Job 37 commentary

The changes of the weather are the subject of a great deal of our thoughts and common talk; but how seldom do we think and speak of these things, as Elihu, with a regard to God, the director of them! We must notice the glory of God, not only in the thunder and lightning, but in the more common and less awful changes of the weather; as the snow and rain. Nature directs all creatures to shelter themselves from a storm; and shall man only be unprovided with a refuge? Oh that men would listen to the voice of God, who in many ways warns them to flee from the wrath to come; and invites them to accept his salvation, and to be happy. The ill opinion which men entertain of the Divine direction, peculiarly appears in their murmurs about the weather, though the whole result of the year proves the folly of their complaints. Believers should avoid this; no days are bad as God makes them, though we make many bad by our sins. (Job 37:14-20)

Due thoughts of the works of God will help to reconcile us to all his providences. As God has a powerful, freezing north wind, so he has a thawing, composing south wind: the Spirit is compared to both, because he both convinces and comforts, So 4:16. The best of men are much in the dark concerning the glorious perfections of the Divine nature and the Divine government. Those who, through grace, know much of God, know nothing, in comparison with what is to be known, and of what will be known, when that which is perfect is come.

Elihu concludes his discourse with some great sayings concerning the glory of God. Light always is, but is not always to be seen. When clouds come between, the sun is darkened in the clear day. The light of God's favour shines ever towards his faithful servants, though it be not always seen. Sins are clouds, and often hinder us from seeing that bright light which is in the face of God. Also, as to those thick clouds of sorrow which often darken our minds, the Lord hath a wind which passes and clears them away. What is that wind? It is his Holy Spirit. As the wind dispels and sweeps away the clouds which are gathered in the air, so the Spirit of God clears our souls from the clouds and fogs of ignorance and unbelief, of sin and lust. From all these clouds the Holy Spirit of God frees us in the work of regeneration. And from all the clouds which trouble our consciences, the Holy Spirit sets us free in the work of consolation. Now that God is about to speak, Elihu delivers a few words, as the sum of all his discourse. With God is terrible majesty. Sooner or later all men shall fear him.

CHAPTER 37

Job 37:1-24.

1. At this--when I hear the thundering of the Divine Majesty. Perhaps the storm already had begun, out of which God was to address Job (Job 38:1).

2. Hear attentively--the thunder (noise), &c., and then you will feel that there is good reason to tremble.

sound--muttering of the thunder.

3. directeth it--however zigzag the lightning's course; or, rather, it applies to the pealing roll of the thunder. God's all-embracing power.

ends--literally, "wings," "skirts," the habitable earth being often compared to an extended garment (Job 38:13; Is 11:12).

4. The thunderclap follows at an interval after the flash.

stay them--He will not hold back the lightnings (Job 37:3), when the thunder is heard [Maurer]. Rather, take "them" as the usual concomitants of thunder, namely, rain and hail [Umbreit] (Job 40:9).

5. (Job 36:26; Psa 65:6; 139:14). The sublimity of the description lies in this, that God is everywhere in the storm, directing it whither He will [Barnes]. See Psa 29:1-11, where, as here, the "voice" of God is repeated with grand effect. The thunder in Arabia is sublimely terrible.

6. Be--more forcible than "fall," as Umbreit translates Ge 1:3.

to the small rain, &c.--He saith, Be on the earth. The shower increasing from "small" to "great," is expressed by the plural "showers" (Margin), following the singular "shower." Winter rain (So 2:11).

7. In winter God stops man's out-of-doors activity.

sealeth--closeth up (Job 9:7). Man's "hands" are then tied up.

his work--in antithesis to man's own work ("hand") which at other times engages men so as to make them liable to forget their dependence on God. Umbreit more literally translates, That all men whom He has made (literally, "of His making") may be brought to acknowledgment."

8. remain--rest in their lairs. It is beautifully ordered that during the cold, when they could not obtain food, many lie torpid, a state wherein they need no food. The desolation of the fields, at God's bidding, is poetically graphic.

9. south--literally, "chambers"; connected with the south (Job 9:9). The whirlwinds are poetically regarded as pent up by God in His southern chambers, whence He sends them forth (so Job 38:22; Psa 135:7). As to the southern whirlwinds (see Is 21:1; Zec 9:14), they drive before them burning sands; chiefly from February to May.

the north--literally, "scattering"; the north wind scatters the clouds.

10. the breath of God--poetically, for the ice-producing north wind.

frost--rather, "ice."

straitened--physically accurate; frost compresses or contracts the expanded liquid into a congealed mass (Job 38:29, 30; Psa 147:17, 18).

11-13. How the thunderclouds are dispersed, or else employed by God, either for correction or mercy.

by watering--by loading it with water.

wearieth--burdeneth it, so that it falls in rain; thus "wearieth" answers to the parallel "scattereth" (compare, see on Job 37:9); a clear sky resulting alike from both.

bright cloud--literally, "cloud of his light," that is, of His lightning. Umbreit for "watering," &c., translates; "Brightness drives away the clouds, His light scattereth the thick clouds"; the parallelism is thus good, but the Hebrew hardly sanctions it.

14. (Psa 111:2).

15. when--rather, "how."

disposed them--lays His charge on these "wonders" (Job 37:14) to arise.

light--lightning.

shine--flash. How is it that light arises from the dark thundercloud?

16. Hebrew, "Hast thou understanding of the balancings," &c., how the clouds are poised in the air, so that their watery gravity does not bring them to the earth? The condensed moisture, descending by gravity, meets a warmer temperature, which dissipates it into vapor (the tendency of which is to ascend) and so counteracts the descending force.

perfect in knowledge--God; not here in the sense that Elihu uses it of himself (Job 36:4).

dost thou know--how, &c.

17. thy garments, &c.--that is, dost thou know how thy body grows warm, so as to affect thy garments with heat?

south wind--literally, "region of the south." "When He maketh still (and sultry) the earth (that is, the atmosphere) by (during) the south wind" (So 4:16).

18. with him--like as He does (Job 40:15).

spread out--given expanse to.

strong pieces--firm; whence the term "firmament" ("expansion," Ge 1:6, Margin; Is 44:24).

molten looking glass--image of the bright smiling sky. Mirrors were then formed of molten polished metal, not glass.

19. Men cannot explain God's wonders; we ought, therefore, to be dumb and not contend with God. If Job thinks we ought, "let him teach us, what we shall say."

order--frame.

darkness--of mind; ignorance. "The eyes are bewilderingly blinded, when turned in bold controversy with God towards the sunny heavens" (Job 37:18) [Umbreit].

20. What I a mortal say against God's dealings is not worthy of being told Him. In opposition to Job's wish to "speak" before God (Job 13:3, 18-22).

if ... surely he shall be swallowed up--The parallelism more favors Umbreit, "Durst a man speak (before Him, complaining) that he is (without cause) being destroyed?"

21. cleanseth--that is, cleareth the air of clouds. When the "bright light" of the sun, previously not seen through "clouds," suddenly shines out from behind them, owing to the wind clearing them away, the effect is dazzling to the eye; so if God's majesty, now hidden, were suddenly revealed in all its brightness, it would spread darkness over Job's eyes, anxious as he is for it (compare, see on Job 37:19) [Umbreit]. It is because now man sees not the bright sunlight (God's dazzling majesty), owing to the intervening "clouds" (Job 26:9), that they dare to wish to "speak" before God (Job 37:20). Prelude to God's appearance (Job 38:1). The words also hold true in a sense not intended by Elihu, but perhaps included by the Holy Ghost. Job and other sufferers cannot see the light of God's countenance through the clouds of trial: but the wind will soon clear them off, and God shall appear again: let them but wait patiently, for He still shines, though for a time they see Him not (see on Job 37:23).

22. Rather, "golden splendor." Maurer translates "gold." It is found in northern regions. But God cannot be "found out," because of His "Majesty" (Job 37:23). Thus the twenty-eighth chapter corresponds; English Version is simpler.

the north--Brightness is chiefly associated with it (see on Job 23:9). Here, perhaps, because the north wind clears the air (Pr 25:23). Thus this clause answers to the last of Job 37:21; as the second of this verse to the first of Job 37:21. Inverted parallelism. (See Is 14:13; Psa 48:2).

with God--rather, "upon God," as a garment (Psa 104:1, 2).

majesty--splendor.

23. afflict--oppressively, so as to "pervert judgment" as Job implied (see on Job 8:3); but see on Job 37:21, end of note. The reading, "He answereth not," that is, gives no account of His dealings, is like a transcriber's correction, from Job 33:13, Margin.

24. do--rather, "ought."

wise--in their own conceits.

My heart trembleth - This is what the Septuagint has anticipated; see under Job 36:28 (note). A proper consideration of God's majesty in the thunder and lightning is enough to appall the stoutest heart, confound the wisest mind, and fill all with humility and devotion. This, to the middle of Job 37:5, should be added to the preceding chapter, as it is a continuation of the account of the thunder and lightning given at the conclusion of that chapter. Our present division is as absurd as it is unfortunate.

Hear attentively - "Hear with hearing." The words seem to intimate that there was actually at that time a violent storm of thunder and lightning, and that the successive peals were now breaking over the house, and the lightning flashing before their eyes. The storm continued till Elihu had finished, and out of that storm the Almighty spoke. See the beginning of the succeeding chapter, Job 38 (note).

The noise of his voice - The sudden clap.

And the sound that goeth out - The peal or continued rattling, pounding, and thumping, to the end of the peal. The whole is represented as the voice of God himself, and the thunder is immediately issuing from his mouth.

He directeth it under the whole heaven - He directeth it (the lightning) under the whole heaven, in the twinkling of an eye from east to west; and its light - the reflection of the flash, not the lightning, unto the ends of the earth, so that a whole hemisphere seems to see it at the same instant.

After it a voice roareth - After the flash has been seen, the peal is heard; and this will be more or fewer seconds after the peal, in proportion to the distance of the thunder cloud from the ear. Lightning traverses any space without any perceivable succession of time; nothing seems to be any obstacle to its progress. A multitude of persons taking hands, the first and the last connected with the electric machine, all feel the shock in the same instant; and were there a chain as conductor to go round the globe, the last would feel the shock in the same moment as the first. But as sound depends on the undulations of the air for its propagation, and is known to travel at the rate of only 1142 feet in a second; consequently, if the flash were only 1142 feet from the spectator, it would be seen in one second, or one swing of the pendulum, before the sound could reach the ear, though the clap and the flash take place in the same instant, and if twice this distance, two seconds, and so on. It is of some consequence to know that lightning, at a considerable distance, suppose six or eight seconds of time, is never known to burn, kill or do injury. When the flash and the clap immediately succeed each other, then there is strong ground for apprehension, as the thunder cloud is near. If the thunder cloud be a mile and a half distant, it is, I believe, never known to kill man or beast, or to do any damage to buildings, either by throwing them down or burning them. Now its distance may be easily known by means of a pendulum clock, or watch that has seconds. When the flash is seen, count the seconds till the clap is heard. Then compute: If only one second is counted, then the thunder cloud is within 1142 feet, or about 380 yards; if two seconds, then its distance is 2284 feet, or 761 yards; if three seconds, then 3426 feet, or 1142 yards; if four seconds, then the cloud is distant 4568 feet, or 1522 yards; if five seconds, then the distance is 5710 feet, or 1903 yards; if six seconds, then the distance is 6852 feet, or 2284 yards, one mile and nearly one-third; if seven seconds, then the distance of the cloud is 7994 feet, or 2665 yards, or one mile and a half, and 25 yards. Beyond this distance lightning has not been known to do any damage, the fluid being too much diffused, and partially absorbed, in its passage over electric bodies, i.e., those which are not fully impregnated by the electric matter, and which receive their full charge when they come within the electric attraction of the lightning. For more on the rain produced by thunder storms, see on Job 38:25 (note). This scale may be carried on at pleasure, by adding to the last sum for every second 1142 feet, and reducing to yards and miles as above, allowing 1760 yards to one mile.

He thundereth with the voice of his excellency - גאונו geono, of his majesty: nor is there a sound in nature more descriptive of, or more becoming, the majesty of God, than that of Thunder. We hear the breeze in its rustling, the rain in its pattering, the hail in its rattling, the wind in its hollow howlings, the cataract in its dash, the bull in his bellowing, the lion in his roar; but we hear God, the Almighty, the Omnipresent, in the continuous peal of Thunder! This sound, and this sound only, becomes the majesty of Jehovah.

And he will not stay them - ולא יעקבם velo yeahkebem, and he hath not limited or circumscribed them. His lightnings light the world; literally, the whole world. The electric fluid is diffused through all nature, and everywhere art can exhibit it to view. To his thunder and lightning, therefore, he has assigned no limits. And when his voice soundeth, when the lightning goes forth, who shall assign its limits, and who can stop its progress? It is, like God, Irresistible.

God thundereth marvellously with his voice - This is the conclusion of Elihu's description of the lightning and thunder: and here only should chapter 36 have ended. He began, Job 36:29, with the noise of God's tabernacle; and he ends here with the marvellous thundering of Jehovah. Probably the writer of the book of Job had seen the description of a similar thunder storm as given by the psalmist, Psa 77:16-19 : - Psa 77:16 The waters saw thee, O God!The waters saw thee, and were afraid.Yea, the deeps were affrighted! Psa 77:17 The clouds poured out water;The ethers sent forth a sound;Yea, thine arrows went abroad. Psa 77:18 The voice of thy thunder was through the expanse:The lightnings illumined the globe;The earth trembled and shook! Psa 77:19 Thy way is in the sea,And thy paths on many waters;But thy footsteps are not known.

Great things doeth he - This is the beginning of a new paragraph; and relates particularly to the phenomena which are afterwards mentioned. All of them wondrous things; and, in many respects, to us incomprehensible.

For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth - Snow is generally defined, "A well-known meteor, formed by the freezing of the vapours in the atmosphere." We may consider the formation of snow thus: - A cloud of vapours being condensed into drops, these drops, becoming too heavy to be suspended in the atmosphere, descend; and, meeting with a cold region of the air, they are frozen, each drop shooting into several points. These still continuing their descent, and meeting with some intermitting gales of a warmer air, are a little thawed, blunted, and again, by falling into colder air, frozen into clusters, or so entangled with each other as to fall down in what we call flakes.

Snow differs from hail and hoar-frost in being crystallized: this appears on examining a flake of snow with a magnifying glass; when the whole of it will appear to be composed of fine spicula or points diverging like rays from a center. I have often observed the particles of snow to be of a regular figure, for the most part beautiful stars of six points as clear and transparent as ice. On each of these points are other collateral points, set at the same angles as the main points themselves, though some are irregular, the points broken, and some are formed of the fragments of other regular stars. I have observed snow to fall sometimes entirely in the form of separate regular six-pointed stars, without either clusters or flakes, and each so large as to be the eighth of an inch in diameter.

The lightness of snow is owing to the excess of its surface, when compared with the matter contained under it.

Its whiteness is owing to the small particles into which it is divided: for take ice, opaque almost to blackness, and pound it fine, and it becomes as white as snow.

The immediate cause of the formation of snow is not well understood: it has been attributed to electricity; and hail is supposed to owe its more compact form to a more intense electricity, which unites the particles of hail more closely than the moderate electricity does those of snow. But rain, snow, hail, frost, ice, etc., have all one common origin; they are formed out of the vapours which have been exhaled by heat from the surface of the waters.

Snow, in northern countries, is an especial blessing of Providence; for, by covering the earth, it prevents corn and other vegetables from being destroyed by the intense cold of the air in the winter months; and especially preserves them from cold piercing winds. It is not a fact that it possesses in itself any fertilizing quality, such as nitrous salts, according to vulgar opinion: its whole use is covering the vegetables from intense cold, and thus preventing the natural heat of the earth from escaping, so that the intense cold cannot freeze the juices in the tender tubes of vegetables, which would rupture those tubes, and so destroy the plant.

Mr. Good alters the punctuation of this verse, and translates thus: -

Behold, he saith to the snow, Be!

On earth then falleth it.

To the rain, - and it falleth:

The rains of his might.

By the small rain, we may understand drizzling showers: by the rain of his strength, sudden thunder storms, when the rain descends in torrents: or violent rain from dissipating water-spouts.

He sealeth up the hand of every man - After all that has been said, and much of it most learnedly, on this verse, I think that the act of freezing is probably intended; that when the earth is bound up by intense frost, the hand, יד yad, labor, of every man is sealed up; he can do no more labor in the field, till the south wind blow, by which a thaw takes place. While the earth is in this state of rigidity, the beasts go into their dens, and remain in their places, Job 37:8, some of them sleeping out the winter in a state of torpor, and others of them feeding on the stores which they had collected in autumn. However, the passage may mean no more than by the severity of the rains beasts are drawn to their covers; and man is obliged to intermit all his labors. The mighty rains are past. Who would have thought that on this verse, as its Scriptural foundation, the doctrine of chiromancy is built! God has so marked the hand of every man by the lines thereon exhibited, that they tell all the good or bad fortune they shall have during life; and he has done this that all men, by a judicious examination of their hands, may know his work! On this John Taisnier, a famous mathematician, lawyer, musician, and poet laureate of Cologne, has written a large folio volume, with more hands in it than fell to the lot of Briareus: - printed at Cologne, 1683.

