Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
Parallel translations
- WEB Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,
- KJV Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
- NKJV Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:
- NASB Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind and said,
- NLT Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind:
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
At last the LORD himself answers Job, speaking out of the whirlwind. God breaks his silence not with explanations but with his own presence.
Overview
After chapters of human debate, Yahweh personally responds to Job from a storm, the classic setting of divine appearing. Notably, God does not directly explain Job's suffering; he reveals himself. This turning point shows that the deepest answer to suffering is not a reason but the living God, ultimately revealed in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Job 40:6Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
- 1 Kgs 19:11Then the LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD. Behold, the LORD is about to pass by.” And a great and mighty wind tore into the mountains and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
- Job 37:1–2“At this my heart also pounds and leaps from its place.
- 2 Kgs 2:11As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire with horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up into heaven in a whirlwind.
- Exod 19:16–19On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning. A thick cloud was upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the ram’s horn went out, so that all the people in the camp trembled.
- Nah 1:3The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. His path is in the whirlwind and storm, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet.
- Deut 4:11–12You came near and stood at the base of the mountain, a mountain blazing with fire to the heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.
- 2 Kgs 2:1Shortly before the LORD took Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal,
- Job 37:9The tempest comes from its chamber, and the cold from the driving north winds.
- Ezek 1:4I looked and saw a whirlwind coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing back and forth and brilliant light all around it. In the center of the fire was a gleam like amber,
- Job 37:14Listen to this, O Job; stand still and consider the wonders of God.
- Deut 5:22–24The LORD spoke these commandments in a loud voice to your whole assembly out of the fire, the cloud, and the deep darkness on the mountain; He added nothing more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 38:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.