Golden Rays Emerges from the North
Job 37:21
“Gold comes out of the north: about God is terrible majesty.” (Job 37:21)
The north is where the mystery comes from in the biblical context. The northern wind is invoked in this chapter as the humans cease to speak and the presence of the infinite is about to take center stage.
Perhaps it was the geographical reality of dwellers in the holy land that led to this mythical poetry. Those early authors of the biblical narratives likely saw the towering snow peaked mountains way up north and dared to peek beyond those peaks into majestic mysteries. Those snow capped mountains, with multiple names and sacred citations, have been revered forever. The Hebrew name Hermon is derived from the Semitic root for sacred - HRM. In Arabic the mountain range is known as Jabal al-Shaykh - the Mountain of the Chief, or Sacred Elder.
Whoever wrote Job shared the sense that it’s what’s coming from the north that yields the mystery, that is the harbinger of storms and secrets, subtle yet substantial as snow.
Echoed here are the words of the Prophet Isaiah, calling for the winds - “I will say to the North wind, “Give back!”, and to the South, “Do not withhold! Bring back My sons from afar, And My daughters from the end of the earth.” (Isa. 43:6)
In today’s chapter, Elihu is running out of patience and philosophical firepower, making one last desperate attempt to convince Job that he’s got it all wrong. He points to the grandeur of nature—how God orchestrates the world with perfect balance, fine-tuning every storm, river, and season into a system beyond human comprehension. If God can craft the cosmos with such precision, doesn’t it stand to reason that Divine justice operates the same way—inscrutable but ultimately perfect?
It’s a compelling argument, but like much of what Elihu offers, and despite the drama, it feels and falls flat.
Done with his words, he concludes with one last appeal to Job to drop hsi case and see God as the ultimate good:
הַאֲזִינָה זֹּאת אִיּוֹב עֲמֹד וְהִתְבּוֹנֵן נִפְלְאוֹת אֵל׃
Give ear to this, Job;
Stop to consider the marvels of God.
Job 37:14
And to make this point he ends with a dramatic, operatic invitation for the Divine to descend, from the north:
מִצָּפוֹן זָהָב יֶאֱתֶה עַל־אֱלוֹהַּ נוֹרָא הוֹד׃ שַׁדַּי לֹא־מְצָאנֻהוּ שַׂגִּיא־כֹחַ וּמִשְׁפָּט וְרֹב־צְדָקָה לֹא יְעַנֶּה׃ לָכֵן יְרֵאוּהוּ אֲנָשִׁים לֹא־יִרְאֶה כׇּל־חַכְמֵי־לֵב׃
By the north wind the golden rays emerge;
The splendor upon God is awesome.
Shaddai—to whom we cannot attain—
Is great in power and justice
And abundant in righteousness, and does not torment.
Therefore, humankind is in awe of the One
Whom none of the wise can perceive.”
Job 37:21
What is the golden emerging like rays of light, from the north? Shadai, that ancient name of the divine that Elihu uses here is part of the parable, the layers of the hidden story waiting to be revealed. The northern wind has multiple roles in Jewish myth, not always pleasant, yet there is one more legend that connects it to what Elihu may want Job and us to feel: How the divine inspiration comes up through nature, and like clockwork, helps us be our best selves, creative and inspired.
In the Babylonian Talmud’s Tractate Berachot is a story about the way King David woke up every midnight to compose the psalms and study Torah:
“A lyre hung over David’s bed, and once midnight arrived, the northern wind would come and cause the lyre to play on its own. David would immediately rise from his bed and study Torah until the first rays of dawn.”
Even for kings, sleepless nights of stress can sometimes be a source of sacred silence and the gift of poetry and deeper exploration of one’s self and the world.
Elihu has suggested at the top of his speech that the Divine appears through dreams, and that our suffering can be revealed as wake up calls to help us shed some sense of self and become better at being human. It’s a tough call and doesn’t answer the cruelty of so much pain in the world and yet he concludes as he had commenced.
As a believer in the greater good that is God, as it manifests in nature, he now leaves the stage, dismissed and not heard of again, to make room for the words of the Creator.
The stage is lit with golden rays, the northern wind is blowing, the first to set the stage for the whirlwind.
Below the Bible Belt: 929 chapters, 42 months, daily reflections.
Become a free or paid subscriber and join Rabbi Amichai’s 3+ years interactive online quest to question, queer + re-read between the lines of the entire Hebrew Bible. Enjoy daily posts, weekly videos and monthly learning sessions. 2022-2025.
Become a Paid Subscriber? Thank you for your support!
#Job #IYOV #Job37 #hebrewbible #כתובים #Ketuvim #Hebrewbible #Tanach #929 #איוב #חכמה #labshul #belowthebiblebelt929
#Elihu #ElihubookofJob #Suffering #Hermon #JabalElSheikh #northernwind #SHADAI #goldenrays
#peace #prayforpeace #nomorewar #hope #peaceisposible #life’sbigquestions #myseryfromthenorth #prophetisaiah #midnightmysery#makingsenseofsuffering