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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 36:30 - 36:30
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
30 Behold, He spreadeth His light over Himself,
And the roots of the sea He covereth.
31 For thereby He judgeth peoples,
He giveth food in abundance.
32 Both hands He covereth over with light,
And directeth it as one who hitteth the mark.
33 His noise announceth Him,
The cattle even that He is approaching.
A few expositors (Hirz., Hahn, Schlottm.) understand the celestial ocean, or the sea of the upper waters, by יָם, Job 36:30; but it is more than questionable (vid., on Job 9:8) whether ים is used anywhere in this sense. Others as (Umbr., Ew.) the masses of water drawn up to the sky out of the depths of the sea, on which a Persian passage cited by Stick. (who, however, regards the Waw of וְשָׁרְשֵׁי as Waw adaequationis) from Schebisteri may be compared: “an exhalation rises up out of the sea, and comes down at God's command upon the deserts.” In both cases כִּסָּה would be equivalent to כסה עָלָיו, obtegit se, which in and of itself is possible. But he who has once witnessed a storm in the neighbourhood of the sea, will decide in favour of one of the three following explanations: (1.) He covereth the uprooted ground of the sea (comp. Psa 18:15.) with the subsiding waves (Blumenf.); but then Job 36:30 would require to be understood of the light of the brightening sky following the darkness of the storm, which is improbable in respect of Job 36:32. (2.) While the sky is brilliantly lighted up by the lightning, the abysses of the ocean are veiled in a so much deeper darkness; the observation is correct, but not less so another, that the lightning by a thunder-storm, especially when occurring at night, descends into the depths of the sea like snares that are cast down (פַּחִים, Psa 11:6), and the water is momentarily changed as it were into a sea of flame; accordingly it may be explained, (3.) Behold, He spreadeth over Himself His light (viz., the light which incessantly illumines the world), and the roots of the sea, i.e., the sea down to its depths, He covers with it, since He makes it light through and through (Stuhlm. Wolfs.). Thus, as it appears, Jerome also interprets: Et (si voluerit) fulgurare lumine suo desuper, cardines quoque maris operiet.
(Note: The Targ. translates אֹור, Job 36:30, Job 36:32, by מִטְרָא, pluvia, according to the erroneous opinion of R. Jochanan: כל אורה שׁנאמר באליהוא אינו אלא בירידת גשׁמים. Aben-Ezra and Kimchi explain even עֲלֵי־אֹור, Isa 18:4, according to this passage. The lxx translates Job 36:30: ἰδοὺ ἐκτενεῖ ἐπ ̓ αὐτὸν ἠδώ (Cod. Alex. επ αυτον το τοξον; Cod. Sinait. επ αυτην ηωδη (with the corrections ηδω and τοξον), probably according to the reading אידו for אורו. But what connection have ἠδώ and rainbow?)
This, that He makes the light of the lightning His manifestation (פָּרַשׂ עָלָיו), and that He covers the earth down to the roots of the sea beneath with this light, is established in Job 36:31 from the design, partly judicial, partly beneficial, which exists in connection with it. בָּם refers as neuter (like בָּהֶם, Job 22:21) to the phenomena of the storm; מַכְבִּיר (with the adverbial ל like לָרֹב, Job 26:3), what makes great = a making great, abundance (only here), is n. hiphil. after the form מַשְׁהִית, perdens = perditio. In Job 36:32 God is represented under a military figure as a slinger of lightnings: He covers light over both hands, i.e., arms both completely with light (comp. סִכְסֵךְ and Arab. škk, totum se operire armis), and directs it (עָלֶיהָ referring to אֹור as fem. like Jer 13:16, and sometimes in the Talmud). But what is the meaning of בְּמַפְגִּיעַ? Hahn takes מפגיע as n. hiphil. like מכביר: an object of attack; but what then becomes of the original Hiphil signification? It ought to be בְּמִפְגָּע (Job 7:20), as Olsh. wishes to read it. Ew., Hirz., and others, after the example of Theod. (lxx), Syr., Jer., translate: against the adversary; מפגיע ;yrasre signifies indeed the opposite in Isa 49:16 : intercessor (properly, one who assails with prayers); however, it would be possible for this word, just as פגע c. acc. (which signifies usually a hostile meeting, Exo 5:3 and freq., but sometimes also a friendly, Isa 47:3; Isa 64:4), to be an ἐναντιόσημον. We prefer to abide by the usage of the language as we have it, according to which הפגיע signifies facere ut quid incurset s. petat, Isa 53:6; מפגיע therefore is one who hits, in opposition to one who misses the mark. The Beth is the Beth essentiae (vid., on Job 23:13), used here like Exo 6:3; Psa 55:19; Isa 40:10. With both hands He seizes the substance of the lightning, fills them with it so that they are completely covered by it, and gives it the command (appoints it its goal), a sure aimer!
