37:1
At this, my very heart quakes and leaps out of its place.
37:2
Listen, oh listen, to the blast of his voice and the sound that issues from his mouth.
37:3
His lightning is hurled across the heaven, it strikes to the extremities of earth.
37:4
After it comes a roaring sound, God thunders with majestic voice. He does not check his thunderbolts until his voice resounds no more.
37:5
Yes, certainly God shows us marvels and does great deeds that we cannot understand.
37:6
When he says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth!' to the showers, 'Now rain hard!'
37:7
he brings all human activity to a standstill, for everyone to acknowledge his work.
37:8
The animals go back to their dens and take shelter in their lairs.
37:9
The storm wind comes from the Mansion of the South, and the north winds usher in the cold.
37:10
At the breath of God, ice comes next, the surface of the waters hardens over.
37:11
He weighs the clouds down with moisture, and the storm clouds radiate his lightning.
37:12
He himself guides their wheeling motion presiding over their seasonal changes. They carry out his orders to the letter all over this earthly world.
37:13
Whether to punish earth's peoples or as a work of faithful love, he despatches them.
37:14
Listen to this, Job, without flinching and reflect on the marvellous works of God.
37:15
Do you know how God controls them or how his clouds make the lightning flash?
37:16
Do you know how he balances the clouds -- a miracle of consummate skill?
37:17
When your clothes are hot to your body and the earth lies still under the south wind,
37:18
can you, like him, stretch out the sky, tempered like a mirror of cast metal?
37:19
Teach me what we should say to him: but better discuss no further, since we are in the dark.
37:20
Does he take note when I speak? When human beings give orders, does he take it in?
37:21
There are times when the light vanishes, behind darkening clouds; then comes the wind, sweeping them away.
37:22
and brightness spreads from the north. God is clothed in fearful splendour:
37:23
he, Shaddai, is far beyond our reach. Supreme in power, in equity, excelling in saving justice, yet no oppressor-
37:24
no wonder then that people fear him: everyone thoughtful holds him in awe!
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