Job 37 commentary

JOB 37 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
1 “At this my heart pounds
and leaps from its place.
BAR ES, "At this also - That is, in view of the thunderstorm, for it is that which
Elihu is describing. This description was commenced in Job_36:29, and is continued to
Job_37:5, and should not have been separated by the division into chapters. Elihu sees a
tempest rising. The clouds gather, the lightnings flash, the thunder rolls, and he is awed
as with the conscious presence of God. There is nowhere to be found a more graphic and
impressive description of a thunder-storm than this; compare Herder on Hebrew Poetry,
vol. i., 85ff, by Marsh, Burlington, 1833.
My heart trembleth - With fear. He refers to the palpitation or increased action of
the heart produced by alarm.
And is moved out of his place - That is, by violent palpitation. The heart seems to
leave its calm resting place, and to burst away because of fright. The increased action of
the heart under the effects of fear, as described here by Elihu, has been experienced by
all. The “cause” of this increased action is supposed to be this. The immediate effect of
fear is on the extremities of the nerves of the system, which are diffused ever the whole
body. The first effect is to prevent the circulation of the blood to the extremities, and to
drive it back to the heart, and thus to produce paleness. The blood thus driven back on
the heart produces an increased action there to propel it through the lungs and the
arteries, thus causing at the same time the increased effort of the heart, and the rapid
action of the lungs, and of course the quick breathing and the palpitation observed in
fear. See Scheutzer, Physica. Sacra, in loc. An expression similar to that which occurs
here, is used by Shakespeare, in Macbeth:
“Why do I yield to that suggestion,
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make ray seated heart knock at my ribs
Against the use of nature.”
CLARKE, "My heart trembleth - This is what the Septuagint has anticipated; see
under Job_36:28 (note). A proper consideration of God’s majesty in the thunder and
lightning is enough to appall the stoutest heart, confound the wisest mind, and fill all
with humility and devotion. This, to the middle of Job_37:5, should be added to the
preceding chapter, as it is a continuation of the account of the thunder and lightning
given at the conclusion of that chapter. Our present division is as absurd as it is
unfortunate.

GILL, "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 kings and great men of the earth, and even the
devils themselves, Isa_64:2. Good men tremble in the worship of God, and at the word
of God; and even at the judgments of God on wicked men, and at the things that are
coming on the churches of Christ. But Elihu has a particular respect to thunder and
lightning, which are very terrible to many persons (s), both good and bad (t). At the
giving of the law, there were such blazes of lightning and claps of thunder, that not only
all the people of Israel in the camp trembled, but Moses himself also exceedingly feared
and quaked, Exo_19:16. It is very probable, that at this time Elihu saw a storm
gathering, and a tempest rising; some flashes of lightning were seen, and some murmurs
(u) of thunders heard, which began to affect him; since quickly after we read that God
spoke out of the whirlwind or tempest, Job_38:1;
and is moved out of his place; was ready to leap out of his body. Such an effect had
this phenomenon of nature on him; as is sometimes the case with men at a sudden fright
or unusual sound, and particularly thunder (w).
HE RY 1-5, "Thunder and lightning, which usually go together, are sensible
indications of the glory and majesty, the power and terror, of Almighty God, one to the
ear and the other to the eye; in these God leaves not himself without witness of his
greatness, as, in the rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, he leaves not himself without
witness of his goodness (Act_14:17), even to the most stupid and unthinking. Though
there are natural causes and useful effects of them, which the philosophers undertake to
account for, yet they seem chiefly designed by the Creator to startle and awaken the
slumbering world of mankind to the consideration of a God above them. The eye and the
ear are the two learning senses; and therefore, though such a circumstance is possible,
they say it was never known in fact that any one was born both blind and deaf. By the
word of God divine instructions are conveyed to the mind through the ear, by his works
through the eye; but, because those ordinary sights and sounds do not duly affect men,
God is pleased sometimes to astonish men by the eye with his lightnings and by the ear
with his thunder. It is very probable that at this time, when Elihu was speaking, it
thundered and lightened, for he speaks of the phenomena as present; and, God being
about to speak (Job_38:1), these were, as afterwards on Mount Sinai, the proper
prefaces to command attention and awe. Observe here, 1. How Elihu was himself
affected, and desired to affect Job, with the appearance of God's glory in the thunder and
lightning (Job_37:1, Job_37:2): “For my part,” says Elihu, “my heart trembles at it;
though I have often heard it, often seen it, yet it is still terrible to me, and makes every
joint of me tremble, and my heart beat as if it would move out of its place.” Thunder and
lightning have been dreadful to the wicked: the emperor Caligula would run into a
corner, or under a bed, for fear of them. Those who are very much astonished, we say,
are thunder-struck. Even good people think thunder and lightning very awful; and that
which makes them the more terrible is the hurt often done by lightning, many having
been killed by it. Sodom and Gomorrah were laid in ruins by it. It is a sensible indication
of what God could do to this sinful world, and what he will do, at last, by the fire to
which it is reserved. Our hearts, like Elihu's should tremble at it for fear of God's

judgments, Psa_119:120. He also calls upon Job to attend to it (Job_37:2): Hear
attentively the noise of his voice. Perhaps as yet it thundered at a distance, and could not
be heard without listening: or rather, Though the thunder will be heard, and whatever
we are doing we cannot help attending to it, yet, to apprehend and understand the
instructions God thereby gives us, we have need to hear with great attention and
application of mind. Thunder is called the voice of the Lord (Psa_29:3, etc.), because by
it God speaks to the children of men to fear before him, and it should put us in mind of
that mighty word by which the world was at first made, which is called thunder. Psa_
104:7, At the voice of thy thunder they hasted away, namely, the waters, when God said,
Let them be gathered into one place. Those that are themselves affected with God's
greatness should labour to affect others. 2. How he describes them. (1.) Their original,
not their second causes, but the first. God directs the thunder, and the lightning is his,
Job_37:3. Their production and motion are not from chance, but from the counsel of
God and under the direction and dominion of his providence, though to us they seem
accidental and ungovernable. (2.) Their extent. The claps of thunder roll under the
whole heaven, and are heard far and near; so are the lightnings darted to the ends of the
earth; they come out of the one part under heaven and shine to the other, Luk_17:24.
Though the same lightning and thunder do not reach to all places, yet they reach to very
distant places in a moment, and there is no place but, some time or other, has these
alarms from heaven. (3.) Their order. The lightning is first directed, and after it a voice
roars, Job_37:4. The flash of fire, and the noise it makes in a watery cloud, are really at
the same time; but, because the motion of light is much quicker than that of sound, we
see the lightning some time before we hear the thunder, as we see the firing of a great
gun at a distance before we hear the report of it. The thunder is here called the voice of
God's excellency, because by it he proclaims his transcendent power and greatness. He
sends forth his voice and that a mighty voice, Psa_68:33. (4.) Their violence. He will
not stay them, that is, he does not need to check them, or hold them back, lest they
should grow unruly and out of his power to restrain them, but lets them take their
course, says to them, Go, and they go - Come, and they come - Do this, and they do it.
He will not stay the rains and showers that usually follow upon the thunder (which he
had spoken of, Job_36:27, Job_36:29), so some, but will pour them out upon the earth
when his voice is heard. Thunder-showers are sweeping rains, and for them he makes
the lightnings, Psa_135:7. (5.) The inference he draws from all this, Job_37:5. Does God
thunder thus marvellously with his voice? We must then conclude that his other works
are great, and such as we cannot comprehend. From this one instance we may argue to
all, that, in the dispensations of his providence, there is that which is too great, too
strong, for us to oppose or strive against, and too high, too deep, for us to arraign or
quarrel with.
JAMISO ,"At this — when I hear the thundering of the Divine Majesty. Perhaps the
storm already had begun, out of which God was to address Job (Job_38:1).
K&D 1-5, "Louis Bridel is perhaps right when he inserts after Job 36 the observation:
L'éclair brille, la tonnerre gronde. ‫ּאת‬‫ז‬ ְ‫ל‬ does not refer to the phenomenon of the storm
which is represented in the mind, but to that which is now to be perceived by the senses.
The combination ַ‫ּוע‬‫מ‬ ָ‫שׁ‬ ‫עוּ‬ ְ‫מ‬ ִ‫שׁ‬ can signify both hear constantly, Isa_6:9, and hear

attentively, Job_13:17; here it is the latter. ‫ז‬ֶ‫ּג‬‫ר‬ of thunder corresponds to the verbs Arab.
rᐓz and rjs, which can be similarly used. The repetition of ‫ּול‬‫ק‬ fo noititeper eh five times
calls to mind the seven ‫קולות‬ (ᅛπτᆭ βρονταί) in Psa_29:1-11. The parallel is ‫ה‬ֶ‫ג‬ ֶ‫,ה‬ Job_37:2,
a murmuring, as elsewhere of the roar of the lion and the cooing of the dove. The suff. of
‫הוּ‬ ֵ‫ר‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ִ‫י‬ refers to the thunder which rolls through the immeasurable breadth under heaven;
it is not perf. Piel of ‫ר‬ ַ‫שׁ‬ָ‫י‬ (Schlottm.), for “to give definite direction” (2Ch_32:30) is not
appropriate to thunder, but fut. Kal of ‫ה‬ ָ‫ר‬ ָ‫,שׁ‬ to free, to unbind (Ew., Hirz. and most
others). What Job_37:3 says of thunder, Job_37:3 says of light, i.e., the lightning: God
sends it forth to the edges, πτέρυγες, i.e., ends, of the earth. ‫יו‬ ָ‫ר‬ ֲ‫ח‬ፍ, Job_37:4, naturally
refers to the lightning, which is followed by the roar of the thunder; and ‫ם‬ ֵ‫ב‬ ְ ַ‫ע‬ְ‫י‬ to the
flashes, which, when once its rumble is heard, God does not restrain (‫ב‬ ֵ ִ‫ע‬ = ‫ב‬ ֵⅴ ִ‫ע‬ of the
Targ., and Arab. ‛aqqaba, to leave behind, postpone), but causes to flash forth in quick
succession. Ewald's translation: should He not find (prop. non investigaverit) them (the
men that are to be punished), gives a thought that has no support in this connection. In
Job_37:5 ‫ּות‬‫א‬ ָ‫ל‬ ְ‫פ‬ִ‫,נ‬ mirabilia, is equivalent to mirabiliter, as Dan_8:24, comp. Psa_65:6;
Psa_139:14. ‫ע‬ ַ‫ד‬ֵ‫נ‬ ‫ּא‬‫ל‬ְ‫ו‬ is intended to say that God's mighty acts, with respect to the
connection between cause and effect and the employment of means, transcend our
comprehension.
BE SO , "Job 37:1. At this also my heart trembleth — These are a few of the
works of God; and though there be innumerable more, yet this one single effect of
his power strikes terror into me, and makes my heart tremble, as if it would leap out
of my body and leave me dead. Elihu continues here his speech, which he had begun
before, concerning the incomprehensible works of God; and limits himself chiefly,
as he had in the foregoing chapter, to the wonders God doeth in the clouds. To
which, at last, he subjoins the amazing extent and brightness of the sky; in which
the sun shines with a lustre which we are not able to behold. And thence concludes,
that the splendour of the Divine Majesty is infinitely more dazzling, and that we
must not pretend to give an account of his counsels.
COFFMA , "THE CO CLUSIO OF ELIHU'S LO G-WI DED REMARKS
This writer cannot accommodate to the opinions of some very respected
commentators who understand Elihu's speeches as not merely commendable, but
actually appropriate as an introduction to what God Himself would say in the
following chapters.
For example, Meredith G. Kline wrote that: "Though the Speaker from the
whirlwind does not mention Elihu by name, He does not ignore him. For by
continuing Elihu's essential argument and endorsing his judgments concerning both

