Job 36:31

_FOR BY THEM JUDGETH HE THE PEOPLE; HE GIVETH MEAT IN ABUNDANCE._ These (rain and lightnings) are marvelous, and not to be understood (Job 36:29), yet necessary: "For by them He judgeth (chastiseth on the one hand), etc., (and on the other, by them) He giveth meat" (food), etc. (Job 37:13; Job 38:23; Job 38:27; Acts 14:17)....

24-33 Elihu endeavours to fill Job with high thought of God, and so to persuade him into cheerful submission to his providence. Man may see God's works, and is capable of discerning his hand in them, which the beasts are not, therefore they ought to give him the glory. But while the worker of iniquity ought to tremble, the true believer should rejoice. Children should hear with pleasure their Father's voice, even when he speaks in terror to his enemies. There is no light but there may be a cloud to intercept it. The light of the favour of God, the light of his countenance, the most blessed light of all, even that light has many a cloud. The clouds of our sins cause the Lord to his face, and hinder the light of his loving-kindness from shining on our souls....

Verse Job 36:31. _BY THEM JUDGETH HE THE PEOPLE_] He makes storms, tempests, winds, hurricanes, tornadoes, thunder and lightning, drought and inundation, the instruments of his justice, to punish rebellious nations. _HE GIVETH MEAT IN ABUNDANCE._] Though by these he punishes offenders, yet through the same, as instruments, he provides for the wants of men and animals in general. Storms, tempests, and hurricanes, agitate the lower regions of the atmosphere, disperse noxious vapours, and thus render it fit for _respiration_; and without these it would soon become a stagnant, putrid, and deadly mass, in which neither animals could live, nor vegetables thrive. And by _dews, rains, snows, frosts, winds, cold_, and _heat_, he fructifies the earth, and causes it to bring forth abundantly, so that every thing living is filled with plenteousness....

FOR BY THEM JUDGETH HE THE PEOPLE - By means of the clouds, the rain, the dew, the tempest, and the thunderbolt. The idea seems to be, that he makes use of all these to execute his purposes on mankind. He can either make them the means of imparting blessings, or of inflicting the severest, judgments. He can cause the tornado to sweep over the earth; he can arm the forked lightning against the works of art; he can withhold rain and dew, and spread over a land the miseries of famine. HE GIVETH MEAT IN ABUNDANCE - That is, by the clouds, the dew, the rain. The idea is, that he can send timely showers if he chooses, and the earth will be clothed with plenty. All these things are under his control, and he can, as he pleases, make them the means of comfort to man, or of punishing him for his sins; compare Psalms 65:11.

EXPOSITION JOB 36:1 The two chapters, Job 36:1; Job 37:1, form a single discourse, and ought not to have been separated; or, at any rate, not so unskilfully as they are, in the middle of a description of a thunderstorm. They constitute a final appeal to Job, who is exhorted to submission, resignation, and patience, in consideration of God's inscrutability, and of his perfect justice, wisdom, and strength. Job 36:1 begins with a short preface (Job 36:1), in which Elihu seeks to prove his right to offer counsel to Job, after which God's justice is

FOR BY THEM JUDGETH HE THE PEOPLE,.... That is, by the clouds; which the Lord uses both in a way of judgment, as expressed in this clause; and in a way of mercy, as in the following; by these, and what issue out of them, as rain, hail, winds, thunder, and lightning, he sometimes punishes the inhabitants of the earth, as he did the old world by a deluge of water, which came partly from the fountains of the great deep, and partly from the windows of heaven, which destroyed man and beast, and the increase of the earth, Genesis 7:11; he punished the Egyptians by a violent storm of hail, Exodus 9:23; and slew many of the Canaanites with hailstones, Joshua 10:11; Pharaoh and his host sunk like lead when he blew with his wind,...

CHAPTER S 36:22--37:24 _ 1. God's power and presence in nature (Job 36:22)_ 2. The thunderstorm (Job 37:1) 3. The snow and the rain (Job 37:6) 4. Elihu's concluding remarks (Job 37:17) Job 36:22. The chapter division in the Authorized Version is at fault. These concluding verses of the thirty-sixth chapter begin the final section of Elihu's testimony. Unspeakably great in every way, in diction and reverence, is this man's witness to the ways of God in creation's work. They show that he speaks not of himself, but the One who is perfect in

God draws up the water-drops and lets them fall in rain. Who can understand the distribution of the clouds, the thunders which fill the cloud where He dwells? (_cf._ Psalms 18:11). He is surrounded with light (Job 36:30). By the thunderstorm He judges the peoples and supplies humanity with food (by the fertilising rain). He fills His hands with the lightning and sends it home to its mark. JOB 36:30 B is unintelligible. Budde reads, and the roots of the sea He lays bare. Duhm corrects the whole verse, Behold He spreadeth His cloud about him, and He covereth the tops of the mountains. In Job 36:33 read His war-cry announceth Him, kindling His wra

PEOPLE. peoples....

Job 36:26-33. The greatness and unsearchableness of God, seen in His marvellous operations in the skies; and exhortation to Job to allow these wonders duly to impress him, and to bow beneath the greatness of God, who surpasses all comprehension The passage has two sections: First, ch. Job 36:26 to Job 37:13, the incomprehensible greatness of God, seen in the phenomena of the atmosphere: in the formation of the rain-drops (ch. Job 36:26-28); in the thunder-storm (ch. Job 36:29 to Job 37:5