Out of the south cometh the whirlwind - See the note on Job 9:9. What is rendered south here, is there rendered chambers. Mr. Good translates here, the utmost zone. The Chaldee: - "From the supreme chamber the commotion shall come; and from the cataracts of Arcturus the cold." What the whirlwind, סופה suphah, is, we know not. It might have been a wind peculiar to that district; and it is very possible that it was a scorching wind, something like the simoom.

By the breath of God frost is given - The freezing of water, though it is generally allowed to be the effect of cold, and has been carefully examined by the most eminent philosophers, is still involved in much mystery; and is a very proper subject to be produced among the great things which God doeth, and which we cannot comprehend, Job 37:5. Water, when frozen, becomes solid, and increases considerably in bulk. The expansive power in freezing is so great, that, if water be confined in a gun-barrel, it will split the solid metal throughout its whole length. Bombshells have been filled with water, and plugged tight, and exposed to cold air, when they have been rent, though the shell has been nearly two inches thick! Attempts have been made to account for this; but they have not, as yet, been generally successful. The breath of God freezes the waters; and that breath thaws them. It is the work of Omnipotence, and there, for the present, we must leave it.

The breadth of the waters is straitened - This has been variously translated; מוצק mutsak, which we here render straitened, we translate Job 37:18 melted. Mr. Good thinks that the idea of a mirror is implied, or something molten; and on this ground it may be descriptive of the state of water formed into ice. He therefore translates: -

By the blast of God the frost congealeth,

And the expanse of the waters into a mirror.

I have only to observe, that in the act of freezing wind or air is necessary; for it has been observed that water which lay low in ponds did not freeze till some slight current of air fell on and ruffled the surface, when it instantly shot into ice.

By watering he wearieth the thick cloud - Perhaps it would be better to say, The brightness ברי beri, dissipates the cloud; or, if we follow our version, By watering the earth he wearieth, wearieth out or emptieth, the thick cloud - causes it to pour down all its contents upon the earth, that they may cause it to bring forth and bud. The Vulgate understood it differently: Frumentum desiderat nubes, et nubes spargunt lumen suum. "The grain desireth the clouds; and the clouds scatter abroad their light."

And it is turned round about by his counsels - The original is difficult: והוא מסבות מתהפך בתחבולתו vehu mesibboth mithhappech bethachbulothav; which has been thus paraphrased: And he - the sun, makes revolutions - causes the heavenly bodies to revolve round him, turning round himself - turning round his own axis, by his attachments - his attractive and repulsive influences, by which the heavenly bodies revolve round him, and by which, as if strongly tied to their center, בחבל bechebel, with a cable or rope, they are projected to their proper distances, and prevented from coming too near, or flying off too far.

That they may do whatsoever he commandeth them - That men may perform his will, availing themselves of the influences of the sun, moon, times, seasons, etc., to cultivate the earth for the sustenance of themselves and their cattle.

Upon the face of the world in the earth - אל פני תבל ארצה al peney thebel aretsah, over the surface of the habitable world. Perhaps the above exposition may appear to be too far-fetched; and possibly the passage refers only to the revolutions of the seasons, and the operations connected with them.

He causeth it to come - The Vulgate translates the text thus: Sive in una tribu, sine in terra sua, sive in quocunque loco misericordiae suae eas jusserit inveniri. "Whether in one tribe, or whether in his own land, or in whatsoever place of his mercy he has commanded them to come." In the preceding verse it is said that God conducts the clouds according to the orders of his counsels, whithersoever he pleases: and here it is added that, when he designs to heap favors upon any land, he commands the clouds to go thither, and pour out on it their fertilizing showers. See Calmet. The Vulgate certainly gives a good sense, and our common version is also clear and intelligble; but there are doubts whether the Hebrew will bear this meaning. Here it is stated that God sends the rain either for correction, לשבט leshebet, which signifies rod, staff, tribe, and is here taken as the symbol of correction, he sends rain sometimes as a judgment, inundating certain lands, and sweeping away their produce by irresistible floods: or for his land, לארצו leartso, his own land, Palestine, the place of his favored people: or for mercy, לחסד lechesed; when a particular district has been devoured by locusts, or cursed with drought, God, in his mercy, sends fertilizing rains to such places to restore the ears which the caterpillars have eaten, and to make the desert blossom like the garden of the Lord. Some think that Job refers to the curse brought upon the old world by the waters of the deluge. Now although God has promised that there shall no more be a flood of waters to destroy the whole earth; yet we know he can, very consistently with his promise, inundate any particular district; or, by a superabundance of rain, render the toil of the husbandman in any place vain. Therefore, still his rain may come for judgment, for mercy, or for the especial help of his people or Church.

Hearken unto this - Hear what I say on the part of God. Stand still - Enter into deep contemplation on the subject.

And consider - Weigh every thing; examine separately and collectively; and draw right conclusions from the whole.

The wondrous works of God - Endless in their variety; stupendous in their structure; complicated in their parts; indescribable in their relations and connections; and incomprehensible in the mode of their formation, in the cohesion of their parts, and in the ends of their creation.

Dost thou know when God disposed them - Dost thou know the laws by which they are governed; and the causes which produce such and such phenomena?

And caused the light of his cloud to shine? - Almost every critic of note understands this of the rainbow, which God gave as a sign that the earth should no more be destroyed by water. See Gen 9:13 (note), and the note there.

Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds - How are the clouds suspended in the atmosphere? Art thou so well acquainted with the nature of evaporation, and the gravity of the air at different heights, to support different weights of aqueous vapor, so as to keep them floating for a certain portion of time, and then let them down to water the earth; dost thou know these things so as to determine the laws by which they are regulated?

Wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge - This is a paraphrase. Mr. Good's translation is much better: - "Wonders, perfections of wisdom!"

How thy garments are warm - What are warmth and cold? How difficult this question! Is heat incontestably a substance, and is cold none? I am afraid we are in the dark on both these subjects. The existence of caloric, as a substance, is supposed to be demonstrated. Much, satisfactorily, has been said on this subject; but is it yet beyond doubt? I fear not. But supposing this question to be set at rest, is it demonstrated that cold is only a quality, the mere absence of heat? If it be demonstrated that there is such a substance as caloric, is it equally certain that there is no such substance as frigoric? But how do our garments keep us warm? By preventing the too great dissipation of the natural heat. And why is it that certain substances, worked into clothing, keep us warmer than others? Because they are bad conductors of caloric. Some substances conduct off the caloric or natural heat from the body; others do not conduct it at all, or imperfectly; hence those keep us warmest which, being bad conductors of caloric, do not permit the natural heat to be thrown off. In these things we know but little, after endless cares, anxieties, and experiments!

But is the question yet satisfactorily answered, why the north wind brings cold, and the south wind heat? If it be so to my readers, it is not so to me; yet I know the reasons which are alleged.

Hast thou with him spread out the sky - Wert thou with him when he made the expanse; fitted the weight to the winds; proportioned the aqueous to the terrene surface of the globe; the solar attraction to the quantum of vapours necessary; to be stored up in the clouds, in order to be occasionally deposited in fertilizing showers upon the earth? and then dost thou know how gravity and elasticity should be such essential properties of atmospheric air, that without them and their due proportions, we should neither have animal nor vegetable life?

Strong - as a molten looking-glass? - Like a molten mirror. The whole concave of heaven, in a clear day or brilliant night, being like a mass of polished metal, reflecting or transmitting innumerable images.

Teach us what we shall say unto him? - Thou pretendest to be so very wise, and to know every thing about God, pray make us as wise as thyself, that we may be able to approach with thy boldness the Sovereign of the world; and maintain our cause with thy confidence before him. As for our parts, we are ignorant; and, on all these subjects, are enveloped with darkness. Mr. Good translates: - "Teach us how we may address him,

When arrayed in robes of darkness."

It is a strong and biting irony, however we take it.

Shall it be told him that I speak? - Shall I dare to whisper even before God? And suppose any one were to accuse me before him for what I have spoken of him, though that has been well intended, how should I be able to stand in his presence? I should be swallowed up in consternation, and consumed with the splendor of his majesty. But in what state art thou? What hast thou been doing? Thou hast arraigned God for his government of the world; thou hast found fault with the dispensations of his providence; thou hast even charged him with cruelty! What will become of Thee?

And now men see not the bright light - Mr. Good gives the sense clearer: - "Even now we cannot look at the light

When it is resplendent in the heavens.

And a wind from the north hath passed along and cleared them."

Elihu seems to refer to the insufferable brightness of the sun. Can any man look at the sun shining in his strength, when a clear and strong wind has purged the sky from clouds and vapours? Much less can any gaze on the majesty of God. Every creature must sink before him. What execrably dangerous folly in man to attempt to arraign His conduct!

Fair weather cometh out of the north - Is this any version of the original מצפון זהב יאתה mitstsaphon zahab yeetheh? which is rendered by almost every version, ancient and modern, thus, or to this effect: "From the north cometh gold." Calmet justly remarks, that in the time of Moses, Job, and Solomon, and for a long time after, gold was obtained from Colchis, Armenia, Phasis, and the land of Ophir, which were all north of Judea and Idumea; and are in the Scriptures ordinarily termed the north country. "But what relation can there be between, Gold cometh out of the north, and, With God is terrible majesty?" Answer: Each thing has its properties, and proper characteristics, which distinguish it; and each country has its advantages. Gold, for instance, comes from the northern countries; so praises offered to the Supreme God should be accompanied with fear and trembling: and as this metal is from the north, and northern countries are the places whence it must be procured; so terrible majesty belongs to God, and in him alone such majesty is eternally resident. As זהב zahob, which we translate gold, (see Job 28:16), comes from a root that signifies to be clear, bright, resplendent, etc.; Mr. Good avails himself of the radical idea, and translates it splendor: - "Splendor itself is with God;

Insufferable majesty."

But he alters the text a little to get this meaning, particularly in the word יאתה yeetheh, which we translate cometh, and which he contends is the pronoun אתה itself; the י yod, as a performative, here being, as he thinks, an interpolation. This makes a very good sense; but none of the ancient versions understood the place thus, and none of the MSS. countenance this very learned critic's emendation.

Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out - This is a very abrupt exclamation, and highly descriptive of the state of mind in which Elihu was at this time; full of solemnity, wonder, and astonishment, at his own contemplation of this "great First Cause, least understood." The Almighty! we cannot find him out.

Excellent in power and in judgment - We must not pretend to comprehend his being, the mode of his existence, the wisdom of his counsels, nor the mysteries of his conduct.

He will not afflict - לא יענה la yeanneh, he will not Answer. He will give account of none of his matters to us. We cannot comprehend his motives, nor the ends he has in view.

Men do therefore - Therefore men, אנשים anashim, wretched, miserable, ignorant, sinful men, should fear him.

He respecteth not any - No man is valuable in his sight on account of his wisdom; for what is his wisdom when compared with that of the Omniscient? Whatever good is in man, God alone is the author of it. Let him, therefore, that glorieth, glory in the Lord.

Thus ends the speech of Elihu; a speech of a widely different description, on the whole, from that of the three friends of Job who had spoken so largely before him. In the speeches of Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad, there is little besides a tissue of borrowed wise sayings, and ancient proverbs and maxims, relative to the nature of God, and his moral government of the world. In the speech of Elihu every thing appears to be original; he speaks from a deep and comprehensive mind, that had profoundly studied the subjects on which he discoursed. His descriptions of the Divine attributes, and of the wonderful works of God, are correct, splendid, impressive, and inimitable. Elihu, having now come nearly to a close, and knowing that the Almighty would appear and speak for himself, judiciously prepares for and announces his coming by the thunder and lightning of which he has given so terrific and majestic a description in this and the preceding chapter. The evidences of the Divine presence throng on his eyes and mind; the incomprehensible glory and excellency of God confound all his powers of reasoning and description; he cannot arrange his words by reason of darkness; and he concludes with stating, that to poor weak man God must for ever be incomprehensible, and to him a subject of deep religious fear and reverence. Just then the terrible majesty of the Lord appears! Elihu is silent! The rushing mighty wind, for which the description of the thunder and lightning had prepared poor, confounded, astonished Job, proclaims the presence of Jehovah: and out of this whirlwind God answers for and proclaims himself! Reader, canst thou not conceive something of what these men felt? Art thou not astonished, perplexed, confounded, in reading over these descriptions of the thunder of God's power? Prepare, then, to hear the voice of God himself out of this whirlwind.

Hear - It is probable that while Elihu was speaking it thundered, and that tempest was begun, wherewith God ushered in his speech. And this might occasion his return to that subject of which he had discoursed before. Voice - The thunder is called God's voice. Because by it God speaks to the children of men, to fear before him. Mouth - That is produced by God's word or command, which is often signified by his mouth.

Directeth - His voice: which he guideth like an arrow to the mark, that it may do that work for which he sends it.

After - After the lightning, which is seen before the thunder is hard. Them - The lightnings spoken of in the beginning of the verse.

Strength - Those storms of rain which come with great force and irresistible violence.

Sealeth - By these snows and rains he drives men out of the fields, and seals or binds up their hands from their work. That - They may seriously contemplate on these, and other great and glorious works of God.

Cold - Freezing winds.

The waters - The waters which had freely spread themselves before, are congealed and bound up in crystal fetters.

Watering - The earth. They spend themselves and are exhausted watering the earth, until they are weary. Wearieth - Them with much water, and making them to go long journeys to water remote parts, and at last to empty themselves there: all which things make men weary; and therefore are here said to make the clouds weary by a common figure. Scattereth - As for the white and lightsome clouds, he scatters and dissolves them by the wind or sun.

Turned - The clouds are carried about to this or that place. Not by chance (though nothing seems to be more casual than the motions of the clouds) but by his order and governance.

Correction - To scourge or correct men by immoderate showers. Earth - The whole earth, which is said to be the Lord's, Psal 24:1 50:12, and so this may denote a general judgment by excessive rains inflicted upon the earth, and all its inhabitants, even the universal deluge, which came in great measure out of the clouds. Mercy - For the benefit of mankind and for the cooling of the air and improving the fruits of the earth.

Consider - If there be so much matter of wonder in the most obvious works of God, how wonderful must his secret counsels be?

Them - The things before mentioned, the clouds, rain, snow, and other meteors. Did God acquaint thee with his counsels in the producing and ordering of them? His cloud - Probably the rainbow, seated in a cloud, which may well be called God's cloud, because therein God puts his bow, Gen 9:13.

Balancings - How God doth as it were weigh the clouds in balances, so that although they are full of water, yet they are kept up by the thin air.

Quieteth - The air about the earth. From the south - By the sun's coming into the southern parts, which makes the air quiet and warm.

With him - Wast thou his assistant in spreading out the sky like a canopy over the earth? Strong - Which though it be very thin and transparent, yet is also firm and compact and steadfast. Looking glass - Made of brass and steel, as the manner then was. Smooth and polished, without the least flaw. In this, as in a glass, we may behold the glory of God and the wisdom of his handy - work.

Teach us - If thou canst. Say unto him - Of these things. Order - To maintain discourse with him, both because of the darkness of the matter, God's counsels being a great depth; and because of the darkness of our minds.

Shall - I send a challenge to God, or a message that I am ready to debate with him concerning his proceedings? Speak - If a man should be so bold to enter the lists with God. Swallowed up - With the sense of his infinite majesty.

Light - The sun; which is emphatically called light, and here the bright light: which men cannot behold or gaze on, when the sky is very clear: and therefore it is not strange if we cannot see God, or discern his counsels and ways. Them - The sky by driving away those clouds which darkened it.

North - From the northern winds which scatter the clouds, and clear the sky. Elihu concludes with some short, but great sayings, concerning the glory of God. He speaks abruptly and in haste, because it should seem, he perceived God was approaching, and presumed he was about to take the work into his own hands.

Find - We cannot comprehend him: his power, wisdom, justice, and his counsels proceeding from them are past our finding out. Power - Therefore as he doth not need any unrighteous action to advance himself, so he cannot do it, because all such things are acts of weakness. Judgment - In the just administration of judgment, he never did, nor can exercise that power unjustly, as Job seemed to insinuate. Afflict - Without just cause.

Fear - Fear or reverence him, and humbly submit to him, and not presume to quarrel or dispute with him. Wise of heart - Wise in their own eyes.

1. AT this also my heart trembleth, and is moved out of his place .

Of which I have already spoken and am now to speak further, to wit, the Thunder which hath oft▪ times made even Atheists, and other wicked men to tremble with a fear of horrour, and good men to tremble with a fear of reverence and a due dread of God's Judgments.

Leaps and beats excessively, as if it would leap out of my Body.

2. Hear attentively the noise of his voice , and the sound that goeth out of his mouth .

It seems not improbable that whilst Elihu was speaking it Thundred greatly, and that Tempest was begun, wherewith God ushered in his Speech, as it here follows, Chap. 38. 1. and that this occasioned his return to that subject of which he had discoursed before, and his exhortation to them to mind it with deeper attention.

