Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud:
11 13. The wonderful movements of the clouds directed by the guidance of God, and fulfilling His several behests.
These verses read,
11. Also he ladeth the thick cloud with moisture,
He spreadeth his lightning-cloud abroad;
12. And it is turned round about by his guidance,
That it may do whatsoever he commandeth it
Upon the face of the whole earth;
13. Whether it be for correction, or for his earth,
Or for mercy that he causeth it to come.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Also by watering – Very various interpretations have been given of this phrase. Herder renders it, His brightness rendeth the clouds. Umbreit, Und Heiterkeit vertreibt die Wolke – and serenity or clearness drives away the clouds. Prof. Lee, For irrigation is the thick cloud stretched out. Rosenmuller, Splendor dispels the clouds. Luther, The thick clouds divide themselves that it may be clear. Coverdale, The clouds do their labor in giving moistness. The Vulgate, The grain desires the clouds, and the Septuagint, The cloud forms the chosen – eklekton. This variety of interpretation arises from the uncertainty of the meaning of the original word – bery. According to the Chaldee and the rabbis, this word means clearness, serenity of the heavens, and then the whole clause is to be rendered, serenity dispelleth the cloud. Or the word may be formed of the preposition (be), and ry, meaning watering or rain, the same as reviy. The word does not occur elsewhere in Hebrew, and hence, it is not easy to determine its meaning. The weight of authority is in favor of serenity, or clearness – meaning that the thick, dark cloud is driven away by the serenity or clearness of the atmosphere – as where the clear sky seems to light up the heavens and to drive away the clouds. This idea seems, also, to be demanded by the parallelism, and is also more poetical than that in the common version.
Wearieth – Or removes, or scatters. The verb used here ( tarach) occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures, though nouns derived from the verb are found in Isa 1:14, rendered trouble, and Deu 1:12, rendered cumbrance. In Arabic it means to cast down, to project, and hence, to lay upon as a burden. But the word may mean to impel, drive forward, and hence, the idea that the dark thick cloud is propelled or driven forward by the serenity of the sky. This appears to be so, and hence, the poetic idea as it occurred to Elihu.
He scattereth his bright cloud – Margin, the cloud of his light. The idea seems to be, that his light, that is, the light which God causes to shine as the tempest passes off, seems to scatter or disperse the cloud. The image before the mind of Elihu probably was, that of a departing shower, when the light seems to rise behind it, and as it were to expel the cloud or to drive it away. We are not to suppose that this is philosophically correct, but Elihu represents it as it appeared, and the image is wholly poetical.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 11. By watering he wearieth the thick cloud] Perhaps it would be better to say, The brightness beri, dissipates the cloud; or, if we follow our version, By watering the earth he wearieth, wearieth out or emptieth, the thick cloud – causes it to pour down all its contents upon the earth, that they may cause it to bring forth and bud. The Vulgate understood it differently: Frumentum desiderat nubes, et nubes spargunt lumen suum. “The grain desireth the clouds; and the clouds scatter abroad their light.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
By watering, to wit, the earth; by causing them first to receive and return, and then to pour forth abundance of water.
He wearieth the thick cloud, by filling and burdening them with much water, and making them to go long journeys to water remote parts, and at last to spend and empty themselves there; all which things make men weary; and therefore are here said to make the clouds weary by a common figure called prosopopoeia.
He scattereth his bright cloud: as for the white and lightsome clouds, (which are opposed to the thick and black clouds in the former clause,) he scattereth and dissolveth them by the wind or sun. Or, he scattereth other clouds by his light, i.e. by the beams of the sun. So he gathereth some, and scattereth others, as he pleaseth, causing either clear, or dark and rainy weather.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11-13. How the thunderclouds aredispersed, or else employed by God, either for correction or mercy.
by wateringby loadingit with water.
weariethburdenethit, so that it falls in rain; thus “wearieth” answers tothe parallel “scattereth” (compare, see on Job37:9); a clear sky resulting alike from both.
bright cloudliterally,”cloud of his light,” that is, of His lightning. UMBREITfor “watering,” c., translates “Brightnessdrives away the clouds, His light scattereth the thickclouds”; the parallelism is thus good, but the Hebrewhardly sanctions it.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud,…. By filling it with a multitude of water, it is as it were loaded and made weary with it; and especially by sending it about thus loaded from place to place before discharged, when it becomes as a weary traveller; and then by letting down the water in it, whereby it spends itself like one that is weary; an emblem of ministers that spend and are spent for the good of men: some render it by serenity or fair weather, and so Mr. Broughton,
“by clearness he wearieth the thick vapours;”
by causing a clear sky he dispels them;
he scattereth his bright cloud; thin light clouds that have nothing in them, and are soon dispersed and come to nothing, and are seen no more; all emblem of such as are clouds without water, Jude 1:12; see
Zec 11:17; or “he scatters the cloud by his light” s; by the sun, which dispels clouds and makes a clear sky; an emblem of the blotting out and forgiveness of sins, and of restoring the manifestations of divine love, and the joys of salvation; see Isa 44:22.
s “dispellit nubem luce sua”, Munster.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
11 Also He loadeth the clouds with water,
He spreadeth far and wide the cloud of His light,
12 And these turn themselves round about,
Directed by Him, that they execute
All that He hath commanded them
Over the wide earth.
13 Whether for a scourge, or for the good of His earth,
Or for mercy, He causeth it to discharge itself.
