INTRODUCTION TO JOB 37 Elihu in this chapter proceeds to show the greatness of God as it appears in other of his works of nature, which greatly affected him, and to an attention to which he exhorts others, Job 37:1; particularly thunder and lightning, the direction, extent, and order of which he ob... [ Continue Reading ]
AT THIS ALSO MY HEART TREMBLETH,.... At the greatness and majesty of God, not only as displayed in those works of his before observed, but as displayed in those he was about to speak of: such terrible majesty is there with God, that all rational creatures tremble at it; the nations of the world, the... [ Continue Reading ]
HEAR ATTENTIVELY THE NOISE OF HIS VOICE,.... Of the voice of God in the clouds; and of thunder, which is his voice, Job 40:9. Elihu being affected with it himself, exhorts the company about him to hearken and listen to it, and learn something from it; AND THE SOUND [THAT] GOETH OUT OF HIS MOUTH: as... [ Continue Reading ]
HE DIRECTETH IT UNDER THE WHOLE HEAVEN,.... His voice of thunder, which rolls from one end of the heaven to the other: he charges the clouds with it, and directs both it and them where they shall go and discharge; what tree, house, or man, it shall strike; and where the rain shall fall when the clou... [ Continue Reading ]
AFTER IT A VOICE ROARETH,.... After the lightning comes a violent crack or clap of thunder, which is like the roaring of a lion. Such is the order of thunder and lightning, according to our sense and apprehension of them; otherwise in nature they are together: but the reasons given why the lightning... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD THUNDERETH MARVELLOUSLY WITH HIS VOICE,.... Or "marvels" c, or marvellous things, which may respect the marvellous effects of thunder and lightning: such as rending rocks and mountains; throwing down high and strong towers; shattering to pieces high and mighty oaks and cedars, and other such lik... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HE SAITH TO THE SNOW, BE THOU [ON] THE EARTH,.... In the original it is, be thou earth: hence one of the Rabbins formed a notion, that the earth was created from snow under the throne of glory, which is justly censured by Maimonides f; for there is a defect of the letter ב, as in 2 Chronicles 34... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SEALETH UP THE HAND OF EVERY MAN,.... That is, by deep snows and heavy rains being on the earth; where, as travellers are stopped in their journeys, and cannot proceed, so various artificers are hindered from their work, and husbandmen especially from their employment in the fields; so that their... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN THE BEASTS GO INTO DENS,.... When snow and rains are on the earth in great abundance, then the wild beasts of the field, not being able to prowl about, betake themselves to dens; where they lie in wait, lurking for any prey that may pass by, from whence they spring and seize it; AND REMAIN IN... [ Continue Reading ]
OUT OF THE SOUTH COMETH THE WHIRLWIND,.... Or "from the chamber" n; from the chamber of the cloud, as Ben Gersom, from the inside of it; or from the treasury of God, who bringeth the wind out of his treasures; alluding to chambers where treasures are kept; or from the heavens, shut up and veiled aro... [ Continue Reading ]
BY THE BREATH OF GOD FROST IS GIVEN,.... By the word of God, as the Targum; at his command it is, at his word it comes, and at his word it goes, Psalms 147:15; or by his will, as Ben Gersom interprets it, when it is his pleasure it should be, it appears; it may be understood of a freezing wind from... [ Continue Reading ]
ALSO BY WATERING HE WEARIETH THE THICK CLOUD,.... By filling it with a multitude of water, it is as it were loaded and made weary with it; and especially by sending it about thus loaded from place to place before discharged, when it becomes as a weary traveller; and then by letting down the water in... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT IS TURNED ROUND ABOUT BY HIS COUNSELS,.... The cloud is, and that by the wind, which is turned about to all points of the compass, according to the will of God; by the counsels of him who sits at the helm, as the word signifies, and orders all things according to the counsel of his own will:... [ Continue Reading ]
HE CAUSETH IT TO COME,.... The cloud, and rain by it; WHETHER FOR CORRECTION; for the reproof and chastisement of men for their sins, by suffering such quantities to fall as wash away, or corrupt and destroy, the fruits of the earth: or "for a tribe" t, as the word sometimes signifies; the rain is... [ Continue Reading ]
HEARKEN UNTO THIS, O JOB,.... Either to the present clap of thunder then heard; or rather to what Elihu had last said concerning clouds of rain coming for correction or mercy; and improve it and apply it to his own case, and consider whether the afflictions he was under were for the reproof and corr... [ Continue Reading ]
DOST THOU KNOW WHEN GOD DISPOSED THEM?.... The clouds, that part of the wondrous works of God he was speaking of; when he decreed concerning them that they should be, when he put into them and stored them with rain, hail, snow, c. disposed of them here and there in the heavens, and gave them orders... [ Continue Reading ]
DOST THOU KNOW THE BALANCINGS OF THE CLOUDS?.... How those ponderous bodies, as some of them are very weighty, full of water, are poised, and hang in the air, without turning this way or the other, or falling on the earth; THE WONDROUS WORKS OF HIM WHICH IS PERFECT IN KNOWLEDGE; of God, who is a Go... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW THY GARMENTS [ARE] WARM, WHEN HE QUIETETH THE EARTH BY THE SOUTH [WIND]?] One should think there is no great difficulty in accounting for this, that a man's clothes should be warm, and he so hot as not to be able to bear them, but obliged to put them off in the summer season, when only the south... [ Continue Reading ]
HAST THOU WITH HIM SPREAD OUT THE SKY?.... Wast thou concerned with him at the first spreading out of the sky? wast thou an assistant to him in it? did he not spread it as a curtain or canopy about himself, without the help of another? verily he did; see Job 9:8 Isaiah 44:24; [WHICH] IS STRONG: fo... [ Continue Reading ]
TEACH US WHAT WE SHALL SAY UNTO HIM,.... To this wonder working God, of whose common works of nature we know so little; how we should reason with him about his works of Providence, when we know so little of these: [FOR] WE CANNOT ORDER [OUR SPEECH] BY REASON OF DARKNESS; by reason of darkness in th... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL IT BE TOLD HIM THAT I SPEAK?.... And what I speak? there is no need of it, since he is omniscient, and knows every word that is spoken by men; or is anything I have said concerning him, his ways, and his works, worthy relating, or worthy of his hearing, being so very imperfect? nor can the thi... [ Continue Reading ]
AND NOW MEN SEE NOT THE BRIGHT LIGHT WHICH [IS] IN THE CLOUDS,.... Here Elihu returns to his subject, it may be, occasioned by black clouds gathering in the heavens, as a preparation for the whirlwind, storm, and tempest, out of which the Lord is said to speak in the next chapter. And this is to be... [ Continue Reading ]
FAIR WEATHER COMETH OUT OF THE NORTH,.... Or "gold" x, which some understand literally; this being found in northern climates as well as southern, as Pliny relates y; particularly in Colchis and Scythia, which lay to the north of Palestine and Arabia; and is thought by a learned man z to be here int... [ Continue Reading ]
[TOUCHING] THE ALMIGHTY,.... Or with respect to God, who is almighty; with whom nothing is impossible; who can do and does do all things he pleases, and more than we can ask or think; and who is all sufficient, as this word is by some rendered; has enough of every thing in himself and of himself to... [ Continue Reading ]
MEN DO THEREFORE FEAR HIM,.... Or should, because of his greatness in power, judgment, and justice; and because of his goodness, in not afflicting for his pleasure's sake, but for the profit of men; and therefore they should reverence and adore him, submit to his will, patiently bear afflictions, se... [ Continue Reading ]