Job 26:9

26:9 He conceals ¹  the face of the full moon, ² 

shrouding it with his clouds.

Job 38:9

38:9 when I made ³  the storm clouds its garment,

and thick darkness its swaddling band, ⁴ 

Job 7:9

7:9 As ⁵  a cloud is dispersed and then disappears, ⁶ 

so the one who goes down to the grave ⁷ 

does not come up again. ⁸ 

Job 26:8

26:8 He locks the waters in his clouds,

and the clouds do not burst with the weight of them.

Job 37:11

37:11 He loads the clouds with moisture; ⁹ 

he scatters his lightning through the clouds.

Job 37:15

37:15 Do you know how God commands them, ¹⁰ 

how he makes lightning flash in his storm cloud? ¹¹ 

[26:9]  ¹ tn The verb means “to hold; to seize,” here in the sense of shutting up, enshrouding, or concealing.

[26:9]  ² tc The MT has כִסֵּה (khisseh), which is a problematic vocalization. Most certainly כֵּסֶה (keseh), alternative for כֶּסֶא (kese’, “full moon”) is intended here. The MT is close to the form of “throne,” which would be כִּסֵּא (kisse’, cf. NLT “he shrouds his throne with his clouds”). But here God is covering the face of the moon by hiding it behind clouds.

[38:9]  ³ tn The temporal clause here uses the infinitive from שִׂים (sim, “to place; to put; to make”). It underscores the sovereign placing of things.

[38:9]  ⁴ tn This noun is found only here. The verb is in Ezek 16:4, and a related noun is in Ezek 30:21.

[7:9]  ⁵ tn The comparison is implied; “as” is therefore supplied in the translation.

[7:9]  ⁶ tn The two verbs כָּלַה (kalah) and הָלַךְ (halakh) mean “to come to an end” and “to go” respectively. The picture is of the cloud that breaks up, comes to an end, is dispersed so that it is no longer a cloud; it then fades away or vanishes. This line forms a good simile for the situation of a man who comes to his end and disappears.

[7:9]  ⁷ tn The noun שְׁאוֹל (shÿ’ol) can mean “the grave,” “death,” or “Sheol” – the realm of departed spirits. In Job this is a land from which there is no return (10:21 and here). It is a place of darkness and gloom (10:21-22), a place where the dead lie hidden (14:13); as a place appointed for all no matter what their standing on earth might have been (30:23). In each case the precise meaning has to be determined. Here the grave makes the most sense, for Job is simply talking about death.

[7:9]  ⁸ sn It is not correct to try to draw theological implications from this statement or the preceding verse (Rashi said Job was denying the resurrection). Job is simply stating that when people die they are gone – they do not return to this present life on earth. Most commentators and theologians believe that theological knowledge was very limited at such an early stage, so they would not think it possible for Job to have bodily resurrection in view. (See notes on ch. 14 and 19:25-27.)

[37:11]  ⁷ tn The word “moisture” is drawn from רִי (ri) as a contraction for רְוִי (rÿvi). Others emended the text to get “hail” (NAB) or “lightning,” or even “the Creator.” For these, see the various commentaries. There is no reason to change the reading of the MT when it makes perfectly good sense.

[37:15]  ⁹ tn The verb is בְּשׂוּם (bÿsum, from שִׂים [sim, “set”]), so the idea is how God lays [or sets] [a command] for them. The suffix is proleptic, to be clarified in the second colon.

[37:15]  ¹⁰ tn Dhorme reads this “and how his stormcloud makes lightning to flash forth?”