The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 584

tempests. NotbinJ?: ie Mid of "the eouth" sonal a.ppe&l to Job, b11.11ed on the atat.8me111.i here. though elsewhere, no doubt, whirl- whioh he has made. Can Job fmaa-ine that winds are 1!111,id to come especially from that quarter (eoo Is ... xxi. I anrl Z:Pch. ix. he understands the workings or° God In H). And oold out of the north; rather, and nature? If not, how can he ventnte 'to «Jld from tile ecallerera. •• The eoatterers" challenge God to a controverey? Would. it seem to be the violent winds which olea.r not be better t.o rccogniEO that his ways a.re the hPavons of olouds, and bring in a clear ineorutable t frosty atmosphere. Or the word used may de11ignate a oonstellation (oomp. oh. :u:xviii. Ver. H.-Hearken unto thill, 0 Yob: Btaucl 82). lltill, and con1ider the wondrous works oi Ver. 10.-:Sy the breath of Ood frost ii God. Consider the marvels of God's works given (comp. Ps. cxlvii, 16-18). "The in nature, as I have set them forth to thee breath of God," which is a metaphor for the (eh. xxxvi. 27-83; xxxvii. :Z-18)· the will of God, causes alike both frost and mysteries of evaporation, of cloud fo~ation thaw. And the breadth of the waters iB and accumulation, of thund_er, of lightning, straitened; or, congealed. A broe.d expanse of snow and frost, of genie.I showers and of water is suddenly turned by frost into a fierce downpours, of summer and winter of stiff and solid mass. the former rain and the latter, of the getitle Ver. 11.-.Also by watering he waarieth the breeze and the whirlwind; and then say i~ thiok oloud; rather, al.so with moisl,u,re he thou comprehendest the various processes; 16detli the thi.ck cloud. Elihu returns from and ea.net explain them, and make others to his description of the winter season to the understand them (ver. 19). If not, shotildest more ordinary condition of things. Rain is thou not own, as we do, thl\t " we cannot the chief necessity of Eastern countries; find him out" (ver. 23), cannot reach to the and God is ever providing it, causing depths of his nature, and therefore are unfit moisture to be drawn up from earth and to pronounce judgment on his doings? sea, and safely lodged in the clouds, whe.nce Ver. 15.-Dost thou know when God dis- it descends, as needed, and as commanded posed them; rather, diBposes them-gives by God, upon the fields and plains that them their orders, arranges fol' their 'course man cultivates. Re soattereth his bright o.nd sequence? Or dost thou know .when oloud. Most commentators see a reference he oansed (or rather, causes) the light of hia to lig-htning here; and it is possible, no o1oud (either the lightning, or perhaps- thli doubt, that snch a reference is intended. rain bow, as Schultens suggests) to shine, "His bright cloud "-literally, "the cloud Thon canst not pretend to any such•know- of his light"-may mean "the cloud in ledge. · • which his lightning is stored." But per- Ver. 16.-Dost thou know the balanoingi OOJli! no mom is meant than that God o! the olouds 1 i.e. " how they are poised and spreads abroad over the earth the clouds suspended in the sky" (Stanley Leathes). on which his sunlight rests. The genial The wondrous works of him which is per!eot showers of spring fall generally from clouds in Jmowledge (comp. eh. xxxvi. 5). • • tha.t are, in pa.rt at any rate, steeped in the Ver. 17.-How thy garments are warm, sun's rays. when he qnieteth the earth by the south Ver. 12.-And it is turned round about by wind? Dost thou even know how it is -that; his eoUDBel.6. "It" (i.e. the cloud) is" turned while the breeze froU1 the north ch-ill8 thee round" (or directed in its course) "by liis ( vers. 9, I 0), the breath froU1 the south couneels," or under tlie guidance of his wis- Uiakes 1hee feel thy gnrments too warni·? dom, aud so conveys his rain whither he If thou canst not explain a· phy~ica.l matter~ pleases. That they may do whatsoever he wherein thine own comfort iii concerned, how COIDJll&lldeth them upon the face o! the world much less canst than comprehend the work~ in the earth. There is no expressed ante- iugs of God in his moral universe I cedent to "they." Perhaps the showers a.re Ver. 18.-Jla.Bt thou with him spread out intended, or the atmospheric influences the sky t Didst thou assist in the spreading generally. out of the sky; that great and magnificent Ver. 18.-:e:e co.useth it to oome, whether work of the Creator, transcending almost 1111 for correetion, or for his land, or !or meroy. others (see the· comm"ent on eh. ix.q8)-?·- • Or God has different purposes iu directing did not God effect this work alone, withom the rain hither or thither. Sometimes his even a counsellor (Isa. xl. 13, 14), so that object is to punish by violent or excessive thou hadst no part in it? Which is strong, rainfall : sometimes it is to fertilize }llii own and a.a a molten looking-Jla&B, The sky is special land ; sometimes it is out of kind- "strong" or "firm ; " i.e. enduring or per- llllilll iG men generally. manent, though not really hard like 1 -& JDinor. Elihu, however, seems t.o have ro- Ven. 14-U.-Elihu endB with a. per- ga.rded it, like many of·the ancients, ea·• on. xxxvn. 1-24.) THE BOOK OF JOB. 599