God Speaks

Job 38 (selections)

Biblical Period

¹Then the Lord replied to Job out of the tempest and said:

²Who is this who darkens counsel,

Speaking without knowledge?

³Gird your loins like a man;

I will ask and you will inform Me.

⁴Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?

Speak if you have understanding.

⁵Do you know who fixed its dimensions

Or who measured it with a line?

⁶Onto what were its bases sunk?

Who set its cornerstone

⁷When the morning stars sang together

And all the divine beings shouted for joy?

⁸Who closed the sea behind doors

When it gushed forth out of the womb, [ . . . ]

¹⁰When I made breakers My limit for it,

And set up its bar and doors,

¹¹And said, “You may come so far and no farther;

Here your surging waves will stop”?

¹²Have you ever commanded the day to break,

Assigned the dawn its place,

¹³So that it seizes the corners of the earth

And shakes the wicked out of it? [ . . . ]

¹⁶Have you penetrated to the sources of the sea,

Or walked in the recesses of the deep?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been disclosed to you?

Have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

¹⁸Have you surveyed the expanses of the earth?

If you know of these—tell Me.

¹⁹Which path leads to where light dwells,

And where is the place of darkness, [ . . . ]?

²¹Surely you know, for you were born then,

And the number of your years is many!

²²Have you penetrated the vaults of snow,

Seen the vaults of hail, [ . . . ]?

²⁴By what path is the west wind dispersed,

The east wind scattered over the earth?

²⁵Who cut a channel for the torrents

And a path for the thunderstorms,

²⁶To rain down on uninhabited land,

On the wilderness where no man is,

²⁷To saturate the desolate wasteland,

And make the crop of grass sprout forth?

²⁸Does the rain have a father?

Who begot the dewdrops?

²⁹From whose belly came forth the ice?

Who gave birth to the frost of heaven?

³⁰Water congeals like stone,

And the surface of the deep compacts.

³¹Can you tie cords to Pleiades

Or undo the reins of Orion?

³²Can you lead out Mazzaroth^ain its season,

Conduct the Bear with her sons?

³³Do you know the laws of heaven

Or impose its authority on earth?

³⁴Can you send up an order to the clouds

For an abundance of water to cover you?

³⁵Can you dispatch the lightning on a mission

And have it answer you, “I am ready”? [ . . . ]

³⁹Can you hunt prey for the lion,

And satisfy the appetite of the king of beasts? [ . . . ]

⁴¹Who provides food for the raven

When his young cry out to God

And wander about without food?

Notes

Evidently a constellation.

Credits

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.

God Speaks

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