Or, his Voice (to wit, the Thunder, which is called a Voice, Exod. 20. 18▪ and Gods Voice, Psal. 29. 4.) with trembling; because the Thunder is an effect or evidence of God's mighty Power and oft-times of his Anger also.

As the voice (and Thunder is God's Voice) goeth out of Man's Mouth. Or, that is produced by God's word or command, which is oft signified by his Mouth.

Marginal references: Heb. hear in hearing.; Heb. [illegible: 1+ letters]is voice with trembling.

3. He directeth it under the whole heaven , and his lightning unto the ends of the earth .

To wit, his Voice; which he shooteth or guideth like an Arrow to the mark, so disposing it that it may do that work for which he sends it.

Far and wide through all the parts of this lower world.

From one end of the Heaven to the opposite end or part of the Earth, as from East to West, Mat. 24. 27.

Marginal references: Heb. light.; Heb. wings of the earth.

4. After it a voice roareth: he thundreth with the voice of his excellency, and he will not stay them when his voice is heard.

i. e. After the Lightning. For though the Thunder be in order of Nature before the Lightning, yet the Lightning is seen before the Thunder is heard.

Or, with his excellent, or high, or lofty Voice, both loud and full of Majesty and awfulness.

Or, delay. Heb. take them by the [illegible: 1+ letters]eel, as Iacob did Esau in the Womb, to delay or stop him from entring into the World before him.

Either 1. the Lightnings spoken of in the beginning of the Verse. But these do not stay till his Voice b[illegible: 1+ letters] heard, but come before it. Or rather 2. The Rains and storms, of which he spoke before and will speak again, v. 6.

Marginal references: Psal. 29. 3.

5. God thundreth marvellously with his voice: great things doth he, which we cannot comprehend .

With a wonderful and terrible noise, and so as to produce many wonderful effects, as the breaking down of great and strong Trees or Buildings, the killing of men in a stupendious manner, &c.

Even in the course of Nature and in visible things: which all men see, but scarce any can give the true and satisfactory reasons of them, for the greatest Philosophers speak onely by guess, and are greatly divided among themselves about them. And therefore it is not strange if the secret and deep counsels of Divine Providence be out of our reach; and it is great arrogancy in thee, O Iob, to censure them because thou dost not fully understand them.

Marginal references: Chap. 5. 9. & 36. 26.

6. For he saith to the snow, be thou on the earth : likewise to the small rain: and to the great rain of his strength .

By his powerful Word and Will the Snow is made in the Air, and falls upon the Earth where and when he seeth fit.

i. e. Those great storms or showers of Rain which come with great force and irresistible violence.

Marginal references: Psal. 14[illegible: 1+ letters]. 16, 17▪; Heb. a[illegible: 1+ letters]d to the shower of Rain and [illegible: 1+ letters]o the showers of [illegible: 1 word] of his stre[illegible: 1+ letters]th.

7. He Sealeth up the hand of every man , that all men may know his work .

By these great Snows and Rains he drives men out of the Fields, and seals or binds up their hands from all that work, and drives them home to their Houses, and in a manner shuts them up there. See Gen. 7. 16. Exod. 9. 19. Or, By his Hand, or Power (i. e. By those powerful works of his Hand here mentioned) he s[illegible: 1+ letters]aleth, or shutteth up, or keepeth close every man, to wit, in his House, as the Beasts in their Dens, v. 8.

That men being hindered from action and their own work, and so being idle and at perfect leisure may fall to a serious contemplation of these, and other great and glorious works of God, Or, that he (i. e. every man, as was now expressed) may know (or enquire into or take an account of) [illegible: 1+ letters]ll his work-men: for which the proper season is when they are all hindred from their work, and brought together into the House.

8. Then the beasts go into dens , and remain in their places.

In great Rains or deep Snows.

For shelter and comfort.

9. Out of the south cometh the whirlwind : and cold out of the north.

Heb. out of the inner Chamber; as the Southern part of the World is called, because in a great part it was, and is hid and unknown to those who live in the Northern Hemisphear, in which Iob's habitation lay; Or, out of the Chambers of the South, as it is more largely expressed, Iob 9. 9. for this is opposed to the North in the following Clause.

Violent and stormy Winds: which in those parts most frequently came out of the South, whence they are called whirlwinds of the South, Zech. 9. 14. So also Isa. 21. 1.

i. e. Cold and freezing winds, which generally come from that quarter.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] the Chamber.; Heb. [illegible: 1 word] ▪ ing wi[illegible: 1+ letters]ds.

10. By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitned .

i. e. By the Word of God, as this very Phrase is explained, Psal. 33. 6. By his will or appointment, to which as the Principal cause, all these works are ascribed.

The Frost dries up the Waters in great measure, and bringeth the remainder into a narrower compass, as we see.

Marginal references: Chap. 38. 29▪ 3[illegible: 1+ letters]. Psal. 147. 17. 18.

11. Also by watering he wearieth the thick clouds : he scattereth his bright cloud .

To wit, the Earth. By causing them first to receive and return, and then to pour forth abundance of water.

By filling and burdening them with much Water, and making them to go long journeys to water remote parts, and at last to spend and empty themselves there: all which things make men weary; and therefore are here said to make the Clouds weary by a common figure called Prosopopaeia.

As for the white and lightsome Clouds (which are opposed to the thick and black Clouds in the former Clause) he scattereth and dissolveth them by the Wind or Sun. Or, he scattereth other Clouds by his light, i. e. by the beams of the Sun. So he gathereth some and scattereth others, as he pleaseth, causing either clear, or dark, and rainy weather.

Marginal references: Or [illegible: 1 word] w[illegible: 1+ letters]arieth.; Heb. t[illegible: 1+ letters]e [illegible: 1 word] of his light.; Or, t[illegible: 1+ letters]e [illegible: 1 word] scatter[illegible: 1+ letters] [illegible: 1 word] Rain. Isa. 18. 4.

12. And it is turned round about by his counsels : that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the Earth.

The Clouds (now mentioned) are carried about to this or that place.

Not by chance (though nothing seems to be more casual and uncertain than the motions of the Clouds) but by his order and governance.

Either be dispersed and pass away without effect to the disappointment of the Husbandmens hopes, or be dissolved in sweet and fruitful showers.

13. He causeth it to come , whether for correction , or for his land , or for mercy .

Heb. He maketh it (to wit, the Cloud or Clouds, and the Rain which is in it) to find, to wit, a path, or to find out the Persons or place to which God intends either good or hurt by it.

Heb for a rod, to scourge or correct men by immoderate showers. Or, for a Tribe, or certain Portion of Land, which God intends particularly to punish in that kind.

i. e. For God's Land whereby he understands, either 1. the Land which he favoureth, and where his Servants live, such as Canaan was, which for that reason God blessed with rain, as is noted, Deut. 11. 12. Psal. 68. 9, 10. But in Iob's time God's People were not in Canaan, but in Egypt, where little or no Rain fell. or 2. the uninhabited or desert parts of the World, which may be called Gods Land peculiarly, because it is immediately and onely under Gods care as being not regarded nor possessed by any man. For it is noted as a special act of God's Providence that he causeth Rain to fall upon such places, Iob 38. 26, 27▪ Or 3. his Earth, as it may be rendred, to wit, the whole Earth, which is said to be the Lords, Psal. 24. 1. & 50. 12. and which may be here opposed to a Tribe, or little part of the Earth. And so this may note a general judgment by excessive Rains inflicted upon the whole Earth and all its Inhabitants, even the universal Deluge, which then was in a manner of fresh memory, which came in a great measure out of the Clouds. And thus these two first members speak of correction, and the last of Mercy.

For the comfort and benefit of Mankind by cooling and cleansing the Air and refreshing and improving all the fruits of the Earth, and other ways.

Marginal references: Exod. 9. 18, [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. 1[illegible: 1+ letters]. 18. 1[illegible: 1+ letters].; [illegible: 1 span].

14. Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God .

If there be so much matter of wonder and adoration in the most obvious and sensible works of God, how wonderful must his deep and secret counsels and judgments be? And therefore it would better become thee humbly to admire, and quietly to submit to them, than to murmur or quarrel with them.

15. Dost thou know when God disposed them , and caused the light of his cloud to shine ?

To wit, the things before mentioned, the Clouds, Rain, Snow, Thunder and Lightning, and other Meteors. Did God ask counsel from thee to acquaint thee with his counsels in the producing and ordering of them, when and where, and in what manner he should dispose them? God ordereth all these things not as it pleaseth thee, but as he thinks meet; and in like manner he disposeth of all humane affairs, and of thine among the rest.

Which may be understood either 1. of the light of the Sun breaking through the Clouds, when it is most glorious and comfortable. But though this light break through the Clouds, yet it is very improper to call it the light of the Clouds. Or, 2. The Lightning, which is properly so called, a[illegible: 1+ letters] being produced by and in a Cloud. Or, 3. The Rainbow, which is a lightsom and glorious work of God, and therefore not likely to be omitted in this place▪ and which is seated in a Cloud which also may well be called God's Cloud, because therein God puts his Bow, as the Rainbow is called. Gen. 9. 13.

16. Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge ?

How God doth as it were weigh and suspend the Clouds in Balances, so that although they are ponderous and full of Water, yet they are by his power kept up in the thin Air from falling down upon us in spouts and floods, as sometimes they have done and generally would do, if not over-ruled by an higher Providence.

Who exactly knows the weight. These are effects and evidences of his infinite power and knowledge.

17. How thy garments are warm , when he quieteth the earth By the South w[illegible: 1+ letters]nd ?

How and why thy garments keep thee warm; of which as there are some natural causes, so it is certain that they are not sufficient to do it without Gods blessing, as experience shews, Hagg. 1. 6.

i. e. The Air about the earth.

Which though sometimes it brings Tempests, v. 9. yet commonly it ushereth in hot weather, Luke 12. 55. as the North-wind brings cold, v. 9. Or, from the South wind, i. e. from the Tempest which was noted to come out of the South, v. 9. Heb. from or by the South, i. e. by the Suns coming into the Southern parts, which makes the Air quiet and warm.

18. Hast thou with him spread out the skie , which is strong , and as a molten looking glass .

Wast thou his co worker or assistant in spreading out the Skie like a Tent or Canopy over the Earth? Or, canst thou spread out such another Skie? Then indeed thou mayst with some colour pretend to be privy to his co[illegible: 1+ letters]nsels and to judge of his works.

Which though it be very thin and transparent, yet is also firm and compact and stedfast, and of great force when it is p[illegible: 1+ letters] up.

Made of Brass or Steel, as the manner then was.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] 1. 6.

19. Teach us what we shall say unto him : for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness .

i. e. Unto God, either by way of Apology for thee: or rather by way of debate and disputation with him about his counsels and ways; about which we know not what to say, and therefore are willing to be taught by thee who pretendest to such exquisit knowledge of these matters. So it is a reproof of his presumption and arrogance.

we know neither with what words or matter, nor in what method and manner, to maintain discourse with him, or plead against him. The words our speech, are easily understood out of the former Clause of the Verse.

Both because of the darkness of the matter, God's counsels and ways being a great depth▪ and far out of our reach; and because of the darkness or blindness of our minds.

Marginal references: Ch. 32. 14.

20. Shall it be told him that I speak ? if a man speak , surely he shall be swallowed up .

Heb. that I will speak. Shall I send, or who d[illegible: 1+ letters]re carry a Challenge from me to God, or a Message that I am ready and desirous to debate with him concerning his proceedings? This indeed thou hast done in effect, but far be such presumption from me

If a Man should be so bold and venturous to enter the Lists with God.

With the sense of God's infinite Majesty and spotless Purity.

21. And now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds , but the wind passeth and cleanseth them .

Or, For, as this Particle is oft rendred; the following words containing a reason of those which go before.

This Particle is either 1. a note of time, and so it intimates a sudden change which then was in the Weather, which having been very dark beg[illegible: 1+ letters]n now to clear up: Or rather 2. a note of in[illegible: 1+ letters]erence to usher in the argument.

Either 1. do not observe (as seeing is oft used) nor consider these glorious works of God. or 2. cannot behold, or at least not gaze upon it.

Or, in the Skies: For the Hebrew word signifies both Clouds and Skies. This is to be understood, either 1. of bright and lightsome Clouds: or rather 2. of the Sun, which is oft and emphatically called light, as was noted before, and here the bright light: which men [illegible: 1+ letters]ftimes cannot behold, either when it is covered with a black and thick Cloud; or when as it follows, the Skie is very clear, and consequently the Sun shine is very bright And therefore it is not strange if we cannot see God, who dwellet in darkness, 1 Kings 8. 12. nor discern his counsels and ways; which are covered with great obscurity, and if we dare not approach to him with whom is, as it here follows, terrible Majesty, and if we presume to do so, we must needs be swallowed up, as was said, v. 20.

Or rather, when (as this Particle is oft used) the wind passeth.

Either the Clouds, i. e. cleanseth the Air from them: or the Skies by driving away those Clouds which darkned it.

22. Fair weather cometh out of the north ▪ with God is terrible Majesty .

Or, when (which Particle may well be understood out of the foregoing Verse; and so this may be a further description of the time when men cannot see or gaze upon the Sun, namely when) fair Weather, &c. Heb. Gold, either 1. properly. And so this may be noted as another wonderful work of God that the choicest of Metals, to wit, Gold should be found in and fetched out of the bowels of cold northern Countreys. Or 2. Metaphorically, as this word is oft used of bright and shining things; as we read of golden Oyl, Zech. 4. 12. and we call happy times golden Days. And so bright and fair Weather may well be called golden, because then the Sun gilds the Air and Earth with its beams, which also are called by Poets golden B[illegible: 1+ letters]ms.

i. e. From the Northern Winds which scatter the Clouds, and clear the Skie, Prov. 25. 23.

And therefore we neither can nor may approach too near to him, nor speak presumptuously or irreverently to him or of him. And so this is the Application of what he had now said▪ that we could not see the Sun, &c. much less God: and withal it is an Epiphonema or Conclusion of the whole foregoing Discourse. Those glorious works of his which I have described, are Testimonies of that great and terrible Majesty which is in him; which should cause us to fear and reverence him, and not to behave our selves so insolently towards him, as Job hath done.

Marginal references: H[illegible: 1+ letters]b. gold.

23. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out , he is excellent in power , and in judgment , and in plenty of justice , he will not afflict .

To wit, to perfection, as it is expressed, Iob. 11. 7. We cannot comprehend him: his Being, Power, Wisdom, Justice, and his counsels proceeding from them are past our finding out: and therefore it is most absurd and intolerable that thou, O Iob, presumest to censure what th[illegible: 1+ letters]u dost not understand.

And therefore as he doth not need any unrighteous action to advance himself, so he cannot do it, because all such things are acts and evidences of impotency or weakness.

i. e. In the just and righteous administration of judgment, as this word is oft used, and [illegible: 1+ letters]s the thing it self, and the following words plainly evince. And this he adds to intimate that although God had indeed a Power to crush Iob or any other Man, yet he never did nor can exercise that power unjustly or tyrannically, as Job seemed to insinuate.

In great and perfect Justice, such as no Man can justly reproach.

To wit, without just cause, and above measure: as it may and must be limited both from the foregoing words, and from Iob's complaint which was of that very thing; and from the nature of the thing, because otherwise this Proposition that God will not afflict, is not simply and universally true. Or these last words may be joyned with the former; and so some render the place, He is excellent in Power, and or but, or yet, [illegible: 1+ letters]e will not [illegible: 1 word] any Man with judgment and much (i. e. too much) justice, i. e. with extremity or rigo[illegible: 1+ letters]r of Justice.

Marginal references: 1 Tim. 6. 16.; Ch. 36. 5.; Lam. 3. 33.

24. Men do therefore fear him : he respecteth not any that are wise of heart .

For this cause, to wit, because of God's infinite and excellent Perfections, and especially those mentioned in the foregoing Verse, men do, or should (for the future Tense is oft used potentially as Hebricians know) fear or reveren[illegible: 1+ letters] him, and humbly submit to him, and not presume to quarrel or dispute with him, as thou O Iob hast done.

Heb. He doth not, or will not behold, to wit, with respect or approbation, he beholdeth them afar off with scorn and contempt.

i. e. Such as are wise in their own eyes, that lean to their own understandings, and despise all other men in comparison of themselves, and scorn all their counsels, that are so puffed up with the opinion of their own wisdom, that they dare contend with their Maker, and presume to censure his counsels and actions. Which he hereby intimates to be Iob's fault, and to be the true reason why God did not respect nor regard him, nor his Prayers and Tears, as Iob complained. And so this is also a Tacit advice and exhortation to Iob to be humble and little in his own eyes, if ever he expected or desired any favour from God.

