Job 37: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Elihu finishes his speech by describing a thunderstorm and what God does with weather. He points to thunder, lightning, snow, rain, frost, wind, and clouds, all moving at God's command, and says God sends them for punishment, for his land, or out of kindness. He then presses Job with questions about how any of it works, and asks to be taught what to say to God, since no one can safely demand an audience. He closes by saying God's power and justice are beyond human reach, and he does not regard any who are wise of heart.

Claim by Claim

1. 37:1
   • At this the speaker's heart trembles.
   • The speaker's heart leaps out of its place.
2. 37:2
   • The speaker commands his hearers to listen closely to the rumbling of God's voice.
   • A rumbling sound goes out from God's mouth.
3. 37:3
   • God lets it loose under the whole heaven.
   • God sends his lightning to the edges of the earth.
4. 37:4
   • After it a voice roars.
   • God thunders with the voice of his majesty.
   • God does not hold them back when his voice is heard.
5. 37:5
   • God thunders wondrously with his voice.
   • God does great things.
   • We cannot comprehend the great things God does.
6. 37:6
   • God says to the snow, Fall on the earth.
   • God speaks likewise to the rain shower.
   • God speaks to the downpour of his mighty rains.
7. 37:7
   • God seals up the hand of every man.
   • The purpose is that all people may know God's work.
   • It is unclear whether the sense is that all people may know his work or that all the people he made may know.
8. 37:8
   • The wild animals go into their lairs.
   • The wild animals stay in their dens.
9. 37:9
   • The storm wind comes out of its chamber.
   • The cold comes from the scattering winds.
10. 37:10
    • By the breath of God ice is produced.
    • The broad waters are frozen solid.
11. 37:11
    • God loads the thick cloud with moisture.
    • God scatters his cloud of lightning.
12. 37:12
    • The clouds turn round about by God's steering.
    • They do whatever God commands them.
    • God's command reaches over the face of the inhabited world, the earth.
13. 37:13
    • God brings it about for punishment.
    • God brings it about for his land.
    • God brings it about for mercy.
14. 37:14
    • The speaker tells Job to listen to this.
    • The speaker addresses Job by name.
    • The speaker tells Job to stand still.
    • The speaker tells Job to consider the wonders of God.
15. 37:15
    • The speaker asks Job whether he knows when God laid his charge upon them.
    • The speaker asks Job whether he knows how God makes the light of his cloud shine.
16. 37:16
    • The speaker asks Job whether he knows how the clouds are poised.
    • The clouds are the wonders of God.
    • God is perfect in knowledge.
17. 37:17
    • Job's garments are hot.
    • Job's garments are hot when the land is stilled by the south wind.
18. 37:18
    • The speaker asks Job whether he spread out the skies along with God.
    • The skies are hard.
    • The skies are like a cast metal mirror.
19. 37:19
    • The speaker asks to be taught what they should say to God.
    • They cannot set their speech in order because of darkness.
20. 37:20
    • The speaker asks whether God should be told that he speaks.
    • If a man speaks, he will be swallowed up.
21. 37:21
    • People cannot look at the light when it is bright in the skies.
    • The wind passes by.
    • The wind clears the skies.
22. 37:22
    • Golden splendor comes out of the north.
    • Awesome majesty is upon God.
23. 37:23
    • We cannot find out the Almighty.
    • He is great in power.
    • He does not violate justice and abundant righteousness.
24. 37:24
    • Therefore people fear him.
    • He does not regard any who are wise of heart.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

37:1

The speaker is Elihu, the youngest of the men who have come to Job; he has been talking since chapter 32 and finishes at the end of this chapter, after which God speaks. In King James English "his" often means "its", here it is the heart that jumps out of its place.

37:2

What is being described is thunder. Writers across the ancient Near East regularly spoke of thunder as a god's voice, and from here to the end of the chapter Elihu is describing a storm building overhead.

37:3

"The ends of the earth" means the farthest places anyone had ever heard of.

37:4

"He will not stay them" uses "stay" in its 1611 sense of hold back or restrain, not remain. "The voice of his excellency" means his majestic voice; "excellency" meant loftiness or grandeur rather than being good at something.

37:6

Snow was rare in the settled lowlands of the region and fell mainly on the high ground, so it counted as a remarkable event rather than an ordinary part of winter.

37:7

"He sealeth up the hand of every man" is an idiom for shutting work down. Winter storms drove farmers and herders indoors and brought outdoor labor to a halt.

37:9

The word the King James translates "south" is literally "chamber", the winds were pictured as kept in a storeroom until released. In the land of the Bible the violent storms swept in from the south and southeast, while cold came down from the north.

37:10

The Hebrew word for "breath" is the same word used for wind and for spirit, so the line simultaneously says that the wind of God makes the ice.

37:11

The verb the King James renders "wearieth" is elsewhere used for burdening or loading something; the picture is of a cloud weighed down with the water it carries.

37:12

The King James says the clouds turn "by his counsels." Here "counsels" means God's own plans, not advice someone gave him.

37:13

The Hebrew here is extremely compressed (roughly "whether for a rod, or for his land, or for loyal love") and translators disagree about whether "his land" goes with the punishing or with the kindness. Both the King James and this rendering leave the three possibilities standing side by side rather than choosing.

37:14

Job was a good man who lost his children, his animals and his health. His friends came to sit with him and talk about why.

37:15

The King James word "disposed" means arranged or set in order. Elihu is asking whether Job knows how God organizes a storm.

37:16

"The balancings of the clouds" is the King James way of asking how heavy clouds stay up in the air without falling.

37:17

The south wind is the sirocco, a hot dry wind blowing off the desert. It pushes the temperature up sharply and leaves the air still and oppressive.

37:18

Mirrors in the ancient world were disks of cast bronze polished until they reflected; there was no such thing as a glass mirror, so "looking glass" means polished metal. The sky is being pictured as a solid dome hammered out overhead, hard and gleaming like one of those mirrors.

37:19

"Order our speech" is courtroom language: arranging your arguments in sequence to present a case, as a party to a lawsuit would. Job has repeatedly demanded such a hearing. "Darkness" carries both senses, not being able to see, and not knowing what to say.

37:20

"Swallowed up" means destroyed, wiped out. The Hebrew of the verse is difficult; it can be read as asking whether anyone would request his own destruction, or as a warning that a man who spoke would be destroyed.

37:21

The bright light is the sun, too dazzling to look at directly once a wind has swept the clouds away.

37:22

The Hebrew word is simply "gold." Some read it as literal golden brightness in the northern sky, others as the clear bright weather that follows a storm, which is how the King James takes it. In the poetry of that region the far north was also spoken of as the site of a divine mountain.

37:23

The King James "he will not afflict" translates a verb meaning to oppress or to deny someone justice, not to cause pain. The statement is about mistreatment, not about whether God sends suffering.

37:24

In 1611 "respect" meant to show favor or partiality, not to admire. The Hebrew phrase can be read either as "he shows no partiality to the wise" or as "he takes no notice of those who consider themselves wise"; translations divide over which.