Job 37:11-13

37:11 He loads the clouds with moisture; ¹ 

he scatters his lightning through the clouds.

37:12 The clouds ²  go round in circles,

wheeling about according to his plans,

to carry out ³  all that he commands them

over the face of the whole inhabited world.

37:13 Whether it is for punishment ⁴  for his land,

or whether it is for mercy,

he causes it to find its mark. ⁵ 

Genesis 7:11-12

7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month – on that day all the fountains of the great deep ⁶  burst open and the floodgates of the heavens ⁷  were opened. 7:12 And the rain fell ⁸  on the earth forty days and forty nights.

Proverbs 3:20

3:20 By his knowledge the primordial sea ⁹  was broken open, ¹⁰ 

and the clouds drip down dew. ¹¹ 

[37:11]  ¹ 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.

[37:12]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “that it may do.”

[37:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “rod,” i.e., a rod used for punishment.

[37:13]  ⁵ tn This is interpretive; Heb “he makes find it.” The lightning could be what is intended here, for it finds its mark. But R. Gordis (Job, 429) suggests man is the subject – let him find what it is for, i.e., the fate appropriate for him.

[7:11]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term תְּהוֹם (tÿhom, “deep”) refers to the watery deep, the salty ocean – especially the primeval ocean that surrounds and underlies the earth (see Gen 1:2).

[7:11]  ⁷ sn On the prescientific view of the sky reflected here, see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World (AnBib), 46.

[7:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “was.”

[3:20]  ⁹ sn The word תְּהוֹמוֹת (tÿhomot, “primordial sea”) alludes to the chaotic “deep” in Gen 1:2 (BDB 1063 s.v. תְּהוֹם 3). This was viewed in the ancient world as a force to be reckoned with. However, God not only formed it but controls it (see J. Emerton, “Spring and Torrent in Ps 74:15,” VT 15 [1965]: 125).

[3:20]  ¹⁰ sn This might refer to God’s action of dividing the waters to form the dry ground on the third day (Gen 1:9-10) or, less likely, to the breaking up of the fountains of the deep at the flood (Gen 7:11).

[3:20]  ¹¹ sn The two colons form a merism: The wisdom of God is behind all forces of nature, whether the violent breaking forth of its watery forces at creation or the provision of the gentle rain and dew throughout history (T. T. Perowne, Proverbs, 55).