Job 36:26

The Work and Wisdom of God

36:26 “Yes, God is great – beyond our knowledge! ¹ 

The number of his years is unsearchable.

Job 36:32

36:32 With his hands ²  he covers ³  the lightning,

and directs it against its target.

Job 38:25

38:25 Who carves out a channel for the heavy rains,

and a path for the rumble of thunder,

Psalms 148:8

148:8 O fire and hail, snow and clouds, ⁴ 

O stormy wind that carries out his orders, ⁵ 

Jeremiah 14:22

14:22 Do any of the worthless idols ⁶  of the nations cause rain to fall?

Do the skies themselves send showers?

Is it not you, O Lord our God, who does this? ⁷ 

So we put our hopes in you ⁸ 

because you alone do all this.”

Amos 4:7

4:7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. ⁹ 

I gave rain to one city, but not to another.

One field ¹⁰  would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.

Zechariah 10:1

The Restoration of the True People

10:1 Ask the Lord for rain in the season of the late spring rains ¹¹  – the Lord who causes thunderstorms – and he will give everyone showers of rain and green growth in the field.

[36:26]  ¹ tn The last part has the verbal construction, “and we do not know.” This clause is to be used adverbially: “beyond our understanding.”

[36:32]  ² tn R. Gordis (Job, 422) prefers to link this word with the later Hebrew word for “arch,” not “hands.”

[36:32]  ³ tn Because the image might mean that God grabs the lightning and hurls it like a javelin (cf. NLT), some commentators want to change “covers” to other verbs. Dhorme has “lifts” (נִשָּׂא [nissa’] for כִּסָּה [kissah]). This fit the idea of God directing the lightning bolts.

[148:8]  ⁴ tn In Ps 119:83 the noun refers to “smoke,” but here, where the elements of nature are addressed, the clouds, which resemble smoke, are probably in view.

[148:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “[that] does his word.”

[14:22]  ⁶ tn The word הֶבֶל (hevel), often translated “vanities”, is a common pejorative epithet for idols or false gods. See already in 8:19 and 10:8.

[14:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “Is it not you, O Lord our God?” The words “who does” are supplied in the translation for English style.

[14:22]  ⁸ tn The rhetorical negatives are balanced by a rhetorical positive.

[4:7]  ⁹ sn Rain…three months before the harvest refers to the rains of late March-early April.

[4:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “portion”; KJV, ASV “piece”; NASB “part.” The same word occurs a second time later in this verse.

[10:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the latter rain.” This expression refers to the last concentration of heavy rainfall in the spring of the year in Palestine, about March or April. Metaphorically and eschatologically (as here) the “latter rain” speaks of God’s outpouring of blessing in the end times (cf. Hos 6:3; Joel 2:21-25).