12“It changes direction, turning around by His guidance,
         That it may do whatever He commands it
         On the face of the inhabited earth.

13“Whether for correction, or for His world,
         Or for lovingkindness, He causes it to happen.

14“Listen to this, O Job,
         Stand and consider the wonders of God.

15“Do you know how God establishes them,
         And makes the lightning of His cloud to shine?

16“Do you know about the layers of the thick clouds,
         The wonders of one perfect in knowledge,

17You whose garments are hot,
         When the land is still because of the south wind?

18“Can you, with Him, spread out the skies,
         Strong as a molten mirror?

19“Teach us what we shall say to Him;
         We cannot arrange our case because of darkness.

20“Shall it be told Him that I would speak?
         Or should a man say that he would be swallowed up?

21“Now men do not see the light which is bright in the skies;
         But the wind has passed and cleared them.

22“Out of the north comes golden splendor;
         Around God is awesome majesty.

23“The Almighty—we cannot find Him;
         He is exalted in power
         And He will not do violence to justice and abundant righteousness.

24“Therefore men fear Him;
         He does not regard any who are wise of heart.”

Parallel Verses

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"Also with moisture He loads the thick cloud; He disperses the cloud of His lightning.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Yes, he loads the thick clouds with moisture and scatters his lightning from the clouds.

King James Bible
Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud:

Douay-Rheims Bible
Corn desireth clouds, and the clouds spread their light :

Darby Bible Translation
Also with plentiful moisture he loadeth the thick clouds, his light dispels the cloud;

English Revised Version
Yea, he ladeth the thick cloud with moisture; he spreadeth abroad the cloud of his lightning:

Webster's Bible Translation
Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud:

World English Bible
Yes, he loads the thick cloud with moisture. He spreads abroad the cloud of his lightning.

Young's Literal Translation
Yea, by filling He doth press out a cloud, Scatter a cloud doth His light.

Cross References

Job 26:8 "He wraps up the waters in His clouds, And the cloud does not burst under them.

Job 28:26 When He set a limit for the rain And a course for the thunderbolt,

Job 36:27 "For He draws up the drops of water, They distill rain from the mist,

Job 36:29 "Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, The thundering of His pavilion?

Job 36:32 "He covers His hands with the lightning, And commands it to strike the mark.

Job 37:3 "Under the whole heaven He lets it loose, And His lightning to the ends of the earth.

Job 37:15 "Do you know how God establishes them, And makes the lightning of His cloud to shine?

Commentary

Matthew Henry's Whole Bible Commentary

Verses 6-13

The changes and extremities of the weather, wet or dry, hot or cold, are the subject of a great deal of our common talk and observation; but how seldom do we think and speak of these things, as Elihu does here, with an awful regard to God the director of them, who shows his power and serves the purposes of his providence by them! We must take notice of the glory of God, not only in the thunder and lightning, but in the more common revolutions of the weather, which are not so terrible and which make less noise. As,

I. In the snow and rain, v. 6. Thunder and lightning happen usually in the summer, but here he takes notice of the winter-weather. Then he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; he commissions it, he commands it, he appoints it, where it shall light and how long it shall lie. He speaks, and it is done: as in the creation of the world, Let there be light, so in the works of common providence, Snow, be thou on the earth. Saying and doing are not two things with God, though they are with us. When he speaks the word the small rain distils and the great rain pours down as he pleases-the winter-rain (so the Septuagint), for in those countries, when the winter was past, the rain was over and gone, Cant. 2:11. The distinction in the Hebrew between the small rain and the great rain is this, that the former is called a shower of rain, the latter of rains, many showers in one; but all are the showers of his strength: the power of God is to be observed as much in the small rain that soaks into the earth as in the great rain that batters on the house-top and washes away all before it. Note, The providence of God is to be acknowledged, both by husbandmen in the fields and travellers upon the road, in every shower of rain, whether it does them a kindness of a diskindness. It is sin and folly to contend with God's providence in the weather; if he send the snow or rain, can we hinder them? Or shall we be angry at them? It is as absurd to quarrel with any other disposal of Providence concerning ourselves or ours. The effect of the extremity of the winter-weather is that it obliges both men and beasts to retire, making it uncomfortable and unsafe for them to go abroad. 1. Men retire to their houses from their labours in the field, and keep within doors (v. 7): He seals up the hand of every man. In frost and snow, husbandmen cannot follow their business, nor some tradesmen, nor travellers, when the weather is extreme. The plough is laid by, the shipping laid up, nothing is to be done, nothing to be got, that men, being taken off from their own work, may know his work, and contemplate that, and give him the glory of that, and, by the consideration of that work of his in the weather which seals up their hands, be led to celebrate his other great and marvellous works. Note, When we are, upon any account, disabled from following our worldly business, and taken off from it, we should spend our time rather in the exercises of piety and devotion (in acquainting ourselves with the works of God and praising him in them) than in foolish idle sports and recreations. When our hands are sealed up our hearts should be thus opened, and the less we have at any time to do in the world the more we should thereby be driven to our Bibles and our knees. 2. The beasts also retire to their dens and remain in their close places, v. 8. It is meant of the wild beasts, which, being wild, must seek a shelter for themselves, to which by instinct they are directed, while the tame beasts, which are serviceable to man, are housed and protected by his care, as Ex. 9:20. The ass has no den but his master's crib, and thither he goes, not only to be safe and warm, but to be fed. Nature directs all creatures to shelter themselves from a storm; and shall man alone be unprovided with an ark?

