Chapter 39: Book of Job : Speech from the whirlwind

 NJPS (New Jewish Publication Society

translation 1999): from the Kethubim

Do you know the season when the mountain

     goats give birth?

Can you mark the time when the hinds calve?

Can you count the month they must complete?

Do you know the season they give birth,

When they couch to bring forth their offspring,

To deliver their young?

Their young are healthy; they grow up in the

     open;

They leave and return no more.

Who sets the wild ass free?

Who loosens the bonds of the onager [untamed

creature of the desert]  Whose home I have

made the wilderness, The salt land his 

dwelling-place?  He scoffs at the tumult of

the city, Does not hear the shouts of the driver.

He roams the hills for his pasture;

He searches for any green thing.

Would the wild ox agree to serve you?

Would he spend the night at your crib?

Can you hold the wild ox by ropes to

     the furrow?

Would he plow up the valleys behind you?

Would you rely on his great strength

And leave your toil to him?

Would you trust him to bring in the seed

And gather it in from your threshing floor?

The wing of the ostrich beats joyously;

Are her pinions and plumage like

the stork's?  She leaves her eggs on the

ground, Letting them warm in the dirt,

Forgetting they may be crushed underfoot,

Or trampled by a wild beasts.

Her young are cruelly abandoned as if they

were not hers;  Her labor is in vain for lack

     of concern.

For God deprived her of wisdom,

Gave her no share of understanding,

Else she would soar on high,

Scoffing at the horse and its rider.

Do you give the horse his strength?

Do you clothe his neck with a mane?

Do you make him quiver like locusts,

His majestic snorting [spreading] terror?

He paws with force, he runs with vigor,

     Charging into battle.  

He scoffs at fear; he cannot be frightened;

He does not recoil from the sword.

A quiverful of arrows whizzes by him,

And the flashing spear and the javelin.

Trembling with excitement, he swallows

     the land; He does not turn aside at the

blast of the trumpet.

As the trumpet sounds, he says, 'Aha!'

From afar he smells the battle,

The roaring and shouting of the officers.

Is it by your wisdom that the hawk grows pinions,

Spreads his wings to the south?

Does the eagle soar at your command,

Building his nest high, Dwelling in the rock,

Lodging upon the fastness of a jutting rock?

From there he spies out his food;

From afar his eyes see it.

His young gulp blood;

Where the slain are, there is he.

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the date to celebrate is Wed. Jan. 29, 2025.

China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, 

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Happy New Year!

The Full Moon arriving after Chinese New Year

is on Feb. 12, 2025, reaching peak illumination

at 8:53 a.m. Eastern Time.

Full Snow Moon

Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. / epidemiologist

Head of the National Institute of

Allergy and Infectious Diseases for

30 years, retiring in  December 2022,

advising Presidents from Ronald

Reagan to Joseph Biden.

Dr. Fauci did NOT have Secret Service

protection but instead was protected

by federal marshals and later by a 

private contractor whose fees were

paid by the federal government.

The move to take away his taxpayer-

financed security protection came 

late Thursday and was met with

approval by KY Junior Senator, Rand 

Paul;  Dr. Fauci had a long

and "complicated" relationship with Trump,

then-45th President, who alternately

told he that he "loved him" and tweeted

tirades against him flecked with

four-letter words.  DETAILS:

nytimes.com/ 2025/01/24/us/politics/

fauci-security-protection.html

FAUCI's own statement included:

Let me be perfectly clear, 

I have committed no crime and

there are no possible grounds for

any allegation or threat of criminal

investigation or prosecution of me.

Chapter 38: The Lord answers from a whirlwind

The Book of Job (part of the Kethubim / "Writings"

section of the Tanak - Hebrew Bible) mostly

poetry - dialogue speeches - but also narrative

for beginning and concluding chapters.

This 21st century translation is from the

Common English Bible (CEB), its

study Bible with notes published in 2013.

Then the Lord answered Job

from the whirlwind:

Who is this darkening counsel

with words lacking knowledge?

Prepare yourself like a man:

I will interrogate you, and you

will respond to me.

Where were you when I laid

the earth's foundations?  Tell

me if you know.

Who set its measurements?

Surely you know.  Who stretched

a measuring tape on it?  On

what were its footings sunk;

who laid its cornerstone, while

the morning stars sang in unison

and all the Divine beings shouted?

Who enclosed the Sea [Hebrew "YAM"]

behind doors when it burst forth

from the womb, when I made the

clouds its garment, the dense clouds

its wrap, when I imposted my

limit for it, put on a bar and doors

and said, 'You may come this far,

no farther; here your proud waves

stop'?

In your lifetime have you commanded

the morning, informed the dawn of 

its place so it would take hold of 

earth by its edges and shake the

wicked out of it?

Do you turn it over like clay

for a seal, so it stands out like

a colorful garment?  Light is

withheld from the wicked, the

uplifted arm broken.

Have you gone to the sea's

sources, walked in the chamber

of the deep?  Have death's gates

been revealed to you; can you see

the gates of deep darkness?

Have you surveyed earth's expanse?

Tell me if you know everything about

it.  Where's the road to the place

where light dwells; darkness, 

where's it located?  Can you take

it to its territory; do you know

the way to its house?  You know, 

for you were born then; you have

lived such a long time / the number

of your days is many!

Have you gone to snow's store-

houses, seen the storehouses of

hail that I have reserved for a

time of distress, for a day of

battle and war?

What is the way to the place

where light is divided up; the east

wind scattered over earth?

Who cut a channel for the

downpours and a way for blasts

of thunder to bring water to

uninhabited land, a desert with

no human to saturate dry waste-

land and make grass sprout?

Has the rain a father who

brought forth drops of dew?

From whose belly does ice

come:  who gave birth to

heaven's frost?  Water hardens

like stone; the surface of the deep

thickens.  Can you bind Pleiades'

chain or loosen the reins of Orion?

Can you guide the stars at their

proper times, lead the Bear with

her cubs?  Do you know heaven's

laws, or can you impose its rule

on earth?  Can you issue an order

to the clouds so their abundant

waters cover you?  Can you send

lightning so that it goes and

then says to you, 'I'm here'?

Who put wisdom in remote places,

and who gave understanding to

a rooster?  Who is wise enough

to count the clouds and who can

tilt heaven's water containers

so that dust becomes mud

and clouds of dirt adhere?

Can you hunt prey for the lion

or fill the cravings of lion cubs?

They lie in their den, lie in ambush

in their lair.  Who provides food

for the raven, when its young

cry to God, move about without food?

Joseph's dreams of power and ascendancy -- 37th chapter in GENESIS (Torah)

First book of the Pentateuch

Genesis 37: 1 - 10 narrative

of Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel

CEB Study Bible (Common English

translation, published 2013)

Jacob lived in the land of Canaan

where his father was an immigrant.

This is the account of Jacob's

descendants.  Joseph was 17 years old

and tended the flock with his brothers.

While he was helping the sons of

Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives,

Joseph told their father unflattering

things about them.  Now Israel loved

Joseph more than any of his other sons

because he was born when Jacob was

old.  Jacob had made for him a long

robe [ in the Septuagint Greek: a

many-colored robe ].  When his

brothers saw that their father loved him 

more than any of his brothers, they hated

him and couldn't even talk nicely to him.

Joseph had a dream and told it to his

brothers, which made them hate him even

more.  He said to them, 'Listen to this dream

I had.  When we were binding stalks of grain

in the field, my stalk got up and stood

upright, while your stalks gathered around

it and bowed down to my stalk.'

His brothers said to him, 'Will you really 

be our king and rule over us?'  So they hated

him even more because of the dreams he

told them.

Then Joseph had another dream and described

it to his brothers, "I've just dreamed again,

and this time the sun and the moon and

eleven stars were bowing down to me.'

When he described it to his father and brothers,

his father scolded him and said to him,

'What kind of dreams have you dreamed?  Am

I and your mother and your brothers supposed to 

come and bow down to the ground in front of

you?'  His brothers were jealous of him,

but his father took careful note of the matter.

