Job 36:32

36:32 With his hands ¹  he covers ²  the lightning,

and directs it against its target.

Job 38:12

38:12 Have you ever in your life ³  commanded the morning,

or made the dawn know ⁴  its place,

Job 37:12

37:12 The clouds ⁵  go round in circles,

wheeling about according to his plans,

to carry out ⁶  all that he commands them

over the face of the whole inhabited world.

[36:32]  ¹ tn R. Gordis (Job, 422) prefers to link this word with the later Hebrew word for “arch,” not “hands.”

[36:32]  ² 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.

[38:12]  ³ tn The Hebrew idiom is “have you from your days?” It means “never in your life” (see 1 Sam 25:28; 1 Kgs 1:6).

[38:12]  ⁴ tn The verb is the Piel of יָדַע (yada’, “to know”) with a double accusative.

[37:12]  ⁵ tn The words “the clouds” are supplied from v. 11; the sentence itself actually starts: “and it goes round,” referring to the cloud.

[37:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “that it may do.”