Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 37:22
Fair weather cometh out of the north: with God [is] terrible majesty.
22. fair weather ] lit. gold, that is, probably, golden brightness or splendour, the reference being to the light ( Job 37:21). This is said to come from the North because the north wind ( Job 37:21) clears away the clouds and reveals it. With this sense the verse carries on the thought of Job 37:21, and the antithesis is expressed in the second clause of Job 37:22, with God is terrible glory if men cannot look upon the light when it shines in the cloudless heaven, how much less shall they bear to look upon the majesty of God, surrounded with terrible glory.
Others adhere to the literal sense of gold, considering the general meaning to be, that men may penetrate into the furthest and darkest regions of the earth and bring out to view whatever precious things they contain, but around God is a terrible majesty which exalts Him above all comprehension. However good this meaning be in itself, it leaves Job 37:21 isolated and incomplete in sense. And although to Classical Antiquity the North may have been the region of gold, no trace of such a conception appears in the Old Testament, for any identification of Havilah (Gen 2:11) with Colchis is more than adventurous. The comparison too of the light to gold is common in the poetry of all languages.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Fair weather – Margin, gold, The Hebrew word ( zahab) properly means gold, and is so rendered by the Vulgate, the Syriac, and by most versions. The Septuagint renders it, nepse chrusaugounta, clouds shining like gold. The Chaldee, , the north wind, Boreas. Many expositors have endeavored to show that gold was found in the northern regions (see Schultens, in loc.); and it is not difficult so to establish that fact as to be a confirmation of what is here said, on the supposition that it refers literally to gold. But it is difficult to see why Elihu should here make a reference to the source where gold was found, or how such a reference should be connected with the description of the approaching tempest, and the light which was already seen on the opening clouds. It seems probable to me that the idea is wholly different and that Elihu means to say that a bright, dazzling light was seen in the northern sky like burnished gold, which was a fit symbol of the approaching Deity. This idea is hinted at in the Septuagint, but it has not seemed to occur to expositors. The image is that of the heavens darkened with the tempest, the lightnings playing, the thunder rolling, and then the wind seeming to brush away the clouds in the north, and disclosing in the opening a bright, dazzling appearance like burnished gold, that bespoke the approach of God. The word is never used in the sense of fair weather. An ancient Greek tragedian, mentioned by Grotius, speaks of golden air – chrusopos aither. Varro also uses a similar expression – aurescit aer, the air becomes like gold. So Thomson, in his Seasons:
But yonder comes the powerful king of day
Rejoicing in the east. The lessening cloud.
The kindling azure, and the mountains brow,
Illumed with fluid gold, his near approach
Betoken glad.
Summer
Out of the north – That is, the symbol of the approaching Deity appears in that quarter, or God was seen to approach from the north. It may serve to explain this, to remark that among the ancients the northern regions were regarded as the residence of the gods, and that on the mountains in the north it was supposed they were accustomed to assemble. In proof of this, and for the reasons of it, see the notes at Isa 14:13. From that region Elihu sees God now approaching, and directs the attention of his companions to the symbols of his advent. It is this which fills his mind with so much consternation, and which renders his discourse so broken and disconnected. Having, in a manner evincing great alarm, directed their attention to these symbols, he concludes what he has to say in a hurried manner, and God appears, to close the controversy.
With God is terrible majesty – This is not a declaration asserting this of God in general, but as he then appeared. It is the language of one who was overwhelmed with his awful majesty, as the brightness of his presence was seen on the tempest.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 37:22
Fair weather cometh out of the north: with God is terrible majesty.
The testimony of nature to the terrible majesty of God
These words occur towards the close of that remonstrance of Elihu which he addressed to Job his friend, and is immediately followed by the answer of the Lord Himself out of the whirlwind. The text is simply one of those propositions or evidences by which the speaker sought to establish the greatness and inscrutableness of God. The operations of God in nature are given in evidence of the wrongness of expecting to comprehend God Himself. If you cannot understand the works and ways of the Almighty, is it any marvel that the Almighty Himself quite baffles your scrutiny? Why should the fact that fair weather cometh out of the north, suggest the inference that with God is terrible majesty? If every operation and production of nature may be ascribed immediately to the agency of God, then is every such operation and production a direct evidence of the wonderfulness of God, not to be surveyed by a devout and thoughtful mind, without emotions of awe as well as delight! It gives a dignity to every blade of grass, that it may be considered as the handiwork of God. It is not that each or any of the operations or productions is in itself overwhelming in testimony to the greatness of God, but that each is part of one vast system, each bears witness to the same stupendous fact, that God is nature, or that nature is but God, perpetually and universally at work. And I want nothing else to make me look on God with unbounded amazement and awe. If I think of fair weather as coming out of the north, I must think of God as acting in all the laboratories of nature, disposing the elements, bringing the winds out of His treasures, gathering the clouds, and giving the sunshine. Nature, nothing but natures God everywhere busy,–this is God in His inscrutableness; this is God in His magnificence; this is God in His wonderfulness. With God is terrible majesty. In the text there is also a testimony to the constancy and the uniformity of the actings of God in the material world. Fair weather cometh out of the north. You may always reckon on this. It has been thus