Job 37

1‘A storm like that makes me very afraid.

2Listen well to God’s words.

Listen to the loud noise when he speaks.

3He sends lightning across the sky.

It goes in all directions.

4After the lightning comes the sound of his voice.

When he speaks, it is like the sound of thunder.

5When God speaks, great things happen.

He does things that we can never understand.

6He tells the snow to drop on the earth.

And when it rains, he causes lots of rain to drop on the ground.

7People need to see what God can do. He made them and he rules the weather.

And when the weather is bad like that, people are not able to work.

8The wild animals hide among the rocks.

Or they stay in the places where they sleep at night.

9The storm comes from the south.

And the cold winds come from the north.

10Ice covers the rivers and lakes.

The cold wind that makes the ice is like God’s breath.

11He fills the clouds with water.

And he sends the lightning through the clouds.

12The clouds move across all the earth.

They go where he sends them.

13He sends the clouds so that there is water on the earth.

Sometimes he does this when he has to punish people.

Sometimes he does it to show them that he loves them.

14Listen to the things that I tell you.

Stop, Job. Think about all the great things that God does.

15God makes the clouds move.

But you do not know how he does that.

He makes the lightning shine for a moment in the sky.

But you do not know how he does that either.

16You cannot explain how the clouds stay up in the sky.

Only God can do all these things, because he knows how to do everything.

17When the warm wind blows from the south in summer, everything is hot.

And you are too warm in the clothes that you wear.

18Then the sky becomes like a metal mirror that makes everything even warmer.

God has made it like that. And you cannot help him do it.

19You think that you are wise. So tell us what we should say to God.

Help us, Job, because we do not know what to say to him.

20I will not ask if I can speak to God.

If I ask, he might kill me.

21The winds have blown all the clouds away.

Now no one can look at the sun, which shines brightly in the sky.

22People can see lovely colours in the sky, towards the north. But they cannot see God.

He is too bright and too beautiful for us to look at.

23God is so powerful that we cannot come near to him.

But he is always kind and fair to everyone.

24People may think that they are wise.

But they are afraid of him, because only he is really wise.’