Job 37:1-5   1  Yea, at this my heart trembleth

And tottereth from its place.   2  Hear, O hear the roar of His voice,

And the murmur that goeth out of His mouth.   3  He sendeth it forth under the whole heaven,

And His lightning unto the ends of the earth.   4  After it roareth the voice of the thunder,

He thundereth with the voice of His majesty,

And spareth not the lightnings, when His voice is heard.   5  God thundereth with His voice marvellously,

Doing great things, incomprehensible to us.

Louis Bridel is perhaps right when he inserts after Job 36 the observation: L'éclair brille, la tonnerre gronde. לזאת does not refer to the phenomenon of the storm which is represented in the mind, but to that which is now to be perceived by the senses. The combination שׁמעוּ שׁמוע can signify both hear constantly, Isa 6:9, and hear attentively, Job 13:17; here it is the latter. רגז of thunder corresponds to the verbs Arab. rḥz and rjs, which can be similarly used. The repetition of קול fo noititeper eh five times calls to mind the seven קולות (ἑπτὰ βρονταί) in Psa 29:1-11. The parallel is הגה, Job 37:2, a murmuring, as elsewhere of the roar of the lion and the cooing of the dove. The suff. of ישׁרהוּ refers to the thunder which rolls through the immeasurable breadth under heaven; it is not perf. Piel of ישׁר (Schlottm.), for “to give definite direction” (2Ch 32:30) is not appropriate to thunder, but fut. Kal of שׁרה, to free, to unbind (Ew., Hirz. and most others). What Job 37:3 says of thunder, Job 37:3 says of light, i.e., the lightning: God sends it forth to the edges, πτέρυγες, i.e., ends, of the earth. אחריו, Job 37:4, naturally refers to the lightning, which is followed by the roar of the thunder; and יעקּבם to the flashes, which, when once its rumble is heard, God does not restrain (עקּב = עכּב of the Targ., and Arab. ‛aqqaba, to leave behind, postpone), but causes to flash forth in quick succession. Ewald’s translation: should He not find (prop. non investigaverit) them (the men that are to be punished), gives a thought that has no support in this connection. In Job 37:5 נפלאות, mirabilia, is equivalent to mirabiliter, as Dan 8:24, comp. Psa 65:6; Psa 139:14. ולא נדע is intended to say that God’s mighty acts, with respect to the connection between cause and effect and the employment of means, transcend our comprehension.

Job 37:6-10   6  For He saith to the snow: Fall towards the earth,

And to the rain-shower

And the showers of His mighty rain.   7  He putteth a seal on the hand of every man,

That all men may come to a knowledge of His creative work.   8  The wild beast creepeth into a hiding-place,

And in its resting-place it remaineth.   9  Out of the remote part cometh the whirlwind,

And cold from the cloud-sweepers. 10  From the breath of God cometh ice,

And the breadth of the waters is straitened.

Like אבי, Job 34:36, and פּשׁ, Job 35:15, הוא, Job 37:6 (is falsely translated “be earthwards” by lxx, Targ., and Syr.), also belongs to the most striking Arabisms of the Elihu section: it signifies delabere (Jer. ut descendat), a signification which the Arab. hawâ does not gain from the radical signification placed first in Gesenius-Dietrich’s Handwörterbuch, to breathe, blow, but from the radical signification, to gape, yawn, by means of the development of the meaning which also decides in favour of the primary notion of the Hebr. הוּה, according to which, what was said on Job 6:2; Job 30:13 is to be corrected.Arab. hawâ is originally χαίνειν, to gape, yawn, hiare, e.g., hawat et - ta‛natu , the stab gapes (imperf. tahwı̂, inf. huwı̂jun), “when it opens its mouth” - the Turkish Kamus adds, to complete the picture: like a tulip. Thence next hâwijatun, χαίνουσα χαῖνον, i.e., χᾶσμα = hûwatun , uhwı̂jatun , huwâatun , mahwâtun , a cleft, yawning deep, chasm, abyss, βάραθρον, vorago; hawı̂jatun and hauhâtun (a reduplicated form), especially a very deep pit or well. But these same words, hâwijatun , hûwatun , uhwı̂jatun , mahwâtun , also signify, like the usual Arab. hawa'â'un, the χάσμα between heaven and earth, i.e., the wide, empty space, the same as 'gauwun. The wider significations, or rather applications and references of hawâ: air set in motion, a current of air, wind, weather, are all secondary, and related to that primary signification as samâ, rain-clouds, rain, grass produced by the rain, to the prim. signification height, heaven, vid., Mehren, Rhetorik d. Araber, S. 107, Z. 14ff. This hawâ, however, also signifies in general: a broad, empty space, and by transferring the notion of “empty” to mind and heart, as the reduplicated forms hûhatun and hauhâtun: devoid of understanding and devoid of courage, e.g., Koran xiv. 44: wa - af'i - datuhum hawâun , where Bedhâwî first explains hawâ directly by chalâ, emptiness, empty space, i.e., as he adds, châlijetun ‛an el - fahm , as one says of one without mind and courage qalbuhu hawâun . Thence also hauwun, emptiness, a hole, i.e., in a wall or roof, a dormar-window (kauwe , kûwe), but also with the genit. of a person or thing: their hole, i.e., the space left empty by them, the side not taken up by them, e.g., qa‛ada fi hauwihi , he set himself beside him. From the signification to be empty then comes (1) hawat el - mar'atu , i.e., vacua fuit mulier = orba oiberis, as χήρα, vidua, properly empty, French vide; (2) hawâ er - ragulu , i.e., vacuus, inanis factus est vir = exanimatus (comp. Arab. frg, he became empty, euphemistic for he died.

From this variously applied primary signification is developed the generally known and usual Arab. hawâ, loose and free, without being held or holding to anything one’s self, to pass away, fly, swing, etc., libere ferri, labi, in general in every direction, as the wind, or what is driven hither and thither by the wind, especially however from above downwards, labi, delabi, cadere, deorsum ruere. From this point, like many similar, the word first passes into the signification of sound (as certainly also שׁאה, שא): as anything falling has a full noise, and so on, δουπεῖν, rumorem, fragorem edere (fragor from frangi), hence hawat udhnuhu jawı̂jan of a singing in the ears.

Finally, the mental Arab. hawan (perf. hawija, imperf. jahwâ with the acc.), animo ad or in aliquid ferri, is attached to the notion of passing and falling through space (though by no means to hiare, or the supposed meaning “to breathe, blow”). It is used both emotionally of desire, lust, appetites, passions, and strong love, and intellectually of free opinions or assertions springing from mere self-willed preference, caprices of the understanding. - Fl.)

The ל of לשּׁלג influences Job 37:6 also. The Hebr. name for rain, גּשׁם (cogn. with Chald. גשׁם, Arab. gism, a body), denotes the rain collectively. The expression Job 37:6 is exceeded in Job 37:6, where מטרות does not signify rain-drops (Ew.), but, like the Arab. amtâr, rain-showers. The wonders of nature during the rough season (חרף, סתיו, Sol 2:11), between the autumnal and vernal equinoxes, are meant; the rains after the autumnal equinox (the early rain), which begin the season, and the rains before the vernal equinox (the late rain, Zec 10:1), which close it, with the falls of snow between, which frequently produce great desolation, especially the proper winter with its frosty winds and heavy showers, when the business of the husbandmen as of the nomads is brought to a stand-still, and every one retreats to his house or seeks a sheltering corner.

This is the meaning of Job 37:7 : He sealeth up (חתם בּ as Job 33:16) the hand of all men that they cannot, viz., on account of the cold out of doors, be opened for work, that all people of His work (i.e., thanking Him for their origin as His handiwork, Job 34:19) may come to the perception (of Him who doeth all things). The expression is remarkable, and by the insertion of a m may be as easily cleared up as Job 33:17 : לדעת כּל־אנשׁים מעשׂהוּ, in order that each and every one may acknowledge His work; after which even Jer. translates: ut noverint singuli opera sua. The conjecture אנשׁים עשׂהוּ (Schultens junior, Reiske, Hirz.) is inferior to the former (Olsh.) by its awkward synecdoche num. The fut. consec. in Job 37:8 continues the description of what happens in consequence of the cold rainy season; the expression calls to mind Psa 104:22, as Job 34:14. does Psa 104:29. The winter is also the time of the stormy and raw winds. In Job 37:9 Elihu means the storms which come across from the great wide desert, Job 1:19, therefore the south (Isa 21:1; Zec 9:14), or rather south-east winds (Hos 13:15), increasing in violence to storms. החדר (properly the surrounded, enclosed space, never the storehouse, - so that Psa 135:7 should be compared, - but adytum, penetrale, as Arab. chidr , e.g., in Vita Timuri ii. 904: after the removal of the superincumbent earth, they drew away sitr chidrihâ , the curtain of its innermost part, i.e., uncovered its lowest depth) is here the innermost part of the south (south-east), - comp. Job 9:9 חדרי תימן, and Job 23:9 יעטף ימין (so far as יעטף there signifies si operiat se), - especially of the great desert lying to the south (south-east), according to which ארץ חדרך, Zec 9:1, is translated by the Targ. דרומא ארעא. In opposition to the south-east wind, מזרים, Job 37:9, seems to mean the north winds; in and of itself, however, the word signifies the scattering or driving, as also in the Koran the winds are called the scatterers, dhârijât , Sur. li. 1.This dhârijât is also differently explained; but the first explanation in Beidhâwi (ii. 183, Fleischer’s edition) is, “the winds which scatter (blow away) the dust and other things.”

In מזרים, Reiske, without any ground for it, traces the Arab. mirzam (a name of two stars, from which north wind, rain, and cold are derived); the Targ. also has one of the constellations in view: מכּוּת מזרים (from the window, i.e., the window of the vault of heaven, of the mezarim); Aq., Theod. ἀπὸ μαζούρ (= מזרות, Job 38:32); lxx ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν ἀκρωτηρίων, we know not wherefore. Concerning מנּשׁמת־אל (with causal מן) with reference to the wind, vid., on Job 4:15. יתּן, it gives, i.e., comes to light, is used as in Gen 38:28; Pro 13:10. The idea of מוּצק (not fusum from יצק, but coarctatum from צוּק) cannot be doubtful in connection with the antithesis of רחב, comp. Job 36:16, the idea is like Job 38:30 (comp. Mutenebbi: “the flood is bound by bands of ice”); the בּ of בּמוּצק is, as Job 36:32, the Beth essentiae, used far more extensively in Hebr. than in Arab. as an exponent of the predicate: the breadth of the water is (becomes) straitened (forcibly drawn together).

Job 37:11-13 11  Also He loadeth the clouds with water,

He spreadeth far and wide the cloud of His light, 12  And these turn themselves round about,

Directed by Him, that they execute

All that He hath commanded them

Over the wide earth. 13  Whether for a scourge, or for the good of His earth,

Or for mercy, He causeth it to discharge itself.

With אף extending the description, Elihu, in the presence of the storm that is in the sky, continually returns to this one marvel of nature. The old versions connect בּרי partly with בּר, electus (lxx, Syr., Theod.) or frumentum (Symm., Jer.), partly with בּרה = בּרר in the signification puritas, serenitas (Targ.); but בּרי is, as Schultens has already perceived, the Hebr.-Arabic רי, Arab. rı̂yun , rı̂ j- un (from רוה = riwj), abundant irrigation, with בּ; and יטריח does not signify, according to the Arab. atraha, “to hurl down,” so that what is spoken of would be the bursting of the clouds (Stick.),This “a t raha” is, moreover, a pure invention of our ordinary Arabic lexicons instead of ittaraha (VIII form): (1) to throw one’s self, (2) to throw anything from one’s self, with an acc. of the thing. - Fl. but, according to טרח, a burden (comp. Arab. taraha ala , to load), “to burden;” with fluidity (Ew., Hirz., Hahn, Schlottm.), better: fulness of water, He burdens the clouds (comp. rawij - un as a designation of cloud as the place of rain). ענן אורו, His cloud of light, is that that is charged with lightning, and הפיץ has here its Hebr.-Arab. radical signification effundere, diffundere, with a preponderance of the idea not of scattering, but of spreading out wide (Arab. faid, abundance). והוּא, Job 37:12, refers to the cloud pregnant with lightning; this turns round about (מסבּות, adv. as מסב, round about, 1Ki 6:29) seeking a place, where it shall unburden itself by virtue of His (God’s) direction or disposing (תחבּוּלת, a word belonging to the book of Proverbs; lxx, Cod. Vat. and Alex., untranslated: εν θεεβουλαθωθ, Cod. Sinait. still more monstrous), in order that they (the clouds full of lightning) may accomplish everything that He commands them over the surface of the earth; ארצה as Job 34:13, and the combination תּבל ארצה as Pro 8:31, comp. ארץ ותבל, Psa 90:2. The reference of the pronominal suff. to men is as inadmissible here as in Job 37:4. In Job 37:13 two אם have certainly, as Job 34:29, two ו, the correlative signification sive ... sive (Arab. in...wa - in), in a third, as appears, a conditional, but which? According to Ew., Hirz., Hahn, Schlottm., and others, the middle one: if it (the rod) belongs to His land, i.e., if it has deserved it. But even the possessive suff. of לארצו shows that the ל is to be taken as dat. commodi: be it for a rod, be it for the good of His land; which is then followed by a conditional verbal clause: in case He mercifully causes it (the storm) to come, i.e., causes this His land to be overtaken by it (המציא here with the acc., the thing coming, whereas in Job 34:11 of the thing to be overtaken). The accentuation, indeed, appears to assume a threefold sive: whether He causeth it to discharge itself upon man for punishment, man for mercy, or His earth for good with reference to man. Then Elihu would think of the uninhabited steppe in connection with אם לארצו. Since a conditional אם by the side of two correlatives is hazardous, we decide finally with the lxx, Targ., and all the old versions, in favour of the same rendering of the threefold אם, especially since it corresponds to the circumstances of the case.

Job 37:14-16 14  Hearken unto this, O Job;

Stand still and consider the wonderful works of God! 15  Dost thou know when God designeth

To cause the light of His clouds to shine? 16  Dost thou understand the balancings of the clouds,

The wondrous things of Him who is perfect in knowledge?

Job is to stand still, instead of dictating to God, in order to draw from His wondrous acts in nature a conclusion with reference to his mystery of suffering. In Job 37:15 ידע בּ does not, as Job 35:15 (Ew. §217, S. 557), belong together, but בּ is the temporal Beth. שׂוּם is equivalent to שׂים לבּו (vid., on Job 34:23); עליהם does not refer to נפלאות (Hirz.) or the phenomena of the storm (Ew.), but is intended as neuter (as בּם Job 36:31, בּהם Job 22:21), and finds in Job 37:15 its distinctive development: “the light of His clouds” is their effulgent splendour. Without further support, ידע על is to have knowledge concerning anything, Job 37:16; מפלשׂי is also ἁπ. γεγρ.. It is unnecessary to consider it as wrongly written from מפרשׂי, Job 36:29, or as from it by change of letter (as אלמנות = ארמנות, Isa 13:22). The verb פּלּס signifies to make level, prepare (viz., a way, also weakened: to take a certain way, Pro 5:6), once: to weigh, Psa 58:3, as denom. from פּלס, a balance (and indeed a steelyard, statera), which is thus mentioned as the means of adjustment. מפלשׂי accordingly signifies either, as synon. of משׁקלי (thus the Midrash, vid., Jalkut, §522), weights (the relations of weight), or even equipoised balancings (Aben-Ezra, Kimchi, and others), Lat. quomodo librentur nubes in aëre.The word is therefore a metaphor taken from the balance, and it may be observed that the Syro-Arabic, on account of the most extensive application of the balance, is unusually rich in such metaphors. Moreover, the Arabic has no corresponding noun: the teflı̂s (a balance) brought forward by Ges. in his Thes. and Handwörterbuch from Schindler’s Pentaglotton, is a word devoid of all evidence from original sources and from the modern usage of the language, in this signification. מפלאות is also a word that does not occur elsewhere; in like manner דּע belongs exclusively to Elihu. God is called תּמים דּעים (comp. Job 36:4) as the Omniscient One, whose knowledge is absolute as to its depth as well as its circumference.

Job 37:17-20 17  Thou whose garments became hot,

When the land is sultry from the south: 18  Dost thou with Him spread out the sky,

The strong, as it were molten, mirror? 19  Let us know what we shall say to Him! -

We can arrange nothing by reason of darkness. 20  Shall it be told Him that I speak,

Or shall one wish to be destroyed?