from the beginning; and so fixed and stable is the course of nature, that by observing the signs you may calculate the changes with a precision little short of certainty. Consider what effect ought to be produced on men, and will be produced on the righteous, by the constancy which seems to encourage the scoffers. If God be unchangeable in the operations of nature, does not even this furnish some kind of presumption that He will be unchangeable in all other respects? Our present lesson is not so much one taught by creation, when viewed by itself, as one which creation traces in illustration or corroboration of the Bible. If it be ordinarily true, that fair weather cometh out of the north, then is this coming of fair weather another evidence of the constancy or uniformity of nature, and because we are so made and constituted, that we expect and reckon on this constancy or uniformity, therefore it is another evidence of that faithfulness of God which insures the accomplishment of every tittle of His word. Thus is there a voice to me in the constancy of nature, confirming that voice which comes forth to me from the pages of Scripture. Fair weather from the north, is neither more nor less than Gods accomplishment of His word–a word which if neither spoken nor written, is to be found in the expectation which Himself hath impressed, that nature will be fixed in her workings; and whatever tells me afresh that God is faithful to His word, tells me that vengeance may be deferred, but that it shall yet break forth on the wicked in unimaginable fury, and that the righteous may wait long, but cannot wait in vain, for an incorruptible inheritance that shall not fade away. And there is yet a peculiarity in the text, which ought not to be overlooked, and in considering which we shall again be led to the theology of revelation, yea, to find the Gospel in our text. The expression which Elihu uses in reference to God, is evidently one which marks dread and apprehension–With God is terrible majesty; words which show the speaker impressed with a sense of the awfulness of the Creator, rather than drawn towards Him by thoughts of His goodness and compassions. And it would hardly seem as if this were to have been expected, considering what the fact is on which the speakers attention had been professedly fixed. I know when it is that Gods majesty is most commonly recognised by those who observe the phenomena of nature. It is not when fair weather cometh out of the north; it is rather when the Almighty rideth on the hurricane–when He darkeneth the firmament with His tempests, and sendeth forth His lightnings to consume. If any one of you be witness to the progress of a storm, as it sweeps along in its fury, your sensations as the winds howl, and the torrents descend, and the thunders roll, and the waves toss, are sensations of dread and alarm; and if in the midst of this turmoil of elements your thoughts turn upwards to God, who hath His way in the whirlwind, and at whose feet the clouds are the dust, you are disposed to regard Him with unmingled fear–to shrink from Him as manifesting, in and through this tremendous emblazonry, the heavenly attributes at war with such creatures as yourselves. And then if there come the hushing of the tempest, and the darkened firmament be suddenly cleared, and the landscape which just before had been desolated and drenched, be beauteously lit up with the golden rays of a summer sun, oh, then it is that there will be awakened within you grateful and adoring emotions, and that God whose terrible majesty you had been ready to acknowledge as the Voice of His thunders was heard, will appear to you a bountiful and beneficent Being, whom even the sinful may approach, and by whom the unworthy may be shielded. But you will observe that it was just the reverse with Elihu. It is the fair weather from the north which would make you exclaim, How good, how gracious is God; but It was the fair weather from the north which made Elihu exclaim, How terrible is God. And there is the theology of revelation in this, if there be not the theology of nature. It is not so much the storm, it is rather the calm, which should lead me to think on the tremendousness of God. (Henry Melvill, B. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 22. Fair weather cometh out of the north] Is this any version of the original mitstsaphon zahab yeetheh? which is rendered by almost every version, ancient and modern, thus, or to this effect: “From the north cometh gold.” Calmet justly remarks, that in the time of Moses, Job, and Solomon, and for a long time after, gold was obtained from Colchis, Armenia, Phasis, and the land of Ophir, which were all north of Judea and Idumea; and are in the Scriptures ordinarily termed the north country. “But what relation can there be between, Gold cometh out of the north, and, With God is terrible majesty?” Answer: Each thing has its properties, and proper characteristics, which distinguish it; and each country has its advantages. Gold, for instance, comes from the northern countries; so praises offered to the Supreme God should be accompanied with fear and trembling: and as this metal is from the north, and northern countries are the places whence it must be procured; so terrible majesty belongs to God, and in him alone such majesty is eternally resident.
As zahob, which we translate gold, (see Job 28:16,) comes from a root that signifies to be clear, bright, resplendent, c. Mr. Good avails himself of the radical idea, and translates it splendour: –
“Splendour itself is with God;
Insufferable majesty.”
But he alters the text a little to get this meaning, particularly in the word yeetheh, which we translate cometh, and which he contends is the pronoun itself; the yod, as a performative, here being, as he thinks, an interpolation. This makes a very good sense; but none of the ancient versions understood the place thus, and none of the MSS. countenance this very learned critic’s emendation.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Fair weather; or, when (which particle may well be understood out of, the foregoing verse; and so this may be a further description of the time when men cannot see or gaze upon the sun, namely, when) fair weather, &c. Heb. gold; either,
1. Properly. And so this may be noted as another wonderful work of God, that the choicest of metals, to wit, gold, should be found in and fetched out of the bowels of cold northern countries. Or,
2. Metaphorically, as this word is oft used of bright and shining things; as we read of golden oil, