they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.
10But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker,
who gives strength in the night,
11who teaches us more than the animals of the earth,
and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’
12There they cry out, but he does not answer,
because of the pride of evildoers.
13Surely God does not hear an empty cry,
nor does the Almightyb regard it.
14How much less when you say that you do not see him,
that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him!
15And now, because his anger does not punish,
and he does not greatly heed transgression,c
16Job opens his mouth in empty talk,
he multiplies words without knowledge.”
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a Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai
b Theodotion Symmachus Compare Vg: Meaning of Heb uncertain
35.7–8 The argument resembles that of the friends, who exalted God at human expense.
35.16 God later accuses Job of obscuring counsel by words without knowledge (38.2).
JOB 36
Elihu Exalts God’s Goodness
1Elihu continued and said:
2“Bear with me a little, and I will show you,
for I have yet something to say on God’s behalf.
3I will bring my knowledge from far away,
and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
4For truly my words are not false;
one who is perfect in knowledge is with you.
5“Surely God is mighty and does not despise any;
he is mighty in strength of understanding.
6He does not keep the wicked alive,
but gives the afflicted their right.
7He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous,
but with kings on the throne
he sets them forever, and they are exalted.
8And if they are bound in fetters
and caught in the cords of affliction,
9then he declares to them their work
and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly.
10He opens their ears to instruction,
and commands that they return from iniquity.
11If they listen, and serve him,
they complete their days in prosperity,
and their years in pleasantness.
12But if they do not listen, they shall perish by the sword,
and die without knowledge.
13“The godless in heart cherish anger;
they do not cry for help when he binds them.
14They die in their youth,
and their life ends in shame.a
15He delivers the afflicted by their affliction,
and opens their ear by adversity.
16He also allured you out of distress
into a broad place where there was no constraint,
and what was set on your table was full of fatness.
17“But you are obsessed with the case of the wicked;
judgment and justice seize you.
18Beware that wrath does not entice you into scoffing,
and do not let the greatness of the ransom turn you aside.
19Will your cry avail to keep you from distress,
or will all the force of your strength?
20Do not long for the night,
when peoples are cut off in their place.
21Beware! Do not turn to iniquity;
because of that you have been tried by affliction.
22See, God is exalted in his power;
who is a teacher like him?
23Who has prescribed for him his way,
or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’?
Elihu Proclaims God’s Majesty
24“Remember to extol his work,
of which mortals have sung.
25All people have looked on it;
everyone watches it from far away.
26Surely God is great, and we do not know him;
the number of his years is unsearchable.
27For he draws up the drops of water;
he distillsb his mist in rain,
28which the skies pour down
and drop upon mortals abundantly.
29Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds,
the thunderings of his pavilion?
30See, he scatters his lightning around him
and covers the roots of the sea.
31For by these he governs peoples;
he gives food in abundance.
32He covers his hands with the lightning,
and commands it to strike the mark.
33Its crashingc tells about him;
he is jealousc with anger against iniquity.
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a Heb ends among the temple prostitutes
b Cn: Heb they distill
c Meaning of Heb uncertain
d Meaning of Heb uncertain
36.4 Apparently Elihu does not subscribe to the idea of limited access to wisdom expressed in 28.21, 23–28, for he claims to possess what is there restricted to God.
JOB 37
1“At this also my heart trembles,
and leaps out of its place.
2Listen, listen to the thunder of his voice
and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.
3Under the whole heaven he lets it loose,
and his lightning to the corners of the earth.
4After it his voice roars;
he thunders with his majestic voice
and he does not restrain the lightningsd when his voice is heard.
5God thunders wondrously with his voice;
he does great things that we cannot comprehend.
6For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth’
and the shower of rain, his heavy shower of rain,
7serves as a sign on everyone’s hand,
so that all whom he has made may know it.e
8Then the animals go into their lairs
and remain in their dens.
9From its chamber comes the whirlwind,
and cold from the scattering winds.
10By the breath of God ice is given,
and the broad waters are frozen fast.
11He loads the thick cloud with moisture;
the clouds scatter his lightning.
12They turn round and round by his guidance,
to accomplish all that he commands them
on the face of the habitable world.
13Whether for correction, or for his land,
or for love, he causes it to happen.
14“Hear this, O Job;
stop and consider the wondrous works of God.
15Do you know how God lays his command upon them,
and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?
16Do you know the balancings of the clouds,
the wondrous works of the one whose knowledge is perfect,
17you whose garments are hot
when the earth is still because of the south wind?
18Can you, like him, spread out the skies,
hard as a molten mirror?
19Teach us what we shall say to him;
we cannot draw up our case because of darkness.
20Should he be told that I want to speak?
Did anyone ever wish to be swallowed up?
21Now, no one can look on the light
when it is bright in the skies,
when the wind has passed and cleared them.
22Out of the north comes golden splendor;
around God is awesome majesty.
23The Almightya—we cannot find him;
he is great in power and justice,
and abundant righteousness he will not violate.
24Therefore mortals fear him;
he does n
ot regard any who are wise in their own conceit.”
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a Heb them
b Meaning of Heb of verse 7 uncertain
c Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai
37.18 The Hebrew word for skies, or “firmament,” implied an object that was beaten out like metal, hence hard. Windows allowed rain to fall. The Baal cycle has a dispute over placing a window in his temple.