Most expositors connect Job 37:17 with Job 37:16 : (Dost thou know) how it comes to pass that ... ; but      אשׁר after ידע signifies quod, Exo 11:7, not quomodo, as it sometimes occurs in a comparing antecedent clause, instead of כאשׁר, Exo 14:13; Jer 33:22. We therefore translate: thou whose ... , - connecting this, however, not with Job 37:16 (vid., e.g., Carey), but as Bolduc. and Ew., with Job 37:18 (where ה before תרקיע is then the less missed): thou who, when the land (the part of the earth where thou art) keeps rest, i.e., in sultriness, when oppressive heat comes (on this Hiph. vid., Ges. §53, 2) from the south (i.e., by means of the currents of air which come thence, without דּרום signifying directly the south wind), - thou who, when this happens, canst endure so little, that on the contrary the heat from without becomes perceptible to thee through thy clothes: dost thou now and then with Him keep the sky spread out, which for firmness is like a molten mirror? Elsewhere the hemispheric firmament, which spans the earth with its sub-celestial waters, is likened to a clear sapphire Exo 24:10, a covering Psa 104:2, a gauze Isa 40:22; the comparison with a metallic mirror (מוּצק here not from צוּק, Job 37:10; Job 36:16, but from יצק) is therefore to be understood according to Petavius: Coelum aëreum στερέωμα dicitur non a naturae propria conditione, sed ab effectu, quod perinde aquas separet, ac si murus esset solidissimus. Also in תרקיע lies the notion both of firmness and thinness; the primary notion (root רק) is to beat, make thick, stipare (Arab. rq‛, to stop up in the sense of resarcire, e.g., to mend stockings), to make thick by pressure. The ל joined with תרקיע is nota acc.; we must not comp. Job 8:8; Job 21:22, as well as Job 5:2; Job 19:3.

Therefore: As God is the only Creator (Job 9:8), so He is the all-provident Preserver of the world - make us know (הודיענוּ, according to the text of the Babylonians, Keri of הודיעני) what we shall say to Him, viz., in order to show that we can cope with Him! We cannot arrange, viz., anything whatever (to be explained according to ערך מלּין, Job 32:14, comp. “to place,” Job 36:19), by reason of darkness, viz., the darkness of our understanding, σκότος τῆς διανοίας; מפּני is much the same as Job 23:17, but different from Job 17:12, and חשׁך different from both passages, viz., as it is often used in the New Testament, of intellectual darkness (comp. Ecc 2:14; Isa 60:2). The meaning of Job 37:20 cannot now be mistaken, if, with Hirz., Hahn, and Schlottm., we call to mind Job 36:10 in connection with אמר כּי: can I, a short-sighted man, enshrouded in darkness, wish that what I have arrogantly said concerning and against Him may be told to God, or should one earnestly desire (אמר, a modal perf., as Job 35:15) that (an jusserit s. dixerit quis ut) he may be swallowed up, i.e., destroyed (comp. לבלעו, Job 2:3)? He would, by challenging a recognition of his unbecoming arguing about God, desire a tribunal that would be destructive to himself.

Job 37:21-24 21  Although one seeth now the sunlight

That is bright in the ethereal heights:

A wind passeth by and cleareth them up. 22  Gold is brought from the north, -

Above Eloah is terrible majesty. 23  The Almighty, whom we cannot find out,

The excellent in strength,

And right and justice He perverteth not. 24  Therefore men regard Him with reverence,

He hath no regard for all the wise of heart.

He who censures God’s actions, and murmurs against God, injures himself - how, on the contrary, would a patiently submissive waiting on Him be rewarded! This is the connection of thought, by which this final strophe is attached to what precedes. If we have drawn the correct conclusion from Job 37:1, that Elihu’s description of a storm is accompanied by a storm which was coming over the sky, ועתּה, with which the speech, as Job 35:15, draws towards the close, is not to be understood as purely conclusive, but temporal: And at present one does not see the light (אור of the sun, as Job 31:26) which is bright in the ethereal heights (בּהיר again a Hebr.-Arab. word, comp. bâhir, outshining, surpassing, especially of the moon, when it dazzles with its brightness); yet it only requires a breath of wind to pass over it, and to clear it, i.e., brings the ethereal sky with the sunlight to view. Elihu hereby means to say that the God who his hidden only for a time, respecting whom one runs the risk of being in perplexity, can suddenly unveil Himself, to our surprise and confusion, and that therefore it becomes us to bow humbly and quietly to His present mysterious visitation. With respect to the removal of the clouds from the beclouded sun, to which Job 37:21 refers, זהב, Job 37:22, seems to signify the gold of the sun; esh - shemsu bi - tibrin , the sun is gold, says Abulola. Oriental and Classic literature furnishes a large number of instances in support of this calling the sunshine gold; and it should not perplex us here, where we have an Arabizing Hebrew poet before us, that not a single passage can be brought forward from the Old Testament literature. But מצּפון is against this figurative rendering of the זהב (lxx νέφη χρυσαυγοῦντα). In Eze 1:4 there is good reason for the storm-clouds, which unfold from their midst the glory of the heavenly Judge, who rideth upon the cherubim, coming from the north; but wherefore should Elihu represent the sun’s golden light as breaking through from the north? On the other hand, in the conception of the ancients, the north is the proper region for gold: there griffins (grupe’s) guard the gold-pits of the Arimaspian mountains (Herod. iii. 116); there, from the narrow pass of the Caucasus along the Gordyaean mountains, gold is dug by barbarous races (Pliny, h. n. vi. 11), and among the Scythians it is brought to light by the ants (ib. xxxiii. 4). Egypt could indeed provide itself with gold from Ethiopia, and the Phoenicians brought the gold of Ophir, already mentioned in the book of Job, from India; but the north was regarded as the fabulously most productive chief mine of gold; to speak more definitely: Northern Asia, with the Altai mountains.Vid., the art. Gold, S. 91, 101, in Ersch and Gruber. The Indian traditions concerning Uttaraguru (the “High Mountain”), and concerning the northern seat of the god on wealth Kuvêra, have no connection here; on their origin comp. Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, i. 848.

Thus therefore Job 28:1, Job 28:6 is to be compared here.

What Job describes so grandly and minutely in Job 28:1, viz., that man lays bare the hidden treasures of the earth’s interior, but that the wisdom of God still transcends him, is here expressed no less grandly and compendiously: From the north cometh gold, which man wrests from the darkness of the gloomy unknown region of the north (צפון, ζόφος, from צפן, cogn. טמן, טמר,The verb צּפּה, obducere, does not belong here, but to צפח, and signifies properly to flatten (as רקע, to make thin and thick by striking), comp. Arab. ṣfḥ, to strike on something flat (whence el - musâfaha , the salutation by striking the hand), and Arab. ṣf‛, to strike with the flat hand on anything, therefore diducendo obducere. upon Eloah, on the contrary is terrible majesty (not genitival: terror of majesty, Ew. §293, c), i.e., it covers Him like a garment (Psa 104:1), making Him inaccessible (הוד, glory as resounding praise, vid., on Job 39:20, like כבוד as imposing dignity). The beclouded sun, Job 37:21 said, has lost none of the intensity of its light, although man has to wait for the removing of the clouds to behold it again. So, when God’s doings are mysterious to us, we have to wait, without murmuring, for His solution of the mystery. While from the north comes gold - Job 37:22 continues - which is obtained by laying bare the interior of the northern mountains, God, on the other hand, is surrounded by inaccessibly terrible glory: the Almighty - thus Job 37:23 completes the thought towards which Job 37:22 tends - we cannot reach, the Great in power, i.e., the nature of the Absolute One remains beyond us, the counsel of the Almighty impenetrable; still we can at all times be certain of this, that what He does is right and good: “Right and the fulness of justice (ורב־ according to the Masora, not ורב-) He perverteth not.” The expression is remarkable: ענּה משׁפּט is, like the Talmudic ענּה דּין, equivalent elsewhere to הטּה משׁפט; and that He does not pervert רב־צדקה, affirms that justice in its whole compass is not perverted by Him; His acts are therefore perfectly and in every way consistent with it: רב־צדקה is the abstract. to צדיק כביר, Job 34:17, therefore summa justitia. One may feel tempted to draw ומשׁפט to שׂגיא כח, and to read ורב according to Pro 14:29 instead of ורב, but the expression gained by so doing is still more difficult than the combination לא יענּה...ומשׁפט; not merely difficult, however, but putting a false point in place of a correct one, is the reading לא יענה (lxx, Syr., Jer.), according to which Hirz. translates: He answers, not, i.e., gives no account to man. The accentuation rightly divides Job 37:23 into two halves, the second of which begins with ומשׁפט - a significant Waw, on which J. H. Michaelis observes: Placide invicem in Deo conspirant infinita ejus potentia et justitia quae in hominibus saepe disjuncta sunt.

Elihu closes with the practical inference: Therefore men, viz., of the right sort, of sound heart, uncorrupted and unaffected, fear Him (יראוּהוּ verentur eum, not יראוּהוּ veremini eum); He does not see (regard) the wise of heart, i.e., those who imagine themselves such and are proud of their לב, their understanding. The qui sibi videntur (Jer.) does not lie in לב (comp. Isa 5:21), but in the antithesis. Stick. and others render falsely: Whom the aggregate of the over-wise beholds not, which would be יראנּוּ. God is the subj. as in Job 28:24; Job 34:21, comp. Job 41:26. The assonance of יראוהו and יראה, which also occurs frequently elsewhere (e.g., Job 6:21), we have sought to reproduce in the translation.

In this last speech also Elihu’s chief aim (Job 36:2-4) is to defend God against Job’s charge of injustice. He shows how omnipotence, love, and justice are all found in God. When judging of God’s omnipotence, we are to beware of censuring Him who is absolutely exalted above us and our comprehension; when judging of God’s love, we are to beware of interpreting His afflictive dispensations, which are designed for our well-being, as the persecution of an enemy; when judging of His justice, we are to beware of maintaining our own righteousness at the cost of the Divine, and of thus avoiding the penitent humbling of one’s self under His well-meant chastisement. The twofold peculiarity of Elihu’s speeches comes out in this fourth as prominently as in the first: (1) They demand of Job penitential submission, not by accusing him of coarse common sins as the three have done, but because even the best of men suffer for hidden moral defects, which must be perceived by them in order not to perish on account of them. Elihu here does for Job just what in Bunyan (Pilgrim’s Progress) the man in the Interpreter’s house does, when he sweeps the room, so that Christian had been almost choked with the dust that flew about. Then (2) they teach that God makes use of just such sufferings, as Job’s now are, in order to bring man to a knowledge of his hidden defects, and to bless him the more abundantly if he will be saved from them; that thus the sufferings of those who fear God are a wholesome medicine, disciplinary chastenings, and saving warnings; and that therefore true, not merely feigned, piety must be proved in the school of affliction by earnest self-examination, remorseful self-accusation, and humble submission.

Elihu therefore in this agrees with the rest of the book, that he frees Job’s affliction from the view which accounts it the evil-doer’s punishment (vid., Job 32:3). On the other hand, however, he nevertheless takes up a position apart from the rest of the book, by making Job’s sin the cause of his affliction; while in the idea of the rest of the book Job’s affliction has nothing whatever to do with Job’s sin, except in so far as he allows himself to be drawn into sinful language concerning God by the conflict of temptation into which the affliction plunges him. For after Jehovah has brought Job over this his sin, He acknowledges His servant (Job 42:7) to be in the right, against the three friends: his affliction is really not a merited affliction, it is not a result of retributive justice; it also had not chastisement as its design, it was an enigma, under which Job should have bowed humbly without striking against it - a decree, into the purpose of which the prologue permits us an insight, which however remains unexplained to Job, or is only explained to him so far as the issue teaches him that it should be to him the way to a so much the more glorious testimony on the part of God Himself.

With that criticism of Job, which the speeches of Jehovah consummate, the criticism which lies before us in the speeches of Elihu is irreconcilable. The older poet, in contrast with the false doctrine of retribution, entirely separates sin and punishment or chastisement in the affliction of Job, and teaches that there is an affliction of the righteous, which is solely designed to prove and test them. His thema, not Elihu’s (as SimsonZur Kritik des B. Hiob, 1861, S. 34. with Hengstenberg thinks), is the mystery of the Cross. For the Cross according to its proper notion is suffering ἕνεκεν δικαιοσύνης (or what in New Testament language is the same, ἕνεκεν Χριστοῦ). Elihu, however, leaves sin and suffering together as inseparable, and opposes the false doctrine of retribution by the distinction between disciplinary chastisement and judicial retribution. The Elihu section, as I have shown elsewhere,Vid., Herzog’s Real-Encyklopädie, art. Hiob, S. 119. has sprung from the endeavour to moderate the bewildering boldness with which the older poet puts forth his idea. The writer has felt in connection with the book of Job what every Christian must feel. Such a maintaining of his own righteousness in the face of friendly exhortations to penitence, as we perceive it in Job’s speeches, is certainly not possible where “the dust of the room has flown about.” The friends have only failed in this, that they made Job more and more an evil-doer deservedly undergoing punishment. Elihu points him to vainglorying, to carnal security, and in the main to those defects from which the most godly cannot and dare not claim exemption. It is not contrary to the spirit of the drama that Job holds his peace at these exhortations to penitence. The similarly expressed admonition to penitence with which Eliphaz, Job 4:1, begins, has not effected it. In the meanwhile, however, Job is become more softened and composed, and in remembrance of his unbecoming language concerning God, he must feel that he has forfeited the right of defending himself. Nevertheless this silent Job is not altogether the same as the Job who, in Job 40 and 42, forces himself to keep silence, whose former testimony concerning himself, and whose former refusal of a theodicy which links sin and calamity together, Jehovah finally sets His seal to.

On the other hand, however, it must be acknowledged, that what the introduction to Elihu’s speeches, Job 32:1-5, sets before us, is consistent with the idea of the whole, and that such a section as the introduction leads one to expect, may be easily understood really as a member of the whole, which carries forward the dramatic development of this idea; for this very reason one feels urged to constantly new endeavours, if possible, to understand these speeches as a part of the original form. But they are without result, and, moreover, many other considerations stand in our way to the desired goal; especially, that Elihu is not mentioned in the epilogue, and that his speeches are far behind the artistic perfection of the rest of the book. It is true the writer of these speeches has, in common with the rest of the book, a like Hebraeo-Arabic, and indeed Hauranitish style, and like mutual relations to earlier and later writings; but this is explained from the consideration that he has completely blended the older book with himself (as the points of contact of the fourth speech with Job 28:1 and the speeches of Jehovah, show), and that to all appearance he is a fellow-countryman of the older poet. There are neither linguistic nor any other valid reasons in favour of assigning it to a much later period. He is the second issuer of the book, possibly the first, who brought to light the hitherto hidden treasure, enriched by his own insertion, which is inestimable in its relation to the history of the perception of the plan of redemption.

We now call to mind that in the last (according to our view) strophe of Job’s last speech. Job 31:35-37, Job desires, yea challenges, the divine decision between himself and his opponents. His opponents have explained his affliction as the punishment of the just God; he, however, is himself so certain of his innocence, and of his victory over divine and human accusation, that he will bind the indictment of his opponents as a crown upon his brow, and to God, whose hand of punishment supposedly rests upon him, will he render an account of all his steps, and go forth as a prince to meet Him. That he considers himself a צדיק is in itself not censurable, for he is such: but that he is מצדק נפשׁו מאלהים, i.e., considers himself to be righteous in opposition to God, who is no angry with him and punishes him; that he maintains his own righteousness to the prejudice of the Divine; and that by maintaining his own right, places the Divine in the shade, - all this is explainable as the result of the false idea which he entertains of his affliction, and in which he is strengthened by the friends; but there is need of censure and penitence. For since by His nature God can never do wrong, all human wrangling before God is a sinful advance against the mystery of divine guidance, under which he should rather humbly bow. But we have seen that Job’s false idea of God as his enemy, whose conduct he cannot acknowledge as just, does not fill his whole soul. The night of temptation in which he is enshrouded, is broken in upon by gleams of faith, in connection with which God appears to him as his Vindicator and Redeemer. Flesh and spirit, nature and grace, delusion and faith, are at war within him. These two elements are constantly more definitely separated in the course of the controversy; but it is not yet come to the victory of faith over delusion, the two lines of conception go unreconciled side by side in Job’s soul. The last monologues issue on the one side in the humble confession that God’s wisdom is unsearchable, and the fear of God is the share of wisdom appointed to man; on the other side, in the defiant demand that God may answer for his defence of himself, and the vaunting offer to give Him an account of all his steps, and also then to enter His presence with the high feeling of a prince. If now the issue of the drama is to be this, that God really reveals Himself as Job’s Vindicator and Redeemer, Job’s defiance and boldness must be previously punished in order that lowliness and submission may attain the victory over them. God cannot acknowledge job as His servant before he penitently acknowledges as such the sinful weakness under which he has proved himself to be God’s servant, and so exhibits himself anew in his true character which cherishes no known sin. This takes place when Jehovah appears, and in language not of wrath but of loving condescension, and yet earnest reproof, He makes the Titan quite puny in his own eyes, in order then to exalt him who is outwardly and inwardly humbled.

The Address of Elihu. (b. c. 1520.)

1 At this also my heart trembleth, and is moved out of his place. 2 Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that goeth out of his mouth. 3 He directeth it under the whole heaven, and his lightning unto the ends of the earth. 4 After it a voice roareth: he thundereth with the voice of his excellency; and he will not stay them when his voice is heard. 5 God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.

