Job 37:19-24
Lexham English Bible
19 “Teach us what we should say to him;
we cannot draw up our case because of the presence of darkness.
20 Should he be told that I want to speak?
Or did a man say that he would be communicated with?
21 So then, they do not look at the light when it is bright in the skies,
when[a] the wind has passed and has cleansed them.
22 From the north comes gold—
awesome majesty is around God.
23 As for Shaddai, we cannot attain him;
he is exalted in power,
and he does not oppress justice and abundant righteousness.
24 Therefore people revered him;
he does not regard any[b] who think that they are wise.”[c]
Job 37:19-24
New English Translation
19 Tell us what we should[a] say to him.
We cannot prepare a case[b]
because of the darkness.
20 Should he be informed that I want[c] to speak?
If a man speaks, surely he will be swallowed up!
21 But now, the sun[d] cannot be looked at[e]—
it is bright in the skies—
after a wind passed and swept the clouds away.[f]
22 From the north he comes in golden splendor;[g]
around God is awesome majesty.
23 As for the Almighty,[h] we cannot attain to him!
He is great in power,
but justice[i] and abundant righteousness he does not oppress.
24 Therefore people fear him,
for he does not regard all the wise in heart.”[j]
Footnotes
- Job 37:19 tn The imperfect verb here carries the obligatory nuance, “what we should say?”
- Job 37:19 tn The verb means “to arrange; to set in order.” From the context the idea of a legal case is included.
- Job 37:20 tn This imperfect works well as a desiderative imperfect.
- 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.
- Job 37:21 tn The verb has an indefinite subject, and so should be a passive here.
- 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.
- Job 37:22 tn The MT has “out of the north comes gold.” Left in that sense the line seems irrelevant. The translation “golden splendor” (with RV, RSV, NRSV, NIV) depends upon the context of theophany. Others suggest “golden rays” (Dhorme), the aurora borealis (Graetz, Gray), or some mythological allusion (Pope), such as Baal’s palace. Golden rays or splendor is what is intended, although the reference is not to a natural phenomenon—it is something that would suggest the glory of God.
- Job 37:23 tn The name “Almighty” is here a casus pendens, isolating the name at the front of the sentence and resuming it with a pronoun.
- Job 37:23 tn The MT places the major disjunctive accent (the atnach) under “power,” indicating that “and justice” starts the second half of the verse as a disjunctive clause (with ESV, NASB, NIV, NLT). Ignoring the Masoretic accent, NRSV has “he is great in power and justice.”
- Job 37:24 sn The phrase “wise of heart” was used in Job 9:4 in a negative sense.
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