Job 37:6-13
New English Translation
6 For to the snow he says, ‘Fall[a] to earth,’
and to the torrential rains,[b] ‘Pour down.’[c]
7 He causes everyone to stop working,[d]
so that all people[e] may know[f] his work.
8 The wild animals go to their lairs,
and in their dens they remain.
9 A tempest blows out from its chamber,
icy cold from the driving winds.[g]
10 The breath of God produces ice,
and the breadth of the waters freeze solid.
11 He loads the clouds with moisture;[h]
he scatters his lightning through the clouds.
12 The clouds[i] go round in circles,
wheeling about according to his plans,
to carry out[j] all that he commands them
over the face of the whole inhabited world.
13 Whether it is for punishment,[k]
or for his land,
or for mercy,
he causes it to find its mark.[l]
Footnotes
- Job 37:6 tn The verb actually means “be” (found here in the Aramaic form). The verb “to be” can mean “to happen, to fall, to come about.”
- Job 37:6 tn Heb “and [to the] shower of rain and shower of rains, be strong.” Many think the repetition grew up by variant readings; several Hebrew mss delete the second pair, and so many editors do. But the repetition may have served to stress the idea that the rains were heavy.
- Job 37:6 tn Heb “Be strong.”
- Job 37:7 tn Heb “by the hand of every man he seals.” This line is intended to mean that with the heavy rains God suspends all agricultural activity.
- Job 37:7 tc This reading involves a change in the text, for in MT “men” is in the construct. It would be translated “all men whom he made” (i.e., “all men of his making”). This is the translation followed by the NIV and NRSV. Olshausen suggested that the word should have been אֲנָשִׁים (ʾanashim) with the final ם (mem) being lost to haplography.
- Job 37:7 tn D. W. Thomas suggested a meaning of “rest” for the verb, based on Arabic. He then reads אֱנוֹשׁ (ʾenosh) for man, and supplies a ם (mem) to “his work” to get “that every man might rest from his work [in the fields].”
- Job 37:9 tn The “driving winds” reflects the Hebrew “from the scatterers.” This refers to the north winds that bring the cold air and the ice and snow and hard rains.
- Job 37:11 tn The word “moisture” is drawn from רִי (ri) as a contraction for רְוִי (revi). Others emended the text to get “hail” (NAB) or “lightning,” or even “the Creator.” For these, see the various commentaries. There is no reason to change the reading of the MT when it makes perfectly good sense.
- Job 37:12 tn The words “the clouds” are supplied from v. 11; the sentence itself actually starts: “and it goes round,” referring to the cloud.
- Job 37:12 tn Heb “that it may do.”
- Job 37:13 tn Heb “rod,” i.e., a rod used for punishment.
- Job 37:13 tn This is interpretive; Heb “he makes find it.” The lightning could be what is intended here, for it finds its mark. But R. Gordis (Job, 429) suggests man is the subject—let him find what it is for, i.e., the fate appropriate for him.
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