Thunder and lightning, which usually go together, are sensible indications of the glory and majesty, the power and terror, of Almighty God, one to the ear and the other to the eye; in these God leaves not himself without witness of his greatness, as, in the rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, he leaves not himself without witness of his goodness (Acts xiv. 17), even to the most stupid and unthinking. Though there are natural causes and useful effects of them, which the philosophers undertake to account for, yet they seem chiefly designed by the Creator to startle and awaken the slumbering world of mankind to the consideration of a God above them. The eye and the ear are the two learning senses; and therefore, though such a circumstance is possible, they say it was never known in fact that any one was born both blind and deaf. By the word of God divine instructions are conveyed to the mind through the ear, by his works through the eye; but, because those ordinary sights and sounds do not duly affect men, God is pleased sometimes to astonish men by the eye with his lightnings and by the ear with his thunder. It is very probable that at this time, when Elihu was speaking, it thundered and lightened, for he speaks of the phenomena as present; and, God being about to speak (ch. xxxviii. 1), these were, as afterwards on Mount Sinai, the proper prefaces to command attention and awe. Observe here, 1. How Elihu was himself affected, and desired to affect Job, with the appearance of God's glory in the thunder and lightning (v. 1, 2): "For my part," says Elihu, "my heart trembles at it; though I have often heard it, often seen it, yet it is still terrible to me, and makes every joint of me tremble, and my heart beat as if it would move out of its place." Thunder and lightning have been dreadful to the wicked: the emperor Caligula would run into a corner, or under a bed, for fear of them. Those who are very much astonished, we say, are thunder-struck. Even good people think thunder and lightning very awful; and that which makes them the more terrible is the hurt often done by lightning, many having been killed by it. Sodom and Gomorrah were laid in ruins by it. It is a sensible indication of what God could do to this sinful world, and what he will do, at last, by the fire to which it is reserved. Our hearts, like Elihu's should tremble at it for fear of God's judgments, Ps. cxix. 120. He also calls upon Job to attend to it (v. 2): Hear attentively the noise of his voice. Perhaps as yet it thundered at a distance, and could not be heard without listening: or rather, Though the thunder will be heard, and whatever we are doing we cannot help attending to it, yet, to apprehend and understand the instructions God thereby gives us, we have need to hear with great attention and application of mind. Thunder is called the voice of the Lord (Ps. xxix. 3, &c.), because by it God speaks to the children of men to fear before him, and it should put us in mind of that mighty word by which the world was at first made, which is called thunder. Ps. civ. 7, At the voice of thy thunder they hasted away, namely, the waters, when God said, Let them be gathered into one place. Those that are themselves affected with God's greatness should labour to affect others. 2. How he describes them. (1.) Their original, not their second causes, but the first. God directs the thunder, and the lightning is his, v. 3. Their production and motion are not from chance, but from the counsel of God and under the direction and dominion of his providence, though to us they seem accidental and ungovernable. (2.) Their extent. The claps of thunder roll under the whole heaven, and are heard far and near; so are the lightnings darted to the ends of the earth; they come out of the one part under heaven and shine to the other, Luke xvii. 24. Though the same lightning and thunder do not reach to all places, yet they reach to very distant places in a moment, and there is no place but, some time or other, has these alarms from heaven. (3.) Their order. The lightning is first directed, and after it a voice roars, v. 4. The flash of fire, and the noise it makes in a watery cloud, are really at the same time; but, because the motion of light is much quicker than that of sound, we see the lightning some time before we hear the thunder, as we see the firing of a great gun at a distance before we hear the report of it. The thunder is here called the voice of God's excellency, because by it he proclaims his transcendent power and greatness. He sends forth his voice and that a mighty voice, Ps. lxviii. 33. (4.) Their violence. He will not stay them, that is, he does not need to check them, or hold them back, lest they should grow unruly and out of his power to restrain them, but lets them take their course, says to them, Go, and they go—Come, and they come—Do this, and they do it. He will not stay the rains and showers that usually follow upon the thunder (which he had spoken of, ch. xxxvi. 27, 29), so some, but will pour them out upon the earth when his voice is heard. Thunder-showers are sweeping rains, and for them he makes the lightnings, Ps. cxxxv. 7. (5.) The inference he draws from all this, v. 5. Does God thunder thus marvellously with his voice? We must then conclude that his other works are great, and such as we cannot comprehend. From this one instance we may argue to all, that, in the dispensations of his providence, there is that which is too great, too strong, for us to oppose or strive against, and too high, too deep, for us to arraign or quarrel with.

6 For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength. 7 He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work. 8 Then the beasts go into dens, and remain in their places. 9 Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: and cold out of the north. 10 By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened. 11 Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud: 12 And it is turned round about by his counsels: that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth. 13 He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.

The changes and extremities of the weather, wet or dry, hot or cold, are the subject of a great deal of our common talk and observation; but how seldom do we think and speak of these things, as Elihu does here, with an awful regard to God the director of them, who shows his power and serves the purposes of his providence by them! We must take notice of the glory of God, not only in the thunder and lightning, but in the more common revolutions of the weather, which are not so terrible and which make less noise. As,

I. In the snow and rain, v. 6. Thunder and lightning happen usually in the summer, but here he takes notice of the winter-weather. Then he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; he commissions it, he commands it, he appoints it, where it shall light and how long it shall lie. He speaks, and it is done: as in the creation of the world, Let there be light, so in the works of common providence, Snow, be thou on the earth. Saying and doing are not two things with God, though they are with us. When he speaks the word the small rain distils and the great rain pours down as he pleases—the winter-rain (so the LXX.), for in those countries, when the winter was past, the rain was over and gone, Cant. ii. 11. The distinction in the Hebrew between the small rain and the great rain is this, that the former is called a shower of rain, the latter of rains, many showers in one; but all are the showers of his strength: the power of God is to be observed as much in the small rain that soaks into the earth as in the great rain that batters on the house-top and washes away all before it. Note, The providence of God is to be acknowledged, both by husbandmen in the fields and travellers upon the road, in every shower of rain, whether it does them a kindness of a diskindness. It is sin and folly to contend with God's providence in the weather; if he send the snow or rain, can we hinder them? Or shall we be angry at them? It is as absurd to quarrel with any other disposal of Providence concerning ourselves or ours. The effect of the extremity of the winter-weather is that it obliges both men and beasts to retire, making it uncomfortable and unsafe for them to go abroad. 1. Men retire to their houses from their labours in the field, and keep within doors (v. 7): He seals up the hand of every man. In frost and snow, husbandmen cannot follow their business, nor some tradesmen, nor travellers, when the weather is extreme. The plough is laid by, the shipping laid up, nothing is to be done, nothing to be got, that men, being taken off from their own work, may know his work, and contemplate that, and give him the glory of that, and, by the consideration of that work of his in the weather which seals up their hands, be led to celebrate his other great and marvellous works. Note, When we are, upon any account, disabled from following our worldly business, and taken off from it, we should spend our time rather in the exercises of piety and devotion (in acquainting ourselves with the works of God and praising him in them) than in foolish idle sports and recreations. When our hands are sealed up our hearts should be thus opened, and the less we have at any time to do in the world the more we should thereby be driven to our Bibles and our knees. 2. The beasts also retire to their dens and remain in their close places, v. 8. It is meant of the wild beasts, which, being wild, must seek a shelter for themselves, to which by instinct they are directed, while the tame beasts, which are serviceable to man, are housed and protected by his care, as Exod. ix. 20. The ass has no den but his master's crib, and thither he goes, not only to be safe and warm, but to be fed. Nature directs all creatures to shelter themselves from a storm; and shall man alone be unprovided with an ark?

II. In the winds, which blow from different quarters and produce different effects (v. 9): Out of the hidden place (so it may be read) comes the whirlwind; it turns round, and so it is hard to say from which point it comes but it comes from the secret chamber, as the word signifies, which I am not so willing to understand of the south, because he says here (v. 17) that the wind out of the south is so far from being a whirlwind that it is a warming, quieting, wind. But at this time, perhaps, Elihu saw a whirlwind-cloud coming out of the south and making towards them, out of which the Lord spoke soon after, ch. xxxviii. 1. Or, if turbulent winds which bring showers come out of the south, cold and drying blasts come out of the north to scatter the vapours and clear the air of them.

III. In the frost, v. 10. See the cause of it: It is given by the breath of God, that is, by the word of his power and the command of his will; or, as some understand it, by the wind, which is the breath of God, as the thunder is his voice; it is caused by the cold freezing wind out of the north. See the effect of it: The breadth of the waters is straitened, that is, the waters that had spread themselves, and flowed with liberty, are congealed, benumbed, arrested, bound up in crystal fetters. This is such an instance of the power of God as, if it were not common, would be next to a miracle.

IV. In the clouds, the womb where all these watery meteors are conceived, of which he had spoken, ch. xxxvi. 28. Three sorts of clouds he here speaks of:—1. Close, black, thick clouds, pregnant with showers; and these with watering he wearies (v. 11), that is, they spend themselves, and are exhausted by the rain into which they melt and are dissolved, pouring out water till they are weary and can pour out no more. See what pains, as I may say, the creatures, even those above us, take to serve man: the clouds water the earth till they are weary; they spend and are spent for our benefit, which shames and condemns us for the little good we do in our places, though it would be to our own advantage, for he that watereth shall be watered also himself. 2. Bright thin clouds, clouds without water; and these he scattereth; they are dispersed of themselves, and not dissolved into rain, but what becomes of them we know not. The bright cloud, in the evening, when the sky is red, is scattered, and proves an earnest of a fair day, Matt. xvi. 2. 3. Flying clouds, which do not dissolve, as the thick cloud, into a close rain, but are carried upon the wings of the wind from place to place, dropping showers as they go; and these are said to be turned round about by his counsels, v. 12. The common people say that the rain is determined by the planets, which is as bad divinity as it is philosophy, for it is guided and governed by the counsel of God, which extends even to those things that seem most casual and minute, that they may do whatsoever he commands them; for the stormy winds, and the clouds that are driven by them, fulfil his word; and by this means he causes it to rain upon one city and not upon another, Amos iv. 7, 8. Thus his will is done upon the face of the world in the earth, that is, among the children of men, to whom God has an eye in all these things, of whom it is said that he made them to dwell on the face of the earth, Acts xvii. 26. The inferior creatures, being incapable of doing moral actions, are incapable of receiving rewards and punishments: but, among the children of men, God causes the rain to come, either for the correction of his land or for a mercy to it, v. 13. (1.) Rain sometimes turns into a judgment. It is a scourge to a sinful land; as once it was for the destruction of the whole world, so it is now often for the correction or discipline of some parts of it, by hindering seedness and harvest, raising the waters, and damaging the fruits. Some have said that our nation has received much more prejudice by the excess of rain than by the want of it. (2.) At other times it is a blessing. It is for his land, that this may be made fruitful; and, besides that which is just necessary, he gives for mercy, to fatten it and make it more fruitful. See what a necessary dependence we have upon God, when the very same thing, according to the proportion in which it is given, may be either a great judgment or a great mercy, and without God we cannot have either a shower or a fair gleam.

14 Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God. 15 Dost thou know when God disposed them, and caused the light of his cloud to shine? 16 Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge? 17 How thy garments are warm, when he quieteth the earth by the south wind? 18 Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass? 19 Teach us what we shall say unto him; for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness. 20 Shall it be told him that I speak? if a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up.

Elihu here addresses himself closely to Job, desiring him to apply what he had hitherto said to himself. He begs that he would hearken to this discourse (v. 14), that he would pause awhile: Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God. What we hear is not likely to profit us unless we consider it, and we are not likely to consider things fully unless we stand still and compose ourselves to the consideration of them. The works of God, being wondrous, both deserve and need our consideration, and the due consideration of them will help to reconcile us to all his providences. Elihu, for the humbling of Job, shows him,

I. That he had no insight into natural causes, could neither see the springs of them nor foresee the effects of them (v. 15-17): Dost thou know this and know that which are the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge? We are here taught, 1. The perfection of God's knowledge. It is one of the most glorious perfections of God that he is perfect in knowledge; he is omniscient. His knowledge is intuitive: he sees, and does not know by report. It is intimate and entire: he knows things truly, and not by their colours—thoroughly, and not by piecemeal. To his knowledge there is nothing distant, but all near—nothing future, but all present—nothing hid, but all open. We ought to acknowledge this in all his wondrous works, and it is sufficient to satisfy us in those wondrous works which we know not the meaning of that they are the works of one that knows what he does. 2. The imperfection of our knowledge. The greatest philosophers are much in the dark concerning the powers and works of nature. We are a paradox to ourselves, and every thing about us is a mystery. The gravitation of bodies, and the cohesion of the parts of matter, are most certain, and yet unaccountable. It is good for us to be made sensible of our own ignorance. Some have confessed their ignorance, and those that would not do this have betrayed it. But we must all infer from it what incompetent judges we are of the divine politics, when we understand so little even of the divine mechanics. (1.) We know not what orders God has given concerning the clouds, nor what orders he will give, v. 15. That all is done by determination and with design we are sure; but what is determined, and what designed, and when the plan was laid, we know not. God often causes the light of his cloud to shine, in the rainbow (so some), in the lightning (so others); but did we foresee, or could we foretel, when he would do it? If we foresee the change of weather a few hours before, by vulgar observation, or when second causes have begun to work by the weather-glass, yet how little do these show us of the purposes of God by these changes! (2.) We know not how the clouds are poised in the air, the balancing of them, which is one of the wondrous works of God. They are so balanced, so spread, that they never rob us of the benefit of the sun (even the cloudy day is day), so balanced that they do not fall at once, nor burst into cataracts or water-spouts. The rainbow is an intimation of God's favour in balancing the clouds so as to keep them from drowning the world. Nay, so are they balanced that they impartially distribute their showers on the earth, so that, one time or other, every place has its share. (3.) We know not how the comfortable change comes when the winter is past, v. 17. [1.] How the weather becomes warm after it has been cold. We know how our garment came to be warm upon us, that is, how we come to be warm in our clothes, by reason of the warmth of the air we breathe in. Without God's blessing we should clothe ourselves, yet not be warm, Hag. i. 6. But, when he so orders it, the clothes are warm upon us, which, in the extremity of cold weather, would not serve to keep us warm. [2.] How it becomes calm after it has been stormy: He quiets the earth by the south wind, when the spring comes. As he has a blustering freezing north wind, so he has a thawing, composing, south wind; the Spirit is compared to both, because he both convinces and comforts, Cant. iv. 16.

II. That he had no share at all in the first making of the world (v. 18): "Hast thou with him spread out the sky? Thou canst not pretend to have stretched it out without him, no, nor to have stretched it out in conjunction with him; for he was far from needing any help either in contriving or in working." The creation of the vast expanse of the visible heavens (Gen. i. 6-8), which we see in being to this day, is a glorious instance of the divine power, considering, 1. That, though it is fluid, yet it is firm. It is strong, and has its name from its stability. It still is what it was, and suffers no decay, nor shall the ordinances of heaven be altered till the lease expires with time. 2. That, though it is large, it is bright and most curiously fine: It is a molten looking-glass, smooth and polished, and without the least flaw or crack. In this, as in a looking-glass, we may behold the glory of God and the wisdom of his handy work, Ps. xix. 1. When we look up to heaven above we should remember it is a mirror or looking-glass, not to show us our own faces, but to be a faint representation of the purity, dignity, and brightness of the upper world and its glorious inhabitants.

III. That neither he nor they were able to speak of the glory of God in any proportion to the merit of the subject, v. 19, 20. 1. He challenges Job to be their director, if he durst undertake the task. He speaks it ironically: "Teach us, if thou canst, what we shall say unto him, v. 19. Thou hast a mind to reason with God, and wouldst have us to contend with him on thy behalf; teach us then what we shall say. Canst thou see further into this abyss than we can? If thou canst, favour us with thy discoveries, furnish us with instructions." 2. He owns his own insufficiency both in speaking to God and in speaking of him: We cannot order our speech by reason of darkness. Note, The best of men are much in the dark concerning the glorious perfections of the divine nature and the administrations of the divine government. Those that through grace know much of God, yet know little, yea, nothing, in comparison with what is to be known, and what will be known, when that which is perfect shall come and the veil shall be rent. When we would speak of God we speak confusedly and with great uncertainty, and are soon at a loss and run aground, not for want of matter, but for want of words. As we must always begin with fear and trembling, lest we speak amiss (De Deo etiam vera dicere periculosum est—Even while affirming what is true concerning God we incur risk), so we must conclude with shame and blushing, for having spoken no better. Elihu himself had, for his part, spoken well on God's behalf, and yet is so far from expecting a fee, or thinking that God was beholden to him for it, or that he was fit to be standing counsel for him, that (1.) He is even ashamed of what he has said, not of the cause, but of his own management of it: "Shall it be told him that I speak? v. 20. Shall it be reported to him as a meritorious piece of service, worthy his notice? By no means; let it never be spoken of," for he fears that the subject has suffered by his undertaking it, as a fine face is wronged by a bad painter, and his performance is so far from meriting thanks that it needs pardon. When we have done all we can for God we must acknowledge that we are unprofitable servants and have nothing at all to boast of. He is afraid of saying any more: If a man speak, if he undertake to plead for God, much more if he offer to plead against him, surely he shall be swallowed up. If he speak presumptuously, God's wrath shall soon consume him; but, if ever so well, he will soon lose himself in the mystery and be over powered by the divine lustre. Astonishment will strike him blind and dumb.