Job and his friends, the Lord owns him as his forerunner."[1]
We believe that God did indeed ignore Elihu, not only refusing to mention his name,
although mentioning the names of all others named in the book, God also
interrupted and terminated Elihu's remarks with a question addressed to Job,
"Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge"? (Job 38:2).
Such an evaluation as that cannot be applied to Job's words, because God Himself
said that, "My servant Job has spoken of me the thing that is right" (Job 42:7,8).
Moreover, God specifically stated that the three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and
Zophar had spoken "folly" (Job 42:8); and Elihu's words, in almost every
particular, are the same as those of the three, only more vituperative and derogatory
toward Job. There is no way that we could accept Elihu's long and ridiculous
speeches as any kind of a proper introduction to what the Lord would say out of the
whirlwind. God answered Job and his friends by name, and ignored Elihu
altogether, except in the derogatory words in the Lord's opening question to Job.
Also, Kelly in Layman's Bible Commentary, wrote that, "Elihu, in this chapter, says
that God is infinitely great and righteous, and does not himself violate the principle
of righteousness in dealing with men. His righteousness, therefore, is
unimpeachable; it is not to be called in question but is to become the basis of godly
fear in men. A sounder prelude to the speeches of the Lord ... could hardly be
imagined."[2] It is true that some of the things Elihu said were true; but it is what
he meant by them which is offensive to this writer, For example, when Elihu said
that God is not unrighteous in his dealings with men, he means that Job is a dirty
sinner and that he should confess it, the same being proved by Job's sufferings.
There can be no wonder that God refused even to mention Elihu, because Elihu's
one motive was that of compelling Job to renounce his integrity.
There are also some very positive and definite traces of pagan mythology in the
things Elihu said in this chapter, as pointed out by Pope. See on Job 37:22 in this
chapter.
Instead of this chapter being some kind of profound introduction to God who
appears in Job 38, "Elihu is like one who is introducing a great man with much
elaborate praise; and the great man (God) suddenly interrupts him and accuses the
speaker of a lack of knowledge of his subject; and the irony is even greater, because,
in Elihu's case, he did not even know that he was introducing God."[3]
"In this chapter, Elihu is arguing that nature itself teaches that God rewards and
punishes men according to their deeds."[4] But of course, that is not true at all. He
also argues in Job 37:13b that, "The lightning can be regarded as an instrument of
God's love."[5] Pope also noted that, "It is hard to see how this could be regarded as
true," adding that, "Maybe it could be argued that the love and mercy is toward the
people that the lightning misses"! Of course, this must be added to a fantastic list of
things that Elihu said that had no relation whatever to the truth. ature reveals
nothing whatever of God's love, mercy, truth or justice. Knowledge of such things is
found only in Divine Revelation.

As we have stressed all along, " ature is red in tooth, and fang and claw," and
there's absolutely nothing in nature that supports Elihu's vain arguments. And look
at the irony in these two chapters (Job 36-37). In the very middle of Elihu's speech
about nature's endorsement of his evil notion that Job was a wicked sinner, "Even
while Elihu is arguing ... God suddenly appears in nature and demands to know
who is darkening counsel without knowledge."[6]
"Hear, oh, hear the noise of his voice" (Job 37:2). Elihu's notion that God is
speaking to men by lightning and thunder could be true only in the most indirect
sense. Paul reminds us that "God's everlasting power and divinity are clearly seen
since the creation of the world, being perceived through the things that are made
(the wonders of the natural creation)" (Romans 1:20); but, of course, the natural
creation has no personal word whatever for mankind regarding such things as
God's love, mercy and redemption from sin.
Yes, the breath-taking excitement of a violent thunderstorm reminds men of the
almighty power and glory of God, in exactly the same manner as a sunrise, an
earthquake, or the sudden eruption of a volcano; but the only true communication
between God and man comes via the sacred scriptures. "It is Elihu's error here that
he regards natural phenomena as supernatural."[7]
It seems likely that Elihu delivered the remarks of this chapter at the very time that
he and the others were watching the approach of a storm. And from thoughts of the
storm, he then proceeded to mention snow, rain, and other natural phenomena. "
Job 37:1-5 elaborate the picture of the storm; and Job 37:6-13 deal with new
evidences, the ice, snow and cold of winter, etc."[8]
PULPIT, "Job 37:1-24
It has been already remarked that there is no natural division between Job 36:1-33
and Job 37:1-24.—the description of the thunderstorm and its effects runs on. From
its effect on cattle, Elihu passes to its effect on man (Job 37:1-5); 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 37:6-13). 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 adoration before him (verses 14-
24).
Job 37:1
At this also; i.e. at the thunderstorm or at the particular crash mentioned in Job
36:33. My heart trembleth. A violent peal of thunder produces in almost all men a
certain amount of nervous trepidation. Elihu seems to have been abnormally
sensitive. His heart trembled so that it seemed to be moved out of his place.

EBC, "There need be little hesitation in regarding this passage as an ode supplied to the
second writer or simply quoted by him for the purpose of giving strength to his
argument. Scarcely a single note in the portion of Elihu’s address already considered
approaches the poetical art of this. The glory of God in His creation and His
unsearchable wisdom are illustrated from the phenomena of the heavens without
reference to the previous sections of the address. One who was more a poet than a
reasoner might indeed halt and stumble as the speaker has done up to this point and
find liberty when he reached a theme congenial to his mind. But there are points at
which we seem to hear the voice of Elihu interrupting the flow of the ode as no poet
would check his muse. At Job_37:14 the sentence is interjected, like an aside of the
writer drawing attention to the words he is quoting, -"Hearken unto this, O Job; stand
still and consider the wondrous works of God." Again (Job_37:19-20), between the
description of the burnished mirror of the sky and that of the clearness after the
sweeping wind, without any reference to the train of thought, the ejaculation is
introduced, -"Teach us what we shall say unto Him, for we cannot order our speech by
reason of darkness. Shall it be told Him that I speak? If a man speak surely he shall be
swallowed up." The final verses also seem to be in the manner of Elihu.
But the ode as a whole, though it has the fault of endeavouring to forestall what is put
into the mouth of the Almighty speaking from the storm, is one of the fine passages of
the book. We pass from "cold, heavy, and pretentious" dogmatic discussions to free and
striking pictures of nature, with the feeling that one is guiding us who can present in
eloquent language the fruits of his study of the works of God. The descriptions have been
noted for their felicity and power by such observers as Baron Humboldt and Mr. Ruskin.
While the point of view is that invariably taken by Hebrew writers, the originality of the
ode lies in fresh observation and record of atmospheric phenomena, especially of the
rain and snow, rolling clouds, thunderstorms and winds. The pictures do not seem to
belong to the Arabian desert but to a fertile peopled region like Aram or the Chaldaean
plain. Upon the fields and dwellings of men, not on wide expanses of barren sand, the
rains and snows fall, and they seal up the hand of man. The lightning clouds cover the
face of the "habitable world"; by them God judgeth the peoples.
In the opening verses the theme of the ode is set forth-the greatness of God, the vast
duration of His being, transcending human knowledge.
"Behold God is great and we know Him not,
The number of His years is unsearchable."
To estimate His majesty or fathom the depths of His eternal will is far beyond us who are
creatures of a day. Yet we may have some vision of His power. Look up when rain is
falling, mark how the clouds that float above distil the drops of water and pour down
great floods upon the earth. Mark also how the dark cloud spreading from the horizon
obscures the blue expanse of the sky. We cannot understand; but we can realise to some
extent the majesty of Him whose is the light and the darkness, who is heard in the
thunder peal and seen in the forked lightning.
"Can any understand the spreadings of the clouds,
The crashings of His pavilion?
Behold He spreadeth His light about Him;

And covereth it with the depths of the sea.
For by these judgeth He the peoples;
He giveth meat in abundance."
Translating from the Vulgate the two following verses, Mr. Ruskin gives the meaning,
"He hath hidden the light in His hands and commanded it that it should return. He
speaks of it to His friend; that it is His possession, and that he may ascend thereto." The
rendering cannot be received, yet the comment may be cited. "These rain clouds are the
robes of love of the Angel of the Sea. To these that name is chiefly given, the ‘spreadings
of the clouds,’ from their extent, their gentleness, their fulness of rain." And this is "the
meaning of those strange golden lights and purple flushes before the morning rain. The
rain is sent to judge and feed us; but the light is the possession of the friends of God, that
they may ascend thereto.-where the tabernacle veil will cross and part its rays no more."
The real import does not reach this spiritual height. It is simply that the tremendous
thunder brings to transgressors the terror of judgment, and the copious showers that
follow water the parched earth for the sake of man. Of the justice and grace of God we
are made aware when His angel spreads his wings over the world. In the darkened sky
there is a crash as if the vast canopy of the firmament were torn asunder. And now a
keen flash lights the gloom for a moment; anon it is swallowed up as if the inverted sea,
poured in cataracts upon the flame, extinguished it. Men recognise the Divine
indignation, and even the lower animals seem to be aware.
"He covereth His hands with the lightning,
He giveth it a charge against the adversary.
Its thunder telleth concerning Him,
Even the cattle concerning that which cometh up."
Continued in the thirty-seventh chapter, the description appears to be from what is
actually going on, a tremendous thunderstorm that shakes the earth.
The sound comes, as it were, out of the mouth of God, reverberating from sky to earth
and from earth to sky, and rolling away under the whole heaven. Again there are
lightnings, and "He stayeth them not when His voice is heard." Swift ministers of
judgment and death they are darted upon the world.
We are asked to consider a fresh wonder, that of the snow which at certain times
replaces the gentle or copious rain. The cold fierce showers of winter arrest the labour of
man, and even the wild beasts seek their dens and abide in their lurking places. "The
Angel of the Sea," says Mr. Ruskin, "has also another message, -in the ‘great rain of His
strength,’ rain of trial, sweeping away ill-set foundations. Then his robe is not spread
softly over the whole heaven as a veil, but sweeps back from his shoulders, ponderous,
oblique, terrible-leaving his sword arm free." God is still directly at work. "Out of His
chamber cometh the storm and cold out of the north." His breath gives the frost and
straitens the breadth of waters. Towards Armenia, perhaps, the poet has seen the rivers
and lakes frozen from bank to bank. Our science explains the result of diminished
temperature; we know under what conditions hoar frost is deposited and how hail is
formed. Yet all we can say is that thus and thus the forces act. Beyond that we remain
like this writer, awed in presence of a heavenly will which determines the course and
appoints the marvels of nature.
"By the breath of God ice is given,

