Job 36:22-37:13

Contemporary English Version

²² God's power is unlimited.
He needs no teachers
²³     to guide or correct him.

²⁴ Others have praised God
for what he has done,
    so join with them.
²⁵ From down here on earth,
everyone has looked up and seen
²⁶     how great God is—
God is more than we imagine;
no one can count the years
    he has lived.
* ²⁷ God gathers moisture
into the clouds
²⁸     and supplies us with rain.
²⁹ Who can understand
    how God scatters the clouds
and speaks from his home
    in the thunderstorm?
³⁰ And when God sends lightning,
it can be seen
    at the bottom of the sea.^[a]
31 By producing such rainstorms,
God rules the world
    and provides us with food.
³² Each flash of lightning
is one of his arrows
    striking its target,
³³ and the thunder tells
    of his anger against sin.^[b]

37 I am frightened
    and tremble all over,
² when I hear the roaring voice
    of God in the thunder,
³ and when I see his lightning
    flash across the sky.
⁴ God's majestic voice
    thunders his commands,^[c]
5 creating miracles too marvelous
    for us to understand.
⁶ Snow and heavy rainstorms
⁷ make us stop and think
    about God's power,^[d]
8 and they force animals
    to seek shelter.
⁹ The windstorms of winter strike,
¹⁰ and the breath of God
    freezes streams and rivers.
¹¹ Rain clouds filled with lightning
    appear at God's command,
¹² traveling across the sky
¹³     to release their cargo—
sometimes as punishment for sin,
    sometimes as kindness.