Job 36:33
Targ., Syr., Symm., Theod. (from which Job 36:32 is supplied in the lxx),
(Note: Vid., Bickel, De indole ac ratione versionis Alex. in interpretando l. Iobi, p. 50. Cod. Sinait. has, like Cod. Vat.: αναγγελει περι αυτου φιλον (corr. φιλος) αυτου κς κτησις και περι αδικαις.)
Jer., Luther, and others destroy the idea, since they translate רֵעֹו = רֵעֵהוּ, “his friend (companion).” Among moderns, only Umbr. and Schlottm. adopt this signification; Böttch. and Welte, after the example of Cocceius, Tingstad, and others, attempt it with the signification “thought = determination;” but most expositors, from Ew. to Hahn, decide in favour of the rendering as simple as it is consistent with the usage of the language and the connection: His noise (רֵעֹו as Exo 32:17) gives tidings concerning Him (announces Him). In Job 36:33 Theod. (lxx), Syr., and Jer. point מקנה like our text, but translate possessio, with which we can do nothing. It seems that in the three attempts of the Targ. to translate Job 36:33, the translators had קִנְאָה and קִנֵּא before their mind, according to which Hahn translates: the arousing of anger (announces) the comer, which assumes מקנֵה instead of מקנֶה; and Schlottm.: fierce wrath (goes forth) over evil (according to Symm. ζῆλον περὶ ἀδικίας), which assumes the reading עַוְלָה (עֹולָה), ἀδικία, adopted also by Syr., Theod. (lxx). Schultens even renders similarly: rubedinem flammantem nasi contra elatum, and Tingstad: zelum irae in iniquitatem. But it is not probable that the language was acquainted with a subst. מִקְנֶה, exciting, although in Eze 8:3 הַמַּקְנֶה is equivalent to הַמַּקְנִיא, so that one might more readily be tempted (vid., Hitz. in loc.) to read מַקְנֶה אַף, ”one who excites anger against evil,” it one is not willing to decide with Berg, and recently Bleek, in favour of (מְקַנֶּה) מְקַנֵּא אַף בְּעַוְלָה, excandescens (zelans) ira= contra iniquitatem. But does the text as it stands really not give an appropriate idea? Aben-Ezra and Duran have understood it of the foreboding of an approaching thunder-storm which is manifested by cattle, מִקְנֶה. Accordingly Ew. translates: His thunder announces Him, the cattle even, that He is approaching; and peculiarly new (understanding יגיד not of a foreboding but of a thankful lowing) is Ebrard's rendering; also the cattle at fresh sprouting grass. But such a change of the position of אף is without precedent. Hirz. and Ges.: His rumble (rumble of thunder) announces Him to the herds, Him, and indeed as Him who rises up (approaches). But this new interpunction destroys the division of the verse and the syntax. Better Rosenm. like Duran: pecus non tantum pluviam proximam, sed et antequam nubes in sublime adscenderint adscensuras praesagit, according to Virgil, Georg. i. 374f.:
illum (imbrem) surgentem vallibus imis
Aeriae fugere grues.
But עָלָיו refers to God, and therefore עַל־עֹולֶה also, viz., Him who leads forth the storm-clouds (Jer 10:13; Jer 51:16; Psa 135:7), and Himself rising up in them; or, what עָלָה frequently signifies, coming on as to battle. It is to be interpreted: His thunder-clap announces Him (who is about to reveal Himself as a merciful judge), the cattle even (announce) Him at His first rising up, since at the approach of a storm they herd together affrighted and seek shelter. The speakers are Arabian, and the scene is laid in the country: Elihu also refers to the animal world in Job 35:11; this feature of the picture, therefore, cannot be surprising.