II. In the winds, which blow from different quarters and produce different effects (v. 9): Out of the hidden place (so it may be read) comes the whirlwind; it turns round, and so it is hard to say from which point it comes but it comes from the secret chamber, as the word signifies, which I am not so willing to understand of the south, because he says here (v. 17) that the wind out of the south is so far from being a whirlwind that it is a warming, quieting, wind. But at this time, perhaps, Elihu saw a whirlwind-cloud coming out of the south and making towards them, out of which the Lord spoke soon after, ch. 38:1. Or, if turbulent winds which bring showers come out of the south, cold and drying blasts come out of the north to scatter the vapours and clear the air of them.

III. In the frost, v. 10. See the cause of it: It is given by the breath of God, that is, by the word of his power and the command of his will; or, as some understand it, by the wind, which is the breath of God, as the thunder is his voice; it is caused by the cold freezing wind out of the north. See the effect of it: The breadth of the waters is straitened, that is, the waters that had spread themselves, and flowed with liberty, are congealed, benumbed, arrested, bound up in crystal fetters. This is such an instance of the power of God as, if it were not common, would be next to a miracle.

IV. In the clouds, the womb where all these watery meteors are conceived, of which he had spoken, ch. 36:28. Three sorts of clouds he here speaks of:-1. Close, black, thick clouds, pregnant with showers; and these with watering he wearies (v. 11), that is, they spend themselves, and are exhausted by the rain into which they melt and are dissolved, pouring out water till they are weary and can pour out no more. See what pains, as I may say, the creatures, even those above us, take to serve man: the clouds water the earth till they are weary; they spend and are spent for our benefit, which shames and condemns us for the little good we do in our places, though it would be to our own advantage, for he that watereth shall be watered also himself. 2. Bright thin clouds, clouds without water; and these he scattereth; they are dispersed of themselves, and not dissolved into rain, but what becomes of them we know not. The bright cloud, in the evening, when the sky is red, is scattered, and proves an earnest of a fair day, Mt. 16:2. 3. Flying clouds, which do not dissolve, as the thick cloud, into a close rain, but are carried upon the wings of the wind from place to place, dropping showers as they go; and these are said to be turned round about by his counsels, v. 12. The common people say that the rain is determined by the planets, which is as bad divinity as it is philosophy, for it is guided and governed by the counsel of God, which extends even to those things that seem most casual and minute, that they may do whatsoever he commands them; for the stormy winds, and the clouds that are driven by them, fulfil his word; and by this means he causes it to rain upon one city and not upon another, Amos 4:7, 8. Thus his will is done upon the face of the world in the earth, that is, among the children of men, to whom God has an eye in all these things, of whom it is said that he made them to dwell on the face of the earth, Acts 17:26. The inferior creatures, being incapable of doing moral actions, are incapable of receiving rewards and punishments: but, among the children of men, God causes the rain to come, either for the correction of his land or for a mercy to it, v. 13. (1.) Rain sometimes turns into a judgment. It is a scourge to a sinful land; as once it was for the destruction of the whole world, so it is now often for the correction or discipline of some parts of it, by hindering seedness and harvest, raising the waters, and damaging the fruits. Some have said that our nation has received much more prejudice by the excess of rain than by the want of it. (2.) At other times it is a blessing. It is for his land, that this may be made fruitful; and, besides that which is just necessary, he gives for mercy, to fatten it and make it more fruitful. See what a necessary dependence we have upon God, when the very same thing, according to the proportion in which it is given, may be either a great judgment or a great mercy, and without God we cannot have either a shower or a fair gleam.

Links

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New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org.

GOD'S WORD® is a copyrighted work of God's Word to the Nations. Quotations are used by permission. Copyright 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. All rights reserved.

Alphabetical: Also cloud clouds disperses He his lightning loads moisture of scatters the them thick through with

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