Chapter 38
| Collection: | The Book of Job and 42 Paintings |
| Author: | Fr. Antonio Oteiza |
| Type: | Painting |
| Location: | Cataloguing Room |
| Characteristics: | Acrylic paint on cardboard |
| Artwork: |
Click to enlarge |
| Description: |
Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm: “Who is this who obscures my designs with meaningless words? If you are a man, gird up your loins: I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. Who determined its dimensions—if you know—or who stretched the measuring line over it? On what are its foundations set, or who laid its cornerstone amid the unanimous acclaim of the morning stars and the shouts of joy of all the angels? Who shut in the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I clothed it with clouds and wrapped it in mist, when I set a boundary for it with doors and bars and said, ‘Thus far shall you come and no farther; here shall the arrogance of your waves end’? Have you ever in your life commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place, so that it might seize the earth by its edges and shake the wicked from it, so that it might shape the earth as a mould shapes clay and colour it like a garment, so that the wicked might be denied their light and the uplifted arm be broken? Have you entered the springs of the sea or walked through the depths of the ocean? Have the gates of Death been shown to you, or have you seen the portals of the Shadows? Have you examined the breadth of the earth? Tell me, if you know everything. Which way leads to the dwelling of light, and where does darkness live? Could you lead them to their land or show them the way home? Surely you know, for you had already been born then and have lived so many years. Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the granaries of the hail, which I reserve for the hour of danger, for the day of war and battle? By what way is the scorching heat distributed, and how is the east wind scattered over the earth? Who has cut a channel for the downpour and a path for lightning and thunder, to bring rain upon uninhabited lands, upon the wilderness where no man lives, to satisfy the desolate desert and make grass spring up in the wasteland? Does the rain have a father? Who begets the drops of dew? From whose womb does the ice come forth? Who gives birth to the frost of heaven, so that the water is covered with a slab and the surface of the lake is imprisoned? Can you bind the bonds of the Pleiades or loosen the cords of Orion? Can you bring out the constellations at their appointed time or guide the Great Bear with her young? Do you know the laws of the heavens, or determine their rule over the earth? Can you raise your voice to the clouds so that a downpour covers you? Do you send out the lightning bolts, so that they come and say to you, ‘Here we are’? Who gave wisdom to the ibis and insight to the rooster? Who can wisely count the clouds and tip over the jars of heaven when the dust hardens into a mass and the clods of earth cling together? Do you hunt prey for the lioness or satisfy the hunger of her cubs when they crouch in their den or lie in wait in the thicket? Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about crazed with hunger?” |
