The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 583

mo.kee o. fl11al o.ppenl to Job to o.cknowleclgo speed : " others, " He will not co.me them to hie own wenknose o.nd God's perfecUon and oeaee." uneoo.rcbo.bleneee, and to bow clown in won- _Yer.. 5.-:--God thn~de~eth mu.;"Vello111Iy der o.nd odoro.tion before him (Tere. 14-24). with h11 voice. In 8n1shmg off hie descrip- tion of tl,e thnnderetorm, Elihu dwells upon its morvellouencss. Ee.oh step in the entire Ver. 1.-At this alao; i.e. nt the thuncler- process is strange and wonderfa I, beyond .t.orm or o.t tho po.rticular era.eh mentioned man's comprehension; and the lesson to be In ob. xxxvi. 33. lilly heart trembleth. A drawn from the consideration of the whole violent pea.I of thuncler proclucee in almost series of phenomena is thu.t great things oil men a certo.in a.mount of nervous trepicla- doeth he (i.e. God), which we cu.unot compre- tion. Elibu eeeme to hnve been e.bnormnlly hend. Even e.fter all that !tas been done of sensitive. Hie henrt trembled eo that it late yeu.re to advance the science of meteor- seemed to be moved out of his plaoe. ology, it cu.nnot be said that the rationale <,f Ver. 2.-lleo.r attentively the noise of his storms is fully grasped by tbe scientifio voioe, and the aound that goeth out of his intellect. month; or, Hear/am ye, hear1cen ye to the Ver. 6.-For ha saith to the snow, Be thou noise of his 11oice (comp. Pa. lxxvii. 18; civ. on the eu.rth. The phenomenon of snow is 7; and below, vere. 4, 5). We need not e.lwu.ys full of marvel to o.n Oriental. It suppose Elihu to speak otherwise than comes before him eo seldom; it is in itself poetically. He does not, like the Indian of so stre.nge ; it involves things so inexplic- " . . . untutored mind, able as the suclden solidification of a. liq nid, Bee God in clouds or bear !Jim in tlie wind." crystallization, e. marked expansion of bulk, and the sudden assumption by what was He does not mean that the thunder is actually colourless of u. definite and dazzling colour. God's voice, but that it tells of him, reminds In Arabie. and the countries bortlering ou of him, brings nature.Uy to men's minds the Pu.Jestine snow Yery seldom falls ; but in thought of his marvellous greatness and Palestine itself the mountain ranges of power, and should therefore be listened to Lebo.non oud Hermon are never without it; with awe and trembling, not passed over and in the region occupied by Job and his lightly, like any other sound. friends there is reason to believe that ice Ver. 3.-He directeth it under the whole end snow were not altogether inl'requent heaven. The reverberations of the thunder- (see eh. vi. 16, and the comment ad loc.). clap roll along the entire cloucl-ce.nopy, from Likewise to the small rain ; or, to the light one end of the heavens to the other, begin- shower of rain-" the spring re.in," u.s the ning often faint in the distance, then grow iug Chaldee pe.raphrast explu.ins it. And to the loud over our !Jeade, finally sinking into low great rain of his strength; or, "the heavy muttered rumblings on tbe far liorizon. And winter ra.in," according to the same authority. hie lightning unto the ends of the earth. " The former u.nd the latter rain "-the ra.in Similarly, the lightning, t.hough originating of winter, and the re.in of spring-are often in a fie.ah at some definite spot, sets the mentioned by the sacred writers (see Dent. whole sky aglow, shining from side to side :ii. 14; Jer. v. 24; Hos. vi. 3; Joel ii. 23; of the heavens, and, e.e it were, to the very Zech. x. I; Jas. v. 7). God gave both, or- "ends of the earth." Both liu.ve e. chu.ru.cter dinarily, in due course. of univereu.lity which is mu.rvellous, and Ver. 7.-He seu.leth up the hu.nd of every which makes them fitting emblems of him man. In the winter see.son, when the snow of whom they are the messengers and minis- falls, and the heavy re.ins ponr down ( ver. 6), ters (see Matt. xxiv. 27). God "sealeth up the hand of every men; " Ver. 4.-After it a voioe roareth. .A.ffAlr i.e. puts au end to ordine.ry out-of-doors the lightning-Jiu.eh hu.s been seen, the labour, u.nd establishes a time of po.use or thunderclap comes. In their origin they rest (comp. Homer,' Il.,' :ivii. 549). He does nre simultu.neous; but, as light travels this with the object that u.11 men may know foster the.11 sound, unless we ari, close his work; i.e. that, during the time of their to the flneb, there is an in tervo.I, the enforced idleness, men may have leisure for thunder f0Uowi11g on the lightning. He reflootion, and may employ it in meditu.ting thundereth with the voice of his exoellenoy upon him and his mu.rvellous "work." (see the comment on ver. 2). And he will Yer. 8.-Then (i.e. in winter) the beasts not atay them when his voice is heard. The go into dens. 'l'he very beasts shut them- words are plain, but the meu.ning is obscure. selves up, u.nd remain. hidden in their plu.oes, What will not God etu.y? Hie lightnings? i.e. iu their le.ire, on e.coount of the inole- Hie thunderings? His re.in? His hail? menoy of the eeo.son. There is no obvious antecedent. And in Ver. 0.-0nt of Jhe south oometh tha what sense will he not "stay" them? whirlwind j rathe;, out of the secret chamber Some explain, "He will uot sle.uktin thoir -the storehouse where God keeps bis  liM Tim BOOK OF .totJ.