Job 36:33

Verse Job 36:33. The noise thereof showeth concerning it, the cattle also concerning the vapour.] I think this translation very unhappy. I shall give each hemistich in the original: -

יגיד עליו רעו

Yaggid alaiv reo

מקנה אף על עולה

Mikneh aph al oleh.

I think this may be translated without any violence to any word in the text: -

Its loud noise (or his thunder) shall proclaim

concerning him;

A magazine of wrath against iniquity.

This is literal, and gives, in my opinion, a proper meaning of the passage, and one in strict connection with the context. And it is worthy of remark that every wicked man trembles at the noise of thunder and the flash of lightning, and considers this a treasury of Divine wrath, emphatically called among us the artillery of the skies; and whenever the noise is heard, it is considered the voice of God. Thus the thunder declares concerning him. The next chapter, which is a continuation of the subject here, confirms and illustrates this meaning. For יגיד yaggid, Houbigant reads יניד yanid; and for מקנה mikneh, מקנאת mikkinath; and translates thus: "He agitates with himself his thunder, from the indignation of his wrath against iniquity."