Text -- Job 37:16-24 (NET)

37:16 Do you know about the balancing of the clouds, that wondrous activity of him who is perfect in knowledge? 37:17 You, whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind, 37:18 will you, with him, spread out the clouds, solid as a mirror of molten metal? 37:19 Tell us what we should say to him. We cannot prepare a case because of the darkness. 37:20 Should he be informed that I want to speak? If a man speaks, surely he would be swallowed up! 37:21 But now, the sun cannot be looked at– it is bright in the skies– after a wind passed and swept the clouds away. 37:22 From the north he comes in golden splendor; around God is awesome majesty. 37:23 As for the Almighty, we cannot attain to him! He is great in power, but justice and abundant righteousness he does not oppress. 37:24 Therefore people fear him, for he does not regard all the wise in heart.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Job 37:16

¹ tn As indicated by HALOT 618 s.v. מִפְלָשׂ, the concept of “balancing” probably refers to “floating” or “suspension” (cf. NIV’s “how the clouds hang poised” and J. E. Hartley, Job [NICOT], 481-82, n. 2).

NET Notes: Job 37:18

¹ tn The verb means “to beat out; to flatten,” and the analogy in the next line will use molten metal. From this verb is derived the word for the “firmament” in Gen 1:6-8, that canopy-like pressure area separating water above and water below.

NET Notes: Job 37:19

¹ tn The imperfect verb here carries the obligatory nuance, “what we should say?”

² tn The verb means “to arrange; to set in order.” From the context the idea of a legal case is included.

NET Notes: Job 37:20

¹ tn This imperfect works well as a desiderative imperfect.

NET Notes: Job 37:21

¹ tn The light here must refer to the sun in the skies that had been veiled by the storm. Then, when the winds blew the clouds away, it could not be looked at because it was so dazzling. Elihu’s analogy will be that God is the same – in his glory one cannot look at him or challenge him.

² tn The verb has an indefinite subject, and so should be a passive here.

³ tn Heb “and cleaned them.” The referent is the clouds (v. 18), which has been supplied in the translation for clarity. There is another way of reading this verse: the word translated “bright” means “dark; obscured” in Syriac. In this interpretation the first line would mean that they could not see the sun, because it was darkened by the clouds, but then the wind came and blew the clouds away. Dhorme, Gray, and several others take it this way, as does the NAB.

NET Notes: Job 37:22

¹ tn The MT has “out of the north comes gold.” Left in that sense the line seems irrelevant. The translation “golden splendor” (with RV, RSV, NRSV, NIV) depends upon the context of theophany. Others suggest “golden rays” (Dhorme), the aurora borealis (Graetz, Gray), or some mythological allusion (Pope), such as Baal’s palace. Golden rays or splendor is what is intended, although the reference is not to a natural phenomenon – it is something that would suggest the glory of God.

NET Notes: Job 37:23

¹ tn The name “Almighty” is here a casus pendens, isolating the name at the front of the sentence and resuming it with a pronoun.

² tn The MT places the major disjunctive accent (the atnach) under “power,” indicating that “and justice” as a disjunctive clause starting the second half of the verse (with ESV, NASB, NIV, NLT). Ignoring the Masoretic accent, NRSV has “he is great in power and justice.”

NET Notes: Job 37:24

¹ sn The phrase “wise of heart” was used in Job 9:4 in a negative sense.