JOB 38
The LORD Answers Job
1Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind:
2“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3Gird up your loins like a man,
I will question you, and you shall declare to me.
4“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone
7when the morning stars sang together
and all the heavenly beingsb shouted for joy?
8“Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb?—
9when I made the clouds its garment,
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
10and prescribed bounds for it,
and set bars and doors,
11and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?
12“Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
and caused the dawn to know its place,
13so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
and the wicked be shaken out of it?
14It is changed like clay under the seal,
and it is dyedc like a garment.
15Light is withheld from the wicked,
and their uplifted arm is broken.
16“Have you entered into the springs of the sea,
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
18Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
Declare, if you know all this.
19“Where is the way to the dwelling of light,
and where is the place of darkness,
20that you may take it to its territory
and that you may discern the paths to its home?
21Surely 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,
23which I have reserved for the time of trouble,
for the day of battle and war?
24What is the way to the place where the light is distributed,
or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?
25“Who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain,
and a way for the thunderbolt,
26to bring rain on a land where no one lives,
on the desert, which is empty of human life,
27to satisfy the waste and desolate land,
and to make the ground put forth grass?
28“Has the rain a father,
or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29From whose womb did the ice come forth,
and who has given birth to the hoarfrost of heaven?
30The waters become hard like stone,
and the face of the deep is frozen.
31“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,
or loose the cords of Orion?
32Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season,
or can you guide the Bear with its children?
33Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?
Can you establish their rule on the earth?
34“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
so that a flood of waters may cover you?
35Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go
and say to you, ‘Here we are’?
36Who has put wisdom in the inward parts,a
or given understanding to the mind?a
37Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?
Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,
38when the dust runs into a mass
and the clods cling together?
39“Can you hunt the prey for the lion,
or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
40when they crouch in their dens,
or lie in wait in their covert?
41Who provides for the raven its prey,
when its young ones cry to God,
and wander about for lack of food?
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a Heb sons of God
b Cn: Heb and they stand forth
c Meaning of Heb uncertain
d Meaning of Heb uncertain
38.1 The Hebrew words for the “great wind” accompanying the theophany to Elijah in 1 Kings 19.11 occur in 1.19 but not here, where whirlwind, or “tempest,” is used as in 40.6.
38.3 God’s choice of the word man, or “hero,” recalls Job’s lament in 3.3, which uses this strange word with reference to an infant (cf. 40.7).
38.5 In a context dealing with creation mythology Agur, a sage, uses this assurance of knowledge, surely you know (Prov 30.4).
38.7 In Prov 8.30–31 personified Wisdom rejoices over the creative work.
38.8–11 Tiamat of Mesopotamian tradition was slain in battle, whereas the chaos monster in this text survives but moves about under severe constraints imposed by the victorious deity. Tiamat’s body, split in half like a shellfish, formed the newly constructed universe.
38.21 The irony here and the near sarcasm in the following questions resemble the style of school questions in Egyptian literature.
JOB 39
1“Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
Do you observe the calving of the deer?
2Can you number the months that they fulfill,
and do you know the time when they give birth,
3when they crouch to give birth to their offspring,
and are delivered of their young?
4Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open;
they go forth, and do not return to them.
5“Who has let the wild ass go free?
Who has loosed the bonds of the swift ass,
6to which I have given the steppe for its home,
the salt land for its dwelling place?
7It scorns the tumult of the city;
it does not hear the shouts of the driver.
8It ranges the mountains as its pasture,
and it searches after every green thing.
9“Is the wild ox willing to serve you?
Will it spend the night at your crib?
10Can you tie it in the furrow with ropes,
or will it harrow the valleys after you?
11Will you depend on it because its strength is great,
and will you hand over your labor to it?
12Do you have faith in it that it will return,
and bring your grain to your threshing floor?a
13“The ostrich’s wings flap wildly,
though its pinions lack plumage.b
14For it leaves its eggs to the earth,
and lets them be warmed on the ground,
15forgetting that a foot may crush them,
and that a wild animal may trample them.
16It deals cruelly with its young, as if they were not its own;
though its labor should be in vain, yet it has no fear;
17because God has made it forget wisdom,
and given it no share in understanding.
18When it spreads its plumes aloft,b
> it laughs at the horse and its rider.
19“Do you give the horse its might?
Do you clothe its neck with mane?
20Do you make it leap like the locust?
Its majestic snorting is terrible.
21It pawsc violently, exults mightily;
it goes out to meet the weapons.
22It laughs at fear, and is not dismayed;
it does not turn back from the sword.
23Upon it rattle the quiver,
the flashing spear, and the javelin.
24With fierceness and rage it swallows the ground;
it cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.
25When the trumpet sounds, it says ‘Aha!’
From a distance it smells the battle,
the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
26“Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars,
and spreads its wings toward the south?
27Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up
and makes its nest on high?
28It lives on the rock and makes its home
in the fastness of the rocky crag.
29From there it spies the prey;
its eyes see it from far away.
30Its young ones suck up blood;
and where the slain are, there it is.”
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a Heb your grain and your threshing floor
b Meaning of Heb uncertain
c Meaning of Heb uncertain
d Gk Syr Vg: Heb they dig
39.13 Unlike the others, this section on the ostrich does not begin with a rhetorical question.
39.16–17 This folk tradition about ostriches is not factual.
JOB 40
1And the LORD said to Job:
2“Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?d
Anyone who argues with God must respond.”
Job’s Response to God
3Then Job answered the LORD:
4“See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?
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