and your companions with you.
5 Look to the skies, and see.
See the skies, which are higher than you.
6 If you have sinned, what effect do you have against him?
If your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?
7 If you are righteous, what do you give him?
Or what does he receive from your hand?
8 Your wickedness may hurt a man as you are,
and your righteousness may profit a son of man.
9 “By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out.
They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.
10 But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker,
who gives songs in the night,
11 who teaches us more than the animals of the earth,
and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’
12 There they cry, but no one answers,
because of the pride of evil men.
13 Surely God will not hear an empty cry,
neither will the Almighty regard it.
14 How much less when you say you don’t see him.
The cause is before him, and you wait for him!
15 But now, because he has not visited in his anger,
neither does he greatly regard arrogance,
16 therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk,
and he multiplies words without knowledge.”
36
1 Elihu also continued, and said,
2 “Bear with me a little, and I will show you;
for I still have something to say on God’s behalf.
3 I will get my knowledge from afar,
and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
4 For truly my words are not false.
One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.
5 “Behold, God is mighty, and doesn’t despise anyone.
He is mighty in strength of understanding.
6 He doesn’t preserve the life of the wicked,
but gives justice to the afflicted.
7 He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous,
but with kings on the throne,
he sets them forever, and they are exalted.
8 If they are bound in fetters,
and are taken in the cords of afflictions,
9 then he shows them their work,
and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.
10 He also opens their ears to instruction,
and commands that they return from iniquity.
11 If they listen and serve him,
they will spend their days in prosperity,
and their years in pleasures.
12 But if they don’t listen, they will perish by the sword;
they will die without knowledge.
13 “But those who are godless in heart lay up anger.
They don’t cry for help when he binds them.
14 They die in youth.
Their life perishes amongst the unclean.
15 He delivers the afflicted by their affliction,
and opens their ear in oppression.
16 Yes, he would have allured you out of distress,
into a wide place, where there is no restriction.
That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.
17 “But you are full of the judgement of the wicked.
Judgement and justice take hold of you.
18 Don’t let riches entice you to wrath,
neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.
19 Would your wealth sustain you in distress,
or all the might of your strength?
20 Don’t desire the night,
when people are cut off in their place.
21 Take heed, don’t regard iniquity;
for you have chosen this rather than affliction.
22 Behold, God is exalted in his power.
Who is a teacher like him?
23 Who has prescribed his way for him?
Or who can say, ‘You have committed unrighteousness’?
24 “Remember that you magnify his work,
about which men have sung.
25 All men have looked on it.
Man sees it afar off.
26 Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him.
The number of his years is unsearchable.
27 For he draws up the drops of water,
which distill in rain from his vapour,
28 which the skies pour down
and which drop on man abundantly.
29 Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds
and the thunderings of his pavilion?
30 Behold, he spreads his light around him.
He covers the bottom of the sea.
31 For by these he judges the people.
He gives food in abundance.
32 He covers his hands with the lightning,
and commands it to strike the mark.
33 Its noise tells about him,
and the livestock also, concerning the storm that comes up.
37
1 “Yes, at this my heart trembles,
and is moved out of its place.
2 Hear, oh, hear the noise of his voice,
the sound that goes out of his mouth.
3 He sends it out under the whole sky,
and his lightning to the ends of the earth.
4 After it a voice roars.
He thunders with the voice of his majesty.
He doesn’t hold back anything when his voice is heard.
5 God thunders marvellously with his voice.
He does great things, which we can’t comprehend.
6 For he says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’
likewise to the shower of rain,
and to the showers of his mighty rain.
7 He seals up the hand of every man,
that all men whom he has made may know it.
8 Then the animals take cover,
and remain in their dens.
9 Out of its room comes the storm,
and cold out of the north.
10 By the breath of God, ice is given,
and the width of the waters is frozen.
11 Yes, he loads the thick cloud with moisture.
He spreads abroad the cloud of his lightning.
12 It is turned around by his guidance,
that they may do whatever he commands them
on the surface of the habitable world,
13 whether it is for correction, or for his land,
or for loving kindness, that he causes it to come.
14 “Listen to this, Job.
Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.
15 Do you know how God controls them,
and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?
16 Do you know the workings of the clouds,
the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge?
17 You whose clothing is warm
when the earth is still by reason of the south wind?
18 Can you, with him, spread out the sky,
which is strong as a cast metal mirror?
19 Teach us what we will tell him,
for we can’t make our case by reason of darkness.
20 Will it be told him that I would speak?
Or should a man wish that he were swallowed up?
21 Now men don’t see the light which is bright in the skies,
but the wind passes, and clears them.
22 Out of the north comes golden splendour.
With God is awesome majesty.
23 We can’t reach the Almighty.
He is exalted in power.
In justice and great righteousness, he will not oppress.
24 Therefore men revere him.
He doesn’t regard any who are wise of heart.”
38
1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind,
2 “Who is this who darkens counsel
by words without knowledge?
3 Brace yourself like a man,
for I will question you, then you answer me!
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Declare, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measures, if you know?
Or who stretched the line on it?
6 What were its foundations fastened on?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 “Or who shut up the sea with doors,
when it broke out of the womb,
9 when I made clouds its garment,
and wrapped it in thick darkness,
10 marked out for it my bound,
set bars and doors,
11 and said, ‘You may come here, but no further.
Your proud waves shall be stopped here’?
12 “Have you commanded the morning in your days,
and caused the dawn to know its place,
13 that it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
and shake the wicked out of it?
14 It is changed as clay under the seal,
and presented as a garment.
15 From the wicked, their light is withheld.
The high arm is broken.
16 “Have you entered into the springs of the sea?
Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
18 Have you comprehended the earth in its width?
Declare, if you know it all.
19 “What is the way to the dwelling of light?
As for darkness, where is its place,
20 that you should take it to its bound,
that you should discern the paths to its house?
21 Surely you know, for you were born then,
and the number of your days is great!
22 Have you entered the storehouses of the snow,
or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,
23 which I have reserved against the time of trouble,
against the day of battle and war?
24 By what way is the lightning distributed,
or the east wind scattered on the earth?
25 Who has cut a channel for the flood water,
or the path for the thunderstorm,
26 to cause it to rain on a land where there is no man,
on the wilderness, in which there is no man,
27 to satisfy the waste and desolate ground,
to cause the tender grass to grow?
28 Does the rain have a father?
Or who fathers the drops of dew?
29 Whose womb did the ice come out of?
Who has given birth to the grey frost of the sky?
30 The waters become hard like stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen.
31 “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades,
or loosen the cords of Orion?
32 Can you lead the constellations out in their season?
Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?
33 Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you establish its dominion over the earth?
34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
that abundance of waters may cover you?
35 Can you send out lightnings, that they may go?
Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts?
Or who has given understanding to the mind?
37 Who can count the clouds by wisdom?
Or who can pour out the containers of the sky,
38 when the dust runs into a mass,
and the clods of earth stick together?
39 “Can you hunt the prey for the lioness,
or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
40 when they crouch in their dens,
and lie in wait in the thicket?
41 Who provides for the raven his prey,
when his
