Job 37:4-14

4 Then there comes a roaring sound; God thunders with His majestic voice. He does not restrain the lightning when His [rumbling] voice is heard.
5 God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things that we cannot comprehend.[a]
6 For He says to the snow, "Fall to the earth," and the torrential rains, His mighty torrential rains,
7 serve as His signature to all mankind, so that all men may know His work.
8 The wild animals enter [their] lairs and stay in their dens.[b]
9 The windstorm comes from its chamber, and the cold from the driving north winds.[c]
10 Ice is formed by the breath of God, and watery expanses are frozen.
11 He saturates clouds with moisture; He scatters His lightning through them.
12 They swirl about, turning round and round at His direction, accomplishing everything He commands them over the surface of the inhabited world.
13 He causes this to happen for punishment, for His land, or for His faithful love.
14 Listen to this, Job. Stop and consider God's wonders.

Job 37:4-14 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 3

  • [a]. Jb 40:9; 2 Sm 22:14; Ps 29
  • [b]. Jb 38:40; Ps 104:22; Am 3:4
  • [c]. Jb 24:7; Ps 147:17; Pr 25:23
Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.