And the breadth of the waters is straitened.
Also He ladeth the thick cloud with moisture,
He spreadeth His lightning cloud abroad;
And it is turned about by His guidance,
That it may do whatsoever He commandeth
Upon the face of the whole earth."
Here, again, moral purpose is found. The poet attributes to others his own susceptibility.
Men see and learn and tremble. It is for correction, that the careless may be brought to
think of God’s greatness, and the evildoers of His power, that sinners being made afraid
may turn from their rebellion. Or, it is for His earth, that rain may beautify it and fill the
rivers and springs at which the beasts of the valley drink. Or, yet again, the purpose is
mercy. Even the tremendous thunderstorm may be fraught with mercy to men. From the
burning heat, oppressive, intolerable, the rains that follow bring deliverance. Men are
fainting for thirst, the fields are languishing. In compassion God sends His great cloud
on its mission of life.
More delicate, needing finer observation, are the next objects of study.
"Dost thou know how God layeth His charge on them,
And causeth the light of His cloud to shine?
Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds,
The wondrous works of Him who is perfect in known edge?"
It is not clear whether the light of the cloud means the lightning again or the varied hues
which make an Oriental sunset glorious in purple and gold. But the balancings of the
clouds must be that singular power which the atmosphere has of sustaining vast
quantities of watery vapour-either miles above the earth’s surface where the filmy
cirrhus floats, dazzling white against the blue sky, or lower down where the rain cloud
trails along the hill tops. Marvellous it is that, suspended thus in the air, immense
volumes of water should be carried from the surface of the ocean to be discharged in
fructifying rain.
Then again:-
"How are thy garments warm
When the earth is still because of the south wind?"
The sensation of dry hot clothing is said to be very notable in the season of the siroccos
or south winds, also the extraordinary stillness of nature under the same oppressive
influence. "There is no living thing abroad to make a noise. The air is too weak and
languid to stir the pendant leaves even of the tall poplars."
Finally the vast expanse of the sky, like a looking glass of burnished metal stretched far
over sea and land, symbolises the immensity of Divine power.
"Canst thou with Him spread out the sky
Which is strong as a molten mirror?
And now men see not the light which is bright in the skies:

Yet the wind passeth and cleanseth them."
It is always bright beyond. Clouds only hide the splendid sunshine for a time. A wind
rises and sweeps away the vapours from the glorious dome of heaven. "Out of the north
cometh golden splendour"-for it is the north wind that drives on the clouds which, as
they fly southward, are gilded by the rays of the sun. But with God is a splendour greater
far, that of terrible majesty.
So the ode finishes abruptly, and Elihu states his own conclusion:-
"The Almighty! we cannot find Him out;
He is excellent in power.
And in judgment and plenteous justice; He will not afflict.
Men do therefore fear Him;
He regardeth not any that are wise of heart."
Is Job wise in his own conceit? Does he think he can challenge the Divine government
and show how the affairs of the world might have been better ordered? Does he think
that he is himself treated unjustly because loss and disease have been appointed to him?
Right thoughts of God will check all such ignorant notions and bring him a penitent back
to the throne of the Eternal. It is a good and wise deduction; but Elihu has not vindicated
God by showing in harmony with the noblest and finest ideas of righteousness men have,
God supremely righteous, and beyond the best and noblest mercy men love, God
transcendently merciful and gracious. In effect his argument has been-The Almighty
must be all righteous, and any one is impious who criticises life. The whole question
between Job and the friends remains unsettled still.
Elihu’s failure is significant. It is the failure of an attempt made, as we have seen,
centuries after the Book of Job was written, to bring it into the line of current religious
opinion. Our examination of the whole reveals the narrow foundation on which Hebrew
orthodoxy was reared and explains the developments of a later time. Job may be said to
have left no disciples in Israel. His brave personal hope and passionate desire for union
with God seem to have been lost in the fervid national bigotry of post-exilic ages; and
while they faded, the Pharisee and Sadducee of after days began to exist. They are both
here in germ. Springing from one seed, they are alike in their ignorance of Divine justice;
and we do not wonder that Christ, coming to fulfil and more than fulfil the hope of
humanity, appeared to both the Pharisee and Sadducee of His time as an enemy of
religion, of the country, and of God.
GUZIK 1-5, "a. Hear attentively the thunder of His voice: Elihu felt that Job needed a
good dose of the greatness of God. It was good advice wrongly applied to Job’s situation.
Elihu did rightly understand that the mighty sound of thunder seems to man to be the
voice of God.
i. “Nor is there a sound in nature more descriptive of, or more becoming, the majesty of
God, than that of THUNDER. We hear the breeze in its rustling, the rain in its pattering,
the hail in its rattling, the wind in its hollow howlings, the cataract in its dash, the bull in
his bellowing, the lion in his roar; but we hear GOD, the Almighty, the Omnipresent, in

the continuous peal of THUNDER! This sound, and this sound only, becomes the
majesty of Jehovah.” (Clarke)
ii. “The Bible contains some magnificent descriptions of the thunderstorm. Psalms 29:1-
11 is the best of these, but Elihu’s poem comes a close second.” (Andersen)
b. He does great things which we cannot comprehend: This is a repetition of Elihu’s
theme that Job had transgressed the line that separates God and man, and that Job
presumed to know more than he could or should know from God. In this, Elihu was
partially correct.
BI, "Hear attentively the noise of His voice.
What is Elihu’s message
What he really contributes to the main argument of the book is, that suffering may be
medicinal, corrective, fructifying, as well as punitive. The friends had proceeded on the
assumption, an assumption abundantly refuted by Job, that his calamities sprang, and
only could spring from his transgressions. In their theology there was no room for any
other conclusion. But, obviously, there is another interpretation of the function of
adversity which needs to be discussed, if the discussion is to be complete; and this wider
interpretation Elihu seeks to formulate. According to him, God may be moved to
chastise men by love, as well as by anger; with a view to quicken their conscience, to
instruct their thoughts, and give them a larger scope; in order to purge them, that they
may bring forth more and better fruit; to rouse them from the lethargy into which, even
when they are spiritually alive, they are apt to sink, and to save them from the
corruption too often bred even by good customs, if these customs do not grow and
change. His main contention has indeed, since his time, become the merest
commonplace. But this pious commonplace was sufficiently new to Job and his friends
to be startling. To them Elihu, when he contends that God often delivers the afflicted by
and through their afflictions, must have seemed to be either uttering a dangerous heresy,
or speaking as one who had received new light and inspiration from on high. (Samuel
Cox, D. D.)
The phenomena of nature
Elihu regarded nature—
I. As the result of the Divine agency. He speaks of the thunder as the voice of God. “The
sound that goeth out of His voice,” “the voice of His Excellency.” He speaks of the
lightning as being directed under the whole heaven by Him, even unto the “ends of the
earth.” Modern science spreads out theoretic schemes between nature and God. It
speaks of laws and forces. This was not the science of Elihu; he regarded man as being
brought face to face with God in nature.
II. As the revealer of the Divine character. He recognised—
(1) His majesty. “In the thunder.”

(2) His ubiquity. He saw Him everywhere, in the little as well as in the great.
(3) His inscrutableness,—he could not follow Him in all His movements.
III. As the instrument of the Divine purpose. “And it is turned round about by His
counsels; that they may do whatsoever He commandeth them upon the face of the world
in the earth. He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for His land, or for
mercy.” (Homilist.)
For He saith to the anew.
The lessons of the snowflakes
I. We learn that what God gives is pure. The beautiful snow, in its purity, is a type of His
gifts. To be pure is certainly a state to earnestly desire, and strenuously endeavour to
attain. It requires the crucible of affliction and discipline to reach it, and God often, yea,
indeed, constantly uses it.
II. That what God gives is beautiful. Nothing is so beautiful as a field of fresh-fallen
snow. The snow grows more beautiful when you examine it closely. But think of the
source from whence they come, and each little form will be to you a profitable teacher.
God gave the snow, and it is thus beautiful; so beautiful are all His gifts. Beauty is a
quality in objects not to be ignored. When God makes beauty, how infinitely superior it
is in beauty to the beauty constructed by the hand of man.
III. That what God gives is good. Were it not for the kindly snow, in some countries, not
one grain of wheat would live through the rigorous cold of the winter. But the very wheat
is warmed into life by the protection of the snow.
IV. The snow teaches us to be impartial. In this it accords with the Word of God. It
bestows its benefits upon a community, it neglects none.
V. We learn a lesson of caution. How easily soiled is the snow, because of its very
whiteness and cleanness. Its susceptibility to soil and dirt is a constant pleading that one
be careful not to soil it. The fairer, whiter, cleaner a thing is, the more easily is it soiled.
VI. One more lesson—the evanescence of all earthly things. The fields, now hidden from
view by their snowy covering, will soon be seen again; and when the snow is gone, how
brief will seem to have been the season of its sojourn! Out of this lesson comes another—
the duty of readiness to meet the Bridegroom. (Wallace Thorp.)
The snowstorm
I. The snow in its interesting phenomenon. The snow falls in beautiful showers almost
every year, and covers the face of nature. Multitudes admire its beauties, but few
understand its singular formation, important uses, and varied design. These things
ought not so to be. We should make ourselves acquainted with the works of God,
especially such common gifts as the rain, and wind, and snow. This would lead our
thoughts from nature to nature’s God; and then His wisdom, and power, and goodness
as seen therein would excite our admiration. The snow, this wonderful creature of God,
has been thus described—“Snow is a moist vapour drawn up from the earth to, or near
the middle region of the air, where it is condensed, or thickened into a cloud, and falls
down again like carded wool, sometimes in greater and sometimes in lesser flakes. The