With extending the description, Elihu, in the presence of the storm that is in the sky, continually returns to this one marvel of nature. The old versions connect partly with , electus (lxx, Syr., Theod.) or frumentum (Symm., Jer.), partly with = in the signification puritas , serenitas (Targ.); but is, as Schultens has already perceived, the Hebr.-Arabic , Arab. ryun , r j- un (from = riwj ), abundant irrigation, with ; and does not signify, according to the Arab. atraha , “to hurl down,” so that what is spoken of would be the bursting of the clouds (Stick.),
(Note: This “ a t r aha ” is, moreover, a pure invention of our ordinary Arabic lexicons instead of ittaraha (VIII form): (1) to throw one’s self, (2) to throw anything from one’s self, with an acc. of the thing. – Fl.)
but, according to , a burden (comp. Arab. taraha ala , to load), “to burden;” with fluidity (Ew., Hirz., Hahn, Schlottm.), better: fulness of water, He burdens the clouds (comp. rawij – un as a designation of cloud as the place of rain). , His cloud of light, is that that is charged with lightning, and has here its Hebr.-Arab. radical signification effundere , diffundere , with a preponderance of the idea not of scattering, but of spreading out wide (Arab. faid , abundance). , Job 37:12, refers to the cloud pregnant with lightning; this turns round about ( , adv. as , round about, 1Ki 6:29) seeking a place, where it shall unburden itself by virtue of His (God’s) direction or disposing ( , a word belonging to the book of Proverbs; lxx, Cod. Vat. and Alex., untranslated: , Cod. Sinait. still more monstrous), in order that they (the clouds full of lightning) may accomplish everything that He commands them over the surface of the earth; as Job 34:13, and the combination as Pro 8:31, comp. , Psa 90:2. The reference of the pronominal suff. to men is as inadmissible here as in Job 37:4. In Job 37:13 two have certainly, as Job 34:29, two , the correlative signification sive … sive (Arab. in … wa – in ), in a third, as appears, a conditional, but which? According to Ew., Hirz., Hahn, Schlottm., and others, the middle one: if it (the rod) belongs to His land, i.e., if it has deserved it. But even the possessive suff. of shows that the is to be taken as dat. commodi: be it for a rod, be it for the good of His land; which is then followed by a conditional verbal clause: in case He mercifully causes it (the storm) to come, i.e., causes this His land to be overtaken by it ( here with the acc., the thing coming, whereas in Job 34:11 of the thing to be overtaken). The accentuation, indeed, appears to assume a threefold sive: whether He causeth it to discharge itself upon man for punishment, man for mercy, or His earth for good with reference to man. Then Elihu would think of the uninhabited steppe in connection with . Since a conditional by the side of two correlatives is hazardous, we decide finally with the lxx, Targ., and all the old versions, in favour of the same rendering of the threefold , especially since it corresponds to the circumstances of the case.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(11) He wearieth the thick cloud.Also He ladeth the thick cloud with moisture, maketh it to be charged with rain. He scattereth the cloud of His lightning, that is, which containeth His lightning. Others render, Yea, the bright sun weareth out (disperseth) the thick cloud; it scattereth the cloud that holds His lightning. And it (the cloud) is turned round about by His counsels, that they may do His purpose, even all which He commandeth them, upon the face of the habitable world. Whether for correction, or for His land generally, or whether He causeth the rain to come as a special mercy:these are the various purposes for which God reserves His showers.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Strophe f The constantly-flashing lightning, and the ever-changing and revolving clouds, lead Elihu to again speak of lightning and of cloud, and show that even these are under the guidance of God, Job 37:11-13.
“The storm in its magnificent approach drifts victoriously before all the senses of Elihu, so that from all other images, brought forward, as they are, with a certain haste, he ever recurs to that of the storm.” Schlottmann.
11. By watering cloud Literally, with moisture he loadeth the cloud. While yet the burdened and wearied cloud discharges itself upon the earth, God spreadeth abroad the cloud of his light, which some regard as a lightning cloud.
Scattereth For import of Hebrew word, compare Job 38:24.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 37:11 Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud:
Ver. 11. Also by watering he wearieth the thick clouds ] That is, by showering down of much rain he disburdeneth and dissipateth them, seem they never so thick and large. These seem to be troubled and tired out when, as they are watering the earth, they are wasted and drawn dry by the heat of the sun.
He scattereth his bright cloud
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
he wearieth: Job 36:27, Job 36:28
he scattereth: Job 36:30, Job 36:32, Isa 18:4, Mat 17:5
his bright cloud: Heb. the cloud of his light
Reciprocal: Gen 1:6 – Let there Gen 7:4 – For Gen 8:2 – the rain Lev 26:4 – Then I Deu 11:14 – General 2Ch 6:27 – send rain Job 7:9 – the cloud Job 26:8 – thick clouds Job 37:15 – the light Isa 44:22 – as a thick
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 37:11-12. Also by watering The earth; by causing the clouds first to receive, and then to convey to distant parts, and afterward to pour forth, abundance of water; he wearieth the thick clouds Alluding to mens being wearied with carrying burdens, travelling, and labour. By filling and burdening them with much water, and making them go long journeys to water remote countries, and, at last, to spend and empty themselves there, he, as it were, wearies and fatigues them. He scattereth his bright cloud As for the white and lightsome clouds, he scattereth and dissolveth them by the wind or sun. But here also the Hebrew will easily admit a different translation. If we consider , beri, here rendered by watering, as being one word, derived from barah, signifying serenity, the meaning is, Fair weather also disperseth the cloud; his sun scattereth the cloud abroad. It is turned round about The cloud, now mentioned, is carried about to this or that place; by his counsels Not by chance, (though nothing seems more casual than the motions of the clouds,) but by his order and governance. That they way do whatsoever he commandeth them Either be dispersed and pass away without effect, to the disappointment of the husbandmans hopes, or be dissolved in sweet and fertilizing showers.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
37:11 Also by watering he {h} wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his {i} bright cloud:
(h) Gather the vapours and move to and fro to water the earth.
(i) That is, the cloud that has lightning in it.