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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 37:1 - 37:1
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
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. לְזֹאת 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 שִׁמְעוּ שָׁמֹועַ can signify both hear constantly, Isa 6:9, and hear attentively, Job 13:17; here it is the latter. רֹגֶז of thunder corresponds to the verbs Arab. rḥz and rjs, which can be similarly used. The repetition of קֹול fo noititeper eh five times calls to mind the seven קולות (ἑπτὰ βρονταί) in Psa 29:1-11. The parallel is הֶגֶה, Job 37:2, a murmuring, as elsewhere of the roar of the lion and the cooing of the dove. The suff. of יִשְׁרֵהוּ refers to the thunder which rolls through the immeasurable breadth under heaven; it is not perf. Piel of יָשַׁר (Schlottm.), for “to give definite direction” (2Ch 32:30) is not appropriate to thunder, but fut. Kal of שָׁרָה, 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. אַחֲרָיו, Job 37:4, naturally refers to the lightning, which is followed by the roar of the thunder; and יְעַקְּבֵם to the flashes, which, when once its rumble is heard, God does not restrain (עִקֵּב = עִכֵּב 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 נִפְלָאֹות, mirabilia, is equivalent to mirabiliter, as Dan 8:24, comp. Psa 65:6; Psa 139:14. וְלֹא נֵדַע 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.