26 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Job 37 Elihu in this chapter proceeds to show the greatness of God as it appears in other of his works of nature, which greatly affected him, and to an attention to which he exhorts others, Job 37:1; particularly thunder and lightning, the direction, extent, and order of which he observes, Job 37:3; and then suggests that besides...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
At this also my heart trembleth,.... At the greatness and majesty of God, not only as displayed in those works of his before observed, but as displayed in those he was about to speak of: such terrible majesty is there with God, that all rational creatures tremble at it; the nations of the world, the kings and great men of the earth, and even the...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Elihu here goes on to extol the wonderful power of God in the meteors and all the changes of the weather: if, in those changes, we submit to the will of God, take the weather as it is and make the best of it, why should we not do so in other changes of our condition? Here he observes the hand of God, I. In the thunder and lightning, ver. 1-5. II....
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Hear attentively the noise of his voice,.... Of the voice of God in the clouds; and of thunder, which is his voice, Job 40:9. Elihu being affected with it himself, exhorts the company about him to hearken and listen to it, and learn something from it; and the sound [that] goeth out of his mouth: as the former clause may have respect to loud...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
He directeth it under the whole heaven,.... His voice of thunder, which rolls from one end of the heaven to the other: he charges the clouds with it, and directs both it and them where they shall go and discharge; what tree, house, or man, it shall strike; and where the rain shall fall when the clouds burst: yet Pliny (x) atheistically calls...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
After it a voice roareth,.... After the lightning comes a violent crack or clap of thunder, which is like the roaring of a lion. Such is the order of thunder and lightning, according to our sense and apprehension of them; otherwise in nature they are together: but the reasons given why the lightning is seen before, and so the same in the flash and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
God thundereth marvellously with his voice,.... Or "marvels" (c), or marvellous things, which may respect the marvellous effects of thunder and lightning: such as rending rocks and mountains; throwing down high and strong towers; shattering to pieces high and mighty oaks and cedars, and other such like effects, mentioned in Psalms 29:5; and there...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For he saith to the snow, be thou [on] the earth,.... In the original it is, be thou earth: hence one of the Rabbins formed a notion, that the earth was created from snow under the throne of glory, which is justly censured by Maimonides (f); for there is a defect of the letter ב, as in 2 Chronicles 34:30; as Aben Ezra observes; and therefore...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
He sealeth up the hand of every man,.... That is, by deep snows and heavy rains being on the earth; where, as travellers are stopped in their journeys, and cannot proceed, so various artificers are hindered from their work, and husbandmen especially from their employment in the fields; so that their hands are as it were shut up and sealed, that...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then the beasts go into dens,.... When snow and rains are on the earth in great abundance, then the wild beasts of the field, not being able to prowl about, betake themselves to dens; where they lie in wait, lurking for any prey that may pass by, from whence they spring and seize it; and remain in their places; until the snow and rains are...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Out of the south cometh the whirlwind,.... Or "from the chamber" (n); from the chamber of the cloud, as Ben Gersom, from the inside of it; or from the treasury of God, who bringeth the wind out of his treasures; alluding to chambers where treasures are kept; or from the heavens, shut up and veiled around with clouds like a pavilion: but because we...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
By the breath of God frost is given,.... By the word of God, as the Targum; at his command it is, at his word it comes, and at his word it goes, Psalms 147:15; or by his will, as Ben Gersom interprets it, when it is his pleasure it should be, it appears; it may be understood of a freezing wind from the Lord, for a wind is sometimes expressed by...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud,.... By filling it with a multitude of water, it is as it were loaded and made weary with it; and especially by sending it about thus loaded from place to place before discharged, when it becomes as a weary traveller; and then by letting down the water in it, whereby it spends itself like one that is...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it is turned round about by his counsels,.... The cloud is, and that by the wind, which is turned about to all points of the compass, according to the will of God; by the counsels of him who sits at the helm, as the word signifies, and orders all things according to the counsel of his own will: to which owing every shifting of the wind, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
He causeth it to come,.... The cloud, and rain by it; whether for correction; for the reproof and chastisement of men for their sins, by suffering such quantities to fall as wash away, or corrupt and destroy, the fruits of the earth: or "for a tribe" (t), as the word sometimes signifies; the rain is sent, and comes only to a particular part or...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Hearken unto this, O Job,.... Either to the present clap of thunder then heard; or rather to what Elihu had last said concerning clouds of rain coming for correction or mercy; and improve it and apply it to his own case, and consider whether the afflictions he was under were for the reproof and correction of him for sin, or in mercy and love to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Dost thou know when God disposed them?.... The clouds, that part of the wondrous works of God he was speaking of; when he decreed concerning them that they should be, when he put into them and stored them with rain, hail, snow, c. disposed of them here and there in the heavens, and gave them orders to fall on this and the other spot of ground wast...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds?.... How those ponderous bodies, as some of them are very weighty, full of water, are poised, and hang in the air, without turning this way or the other, or falling on the earth; the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge; of God, who is a God of knowledge, of knowledges, 1 Samuel 2:3; who...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
How thy garments [are] warm, when he quieteth the earth by the south [wind]?] One should think there is no great difficulty in accounting for this, that a man's clothes should be warm, and he so hot as not to be able to bear them, but obliged to put them off in the summer season, when only the south wind blows, which brings heat, a serene sky, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Hast thou with him spread out the sky?.... Wast thou concerned with him at the first spreading out of the sky? wast thou an assistant to him in it? did he not spread it as a curtain or canopy about himself, without the help of another? verily he did; see Job 9:8 Isaiah 44:24; [which] is strong: for though it seems a fluid and thin, is very firm...