Read the Bible

Elihu Proclaims God’s Majesty

¹ At this my heart also pounds and leaps from its place.² Listen closely to the thunder of His voice and the rumbling that comes from His mouth.³ He unleashes His lightning beneath the whole sky and sends it to the ends of the earth.⁴ Then there comes a roaring sound; He thunders with His majestic voice. He does not restrain the lightning when His voice resounds.⁵ God thunders wondrously with His voice; He does great things we cannot comprehend.

⁶ For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the gentle rain, ‘Pour out a mighty downpour.’⁷ He seals up the hand of every man, so that all men may know His work.⁸ The wild animals enter their lairs; they settle down in their dens.⁹ The tempest comes from its chamber, and the cold from the driving north winds.¹⁰ By the breath of God the ice is formed and the watery expanses are frozen.¹¹ He loads the clouds with moisture; He scatters His lightning through them.¹² They swirl about, whirling at His direction, accomplishing all that He commands over the face of all the earth.¹³ Whether for punishment or for His land, He accomplishes this in His loving devotion.

¹⁴ Listen to this, O Job; stand still and consider the wonders of God.¹⁵ Do you know how God dispatches the clouds or makes the lightning flash?¹⁶ Do you understand how the clouds float, those wonders of Him who is perfect in knowledge?¹⁷ You whose clothes get hot when the land lies hushed under the south wind,¹⁸ can you, like Him, spread out the skies to reflect the heat like a mirror of bronze?¹⁹ Teach us what we should say to Him; we cannot draw up our case when our faces are in darkness.²⁰ Should He be told that I want to speak? Would a man ask to be swallowed up?

²¹ Now no one can gaze at the sun when it is bright in the skies after the wind has swept them clean.²² Out of the north He comes in golden splendor; awesome majesty surrounds Him.²³ The Almighty is beyond our reach; He is exalted in power! In His justice and great righteousness, He does not oppress.²⁴ Therefore, men fear Him, for He is not partial to the wise in heart.”