snow and the rain are made of the same matter, and are produced in the same place,
only they differ in their outward form, as is obvious to the eye, and in their season. Rain
falls in the warmer seasons, the clouds being dissolved into rain by heat; snow falls in
the sharper seasons, the clouds being thickened by the cold. The place where the snow is
generated is in the air, from thence it receives a command to dispatch itself to the earth,
and there to abide.” Three things respecting the snow may just be noticed.
1. Its whiteness. The whiteness of snow, observe naturalists, is caused by the
abundance of air and spirits that are in transparent bodies. “The whiteness of snow,”
says Sturm, “may be accounted for thus—it is extremely light, and thin, consequently
full of pores, and these contain air. It is further composed of parts more or less thick
and compact, and such a substance does not admit the sun’s rays to pass, neither
does it absorb them: on the contrary, it reflects them very powerfully, and thus gives
it that white appearance which we see in it” (Isa_1:18).
2. Form. “The little flakes,” observes the pious author just named, “generally
resemble hexagonal stars; sometimes, however, they have eight angles, and at others
ten, and some of them are of quite an irregular shape. The best way of observing
them is to receive the snow upon white paper, but hitherto little has been said of the
cause of these different figures.”
3. Abundance. “Hast thou,” said God to Job, “entered into the treasures of snow?”
II. The snow in its efficient source. The philosopher may explain its secondary, or
instrumental causes, but the Christian recognises and acknowledges its first and original
cause. Elihu, in the text, and in other parts of this chapter, traces, or notices, the thunder
and the lightning, the snow and the rain, the whirlwind and the cold, the frost and the
clouds, to their Divine source. “For He saith” (i.e., He commands)
“to the snow, Be thou on the earth.” The source from whence the snow proceeds,
illustrates—
1. God’s power. When the Almighty Maker wills a thing, He has only to speak, and it
is done.
2. God’s sovereignty. The sovereignty of God means His power and right of
dominion over His creatures, to dispose and determine them as seemeth Him good.
The snow affords an instance of the exercise of this attribute—on God’s will depends
the time, the quantity, and the place.
3. God’s justice. The text itself refers to this very attribute. “For He causeth it to
come, whether for correction, or for His land, or for mercy.” And Elihu, in the end of
the chapter, where he closes his conversation with Job, on the attributes of God, as
seen in His works, gives prominence to His justice. “Touching the Almighty, we
cannot find Him out: He is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of
justice: men do therefore fear Him.” And the Almighty Himself, in the next chapter,
tells Job that He sometimes sends His snow and hail in justice, that sinners may be
punished for their sins (Job_38:22-23).
4. God’s goodness.
5. God’s providence.
III. The snow in its varied purposes. “He causeth it,” i.e., “the cloud, with whatever is its
burden, to unladen and disburden itself”—“for correction, or for His land, or for mercy.”
We must here observe—
1. The Lord sometimes sends the snow in the way of correction. The Hebrew is, for a

rod—so we put it in the margin. Thunder and rain is the rod (1Sa_12:17-19). And
who can tell but God may send His snow, and wind, and cold, to punish us for our
unmindfulness of His mercies, and opposition to His laws?
2. The snow may be sent for the benefit of God’s land. “For His land” (verse 13). “The
world is His, and the fulness thereof.” The clouds, therefore, drop down their
moisture for the benefit of God’s land, that the beasts may have pasture; plants,
nourishment; and that there may be provision for all God’s offspring (Psa_104:10-
14; Psa_104:27-28; Psa_65:9-13).
3. The design of God in sending the snow may be merciful.
IV. Our duty as implied in Elihu’s address to Job. “Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still,
and consider the wondrous works of God” (verse 14). The works of God are wonderful—
wonderful in their magnitude, variety, beauty, usefulness, and order—these are to be
considered. Consider them, therefore; many see them, who never consider them.
Consider them reverently. Patiently. Calmly. Closely. God’s works will bear inspection.
Frequently. Devoutly. Not merely that your minds may be informed, but your heart
drawn out towards God, in pious affections. We learn from this subject—
1. The generality of men pay little attention to the wondrous works of God, that such
indifference is very criminal, and that it is the duty of ministers to awaken the
attention of their people to the subject.
2. Special and particular providences demand special and particular attention.
“Hearken unto this.”
3. The perfect ease with which God can punish the wicked, and hurl them to
destruction.
4. The present time affords a fine opportunity for the exercise of Christian
benevolence.
5. The precious privileges of those who are interested in the favour of God. (The
Pulpit.)
The snow and its lessons
I. We may learn from the snow that it is possible to do a great deal of good without
making very much noise. The snow is a great blessing. The Psalmist says, “He giveth
snow like wool” (Psa_147:16). Wool, as we know, is very warm. Winter garments are
made of wool, and so we keep out the cold. The snow is God’s winter garment for the
earth. It covers up the tender roots and plants with its thick clothing, and protects them
from the cutting frosts which would otherwise destroy them. Then the snow is useful for
the watering of the earth (Isa_55:10-11). When we look upon the beauty of spring, and
the many glories of the summer, we must not forget the part which the snow took in
producing these things. And yet, while the snow is so useful to the earth, how silently it
does its work (Mat_6:2).
II. Take care what footprints you leave behind you. The fresh snow is a very faithful
record of our footsteps. It is in a more serious sense that we also leave our footprints
behind us as we walk down the lane of life. I do not mean upon the snow, but upon the
memories and characters of those who have known us.
III. Another lesson the snow has taught us is the power of little things. A snowflake is a

little thing, but many snowflakes make “a white world.” Success in life consists very
much in a constant attention to little things. We cannot always find opportunities of
doing great deeds.
IV. The last of our lessons is that God loves holiness. Nothing is whiter than the snow.
No sin can enter heaven. (R. Brewin.)
Suggestions of the snow
The Old Testament far more than the New employs the phenomena of nature to
symbolise truth. The birth of snow, far up upon soft clouds, or yet more tenuous ether,
gives rise to pleasant suggestions of the ways of God in nature. To a child, snow
descending is like feathers, as if the great globe were a bird coming to its moulting and
shedding all its old plumes. Or, if snow be likened to flowers, then the raindrops in the
upper air are buds, and snow is the blossoming or budding raindrops. Or, if the poet
renders his thought, the snow is the great husbandman, and plants the moisture
borrowed from lake and sea, and in due time shakes down upon the earth the plumy
grains that have been reared in the heaven above. Or yet again, as an emblem, Quarles
might have noticed the rare beauty of the snow. Each flake of snow is more exquisite in
structure than anything mortal hands can make. Why should not the raindrops come
pelting down rounded like shot—as they do in summer? The earth, then, it might be
thought, had all the beauty of form and flower that it needed; but in winter, cold and
barren, the sky is the gelid garden and sends down exquisite bloom, fairer than the lily of
the valley. Not only is each flake beautiful, but so are all its weird and witching ways. If
undisturbed the snow falls with wondrous levity, as if in a dream or reverie; as if it
hardly knew the way, and wavered in the search of the road. It touches the ground with
airy grace, as if like a sky bird it touched the bough or the twig only to fly again. But
when once embodied, it hangs upon bush and tree, ruffling the black branch with lace,
or cushioning the evergreen branch with the rarest and daintiest white velvet. Or, when
winds drive it or send it in swirls around and above all obstructions, drifting it into
banks with rim and curvature, like which no pencil or tool can match, it still, out of all its
agitation, works lines of grace and beauty that have been the admiration of the world
from the beginning. This child of the storm is itself beautiful, and the artist of beauty.
Consider the weakness and the power of the snow. Can anything be gentler and more
powerless? It comes not as a ball from the rifle, or an arrow from the bow, or a swooping
hawk descending from the sky for its prey. A child’s hand catches and subdues it; and ere
he can see it, it is gone. A baby can master that which masters mankind. Boys gather it,
and it is submissive; it resists nothing. All things seem stronger than the snow new born.
Yet, one night’s weaving, and it covers the earth through wide latitudes and longitudes
with a garment that all the looms of the earth could not have furnished. One day more
and it sinks fences underneath it, obliterates all roads, and levels the whole land as spade
and plough, and ten thousand times ten thousand engineers and workmen could not do
it. It lays its hand upon the roaring engine, blocks its wheels and stops its motion. It
stands before the harbour, and lets down a white darkness which baffles the pilot and
checks the home-returning ship. It takes the hills and mountains, and gathering its army
until the day comes, without sound of drum or trumpet, it charges down; and who can
withstand its coming in battle array? What power is thus in the hosts of weakness! So
the thoughts of good men, small, silent, gathering slowly, at length are masters of time
and of the ages. If such be the power of God’s weakness, what must be the Almightiness
of God, the thunder of His power? Consider, also, that the descending snow has relations
not alone thus to fancy, but is a worker too. We send abroad to the islands of South

America, and to the coast quays, to bring hither the stimulant that shall kindle new life
in the wasted soils and bring forth new harvests. Yet from the unsullied air the snow
brings down fertility in the endless wastes that are going on,—exhaled gases, from towns
and from cities, multiplied forms that are vandals, wanderers in the sky. Caught in the
meshes of the snow, the ammoniacal gases and various others are brought down by it
and laid upon the soil; and it has become a proverb that the snow, fresh and new-fallen,
is the poor man’s manure. It gathers again, then, the waste material of the earth, whose
levity carries it above, and lays with equal distribution over all the lands that which
brings back to them their needed fertility. (Henry Ward Beecher.)
Winter
What are its mute lessons to us?
1. Winter presents us with a special study, of the richness, wisdom, and greatness of
the Divine order of the world. The religion of winter worship is preeminently the
religion of the supernatural—the religion of Christ. It is the impulse of a religious
spirit to recognise the beauty, the wisdom, the grandeur of these manifestations of
the Creator. Power, beauty, and goodness are revealed.
2. Winter may be made the text of an important social study. It has potent influences
upon character, and upon the duties and sympathies of life. What a lesson it is in the
distribution of God’s gifts. Everywhere nature—God’s order—rebukes selfishness.
Winter is potent as a social civiliser. Home is fully realised only in winter climes.
Winter appeals to human charities and sympathies.
3. Winter is a fine moral study, full of spiritual lessons and analogies, such as Christ
would have elicited. It is something that there is a break upon mere acquisition—a
season when accumulation is arrested, when even God does not seem to be lavishing
gifts. Winter brings a due recognition of the beauty and glory of the earth that God
has made, its wondrous forms and forces. It brings a sense of obligation to the
marvellous providence of the earth’s economy—the relation of seed time to sowing,
of winter to summer; and all the while the uniform wants of life supplied, one season
providing for another which produces no supplies. How transient all earthly
conditions and forms of beauty and strength! How unresting, how unhasting the law
of change. The supreme analogy of winter is death. To this winter of human life we
all must come. (Henry Allon, D. D.)
Lessons of the snow
I. Consider its beauty. Its shape and colour have always charmed the naturalists and the
poets. Its beauty is its own, unique, artistic, Divine. This beauty suggests a higher
beauty, as articulated in thought, in character, and life. The beauty of any life consists in
that circlet of excellences called the fruit of the Spirit. That life is beautiful whose touch
is healing, whose words are comforting, and whose influence is ennobling. Delicacy and
sweetness belong to the highest music. The purer the soul, the more of delicacy and
sweetness will be in it. A beautiful life carries the Christ heart. Not only is each snow
crystal a thing of beauty, but its ways are ways of pleasantness. How graceful the curves
and beautiful the lines of falling snowflakes! How gently they touch the earth! With
feathery softness they weave about the trees and bushes the rarest lace work, defying all
the looms of the modern world. The snow is an artist unequalled in all the world. Its

