Job 37:19-21

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Job 37:19 tn The imperfect verb here carries the obligatory nuance, “what we should say?”
2. Job 37:19 tn The verb means “to arrange; to set in order.” From the context the idea of a legal case is included.
3. Job 37:20 tn This imperfect works well as a desiderative imperfect.
4. Job 37:21 tn The light here must refer to the sun in the skies that had been veiled by the storm. Then, when the winds blew the clouds away, it could not be looked at because it was so dazzling. Elihu’s analogy will be that God is the same—in his glory one cannot look at him or challenge him.
5. Job 37:21 tn The verb has an indefinite subject, and so should be a passive here.
6. Job 37:21 tn Heb “and cleaned them.” The referent is the clouds (v. 18), which has been supplied in the translation for clarity. There is another way of reading this verse: the word translated “bright” means “dark; obscured” in Syriac. In this interpretation the first line would mean that they could not see the sun, because it was darkened by the clouds, but then the wind came and blew the clouds away. Dhorme, Gray, and several others take it this way, as does the NAB.