21 And now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds: but the wind passeth, and cleanseth them. 22 Fair weather cometh out of the north: with God is terrible majesty. 23 Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict. 24 Men do therefore fear him: he respecteth not any that are wise of heart.

Elihu here concludes his discourse with some short but great sayings concerning the glory of God, as that which he was himself impressed, and desired to impress others, with a holy awe of. He speaks concisely, and in haste, because, it should seem, he perceived that God was about to take the work into his own hands. 1. He observes that God who has said that he will dwell in the thick darkness and make that his pavilion (2 Chron. vi. 1, Ps. xviii. 11) is in that awful chariot advancing towards them, as if he were preparing his throne for judgment, surrounded with clouds and darkness, Ps. xcvii. 2, 9. He saw the cloud, with a whirlwind in the bosom of it, coming out of the south; but now it hung so thick, so black, over their heads, that they could none of them see the bright light which just before was in the clouds. The light of the sun was now eclipsed. This reminded him of the darkness by reason of which he could not speak (v. 19), and made him afraid to go on, v. 20. Thus the disciples feared when they entered into a cloud, Luke ix. 34. Yet he looks to the north, and sees it clear that way, which gives him hope that the clouds are not gathering for a deluge; they are covered, but not surrounded, with them. He expects that the wind will pass (so it may be read) and cleanse them, such a wind as passed over the earth to clear it from the waters of Noah's flood (Gen. viii. 1), in token of the return of God's favour; and then fair weather will come out of the north (v. 22) and all will be well. God will not always frown, nor contend for ever. 2. He hastens to conclude, now that God is about to speak; and therefore delivers much in a few words, as the sum of all that he had been discoursing of, which, if duly considered, would not only clench the nail he had been driving, but make way for what God would say. He observes, (1.) That with God is terrible majesty. He is a God of glory and such transcendent perfection as cannot but strike an awe upon all his attendants and a terror upon all his adversaries. With God is terrible praise (so some), for he is fearful in praises, Exod. xv. 11. (2.) That when we speak touching the Almighty we must own that we cannot find him out; our finite understandings cannot comprehend his infinite perfections, v. 23. Can we put the sea into an egg-shell? We cannot trace the steps he takes in his providence. His way is in the sea. (3.) That he is excellent in power. It is the excellency of his power that he can do whatever he pleases in heaven and earth. The universal extent and irresistible force of his power are the excellency of it; no creature has an arm like him, so long, so strong. (4.) That he is not less excellent in wisdom and righteousness, in judgment and plenty of justice, else there would be little excellency in his power. We may be sure that he who can do every thing will do every thing for the best, for he is infinitely wise, and will not in any thing do wrong, for he is infinitely just. When he executes judgment upon sinners, yet there is plenty of justice in the execution, and he inflicts not more than they deserve. (5.) That he will not afflict, that is, that he will not afflict willingly; it is no pleasure to him to grieve the children of men, much less his own children. He never afflicts but when there is cause and when there is need, and he does not overburden us with affliction, but considers our frame. Some read it thus: "The Almighty, whom we cannot find out, is great in power, but he will not afflict in judgment, and with him is plenty of justice, nor is he extreme to mark what we do amiss." (6.) He values not the censures of those who are wise in their own conceit: He respecteth them not, v. 24. He will not alter his counsels to oblige them, nor can those that prescribe to him prevail with him to do as they would have him do. He regards the prayer of the humble, but not the policies of the crafty. No, the foolishness of God is wiser than men, 1 Cor. i. 15. (7.) From all this it is easy to infer that, since God is great, he is greatly to be feared; nay, because he is gracious and will not afflict, men do therefore fear him, for there is forgiveness with him, that he may be feared, Ps. cxxx. 4. It is the duty and interest of all men to fear God. Men shall fear him (so some); sooner or later they shall fear him. Those that will not fear the Lord and his goodness shall for ever tremble under the pourings out of the vials of his wrath.

CHAP. XXXVII. Verſe 1. At this alſo my heart trembleth]

AT this? At what? at the thunder, whereof he had ſpoken before,Beza. Diodat. and more meant to ſpeak: and which he heard at that inſtant, (as it may ſeem by the next verſe) and therefore no wonder that his heart trembled, and was moved out of its place by an extraordinary palpitation, or (as the Tigurines have it) luxation. Thunder is ſo terrible, that it hath forced from the greateſt Atheiſt an acknowledgement of a Deity. Suetonius telleth us of Caligula, (that Monſter, who dared his Jove to a Duel) that if it thundred and lightned but a little, he would hood-wink himſelf: but if much, he would creep under a bed, and be ready to run into a mouſe-hole, as we ſay. Auguſtus Caeſar also was ſo afraid of thunder and lightning, that alwayes and every where, he carried about him the skin of a Sex-Calf, (which thoſe Heathens fondly held to be a preſervative in ſuch caſes) and if at any time there aroſe a great ſtorm, he ran into a dark vault. The Romans held it unlawful to keep Court Jove ton[illegible: 1 letter]nte, fulgurante, in a time of thunder and lightening, as Tully telleth us.De Divin. lib. 2. And Iſidore deriveth tonitru à terrendo, thunder from its terrour; and others, form its tone, or ruſhing craſhing noiſe, affrighting all creatures: At the voice of thy thunder they are afraid, Pſal. 104. which One, not unfitly, calleth Davids Phyſicks.

Verſe 2. Hear attentively the noiſe of his voice] Conjunctam commotione vocem ejus, the great thunder-crack that now is: that angry noiſe (as the word ſignifieth) Hear in hearing; you cannot but hear it with the eares of your bodies, hear it alſo with the eares of your minds; tremble and ſin not; contrary to the courſe of moſt men, who ſin and tremble not, drowning the noiſe of their conſciences, as the old Italians did the thunder, by ringing their greateſt Bells, diſcharging their roaring-Megs, &c. But what ſaith Elihu here to his hearers? Audite, audite, audite etiam atque etiam, contremiſcetis & vos, vos teſtes adhibeo, as Mercer paraphraſeth it out of Kimchi: Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye again and again, and then ye alſo will tremble. I take you to witneſſe; whether ye conſider his greater thunder-claps ringing and roaring in your eares (See Pſal. 29.4. & 87.7.) or the leſſer rumblings, called here, Murmur vel Muſſitationem, vel habitum, citra quem ſermo non profertur; the ſound (or breath) that goeth out of his mouth. Ariſtot. Pliny. All's aſcribed to God; though Naturaliſts tell us (and truly) that there are ſecond cauſes of thunder and lightning: wherein, nevertheleſſe, we muſt not ſtick, but give God the glory of his Majeſty, as David teacheth, Pſal. 29. and as blind Heathens did, when they called their Jove Altitonantem, the high Thunderer. The beſt Philoſophy in this point is to hear God Almighty by his thunder ſpeaking to us from heaven as if he were preſent: and to ſee him in his lightnings, as if he caſt his eyes upon us to ſee what we had been doing. His eyes are as a flaming fire, Rev. 1.14. and the ſchool of nature teacheth, that the fiery eye ſeeth Extra-mittendo, by ſending out a ray, &c.

Verſe 3. He directeth it under the whole Heaven] Heb. He maketh it to go right forward, meaning the thunder, the vehement noiſe or ſound whereof (not altogether unlike that of cloth violently torn, or of air thruſt out of bellows, or of a cheſnut burſt in the fire, but far louder) is brought through the air to our eares with ſuch a mighty force, that it drowns all noiſes, clappings, clatterings, roarings even of many waters; making the earth to ſhake again,Lavat. and all things tremble, non ſecùs quàm ſiquis currum onuſtum per plateam lapidibus ſtratam ducat; And this dreadful noiſe is by God directed to this or that place under the heavens, at his pleaſure. The word rendred (directeth) ſignifieth alſo Beholdeth; whence ſome interpret this text of Gods ſeeing all things under heaven. But the former ſenſe is better.

And his lightning unto the ends of the earth] God commands the lightning to cleave the clouds, and to ſcatter its flames through the world. Lightning is the brightneſſe of a ſhining flame, running through the whole air in a moment, riſing of a ſmall and thin exhalation kindled in a cloud; ſee Pſal. 18.13. The natural end and effect of thunder and lightning is, to clear the air by waſting poyſonous vapours. The ſupernatural is, to ſhew Gods excellent Majeſty and Might, which the Mightieſt muſt acknowledge, Pſal. 29.1, 2. to be his officers about him to make room for him, Pſal. 97.1, 4. to execute his wrath upon his enemies, Exod. 9.23.27. Pſal. 77.18, 19. 1 Sam. 2.10. Iſai. 29.6. and his mercy toward his people for the humbling of them, 1 Sam. 12.18, 19, 20, &c. raiſing them again to an aſſured confidence, Pſal. 29.11, &c. But that God can ſhoot theſe arrows of his ſo far, Mat. 24.27. Pſal. 77.18. & 97.3, 4. and here; yea, and that at the ſame time when it raineth, when one would think that the one ſhould quench the other, Pſal. 135.7. this is a juſt wonder: and Jeremy urgeth it twice, as ſuch, chap. 10.13. & 51.16.

Verſe 4. After it a voice roareth] After it, that is, after the lightning, it thundereth: indeed, before, or at leaſt together with it; but the lightning is ſeen before the thunder is heard, becauſe the ſenſe of hearing is ſlower than the ſenſe of ſeeing (thus fire is firſt ſeen in a Gun,Segnius irritant animos demiſſa per aures, &c. Horat. ere the report is heard; the Ax of the Wood-cleaver is up for a ſecond blow, ere we hear the firſt, if any way diſtant, &c.) And beſides, as R. Levi well obſerveth here, that the ſight of the lightning may come from heaven to us, there needeth no time; becauſe our eyes reach up thither in an inſtant: but that a ſound may come therehence to us (in regard of the diſtance, and becauſe the air muſt be beaten and many times impreſſed as into ſo many circles) there muſt be ſome ſpace of time; neither can it be done ſo ſuddenly.

He thundereth with the voice of his excellency] Or, of his height, or, of his pride. Proud perſons think themſelves high, and uſe to ſpeak big-ſwoln words of vanity, bubbles of words, as St. Peter calls them. If they be croſſed never ſo little, verbis bacchantur, & cum quodam vocis impetu loquunter, Oh the tragedies, the bluſters, the terrible thunder-cracks of fierce and furious language that follow thereupon. Some have been threatned to death, as Cornelius Gallus was by Auguſtus Caeſar: and Sir Chriſtopher Hatton Lord Chancellour, by Queen Elizabeth. How much more ſhould men quake and even expire before the thunder of the moſt high, or wriggle as worms do into their holes, the corners of the earth?

And he will not ſtay them, when his voice is heard] Them, that is, new flaſhes of lightning: or, rain and haile, which uſually break out either while it thundreth, or preſently after, in a moſt vehement, and impetuous manner.

Verſe 5. God thundereth marvellouſly with his voice] Or, God thundereth our marvellous things with his voice] Marvellous indeed, if we conſider the effects of thunder, lightning, and light-bolts, which differ from lightning in form only, and not in matter; and for the effects thereof Naturaliſts tell us ſtrange things: as, that by them the money hath been melted, without hurting the purſe; the Sword hath been broken within the ſcabbard, the wine hath been exhauſted within the barrel, the bones broke within the fleſh, &c. How various and marvellous the nature, generation, matter, form, effects of the thunder and thunder-bolt are, not only Seneca, Pliny, and other Meteorologiſts teſtifie, but daily experience ſealeth to the truth of it.

Great things doth he, which we cannot comprehend] As being above the reach of our ſhallow capacity: Or, which we will not know; ſo the Hebrew hath it: ſuch is our oſcitancy, or obſtinacy, that we will not take knowledge of Gods works of wonder, though they do even run into our ſenſes. This he conſtrueth for an high contempt; as a skilful Artificer would do when he hath ſet forth a curious piece to publick view, and none will take notice of it. God ſeemeth to have made the Meteors in ſuch great variety, that therein he might ſhew his own skill, and their imperfection.

Verſe 6. For he ſaith to the ſnow, Be thou on the earth] He commandeth it, and it is done; for together with his word there goeth forth a power. Dixiſſe Dei, eſt feciſſe, Pſal. 147. God giveth ſnow like wooll: Many wonders there are in ſnow: as that it ſhould be made in the loweſt part of the air, and not above where it is coldeſt: that it ſhould ſnow upon the earth, but never upon the ſea, as Pliny ſaith: that ſnow ſhould lye continually, not only upon the Alps, but upon mouth Aetna, where fire flames out: that no ſnow falleth in Egypt; but in Tartaria, a hot Countrey; ſometime it ſnoweth in the heat of Summer: that it ſerves for a cover to preſerve the earths heat, though it ſelf be cold: that being white, it ſhould ſometimes bring forth red worms, &c.

Likewiſe to the ſmall rain, and to the great rain of his ſtrength] Not a drop of rain, whether it come leaſurely or haſtily, but falleth by a divine decree, chap. 28.26. ſee the Note there. The Chaldee Paraphraſt underſtandeth here the Summer and Winter-rains. God ſheweth his ſtrength in a thing ſo weak, and diffluent of it ſelf, that thereby he may overturn and break in pieces the proudeſt of mens ſpirits: for whom alſo if they repent not, he hath a more terrible rain, Pſal, 11.6. overflowing with fire and brimſtone, Ezek. 35.22.

Verſe 7. He ſealeth up the hand of every man] i.e. He, by his great ſhowres, ſendeth men home for ſhelter, glad to intermit their work till better weather. See Exod. 9.19. The Hebrews call rain, Sagrir, Prov. 27.15. from ſhutting up: becauſe it keeps men at home, from travelling or working abroad.Vide Joan [illegible: 1 word] Indag. Chiromancie findeth here no footing, whatever ſome have doated: as if God had ſet certain ſignes and notes in mens hands of what ſhould hereafter befal them; and this text is alleaged for proof; but abſurdly.

That all men may know his work] i.e. That they may take notice of Gods handy-work in ordering the ſeaſons: and have time to think on their domeſtick affairs.

Verſe 8. Then the beaſts go into dens] In rainy and ſnowy weather, the very wild beaſts, (as lively and luſty as they are, whence alſo they have their name in the Original) are glad to take harbour, and there to hold them till the ſtorm be over.

Verſe 9. Out of the South cometh the whirl-wind] Which is a wonderful wind indeed; [non-Latin text not transcribed], the Greeks call it (as they do a like wind at ſea, [non-Latin text not transcribed], the Marriners miſchief) the Latines Vorter, becauſe it turnes up trees by the roots, houſes by the foundation, Job. 1. And Turbo, as breeding great trouble; for which cauſe alſo Pope Ʋrban was called Turban. It ſuddenly ariſeth, and as ſuddenly ceaſeth, but doth much miſchief, and eſpecially in ſtrait and narrow places. In alluſion whereunto the Apoſtle would not have people to be wherried and whirled about, with every wind of Doctrine, Eph. 4.14. as unſtable ſouls uſe to be. Illebius for inſtance; who of a Proteſtant, firſt turned Antinomian, and afterwards a Papiſt. So the old Illuminates, boaſting at firſt of a certain Angelical purity, fell ſuddenly to the very counterpoint of juſtifying beaſtiality. For prevention of this pernicious lightneſſe,Spec. Europ. It is good (ſaith the Apoſtle) that the heart be eſtabliſhed with grace, Hebr. 13.9. That men be ſound in the faith, well principled, bottomed and ballaſted.

And cold out of the North] Heb. Out of the ſcattered winds. North-winds ſcatter the clouds, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Hom. Odyſſ. clear the Skie, and ſo bring on faire cold weather. By Mezeri[illegible: 1 letter] here ſome underſtand certain Stars toward the North-Pole; Arcturus the Vulgar Latine rendreth it.

Verſe 10. By the breath of God froſt is given] Froſt is the exceſſe of cold by the blowing of the coldeſt winds, which are here called, The breath of God: theſe congeal the waters, and turn them into ice contracting them into a narrower room. Hence it is, that as any Countrey is more Northerly, ſo it is colder; the ſea alſo is frozen and unpaſſable.

And the breadth of the waters is ſtraightned] This the ſame again in other words, though ſome underſtand it of hail: when the broad-flowing water in the clouds by the force of the cold is narrowed up into hail. All this is of the Lord. Fides non in ordinem operis, fe[illegible: 1 letter] in authorem oculos ſuos dirigit, ſaith Brentius upon the Text: Faith ſeeth God in all.

Verſe 11. Alſo by watering he wearieth the thick clouds] That is, by ſhowring down of much rain he disburdeneth and diſſipateth them, ſeeme they never ſo thick and large. Theſe ſeeme to be troubled and tired [illegible: 1 letter]ut when as they are watering the earth, they are waſted and drawn dry by the heat of the Sun.

