Job 37:1-7

Elihu Extols God’s Majesty

1 "About this also my heart trembles, and it leaps from its place.
2 Listen carefully to his voice's thunder and [the] rumbling [that] goes out from his mouth.
3 He lets it loose under all the heavens, and his lightning to the earth's corners.
4 After it, his voice roars; it thunders {with his majestic voice}, and he does not restrain it when his voice is heard.
5 "God thunders with his voice in marvelous ways; he does great things, and we cannot comprehend.
6 For to the snow he says, 'Fall [on the] earth'; and {the shower of rain, his heavy shower of rain}--
7 {he stops all human beings from working} {so that everyone whom he has made may know it}.

Job 37:1-7 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.

Footnotes 4

  • [a]. Literally "with [the] voice of his majesty"
  • [b]. Literally "[the] shower of rain and [the] show of rains of his strength"
  • [c]. Literally "on the hand of all man he seals"
  • [d]. Literally "to know all men of his work"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.