Chapter 37 : Third of four visions of Ezekiel

"A certain valley" full of "dry bones"

Book of the Prophet Ezekiel chapter 37

verses 1 - 14 (CEB Study Bible,

published in 2013) : Common English

The Lord's power overcame me, and while I was in the

Lord's spirit, he led me out and set me down in the

middle of a certain valley.  It was full of bones.  He led me 

through them and they were very dry. He asked me,

Human one, can these bones live again?

I said, "Lord God, only you know."

He said to me, Prophesy over these bones, and

say to them, Dry bones, hear the Lord's word!

The Lord God proclaims to these bones: I am

about to put breath in you, and you will live

again.  I will put sinews on you, place flesh on

you, and cover you with skin.  When I put breath

in you and you come to life, you will know that

I am the Lord.

I prophesied just as I was commanded.  There

was a great noise as I was prophesying, then a

great quaking, and the bones came together, bone

by bone.  When I looked, suddenly there were

sinews on them.  The flesh appeared, and then 

they were covered over with skin.  But there was

still no breath in them.  He said to me,

Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, human one!

Say to the breath, The Lord God proclaims:

Come from the four winds, breath!  Breathe

into these dead bodies and let them live.

I prophesied just as he commanded me.  When 

the breath entered them, they came to life and

stood on their feet, an extraordinarily large company.

He said to me,

Human one, these bones are the entire house

of Israel.  They say, 'Our bones are dried up,

and our hope has perished.  We are completely

finished.' So now, prophesy and say to them,

The Lord God proclaims: I'm opening your

graves!  I will raise you up from your graves,

my people, and I will bring you to Israel's fertile

land.  You will know that I am the Lord, when

I open your graves and raise you up from your

graves, my people.  I will put my breath /

spirit in you, and you will live.  I will plant

you on your fertile land, and you will know 

that I am the Lord.  I've spoken and I will do 

it.  This is what the Lord says.

Chapter 36 The Enduring Word

The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah

Chapter 36 selected verses

Common English Bible translation

CEB Study Bible published 2013

In the fourth year of

Judah's King Jehoiakim,

Josiah's son, this word

came to Jeremiah from

the Lord:

Take a scroll and write

in it all the words I

have spoken to you

concerning Israel, Judah,

and all the nations from

the time of Josiah until

today.  Perhaps when the

people of Judah hear about

every disaster I intend to

bring upon them, they will

turn from their evil ways,

and I will forgive their

wrongdoing and sins.  

So Jeremiah sent for Baruch,

Neriah's son.  As Jeremiah

dictated all the words that

the Lord had spoken to him,

Baruch wrote them in the

scroll. . .In the 9th month

of the 5th year of Judah's

King Jehoiakim, Josiah's

son, all the people in

Jerusalem and all those who

had come from Judean towns

observed a fast for the 

Lord in Jerusalem . . .When

the officials heard all its

words, they were alarmed.

'How did you write all these

words?  Did they come from

Jeremiah?'

Baruch replied, 'He dictated

all the words to me, and I

wrote them with ink in the

scroll. . .'You and Jeremiah

had better go & hide; don't

let anyone know where you are.

The king sent Jehudi to take

the scroll..whenever Jehudi

would read 3 or 4 columns 

of the scroll, the king would

cut them off with a scribe's 

knife and throw them into the

firepot until the whole scroll 

was burned up. . .The Lord's

word came to Jeremiah after 

the king had burned the scroll 

containing the words written by 

Baruch at Jeremiah's dictation:

Get another scroll & write

in it all the words that were

in the first scroll that Judah's

King Jehoiakim burned. . .You

burned it because it declared

that the king of Babylon will 

come & destroy this land and

eliminate every sign of life. . 

Jehoiakim won't have any heirs

to occupy the throne of David,

& his dead body will be cast

out & exposed to the heat of

the day & the frost of the 

night. . .But they wouldn't

listen. . .

Many similar words were added

to the scroll.

[The king's actions do NOT have 

the last word.  God instructs

Jeremiah to dictate another 

scroll. . .once again the

prophetic summons 

to change & to avert disaster 

goes unheeded.]