Job 37:6

_FOR HE SAITH TO THE SNOW, BE THOU ON THE EARTH; LIKEWISE TO THE SMALL RAIN, AND TO THE GREAT RAIN OF HIS STRENGTH._ Be - more forcible than 'fall,' as Umbreit translates (Genesis 1:3). х_ HªWEE'_ (H1933), from _ HAWAAH_ (H1933), to fall. But this is the Arabic sense. The Septuagint, as the English version, takes the Hebrew as the same as _ HªYEEH _ (H1961), the imperative of _ HAAYAAH_ (H1961), to be.] TO THE SMALL RAIN ... - He saith, Be on the earth. The shower increasing from "small" to "great" is expressed by the plural showers (margin) following the singular shower. Winter rain ...

1-13 The changes of the weather are the subject of a great deal of our thoughts and common talk; but how seldom do we think and speak of these things, as Elihu, with a regard to God, the director of them! We must notice the glory of God, not only in the thunder and lightning, but in the more common and less awful changes of the weather; as the snow and rain. Nature directs all creatures to shelter themselves from a storm; and shall man only be unprovided with a refuge? Oh that men would listen to the voice of God, who in many ways warns them to flee from the wrath to come; and invites them to accept his salvation, and to be happy. The ill opinion which men entertain of the Divine direction, peculiarly appears in their murmurs about the weather, though the whole result of the year proves the folly of their complaints. Believers should avoid this; no days are bad as God makes them, though...

Verse Job 37:6. _FOR HE SAITH TO THE SNOW, BE THOU ON THE EARTH_] SNOW is generally defined, "A well-known meteor, formed by the freezing of the vapours in the atmosphere." We may consider the formation of snow thus: - A cloud of vapours being condensed into drops, these drops, becoming too heavy to be suspended in the atmosphere, descend; and, meeting with a _cold region_ of the air, they are frozen, each drop shooting into several points. These still continuing their descent, and meeting with some intermitting gales of a warmer air, are a little thawed, blunted, and again, by falling into colder air, frozen into clusters, or so entangled with each other as to fall down in what we call _flakes_. _Snow_ differs from _hail_ and _hoar-frost_ in being _crystallized:_ this appears on examining a flake of snow with a magnifying glass; when the whole of

FOR HE SAITH TO THE SNOW - That is, the snow is produced by the command of God, and is a proof of his wisdom and greatness. The idea is, that; the formation of snow was an illustration of the wisdom of God, and should teach people to regard him with reverence. It is not to be supposed that the laws by which snow is formed in the atmosphere were understood in the time of Elihu. The fact that it seemed to be the effect of the immediate creation of God, was the principal idea in the mind of Elihu in illustrating his wisdom. But it is not less fitted to excite our admiration of his wisdom now that the laws by which it is produced are better understood; and in fact the knowledge of those laws is adapted to elevate our conceptions of the wisdom and majesty of Him who formed them. The investigations and discoveries of science do not diminish the proofs of the Creator’s wisdom and greatness. but...

EXPOSITION JOB 37:1 It has been already remarked that there is no natural division between Job 36:1 and Job 37:1.—the description of the thunderstorm and its effects runs on. From its effect on cattle, Elihu passes to its effect on man (Job 37:1); and thence goes on to speak of other natural manifestations of God's power and marvellousness—snow, violent rain, whirlwind, frost, and the like (Job 37:6). He then makes a final appeal to Job to acknowledge his own weakness and God's perfection and unsearchableness, and to bow down in wonder and adora

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 34:30; as Aben Ezra observes; and therefore rightly supplied by us, on the earth. This is one of the great and incomprehensible things of God. What is the cause of it, how it is generated, what gives it its exceeding whiteness and its form, we rather guess at than certainly know; and there are some things relative to it not easy to be accounted for: as that it should be generated in the lower region of the air, so near us, and yet be so cold; and be so cold in its own nature, yet be like a blanket warming to the earth; and that being so cold, it should fall in hot countries, as in many p

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

Elihu trembles at this. Listen to the thunder. First the lightning flashes (Job 37:3) then the thunder follows (Job 37:4 f.). Job 37:2 suggests that a thunderstorm was actually taking place while Elihu was speaking, and many see in this a preparation for the manifestation of Yahweh in ch. 38. It is not clear, however, that the author intended this, as he passes on from the thunderstorm to snow and rain. These God sends on the earth (Job 37:6). They stop the work of man (Job 37:7) and drive the beasts to the covert of their dens ...

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

LIKEWISE TO THE SMALL RAIN— _And to the rain dropped plentifully, and to the storms of rain, Be ye violent._ The meaning of the next verse is, that, through the violent storm here mentioned, a stop is put to all the labours of man. By the same storm, Job 37:8 the wild beasts are driven into their dens....