He ſcattereth his bright cloud] Heb. The cloud of his light; that is, the cloud by diſſolving whereof he reſtoreth light and fair weather, or the cloud which was covered over with lightning before, chap 36.30.

Verſe 12 And it is turned round about by his counſel] Vertit Dominus & revertit. The Lord turneth and returneth: letteth out, and bringeth back the clouds, as it were by a rope, at his own pleaſure: a Metaphor from Mariners, who skilfully manage the ropes of the Ship to beſt advantage. In like ſort the clouds are, by Gods cunning turned about in a circuit (as Beza rendreth it) that is in a round compaſſe or circle; they are not carried up and down the aire by and wandring and inconſtant motion: but they are, as it were, by certain Engines (ſo he maketh the Metaphor) of Almighty God, turned about at his own pleaſure, when and where he thinketh good to uſe them; for he beſt knoweth where is moſt need of raine, ſnow, &c. and therefore he by his wiſdome driveth them hither and thither, for the fulfilling of his purpoſe. Some refer this Text to the revolution of the Heavenly Orbs; which is alſo done by God.

That they may do whatſoever he commandeth them] A Metaphor like that Levit. 25.21. where God ſaith that he will command his bleſſing upon the ſixth year; and it ſhall bring forth fruit for three years. Now if the ſenſeleſs creatures ſo readily obey God, how much more ſhould we? And if he be Lord of Tempeſts, he is alſo of Diſeaſes and diſaſters. Chear up therefore, and ply the throne of Grace. He will ſee that all ſhall go well with his ſuppliants.

Verſe 13. He cauſeth it to come, whether for correction] Heb. For a rod. God hath his rods ſticking up in every corner of his houſe for chaſtiſement of his children, and they ſhall take it for a favour too, [non-Latin text not transcribed] Sept. Bern. Hebr. 12.7. r Cor. 11.32. Sinite vergam corr[illegible: 1 letter]pi[illegible: 2 letters]t[illegible: 1 letter]m, [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 3 letters]iutis m[illegible: 1 letter]lltum conterentem, ſaith an Ancient. he co[illegible: 4 letters] with the rod of correction, that ye feel not maul of confuſion. Better ſuffer immoderate raines and lightnings, then that terrible tempeſt, chap. 27.21. and the black flaſhes of hell fire, that [non-Latin text not transcribed], as Plato calleth it; the fiery Lake, as the Scripture.

Or for his Land] i.e. His Church, Hoſ. 9.3, A Land that he watereth and watcheth over from one end of the year to the other, Deut. 11.12.. His vineyard cared for, and kept to himſelf night and day, Iſai. 27.3. Or, the earth at large, which is Gods great field, Pſal. 24.1. (as the Church is his fold, Pſal. 100.3.) and eſpecially that part of it which is deſert and uninhabited. There alſo God cauſeth his Sun to ſhine, and his raine to fall, Matth 5.45. Job 38.26, 27. That the wild beaſts alſo may have food.

Or for mercy] Some ſingular and extraordinary mercy, as 2 Sam. 21.10. 1 King. 18.45. Sive ad faciendum beneficentiam; or to beſtow his bounty, and to beſtow a largeſſe; as Princes ſometimes make a ſcatter of monies among the multitude. Clouds are Gods Store-houſes, which he eft-ſoons openeth to our profit, Deuter. 28.12. By them, he maketh a ſcatter of riches upon the earth; which good men gather, and bad men ſcramble for.

Verſe 14. Hearken unto this, O Job] Here Elihu by little and little draweth to a moſt wiſe concluſion bringing Job to this point, that as the wiſdome of God in theſe daily and ordinary works of Nature doth far exceed the reach & capacity of man ſo the ſhould much more conſider the ſame in this grievous calamity,Beza. Merlin. which was now befalne him. And for as much as he could not come to the knowledg of any other ſecondary and middle cauſes; he ſhould rather adore and reverence the ſecret counſel and purpoſe of God herein, then labour in vain, and without any profit at all to torment himſelfe in ſearching out that which is not poſſible for any man to underſtand. Which argument God himſelf doth at large moſt truly and divinely proſecute in the four following Chapters.

Stand ſtill and conſider the wondrous works of God] Conſiſte, conſidera, and that thou mayeſt ſee into theſe divine ſecrets, Non arrigend[illegible: 1 letter] ſunt aures caruis, ſed fidei, Prick up the eares of thy faith, which alone can skill of theſe myſteries; whereinto if thou haſt yet no inſight, and canſt not yet feel the juſtice, wiſdome and goodneſs of God in thy preſent ſufferings, it is for want of judgement▪ (as I ſhall evince in that which followes) it is becauſe thou haſt not mine eyes, ſenſes habitually exerciſed to diſcern good and evil, Hebr. 5. ult. Nicoſtratus in Elian, himſelf being a cunning Artiſan, finding a curious piece of work, and being wondred at by one, and asked, What pleaſure he could take, to ſtand gazing as he did on the Picture? anſwered, Hadſt thou mine eyes thou wouldſt not wonder, but rather be raviſh'd as I am, at the inimitable Art of this rare Piece. Elihu ſeemeth here to ſay as much to Job.

Verſe 15. Doſt thou know when God diſpoſed them?] Viz. Thoſe wondrous works of God in the Aire eſpecially; thoſe varieties of Meteors, the generation and motions whereof, the greateſt Philoſophers cannot perfectly find out by their natural cauſes, neither do they wel agree amongſt themſelvs concerning thoſe cauſes. For Anaximander holdeth one thing, Metrodorus another, Anaxagoras a third, Ariſtotle a fourth; let thoſe that have a mind to it, read their janglings and Diſputes in Plutarch, De placitis Philoſophorum. Now if no man (though never ſo wiſe) can underſtand the wondrous works of God in theſe common things of Nature; how can he comprehend his hidden works, hoc eſt, crucem, ſaith Brentius?

And cauſed the light of his cloud to ſhine] Or, That he may cauſe the light of his cloud to ſhine. Hereby he meaneth lightnings, iſſuing out of the moiſt and cold cloud ſay ſome, the Rainbow, ſay others, that wonderful work of God (fained therefore by the Heathens to be the daughter of Thaumantias, Plato. or of wonderment) which is full of wonders, witneſſe the beautiful ſhape thereof, and various colours, with their ſeveral ſignifications, as ſome conceive: the ſeveral Prognoſticks; viz. Of rain in the morning, of fair weather in the evening, as Scaliger concludeth; the form of it a bow, which yet never ſhooteth any man unleſſe it be with aſtoniſhment and love, &c. God puts his bow in his hand (ſaith Ambroſe on Geneſ. 9.13) not his arrow, but his bow, and the ſtring of the bow is to us-ward. The Jewes conceit that the name Jehovah is written on the Rainbow, and therefore they no ſooner ſee it, but they hide their eyes, confeſſe their ſins that deſerve a ſecond deluge) celebrate Gods great goodneſs to mankind, &c. Some by the light of Gods cloud, here underſtand the Sun-ſhine through the clouds, cauſing it to clear up. Now who can certainly foretel rain or fair weather? Some Learned men have ſpent much time and pains in Aſtronomy to get skill in prognoſticating, but could do little good of it: when they foretel a faire day, it commonly raineth, and the contrary. The Country mans Prognoſticks, the Shepherds Calender, hold better for moſt part, then the Predictions of theſe Artiſans.

Verſe 16. Doſt thou know the balancings of the clouds?] i.e. How they are hanged up even in the aire, like Architas or Archimedes his Pigeon, equally poiſed with their own weight. But how they are upheld, and why they fall here, and now, we know not, and wonder. Some Naturaliſts tell us, that the clouds are upheld by the heat of the Sun: but thats more then they can tell, and there is much to be ſaid againſt it. Wherefore it is better for men to confeſſe their ignorance, then ſo peremptorily to pronounce of things they know not. Let it be proper to God to be perfect in knowledge. It was too much that ſome aſcribed to Tertullian, to Hierom, to Toſtatus and ſome others, that they knew all that was knowable.

Verſe 17 How thy garments are warme, when he &c.] Canſt thou give a reaſon of the extreme heat that is about the Summer-Solſtice, when the warm South-winds blow ſo gently, that they are ſcarce felt at all, and thy cloathes heated by thy body are a burden to thee, ſo that thou art ready to caſt them off, and but for common honeſty, thou couldſt go naked? Brentius thinks, That although one of the winds only is here inſtanced, yet the diſpoſing of them all is intended; wherein much of God may be ſeen: for it is he alone, who holdeth them in his fiſt, hideth them in his Treaſures, ſendeth them out as his Poſtes, rideth upon them as his Chariot, 2 Sam. 22.10. Pſal. 104.3. checks them at his pleaſure (whence they concluded Chriſts Deity, Matth. 8.27.) makes them pace orderly appointing them their motion, &c. chap. 28. Nos motum ſentimus, modum neſcimus, Joh 3.8. Thou heareſt the ſound of the wind, but knoweſt not whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth. Now if in theſe common matters men are ſo blind, how much more in the deep judgements of the moſt High?

Verſe 18. Haſt thou with him ſpread out the Skie?] He had convinced Job of his ignorance, and now he will of his impotence and imbecility: and this by an irony; q.d. Tunè ille giga[illegible: 1 letter]es? Art thou indeed that Gyant or Demi-god that helped the Almighty when he ſpred the heavens, when he laid the foundation of the earth, &c? Age itaque ſi tantus vir es, quantum te oſtentas, &c. Go to then, if thou be indeed ſuch an one as thou wouldſt ſeem to be, whiles thou takeſt upon thee to be, viz. to contend with God, and to complain of his hard dealing with thee, Teach us what we ſhall ſay unto him, &c. as ver. 19. for we dare not, as thou haſt done, dare him to come into the liſts with us, as hoping to have the better of him.

Which is ſtrong.] Not by reaſon of any hard maſſie Elemental thickneſs, but by reaſon of their airy,Diod. incorruptible, indiſſoluble nature, compoſed of very thin and even parts. Hence the Greeks call it, [non-Latin text not transcribed], and the Latines Firmamentum. See the Note on Gen. 1.7.

And as a molten Looking-glaſs] Perſpicuum & ſapphirinum, clear and tranſparent as a mirrour wherein God maketh himſelf viſible,R. Levi. as it were; who, of himſelfe is too ſubtle for ſight or ſinew to ſeize upon. The Hebrew hath it, which is ſtrong as a molten Looking-glaſſe; i.e. as a poliſhed brazen Looking-glaſs, being more ſolid then braſs more tranſparent then chriſtal.

Verſe 19. Teach us what we ſhall ſay unto him] A notable ſcoffe, a ſharp ſarcaſme. Verba ſunt urgentis & inſultantis; q d. Velim ut è tot argumentis, cap. 23.4. aliqua nunc proferas, I would that thou wouldſt bring out ſome of thoſe many Arguments thou didſt brag of: for we are at a fault; neither can we (ſuch is our ignorance) find what to ſay in thy juſt defence, had we never ſo good a mind to it.

For we cannot order our ſpeech by reaſon of darkneſſe] We are benighted and word-bound, forced to acknowledg our ignorance our infancy, and to complain, (as Anaxagoras afterwards did) omnia eſſe circumfuſa tenebris; and (as Empedacles) anguſt as eſſe ſenſuum ſemitas, that we are far to ſeek of what to ſay in this caſe, and ready to think that ſilence would be our ſafeſt eloquence.

Verſe 21. Shall it be told him that I ſpeak] An in acta referetur [illegible: 1 letter]i, ſi loquar? Shall it be recorded before him, &c? q.d. Then wo be to me, for I am ſure to rue it, yea, and (without mercy) to be ruined for it. Did not Enoch the ſeventh from Adam propheſie long ſince, ſaying, Behold the Lord cometh to execute judgment upon all, and to convince them of all their hard ſpeeches which ungodly ſinners have ſpoken againſt him, Jude 14, 15.

If a man ſpeak, ſurely he ſhall be ſwallowed up] If he ſpeak in thy behalf, or after thine example, preſuming to controle Gods works, and to quarrel his proceedings as thou haſt done, he is ſure to be undone. Some read the words thus, For if he ſpeak man ſhall be devoured; That is, if God ſpeak, man (who before he cometh to ſpeak, thinks that he ſhall be able to reaſon with him) ſhall be quite confounded, and his words, as it were, ſwallowed up by his profound wiſdome; and he made unable to ſpeak one word for himſelf. Wherefore let all f[illegible: 2 letters]ſh be ſilent before the Lord; for if any preſume to chat againſt his judgements, he ſhall have his words driven down his throat again by a divine vengeance, Cave ne lingua feriat collum, Take heed thy tongue cut not thy throat, ſay the Arabians Proverb-wiſe.

Verſe 21. And now men ſee not the bright light that is in the clouds] It ſeemeth ſaith an Expoſitor, that at that very inſtant the cloudy weather, did begin to clear up, and that thereupon Elihu took occaſion to ſpeak theſe words,The Sun is called Light by an excellency: the Egyptians call him Orus, from the Hebrew, Or. q.d. Thou art not able to look into the body of the ſhining Sun, quia nimium ſenſibile laedit ſenſum; How much leſſe canſt thou behold God in his glory, in compariſon of whom, the Sun in his ſtrength is but as a clod of clay? Hereafter we ſhall ſee God as he is, ſee him face to face, 1 John 3. See as we are ſeen, &c. but here we can ſee his back parts only and live, Exod. 33. Surely out of what Elihu had hitherto ſaid Job ſhould have reaſoned thus with himſelf, I cannot bear the force of a flaſh of lightning, of a clan of thunder, of a violent ſhowre, of an overturning whirl-wind of an extreme froſt, of the out-ſhining Sun, &c. how much leſſe of God in his Majeſty?

Verſe 22. Fair weather cometh out of the North] Heb. Gold cometh, &c. Serenitas aur ſimilis. Tig. that is, the golden beames of the Sun, as golden Oyle, Zech. 4.12. The North-wind alſo cleanſeth the clouds, and ſhewes us the pleaſant face of the Sun, that Gold-maker; all whoſe rayes come tipt and gilt with a gliſtering glory upon them.

With God is terrible Majeſty] Far beyond that of the Sun, or of the moſt dread Soveraign upon earth: be it an Auguſtus Caeſar, or a terrible Tamberlane, Turk. hiſt. 23[illegible: 1 letter] & 415. in whoſe eyes ſate ſuch a rare and reverend Majeſty; as a man could hardly endure to behold them, without cloſing his own. The Tigurines render it, Ad Deum reverendiſſimum pertinet confeſſia, To the moſt reverend God belongeth praiſe. Others by way of Doxology, Ʋnto God be reverend Majeſty; a fit percloſe of Elihu's excellent Diſcourſe. It was the laſt ſpeech of dying Chryſoſtom, Glory be to God from all creatures. Let it be the badge of the Beaſt, Laus Deo, & beatae Virgini. Cry we, Deus terribilis laudeter, as Brentius rendreth this Text, Let God alone be praiſed.

Verſe 23. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out] Heb. The Almighty; the Nominative Caſe put abſolute; q.d. in ſhort, as for the Almighty (that nomen Majeſtativum, as Tertullian phraſeth it) we cannot comprehend him, any more then we can the main Ocean in a cockel ſhell. And whereas we can ſay, as here, that he is excellent in Power, and in Judgement, and in plenty of Juſtice,Auguſt. Iſta de Deo dicimus, quia non invenimus melius quod dicamus; We ſay theſe things of God, becauſe we have nothing better to ſay of him, and muſt owe the reſt unto our thoughts, although indeed, He is above all name, and above all notion. In ſearching after God, ſaith Chryſoſtom, I am like a man digging in a deep Spring, I ſtand here, and the water riſeth upon me, and I ſtand there, and ſtill the water riſeth upon me. To Thomas Aquinas buſie in this ſearch, was ſhewed (they ſay) a deep pit in the edge of the ſea, (which empty it, and carry away the water as oft as they will,) it is ſtill filled with other. It is a knowledge that paſſeth knowledge, Eph. 3.19 That which in meaſure is pleaſant and profitable, being too much enquired into, proves unſavoury and unſafe.

He will not afflict] viz. Willingly. Lam. 3.33. or canſleſly, 1 Pet. 1.6. Or He will not anſwer; viz. Every one that queſtioneth the juſtice of his proceedings as Job in his heat had done. The Seventy render it queſtion-wiſe, will he not anſwer? ſcil. Thoſe that call upon him in truth, ſith he is excellent in power and in judgmen, &c? Sure he will.

Verſe 24. Men do therefore fear him] They do, or ſhould do, for his excellent greatneſſe and goodneſſe, Pſal. 130.4. Matth. 10.28. But in caſe they do not

He reſpecteth not any that are wiſe of heart] That out of a conceit of their owne wiſdome ſtand it out againſt him, and think to reaſon it out with him, as thou haſt done. Or, But he ſeeth not all wiſe in heart: He findeth not all wiſe, whom he beholdeth here upon earth. Stultorum plena ſunt omnia, and thou alſo haſt dealt very fooliſhly, as God hath ſeen and will ſhortly ſhew thee better then I can do.