Job 36:27-31

36:27 He draws up drops of water;

they distill ¹  the rain into its mist, ² 

36:28 which the clouds pour down

and shower on humankind abundantly.

36:29 Who can understand the spreading of the clouds,

the thunderings of his pavilion? ³ 

36:30 See how he scattered ⁴  his lightning ⁵  about him;

he has covered the depths ⁶  of the sea.

36:31 It is by these that he judges ⁷  the nations

and supplies food in abundance.

Job 37:1-6

37:1 At this also my heart pounds

and leaps from its place.

37:2 Listen carefully ⁸  to the thunder of his voice,

to the rumbling ⁹  that proceeds from his mouth.

37:3 Under the whole heaven he lets it go,

even his lightning to the far corners ¹⁰  of the earth.

37:4 After that a voice roars;

he thunders with an exalted voice,

and he does not hold back his lightning bolts ¹¹ 

when his voice is heard.

37:5 God thunders with his voice in marvelous ways; ¹² 

he does great things beyond our understanding. ¹³ 

37:6 For to the snow he says, ‘Fall ¹⁴  to earth,’

and to the torrential rains, ¹⁵  ‘Pour down.’ ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 10:13

10:13 When his voice thunders, ¹⁷  the heavenly ocean roars.

He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons. ¹⁸ 

He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain.

He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it. ¹⁹ 

Jeremiah 51:16

51:16 When his voice thunders, the waters in the heavens roar.

He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons.

He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain.

He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it.

[36:27]  ¹ tn The verb means “to filter; to refine,” and so a plural subject with the drops of water as the subject will not work. So many read the singular, “he distills.”

[36:27]  ² tn This word עֵד (’ed) occurs also in Gen 2:6. The suggestion has been that instead of a mist it represents an underground watercourse that wells up to water the ground.

[36:29]  ³ tn Heb “his booth.”

[36:30]  ⁴ tn The word actually means “to spread,” but with lightning as the object, “to scatter” appears to fit the context better.

[36:30]  ⁵ tn The word is “light,” but taken to mean “lightning.” Theodotion had “mist” here, and so most commentators follow that because it is more appropriate to the verb and the context.

[36:30]  ⁶ tn Heb “roots.”

[36:31]  ⁷ tn The verb is יָדִין (yadin, “he judges”). Houbigant proposedיָזוּן (yazun, “he nourishes”). This has found wide acceptance among commentators (cf. NAB). G. R. Driver retained the MT but gave a meaning “enriches” to the verb (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 88ff.).

[37:2]  ⁸ tn The imperative is followed by the infinitive absolute from the same root to express the intensity of the verb.

[37:2]  ⁹ tn The word is the usual word for “to meditate; to murmur; to groan”; here it refers to the low building of the thunder as it rumbles in the sky. The thunder is the voice of God (see Ps 29).

[37:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “wings,” and then figuratively for the extremities of garments, of land, etc.

[37:4]  ¹¹ tn The verb simply has the pronominal suffix, “them.” The idea must be that when God brings in all the thunderings he does not hold back his lightning bolts either.

[37:5]  ¹² tn The form is the Niphal participle, “wonders,” from the verb פָּלָא (pala’, “to be wonderful; to be extraordinary”). Some commentators suppress the repeated verb “thunders,” and supply other verbs like “shows” or “works,” enabling them to make “wonders” the object of the verb rather than leaving it in an adverbial role. But as H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 236) notes, no change is needed, for one is not surprised to find repetition in Elihu’s words.

[37:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “and we do not know.”

[37:6]  ¹⁴ tn The verb actually means “be” (found here in the Aramaic form). The verb “to be” can mean “to happen, to fall, to come about.”

[37:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and [to the] shower of rain and shower of rains, be strong.” Many think the repetition grew up by variant readings; several Hebrew mss delete the second pair, and so many editors do. But the repetition may have served to stress the idea that the rains were heavy.

[37:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Be strong.”

[10:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “At the voice of his giving.” The idiom “to give the voice” is often used for thunder (cf. BDB 679 s.v. נָתַן Qal.1.x).

[10:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “from the ends of the earth.”

[10:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he brings out the winds from his storehouses.”