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Job

Chapter 38

Summary

Job Chapter 38 is the dramatic climax of the book as the LORD finally answers Job out of the whirlwind. Instead of explaining Job's suffering, God asks a series of overwhelming questions about the creation and governance of the universe. He asks Job where he was when the foundations of the earth were laid, who shut up the sea behind doors, and whether Job can command the morning. God challenges Job's understanding of the constellations: the Pleiades and Orion: and the laws of the heavens. The speech serves to humble Job by revealing the vastness and complexity of a world that he cannot begin to comprehend.

1

Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the whirlwind [1]:

2

"Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?"

3

"Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me."

4

"Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand."

5

"Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?"

6

"On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone, "

7

"while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?"

8

"Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,"

9

"when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness,"

10

"when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place,"

11

"when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves lame'?"

12

"Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place,"

13

"that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?"

14

"The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment."

15

"The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken."

16

"Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?"

17

"Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?"

18

"Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this."

19

"What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside?"

20

"Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings?"

21

"Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!"

22

"Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail,"

23

"which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle?"

24

"What is the way to the place where the lightning is scattered, or the place where the east winds are dispersed over the earth?"

25

"Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm,"

26

"to water a land where no one lives, an uninhabited desert,"

27

"to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?"

28

"Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew?"

29

"From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens"

30

"when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?"

31

"Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades? Can you loosen Orion’s belt?"

32

"Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs?"

33

"Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?"

34

"Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water?"

35

"Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, 'Here we are'?"

36

"Who gives the ibis wisdom or gives the cockerel understanding?"

37

"Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens"

38

"when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together?"

39

"Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions"

40

"when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in the thicket?"

41

Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?"

Notes

[1]Hebrew: מִן הַסְּעָרָה (min ha-Sa'arah). 'Out of the Whirlwind.' The entry of the LORD into the dialogue.