Matthew Poole and continuators on Job 38:1

1. THen the LORD answered Iob out of the whirlwind , and said,

i. e. Began to debate the matter with him as Iob had desired.

i. e. Out of a dark and thick Cloud, from which he sent a terrible and tempestuous Wind as the harbinger of his presence. In this manner God appears and speaks to him, partly because this was his usual method in those times, as we see, Exod. 19. 18. Numb. 9. 15, 16. See also 1 Kings 19. 11. Ezek. 1. 4. partly to awaken Iob and his Friends, to the more serious and reverend attention to his words; partly to [illegible: 1+ letters]estifie his displeasure both against Iob and against his three Friends, and partly that all of them might be more deeply and throughly humbled and abased within themselves, and prepared the better to receive and longer to retain the instructions which God was about to give them.

Marginal references: Nah. 1. 3.