ways are full of grace and beauty. And beauty in the soul expresses itself in comely ways
and winsome deeds. Spirituality will not only transfigure the countenance, but clothe the
hands and feet with tenderness and grace.
II. Consider the purity of the snow. It is clean, white, and bright. But when it comes in
contact with soot, its purity is defiled and its comeliness destroyed. What a pitiable sight
is a soul defiled by the soot of sin! Snow undefiled is bewitchingly beautiful, but when
tainted it is repulsive. The sight of doves and snow made David yearn for a pure heart.
III. Consider the variety of the snowflakes. The snowflake has been examined by the
microscope, and its revelations disclosed. Revelations of crowns studded with brilliants,
of stars with expanding rays, of bridges with their abutments, and temples with their
aisles and columns. “Scientific men have observed no less than a thousand different
forms and shapes in snow crystals. While they shoot out stars like chiselled diamonds,
they reveal endless variety. O what a God is ours! Everywhere in nature we see diversity.
We stand amazed before the various types of mind. When we say the snow crystal is a
picture of God’s thought, we also are forced to believe it is expressed in a thousand
different ways.
IV. Consider the usefulness of the snow. It is a stimulant and fertiliser. Exhausted soils
are enlivened and strengthened by the snow. Gases are captured by it, and they descend
in showers to enrich and beautify the fields. Utility is a widespread law. Waste material
is caught up and made to serve another purpose. See how the snow covers with its
woollen mantle uncomely objects, and simultaneously protects those hidden potencies
which under the vernal equinox unfold into bud and leaf, blossom, fruit. Beneath that
white shroud the forces of spring are allying and marshalling, like soldiers on the field.
Snow is a source of irrigation. In countries of great elevation, where the rains are only
periodical, the inhabitants depend wholly on the snow to enrich and fertilise their fields.
Viewing human life in the light of a Divine philosophy, we are forced to the conclusion
that the winter of our trials is essential to soul-fruitage. Lowell saw in the first fall of
snow the picture of a great sorrow, but a sorrow sweetened by the elements of hope.
Reposing in the thought of a universal Father, and having assurances that winter will
give place to spring and the melodies of birds, let us see in our trials and afflictions the
means ordained for our entrance into glory. In Haydn’s Creation the opening passage
abounds in dissonances, a fit representation of chaos; but they soon give way to
harmonies, choral and symphonic, that fill the soul with dreams of immeasurable glory
and unearthly peace. And as in music, so in life, discords will end in harmonies, and
sweet strains fill earth and sky. Death may seem to silence the harp of life, yet it is only
as a pause in music that is preparatory to richer, sweeter, and fuller tones. (J. B.
Whitford.)
2 Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice,
to the rumbling that comes from his mouth.

BAR ES, "Hear attentively - Margin, as in Hebrew “hear in hearing;” that is, bear
with attention. It has been supposed by many, and not without probability, that the
tempest was already seen rising, out of which God was to address Job Job 38, and that
Elihu here calls the special attention of his hearers to the gathering storm, and to the low
muttering thunder in the distance.
The noise of his voice - Thunder is often represented as the voice of God, and this
was one of the most natural of all suppositions when its nature was little understood,
and is at all times a beautiful poetic conception; see the whole of Psa_29:1-11. The word
rendered “noise” (‫רגז‬ rôgez), means properly “commotion,” that which is fitted to
produce perturbation, or disquiet (see Job_3:17, Job_3:26; Isa_14:3), and is used here
to denote the commotion, or “raging” of thunder.
And the sound - The word used here (‫הגה‬ hegeh) means properly a “muttering
growling” - as of thunder. It is often used to denote sighing, moaning, and meditation, in
contradistinction from clear enunciation. Here it refers to the thunder which seems to
mutter or growl in the sky.
CLARKE, "Hear attentively - “Hear with hearing.” The words seem to intimate
that there was actually at that time a violent storm of thunder and lightning, and that the
successive peals were now breaking over the house, and the lightning flashing before
their eyes. The storm continued till Elihu had finished, and out of that storm the
Almighty spoke. See the beginning of the succeeding chapter, Job 38 (note).
The noise of his voice - The sudden clap.
And the sound that goeth out - The peal or continued rattling, pounding, and
thumping, to the end of the peal. The whole is represented as the voice of God himself,
and the thunder is immediately issuing from his mouth.
GILL, "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 the former clause may have respect
to loud thunder, a more violent crack or clap of it; so this may intend some lesser
whispers and murmurs of it at a distance; or a rumbling noise in the clouds before they
burst; since the word is sometimes used for private meditation. Now the voice of God,
whether in his works of nature, or in the dispensations of his providence, or in his word;
whether in the thunder of the law, or in the still sound of the Gospel, is to be attentively
hearkened to; because it is the voice of God, the voice of the God of glory, majestic and
powerful, and is attended with various effects; of which see Psa_29:3.
JAMISO ,"Hear attentively — the thunder (noise), etc., and then you will feel that

there is good reason to tremble.
sound — muttering of the thunder.
BE SO , "Job 37:2. Hear attentively the noise of his voice — Or, as ‫קלו‬ ‫,ברגז‬
berogez kolo, may properly be rendered, his voice with trembling. The thunder is
called God’s voice, because by it God speaks to the children of men to fear before
him: and the sound that goeth out of his mouth — That is produced by his word or
command. Poole, Henry, and divers other commentators, have thought it probable
that, at this time, while Elihu was speaking, it thundered greatly, and that the
tempest was begun wherewith God ushered in his speech, as it follows, Job 38:1 .
And this, they suppose, might occasion Elihu’s return to that subject, of which he
had discoursed before. Bishop Patrick thus paraphrases this verse: “Hearken, I
beseech you, seriously to the horrible noise which comes out of some of those clouds,
and it will astonish you also. The smallest murmurs of it are so dreadful, that it may
be fitly styled the voice of God calling men to stand in awe of him.”
PULPIT, "Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that goeth out of his
mouth; or, Hearken ye, hearken ye to the noise of his voice (comp. Psalms 77:18 :
Psalms 104:7; and below, Psalms 104:4, Psalms 104:5). We need not suppose Elihu
to speak otherwise than poetically. He does not, like the Indian of
" … untutored mind,
See God in clouds or hear him in the wind."
He does not mean that the thunder is actually God's voice, but that it tells of him,
reminds of him, brings naturally to men's minds the thought of his marvellous
greatness and power, and should therefore be listened to with awe and trembling,
not passed over lightly, like any other sound.
PULPIT, "Elihu to Job: 5. The wonderful works of God.
I. WO DERFUL I RESPECT OF THEIR VARIETY. Beginning with the
thunderstorm (verse 2), with its quickly spreading clouds (Job 36:29), its sharp,
gleaming bolts (verse 3), its crashing and reverberating peals (verse 4), Elihu passes
on to descant upon other natural phenomena—such as the falling of the snow and
the rain upon the earth (verse 6); the sweeping of the whirlwind, or hot simoom,
from the remote regions of the southern desert, alternately with the rushing of the
cold blasts from "the scatterers," or north winds (verse 9); the congelation of the
water-drops by the breath of winter, and the straitening of the rivers by thick blocks
of ice (verse 10); the replenishing of the emptied rain-cloud with fresh loads of
water, and the distribution far and wide of the cloud of his light, i.e. of the cloud
that is pregnant with lightning (verse 11). And yet such phenomena are only an
infinitesimally small portion of that endless variety which ature in her movements
and manifestations affords. This variety, too, besides being an eminent enhancement

of nature's beauty, contributes in a high degree to nature's usefulness, and is a
testimony by no means unimportant in favour of nature having been the production
of an all-wise Artificer, since the suggestion is little short of inconceivable that a
world so wondrously fair, so exquisitely diversified, so harmoniously adjusted in all
its parts, could have been the work of blind, unintelligent force, directed in its
operations by purposeless chance, or could have emanated from any other source
than that of an infinite mind.
II. WO DERFUL I RESPECT OF THEIR ORIGI . The presumption above
created is explicitly confirmed by Elihu, who commends to Job's attention the entire
circle of nature's interesting phenomena as "the wondrous works of God" (verse
14), "the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge" (verse 16), and "his
work" (verse 7), i.e. as the productions of his almighty finger. Does the thunder
cannonade along the sky? It is God who roareth with the voice of his excellency
(verse 4). Do the heavens shake their snowflakes, distil their gentle showers, or pour
their copious floods upon the earth? It is God who saith to the snow and rain, "Be
thou on the earth" (verse 6). Does the frost arrest the flowing river, congeal the
water-drop, lie like crisp white beads upon the ground, or trace its fairy pictures on
the windowpane? It is God's breath that sends the frost into the air (verse 10). Do
the rain-clouds fill and empty themselves upon the earth? It is God who loadeth
them with liquid burdens (verse 11). Does the lightning-shaft, leaping from the dark
bosom of the storm-cloud, career through the murky sky? It is God who directeth it
under the whole heaven (verse 3). or is this simply superstition, like that which
caused the untutored savage and the cultured Greek alike to transform every
mountain and stream into the abode of a divinity. And just as little is it merely
poetry which, personifying dead things, deals with them as beings endued with life
and intelligence. It is piety which, with a keener and truer discernment than is
sometimes evinced by modern scientists, overleaping every intermediate cause, takes
its station with adoring wonder beside the throne of him who is the absolute and
uncreated Author of this universal frame. The characteristic here ascribed to Elihu,
the youthful prophet of Arabia, was one which in an eminent degree pertained to
the Hebrew mind. The psalms of David, in particular, are distinguished by the
boldness with which they recognize the hand of God in the ever-varying phenomena
of this terrestrial sphere (cf. Psalms 8:1-9.; 19.; 29.; 65.; 68.). or was this
peculiarity awanting to the later poets of the period of the exile (cf. Psalms 104:1-
35.). Even ew Testament writers (e.g. St. Paul, Acts 14:17; Acts 17:28) are not
strangers to this devout practice. Above all, it was habitual with Christ (Matthew
6:30; John 5:17). It is much to be re,tied that modern scientists should so frequently
overlook the fact that in investigating nature's laws they are merely informing
themselves as to the specific methods in which the supreme Creator has been
pleased to work.
III. WO DERFUL I RESPECT OF THEIR EXECUTIO . If the phenomena of
nature are in themselves such as to demand an infinite mind for their conception,
much more does their production call for a supreme Artificer of unlimited resources
as to wisdom and power. Elihu declares them to be "doings" positively
incomprehensible by the finite mind (verse 5); and, notwithstanding all the results of

