome majesty is around God.
As for Shaddai, we cannot attain him;
he is exalted in power,
and he does not oppress justice and abundant righteousness.
Therefore people revered him;
he does not regard any who think that they are wise."
Job 38
Then Yahweh answered Job from the storm, and he said,
"Who is this darkening counsel
by words without knowledge?
Prepare yourself for a difficult task like a man,
and I will question you, and you shall declare to me.
"Where were you at my laying the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you possess understanding.
Who determined its measurement? Yes, you do know.
Or who stretched the measuring line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars were singing together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
"Or who shut the sea in with doors
at its bursting, when it went out of the womb,
at my making the clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
and I prescribed my rule for it,
and I set bars and doors,
and I said, 'You shall come up to here, but you shall not go further,
and here it will set a boundary for your proud surging waves'?
"Have you ever in your life commanded the morning?
Have you made the dawn know its place,
to take hold of the earth's skirts
so that the wicked might be shaken off from it?
It is changed like clay under a seal,
and they appear like a garment.
And their light is withheld from the wicked,
and their uplifted arm is broken.
"Have you entered into the sea's sources?
Or have you walked around in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Or have you seen the gates of deep shadow?
Have you considered closely the earth's vast expanse?
Declare it, if you know all of it.
"Where then is the way where the light dwells?
And where then is its place,
that you may take it to its territory,
and that you might discern the paths to its home?
You know, for you were born then,
and the number of your days is great.
Have you entered into the storehouses of the snow,