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Job 37:10-20

Listen to Job 37:10-20
10 By the breath of God 1ice is given, and 2the broad waters are frozen fast.
11 He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning.
12 They 3turn around and around by his 4guidance, 5to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of 6the habitable world.
13 Whether for 7correction or for his 8land or for 9love, he causes it to happen.
14 “Hear this, O Job; stop and 10consider the wondrous works of God.
15 Do you know how God lays his command upon them and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?
16 Do you know the balancings[a] of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is 11perfect in knowledge,
17 you whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind?
18 Can you, like him, 12spread out the skies, hard as a cast metal 13mirror?
19 Teach us what we shall say to him; we cannot draw up our case because of 14darkness.
20 Shall it be told him that I would speak? Did a man ever wish that he would be swallowed up?

Job 37:10-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 37

Elihu in this chapter proceeds to show the greatness of God as it appears in other of his works of nature, which greatly affected him, and to an attention to which he exhorts others, Job 37:1,2; particularly thunder and lightning, the direction, extent, and order of which he observes, Job 37:3,4; and then suggests that besides these there are other great things done by him, incomprehensible and unknown in various respects; as the snow, and rain, lesser and greater, which come on the earth at his command, and have such effect on men as to seal up their hands, and on the beasts of the field as to cause them to retire to their dens, and there remain, Job 37:5-8; and then he goes on to take notice of wind, and frost, and the clouds, and dispersion of them; their use and ends, whether in judgment or mercy, Job 37:9-13; and then calls on Job to consider these wondrous works of God, and remark how ignorant men are of the disposition of clouds for the rainbow; of the balancing of them; of the heat and quietness that come by the south wind, and of the firmness of the sky, Job 37:14-21; and from all this he concludes the terrible majesty, unsearchable nature of God, the excellency of his power and justice; and that men therefore should and do fear him, who is no respecter of persons, Job 37:21-23.

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Cross References 14

  • 1. 37:10 ch. 38:29, 30; Ps. 147:17
  • 2. 37:10 [ch. 36:16]
  • 3. 37:12 Gen. 3:24
  • 4. 37:12 Ps. 148:8
  • 5. 37:12 Ps. 148:8
  • 6. 37:12 [Prov. 8:31]
  • 7. 37:13 Ex. 9:18, 23; 1 Sam. 12:18, 19; Ezra 10:9; [ch. 36:31; 38:22, 23]
  • 8. 37:13 ch. 38:26, 27
  • 9. 37:13 1 Kgs. 18:45
  • 10. 37:14 [Ps. 111:2]
  • 11. 37:16 ch. 36:4; [1 Sam. 2:3]
  • 12. 37:18 Isa. 42:5; 44:24; [Gen. 1:6]
  • 13. 37:18 [Ex. 38:8]
  • 14. 37:19 Isa. 60:2; [Eph. 4:18]

Footnotes 1

  • [a] 37:16 Or 'hoverings'
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2025

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