scientific observation, it is still true that the chief secrets of nature continue to baffle
man's intelligence. Take the thunderstorm, for instance, to which Elihu alludes.
Almost any scientific treatise touching on the subject will explain how the dark
masses of cloud that pile themselves above the horizon and gradually spread along
the sky are filled with water and charged with electricity, how the lightning is
produced by the meeting of positive with negative electricity, and how the
thunderclap results from the explosion of the overcharged clouds. But, after all, this
does not impart a great deal of information to the mind. It leaves unresolved the
deepest mysteries connected with the problem, such as the way in which the storm-
cloud is formed, and the structure of the particles of which it is composed, the mode
in which the earth and the air have been charged with different kinds or degrees of
electricity, what electricity itself is, and what are the laws of its production and
distribution. And even though all these matters were explored by the patient
intellect of science, there would still remain the question how the phenomena
themselves can be made, clearly showing that the utmost that is attainable by man is
to understand the works of God (at least in part) when they are made, not to arrive
at the wisdom by which they might be reproduced. The meteorologist can observe
how God makes his thunder, but he cannot himself thunder with a voice like God's.
He can descant upon the cause of snow, can expatiate upon the beauty of the
snowflakes, and can tell that their crystals assume five leading forms; but with all
his learning and amid all his researches he has never laid his finger on the art of
making snow, or of saying to a single flake, "Be thou on the earth."
IV. WO DERFUL I RESPECT OF THEIR CO TROL. If nature is not a vast
machine from which God has departed, still less is it an engine which he has
suffered to escape from his hand. Conceived by infinite wisdom and fashioned by
almighty power, it has by the same combination of qualities been kept in complete
subordination. Elihu instances the lightning-cloud as a work of God that is "turned
round about by his counsels, and that doeth whatsoever he commandeth upon the
face of the wide earth" (Verse 12). But it is the same with the snow and the rain, the
frost and the wind. These are as submissive to his command as the thunder when it
roars, or the lightning when it gleams. So, according to the concurrent testimony of
Scripture, are all his works in all places of his dominion (Job 23:13; Psalms 33:9;
Psalms 119:90, Psalms 119:91; Isaiah 40:26; Daniel 4:35; Ephesians 1:11).
V. WO DERFUL I RESPECT OF THEIR IMPRESSIVE ESS. More especially
is this the case with the grandee and sublimer phenomena. The thunderstorm, with
its ominous gloom, its lurid fires, its terrific detonations, carries a sense of awe to
every sentient creature. At its first approach the cattle manifest their fear by
herding together in the most sheltered spots that they can find. The birds, as they fly
with sager haste to screen themselves among the boughs, give evidence that they are
smitten with an unknown dread. Even the wild beasts that roam through the forest
or scour the plain, the shaggy lion and the ferocious tiger, slink away to hide
themselves within their dens ay, man, whether civilized or barbarian, religious or
unbelieving, cannot witness the dread commotion of the elements, cannot look upon
"the sulphurous and thought-executing fires, vaunt couriers of oak-cleaving
thunderbolts" as they flash across the murky vault of heaven, or listen to the "all-

shaking thunder" as it crashes, rolls, and roars across the pavement of the skies,
without instinctively holding his breath and feeling solemnized, as if he stood in
presence of the supernatural. Even the heart of Elihu trembled and tottered from its
place before the awe-inspiring manifestation of Divine power which was then taking
place (verse 1), very much as Moses did in the presence of Mount Sinai, when it
shook beneath the feet of the God of Israel (Psalms 68:8), and he gave expression to
his horror, saying," I exceedingly fear and quake" (Hebrews 12:21). But scarcely
less impressive to a thoughtful and devout mind is ature in her quieter moods.
"The meanest floweret of the vale,
The simplest note that swells the gale,
The common sun. the air, the skies,
To him are opening Paradise."
Elihu speaks of God sealing up the hand of every man by the terrors of his thunder
or the rigours of his winter (verse 7); that is, arresting man's customary
occupations, and compelling man, by a period of enforced leisure, to meditate upon
his work, so as to know and recognize it to be his. One reason why men fail to trace
God's presence in his own creation is the want of a religious contemplation of his
works. The supreme Creator has so constructed every portion of nature that, if
rightly interpreted, it will speak of him.
VI. WO DERFUL I RESPECT OF THEIR DESIG . It is a fundamental article
in biblical theology that the supreme Artificer never acts without a purpose (Acts
15:18; Ephesians 1:11). The universe was not summoned into existence without a
specific end in view (Revelation 4:11). The earth was not created in vain, but formed
to be inhabited (Isaiah 45:18). So every single work of God has its particular aim.
Elihu again recurs for an example to the thunder-cloud. When God causes a
thunderstorm to burst upon a land, it is not an accident, or a haphazard operation,
but an event with a well-defined object in contemplation. It is either as a
punishment for sin, or as an act of mercy towards man, or as a means of fertilizing
the land and thus conferring benefit on an entire population. That is to say, it is
employed as an instrument in the execution of God's prearranged design, whether
that be specific in its destination or general, i.e. for the benefit of an individual or
the good of a country, and whether it be punitive or merciful. And every other
phenomenon of nature is in like manner connected with the silver line of God's
eternal purpose. Science may not be able to see how the two are linked together.
But, if faith can, it is enough. It is not unscientific to affirm that God sends the
thunderstorm and the whirlwind, the earthquake and the pestilence, since the hand
of God confessedly is outside the cognizance of science; it is not required by religion
to deny that all these phenomena are due to immediately preceding causes. Science
traces back the links of the chain to the verge of its material domain. When science
falters and becomes blind, faith, catching up the quest, penetrates the regions
beyond, and discovers the last link of the chain to be the hand of God.

VII. WO DERFUL I RESPECT OF THEIR TEACHI GS. These may be
summed up in one word, "ignorance." Whatever else they attest, they emphatically
proclaim man to be destitute of true knowledge.
1. Concerning the phenomena of nature. Elihu asks Job with a touch of irony if he
could explain what to men in general was incomprehensible-how God had imposed
laws upon the cloud and the lightning, and by what means he caused "the light of
his cloud" to shine—if he knew so much about meteorology as to be able to
comprehend "the balancings of clouds"—nay, if he could tell how the action of the
south wind, or hot simoom, made him warm (verses 15-17). Doubtless on every one
of these points science has laid open to us much that was concealed from the mind of
Job and even of Elihu; but still it is relatively true that in comparison with what
remains to be explored man is as yet profoundly ignorant of the great secrets of
nature.
2. Concerning the position of himself. Man, Elihu reminds Job, was not
distinguished from nature's phenomena as God was, being not the creator as God,
but only himself a creature like nature. "Hast thou with him spread out the sky,
strong and as a molten mirror?" (verse 18). Consequently, it was sheer presumption
to imagine that man was competent to enter into judgment or controversy with God.
If Job knew how to address God, Elihu would be glad to be instructed; as for
himself, he would as soon think of saying that he wanted to be swallowed up as that
he wished to speak with God (verses 19, 20). It is ever precisely in proportion as we
understand the feebleness, insignificance, and sinfulness of our position before God
that we are withheld from the offences of presumption and irreverence.
3. Concerning the administration of providence. Exactly as the clear firmament
overhead with its shining sun is obscured from view by the storm-clouds that
intervene, so the principles on which God governs the world, allotting suffering to
one and happiness to another, cannot be distinctly perceived by man. By-and-by
they will be made to shine forth with resplendent lustre, as soon the darkened
heavens will be swept of clouds, and the bright light, beaming clown from the
ethereal heights, will in all its radiant glory be disclosed. Meantime man stands
beneath the clouds, where all is dark, though above, i.e. to the mind of God,
everything is clear (1 John 1:5).
4. Concerning the character of God. Elihu means to say either that fair weather
effulgent as gold (or disclosing the golden sun), cometh out of the northern quarters
of the sky, or that men out of the northern regions of the earth extract gold; but that
neither can the Divine Being, with whom is terrible majesty, be steadily looked upon
by man, as man can contemplate the orb of day, nor can the nature of God be
fathomed as men dig out gold from the mine. "Touching the Almighty, we cannot
find him out." ot that this implies an utter ignorance of the attributes pertaining to
the Supreme. On the contrary, man may gather from his wondrous works in
creation and providence that God is "excellent in power, and in judgment, and in
plenty of justice;" nay, that he is compassionate and merciful also, being indisposed

to afflict either willingly or severely, and never except as a means to an end.
5. Concerning the rule of duty. "Men do therefore fear him." Such homage rests on
the three pillars of God's power, God's justice, and God's mercy. Yet man, like Job,
is prone to forget the reverence due to God. Hence it is ever needful to enforce
attention to duty by reminders of God's supremacy and majesty. "He respecteth not
any that are wise of heart." Self-righteousness and pride are wholly inconsistent
with a right fulfilment of human duty towards the Supreme. "Though the Lord be
high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off" (Psalms
138:6).
Learn:
1. That nature is the handiwork of God.
2. That nature contains revelations of beauty, power, wisdom, goodness, justice, to
the soul of man.
3. That it is man's duty to study that which God has revealed.
4. That the best preparation for a study of nature, as of any other revelation, is a
deep conviction of personal ignorance.
5. That the more we learn of the works of God, the less shall we think of ourselves.
6. That rightly prosecuted, the study of nature leads to God.
7. That the glory of God is ever greater than the grandeur of his works, or of ature
in her sublimest moods.
8. That the sum of human duty, as expounded by nature, is to fear God and keep his
commandments.
9. That the discoveries of nature have been eclipsed by the revelations of the gospel.
10. That if it behoves man to study God in nature, much more does it behove him to
study God in Christ.
3 He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole
heaven
and sends it to the ends of the earth.

BAR ES, "He directeth it under the whole heaven - It is under the control of
God, and he directs it where he pleases. It is not confined to one spot, but seems to be
complaining from every part of the heavens.
And his lightning - Margin, as in Hebrew “light.” There can be no doubt that the
lightning is intended.
Unto the ends of the earth - Margin, as in Hebrew “wings.” The word wings is
given to the earth from the idea of its being spread out or expanded like the wings of a
bird; compare Job_38:13; Eze_7:2. The earth was spoken of as an expanse or plain that
had corners or boundaries (see Isa_11:12, note; Isa_24:16, note; Isa_42:5, note), and the
meaning here is, that God spread the lightning at pleasure over the whole of that vast
expanse.
CLARKE, "He directeth it under the whole heaven - He directeth it (the
lightning) under the whole heaven, in the twinkling of an eye from east to west; and its
light - the reflection of the flash, not the lightning, unto the ends of the earth, so that a
whole hemisphere seems to see it at the same instant.
GILL, "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 clouds burst: yet Pliny (x) atheistically calls
thunder and lightning chance matters. Thus the ministers of the word, who are
compared to clouds, Isa_5:6, are charged with it by the Lord: they are directed by him
what they shall say, where they shall go and declare it, and he directs where it shall fall
with power and weight; yea, he directs it into the very hearts of men, where it pierces
and penetrates, and is a discerner and discoverer of their thoughts and intents;
and his lightning unto the ends of the earth: it cometh out of the east, and shineth
to the west, Mat_24:27; and swiftly move to the further parts of the earth: and such a
direction, motion, and extent, has the Gospel had; the glorious light of it, comparable to
lightning, it first broke forth in the east, where Christ, his forerunner and his disciples,
first preached it, and Christian churches were formed; and from thence it spread into the
western parts of the world, and before the destruction of Jerusalem it was preached unto
all nations; it had a free course, ran, and was glorified; the sound of the voice of it went
into all the earth, and the words and doctrines of the apostles unto the ends of the world.
JAMISO ,"directeth it — however zigzag the lightning’s course; or, rather, it
applies to the pealing roll of the thunder. God’s all-embracing power.
ends — literally, “wings,” “skirts,” the habitable earth being often compared to an
extended garment (Job_38:13; Isa_11:12).

BE SO , "Job 37:3-5. He directeth it — amely, his voice, his thunder; under the
whole heaven — It is heard far and near, for he darts it through the whole region of
the air: and his lightning, &c. — Preceded by terrible, and often most destructive
flashes of lightning, which shoot from one end of heaven to the other. After it a voice
roareth — After the lightning follow awful claps of thunder, more tremendous than
the roarings of a lion; and he will not stay them — They grow louder and louder, till
they conclude in a violent tempest of rain or hail. God thundereth marvellously —
With a wonderful and terrible noise, and so as to produce, by the accompanying
lightning, many wonderful effects, as the breaking down of great and strong trees,
or buildings, and the killing of men and beasts in an instantaneous and awful
manner. Great things doeth he — Even in the course of nature, and in the visible
parts of the creation. Which we cannot comprehend — Which all men see, but of
which few or none can give the true and satisfactory reasons. And therefore it is not
strange if the secret and deep counsels of divine providence be out of our reach. And
it would argue great pride and arrogancy in us if we should take upon us to censure
them, because we do not understand them.
PULPIT, "He directeth it under the whole heaven. The reverberations of the
thunderclap roll along the entire cloud-canopy, from one end of the heavens to the
other, beginning often faint in the distance, then growing loud over our heads,
finally sinking into low muttered rumblings on the far horizon. And his lightning
unto the ends of the earth. Similarly, the lightning, though originating in a flash at
some definite spot, sets the whole sky aglow, shining from side to side of the heavens,
and, as it were, to the very "ends of the earth." Both have a character of
universality which is marvellous, and which makes them fitting emblems of him of
whom they are the messengers and ministers (see Matthew 24:27).
4 After that comes the sound of his roar;
he thunders with his majestic voice.
When his voice resounds,
he holds nothing back.
BAR ES, "After it a voice roareth - After the lightning; that is, the flash is seen
before the thunder is heard. This is apparent to all, the interval between the lightning

and the hearing of the thunder depending on the distance. Lucretius, who has referred to
the same fact, compares this with what occurs when a woodman is seen at a distance to
wield an axe. The glance of the axe is seen long before the sound of the blow is heard:
Sed tonitrum fit uti post antibus accipiamus,
Fulgere quam cernunt ocuil, quia semper ad aures
Tardius adveniunt, quam visum, guam moveant res.
Nunc etiam licet id cognoscere, caedere si quem
Ancipiti videas ferro procul arboris actum.
Ante fit, ut cernas ictum, quam plaga per aures
Det sonitum: Sic fulgorem quoque cernimus ante.
Lib. vi.
He thundereth with the voice of his excellency - That is, with a voice of majesty
and grandeur.
And he will not stay them - That is, he will not hold back the rain, hail, and other
things which accompany the storm, when he begins to thunder. “Rosenmuller.” Or,
according to others, he will not hold back and restrain the lightnings when the thunder
commences. But the connection seems rather to demand that we should understand it of
the usual accompaniments of a storm - the wind, hail, rain, etc. Herder renders it, “We
cannot explore his thunderings.” Prof. Lee, “And none can trace them, though their voice
be heard.” According to him, the meaning is, that “great and terrific as this exhibition of
God’s power is, still the progress of these, his ministers, cannot be followed by the
mortal eye.” But the usual interpretation given to the Hebrew word is that of “holding
back,” or “retarding,” and this idea accords well with the connection.
CLARKE, "After it a voice roareth - After the flash has been seen, the peal is
heard; and this will be more or fewer seconds after the peal, in proportion to the
distance of the thunder cloud from the ear. Lightning traverses any space without any
perceivable succession of time; nothing seems to be any obstacle to its progress. A
multitude of persons taking hands, the first and the last connected with the electric
machine, all feel the shock in the same instant; and were there a chain as conductor to go
round the globe, the last would feel the shock in the same moment as the first. But as
sound depends on the undulations of the air for its propagation, and is known to travel
at the rate of only 1142 feet in a second; consequently, if the flash were only 1142 feet
from the spectator, it would be seen in one second, or one swing of the pendulum, before
the sound could reach the ear, though the clap and the flash take place in the same
instant, and if twice this distance, two seconds, and so on. It is of some consequence to
know that lightning, at a considerable distance, suppose six or eight seconds of time, is
never known to burn, kill or do injury. When the flash and the clap immediately succeed
each other, then there is strong ground for apprehension, as the thunder cloud is near. If
the thunder cloud be a mile and a half distant, it is, I believe, never known to kill man or
beast, or to do any damage to buildings, either by throwing them down or burning them.
Now its distance may be easily known by means of a pendulum clock, or watch that has
seconds. When the flash is seen, count the seconds till the clap is heard. Then compute:
If only one second is counted, then the thunder cloud is within 1142 feet, or about 380
yards; if two seconds, then its distance is 2284 feet, or 761 yards; if three seconds, then
3426 feet, or 1142 yards; if four seconds, then the cloud is distant 4568 feet, or 1522
yards; if five seconds, then the distance is 5710 feet, or 1903 yards; if six seconds, then

the distance is 6852 feet, or 2284 yards, one mile and nearly one-third; if seven seconds,
then the distance of the cloud is 7994 feet, or 2665 yards, or one mile and a half, and 25
yards. Beyond this distance lightning has not been known to do any damage, the fluid
being too much diffused, and partially absorbed, in its passage over electric bodies, i.e.,
those which are not fully impregnated by the electric matter, and which receive their full
charge when they come within the electric attraction of the lightning. For more on the
rain produced by thunder storms, see on Job_38:25 (note). This scale may be carried on
at pleasure, by adding to the last sum for every second 1142 feet, and reducing to yards
and miles as above, allowing 1760 yards to one mile.
He thundereth with the voice of his excellency - ‫גאונו‬ geono, of his majesty: nor
is there a sound in nature more descriptive of, or more becoming, the majesty of God,
than that of Thunder. We hear the breeze in its rustling, the rain in its pattering, the hail
in its rattling, the wind in its hollow howlings, the cataract in its dash, the bull in his
bellowing, the lion in his roar; but we hear God, the Almighty, the Omnipresent, in the
continuous peal of Thunder! This sound, and this sound only, becomes the majesty of
Jehovah.
And he will not stay them - ‫יעקבם‬ ‫ולא‬ velo yeahkebem, and he hath not limited or
circumscribed them. His lightnings light the world; literally, the whole world. The
electric fluid is diffused through all nature, and everywhere art can exhibit it to view. To
his thunder and lightning, therefore, he has assigned no limits. And when his voice
soundeth, when the lightning goes forth, who shall assign its limits, and who can stop its
progress? It is, like God, Irresistible.
GILL, "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 is seen before, and so the same in the flash and
report of a gun, are, because the sense of seeing is quicker than the sense of hearing (y);
and the motion of light is quicker than that of sound; which latter is the truest reason
(z). The roaring voice of thunder may be an emblem of the thunder of the law; its
dreadful volleys of curses, vengeance, and wrath on the breakers of it, as delivered out by
Boanergeses, sons of thunder, Mar_3:17, or the loud proclamation of the Gospel, made
by the ministers of it; and the alarming awakening sound of the word, when attended
with the Spirit and power of God, to sinners asleep and dead in trespasses and sins;
upon which they awake, hear, and live;
he thundereth with the voice of his excellency: that is, God thunders with such a
voice, an excellent and majestic one; for his voice of thunder is full of majesty, Psa_29:4.
So is the voice of Christ in the Gospel; he spake when on earth as one having authority,
and he comes forth and appears in it now with majesty and glory; and speaks in it of the
excellent things which he has done, of the excellent righteousness he has wrought out, of
the excellent sacrifice he has offered up, and of the excellent salvation he is the author of;
and he will not stay them when his voice is heard; either the thunder and the
lightning, as some; which he does not long defer after he has given out the decree
concerning them, the order and disposition for them: or rather the rain and hail; these
are not stayed, but quickly follow the flash of lightning and clap of thunder: "for when he
utters his voice of thunder, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens"; and these

quickly come down and are not stopped, Jer_10:13. The word for "stay" signifies "to
supplant", or "act deceitfully"; the name of Jacob is derived from this root, because he
supplanted his brother, Gen_25:26; and so it may be rendered here, "he will not
supplant", or "deceive them (a), when his voice is heard": that is, either he does not
subvert them, the heavens and earth, but preserves them; though he makes them to
tremble with his voice of thunder (b): or he does not act the part of a secret, subtle, and
deceitful enemy, when he thunders; but shows himself openly as a King, executing his
decrees with authority (c): or rather he deceives none with his voice; none can mistake
it; all know it to be the voice of thunder when it is heard: so Christ's sheep know his
voice in the Gospel, and cannot be deceived; the voice of a stranger they will not follow,
Joh_10:4.
JAMISO ,"The thunderclap follows at an interval after the flash.
stay them — He will not hold back the lightnings (Job_37:3), when the thunder is
heard [Maurer]. Rather, take “them” as the usual concomitants of thunder, namely, rain
and hail [Umbreit] (Job_40:9).
ELLICOTT, "(4) After it a voice roareth—i.e., the thunderclap which follows the
lightning-flash.
And he stayeth them not (or will not stay them) when his voice is heard.—What does
this mean? We understand it, “Yet none can track them (i.e., the thunder and the
lightning) when His voice is heard. They travel in paths which none can explore.
Vivid as the lightning is, who shall pursue its course?”
PULPIT, "After it a voice roareth. After the lightning-flash has been seen, the
thunderclap comes. In their origin they are simultaneous; but, as light travels faster
than sound, unless we are close to the flash, then is an interval, the thunder
following on the lightning. He thundereth with the voice of his excellency (see the
comment on Job 37:2). And he will not stay them when his voice is heard. The words
are plain, but the meaning is obscure. What will not God stay? His lightnings? His
thunderings? His rain? His hail? There is no obvious antecedent. And in what sense
will he not "stay" them? Some explain, "He will not slacken their speed; "others,
"He will not cause them to Cease."
5 God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways;
he does great things beyond our understanding.

BAR ES, "God thundereth marvelously - He thunders in a wonderful manner.
The idea is, that the voice of his thunder is an amazing exhibition of his majesty and
power.
Great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend - That is, not only in
regard to the thunder and the tempest, but in other things. The description of the storm
properly ends here, and in the subsequent verses Elihu proceeds to specify various other
phenomena, which were wholly incomprehensible by man. The reference here to the
storm, and to the other grand and incomprehensible phenomena of nature, is a most
appropriate introduction to the manifestation of God himself as described in the next
chapter, and could not but have done much to prepare Job and his friends for that
sublime close of the controversy.
The passage before us Job_36:29-33; Job_37:1-5, is probably the earliest description
of a thunderstorm on record. A tempest is a phenomenon which must early have
attracted attention, and which we may expect to find described or alluded to in all early
poetry. It may be interesting, therefore, to compare this description of a storm, in
probably the oldest poem in the world, with what has been furnished by the masters of
song in ancient and modern times, and we shall find that in sublimity and beauty the
Hebrew poet will suffer nothing in comparison. In one respect, which constitutes the
chief sublimity of the description. he surpasses them all: I mean in the recognition of
God. In the Hebrew description. God is every where in the storm He excites it; he holds
the lightnings in both hands; he directs it where he pleases; he makes it the instrument
of his pleasure and of executing his purposes. Sublime, therefore, as is the description of
the storm itself, furious as is the tempest; bright as is the lightning: and heavy and awful
as is the roar of the thunder, yet the description derives its chief sublimity from the fact
that “God” presides over all, riding on the tempest and directing the storm as he pleases.
Other poets have rarely attempted to give this direction to the thoughts in their
description of a tempest, if we may except Klopstock, and they fall, therefore, far below
the sacred poet. The following is the description of a storm by Elihu, according to the
exposition which I have given:
Who can understand the outspreading of the clouds,
And the fearful thunderings in his pavilion?
Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it;
He also covereth the depths of the sea.
By these he executeth judgment upon the people,
By these he giveth food in abundance.
With his hands he covereth the lightning,
And commandeth it where to strike.
He pointeth out to his friends -
The collecting of his wrath is upon the wicked.
At this also my heart palpitates,
And is moved out of its place.
Hear, O hear, the thunder of his voice!
The muttering thunder that goes from his mouth!
He directeth it under the whole heaven.
And his lightning to the end of the earth.
After it, the thunder roareth;

He thundereth with the voice of his majesty,
And he will not restrain the tempest when his voice is heard.
God thundereth marvelously with his voice;
He doeth wonders, which we cannot comprehend.
The following is the description of a Tempest by Aeschylus, in the Prometh. Desm.,
beginning,
- Χθᆹν αεσάλευταιˇ
Βρυχία δ ʆ ᅦχᆹ παραµυκᇰται
Βροντᇿς, κ.τ.λ.
- Chthōn sesaleutai;
Bruchia d' ēchō paramukatai
Brontēs, etc.
- “I feel in very deed
The firm earth rock: the thunder’s deepening roar
Rolls with redoubled rage; the bickering flames
Flash thick; the eddying sands are whirled on high;
In dreadful opposition, the wild winds
Rend the vex’d air; the boisterous billows rise
Confounding earth and sky: the impetuous storm
Rolls all its terrible fury.”
Potter
Ovid’s description is the following:
Aethera conscendit, vultumque sequentia traxit
Nubila; queis nimbos, immistaque fulgura ventis
Addidit, et tonitrus, et inevitabile fulmen.
Meta. ii.
The description of a storm by Lucretius, is the following:
Praeterea persaepe niger quoque per mare nimbus
Ut picis e coelo demissum flumen, in undas
Sic cadit, et fertur tenebris, procul et trahit atram
Fulminibus gravidam tempestatem, atque procellis.
Ignibus ac ventis cum primus ipse repletus:
In terris quoque ut horrescant ae tecta requirant.
S c igitur sutpranostrum caput esso putandum est
Tempestatem altam. Neque enim caligine tanta
Obruerat terras, nisi inaedificata superne
Multa forent multis exempto nubila sole.
Lib. vi.
The well-known description of the storm by Virgil is as follows:
Nimborum in patriam, loca foeta furentibus austris,

Aeoliam venit. Hic vasto Rex Aeolus antro
Luctantis ventos tempestatesque sonoras
Imperio premit, ac vinelis et carcere frenat.
Illi indignantes, magno cum murmure, montis
Circum claustra fremunt. Celsa sedet Aeolus arce,
Sceptra tenens: molliitque animos, et temperat iras.
- Venti, velut agmine facto.
Qua data petra, ruunt, et terras turbine perflant.
Incubuere mari, totumque a sedibus imis,
Una Eurusque Notusque ruunt, creberque procelis
Africus, et vastos volvunt ad litora fluctus.
Aeneid i. 51-57, 82-86.
One of the most sublime descriptions of a storm to be found any where, is furnished
by Klopstock. It contains a beautiful recognition of the presence and majesty of God, and
a most tender and affecting description of the protection which his friends experience
when the storm rushes by. It is in the Fruhlingsfeier - a poem which is regarded by many
as his masterpiece. A small portion of it I will transcribe:
Wolken stromen herauf!
Sichtbar ist; der komant, der Ewige!
Nun schweben sie, rauschen sie, wirbeln die Winde!
Wie beugt sich der Wald! Wie hebet sich det Strom!
Sichtbar, wie du es Sterblichen seyn kannst,
Ja, das bist du, sichtbar, Unendlicher!
Zurnest du, Herr,
Weil Nacht dein Gewand ist?
Diese Nacht ist Segen der Erde.
Vater, du Zurnest nicht!
Seht ihr den Zeugendes Nahen, den zucken den Strahi?
Hort ihr Jehovah’s Donner?
Hort ihr ihn? hort ihr ihn.
Der erschtternden Donner des Herrn?
Herr! Herr! Gott!
Barmhertzig, und gnadig!
Angebetet, gepriesen,
Sey dein herrlicher Name!
Und die Gowitterwinde! Sie tragen den Donner!
Wie sie rauschen! Wie sie mit lawter Woge den Wald du: chstromen!
Und nun schwiegen sie. Langsam wandelt
Die schwartze Wolke.
Seht ihr den neurn Zeugen des Nahen, den fliegenden Strahl!
Horet ihr hoch in Wolke den Donner dex Herrn?
Er ruft: Jehova! Jehova!
Und der geschmetterte Wald dampft!
Abet nicht unsre Hutte
Unser Vater gebot
Seinem Verderber,
Vor unsrer Hutte voruberzugehn!

CLARKE, "God thundereth marvellously with his voice - This is the
conclusion of Elihu’s description of the lightning and thunder: and here only should
chapter 36 have ended. He began, Job_36:29, with the noise of God’s tabernacle; and he
ends here with the marvellous thundering of Jehovah. Probably the writer of the book of
Job had seen the description of a similar thunder storm as given by the psalmist, Psa_
77:16-19 : -
Psa_77:16 The waters saw thee, O God!
The waters saw thee, and were afraid.
Yea, the deeps were affrighted!
Psa_77:17 The clouds poured out water;
The ethers sent forth a sound;
Yea, thine arrows went abroad.
Psa_77:18 The voice of thy thunder was through the expanse:
The lightnings illumined the globe;
The earth trembled and shook!
Psa_77:19 Thy way is in the sea,
And thy paths on many waters;
But thy footsteps are not known.
Great things doeth he - This is the beginning of a new paragraph; and relates
particularly to the phenomena which are afterwards mentioned. All of them wondrous
things; and, in many respects, to us incomprehensible.
GILL, "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 like effects, mentioned in
Psa_29:5; and there are some things reported which seem almost incredible, were they
not well attested facts; as that an egg should be consumed thereby, and the shell unhurt;
a cask of liquor, the liquor in it spoiled, and the cask not touched; money melted in the
purse, and the purse whole; the fetus in the womb killed, and the woman preserved; with
other things of the like kind mentioned by various writers (d); and which are to be
accounted for only by the swift motion and piercing and penetrating nature of lightning.
So the voice of God in the Gospel thunders out and declares many wonderful things; as
the doctrines of the trinity of Persons in one God; of the everlasting love of the three
Persons; of the Person of Christ, and the union of the two natures in him; of his
incarnation, of redemption and salvation by him; of regeneration by the spirit of God; of
union to Christ, and communion with him; and of the resurrection of the dead: and it
produces marvellous effects, attended with a divine power; as quickening sinners dead in
trespasses and sins; enlightening those who are darkness itself; bearing down all
opposition before it; casting down the strong holds of sin and Satan, and reducing the
most stubborn and obstinate to the obedience of Christ;
great things doth he, which we cannot comprehend; or "know" (e): great things
in creation, the nature and causes of which lie greatly out of the reach of man; and which
he rather guesses at than knows, and still less comprehends. Great things in providence;
in sustaining all creatures and providing for them; and in the government of the world,
and in his dispensations in it; his judgments being unsearchable, and his ways past
finding out: and great things in grace; as the salvation of sinners by Christ, and the

Job 37 commentary

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Job 37 commentary