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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 37:6 - 37:6
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
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 ×ָבִי, Job 34:36, and פַּש×, Job 35:15, הֱוֵ×, 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. hawaÌ‚ 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. הַוָּה, according to which, what was said on Job 6:2; Job 30:13 is to be corrected.
(Note: Arab. hawaÌ‚ is originally χαιÌνειν, 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 haÌ‚wijatun, χαιÌνουσα χαῖνον, i.e., χᾶσμα = huÌ‚watun, uhwı̂jatun, huwaÌ‚atun, mahwaÌ‚tun, a cleft, yawning deep, chasm, abyss, βαÌÏαθÏον, vorago; hawı̂jatun and hauhaÌ‚tun (a reduplicated form), especially a very deep pit or well. But these same words, haÌ‚wijatun, huÌ‚watun, uhwı̂jatun, mahwaÌ‚tun, also signify, like the usual Arab. hawa'aÌ‚'un, the χαÌσμα between heaven and earth, i.e., the wide, empty space, the same as 'gauwun. The wider significations, or rather applications and references of hawaÌ‚: air set in motion, a current of air, wind, weather, are all secondary, and related to that primary signification as samaÌ‚, rain-clouds, rain, grass produced by the rain, to the prim. signification height, heaven, vid., Mehren, Rhetorik d. Araber, S. 107, Z. 14ff. This hawaÌ‚, however, also signifies in general: a broad, empty space, and by transferring the notion of “empty†to mind and heart, as the reduplicated forms huÌ‚hatun and hauhaÌ‚tun: devoid of understanding and devoid of courage, e.g., Koran xiv. 44: wa-af'i-datuhum hawaÌ‚un, where Bedhâwî first explains hawaÌ‚ directly by chalaÌ‚, emptiness, empty space, i.e., as he adds, chaÌ‚lijetun ‛an el-fahm, as one says of one without mind and courage qalbuhu hawaÌ‚un. Thence also hauwun, emptiness, a hole, i.e., in a wall or roof, a dormar-window (kauwe, kuÌ‚we), 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 χηÌÏα, vidua, properly empty, French vide; (2) hawaÌ‚ 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. hawaÌ‚, 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 שָ××ָה, שָ×): 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. jahwaÌ‚ 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, blowâ€). 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 לַשֶּ×לֶג influences Job 37:6 also. The Hebr. name for rain, גֶּשֶ×× (cogn. with Chald. גש××, Arab. gism, a body), denotes the rain collectively. The expression Job 37:6 is exceeded in Job 37:6, where מִטְרֹות does not signify rain-drops (Ew.), but, like the Arab. amtâr, rain-showers. The wonders of nature during the rough season (חֹרֶף, סְתָיו, Son 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 (×—Ö¸×ªÖ·× ×‘Ö°Ö¼ 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 : לָדַעַת כָּל־×Ö²× Ö¸×©Ö´××™× ×žÖ·Ö½×¢Ö²×©Öµ×‚×”×•Ö¼, in order that each and every one may acknowledge His work; after which even Jer. translates: ut noverint singuli opera sua. The conjecture ×× ×©××™× ×¢Ö¹×©Öµ×‚×”×•Ö¼ (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. הַחֶדֶר (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 chidrihaÌ‚, 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 ×ֶרֶץ חַדְרָךְ, Zec 9:1, is translated by the Targ. ×“×¨×•×ž× ×רע×. In opposition to the south-east wind, מְזָרִי×, 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, dhaÌ‚rijaÌ‚t, Sur. li. 1.
(Note: This dhaÌ‚rijaÌ‚t 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.â€)
In מזרי×, 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: מִכַּוַּת ×žÖ°×–Ö¸×¨Ö´×™× (from the window, i.e., the window of the vault of heaven, of the mezarim); Aq., Theod. ἀπὸ μαζουÌÏ (= מזרות, Job 38:32); lxx ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν ἀκÏωτηÏιÌων, we know not wherefore. Concerning ×žÖ´× Ö´Ö¼×©Ö°×מַת־×ֵל (with causal מִן) with reference to the wind, vid., on Job 4:15. יִתֵּן, it gives, i.e., comes to light, is used as in Gen 38:28; Pro 13:10. The idea of מוּצָק (not fusum from יָצַק, but coarctatum from צוּק) cannot be doubtful in connection with the antithesis of רֹחַב, comp. Job 36:16, the idea is like Job 38:30 (comp. Mutenebbi: “the flood is bound by bands of iceâ€); the בְּ of בְּמוּצָק 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).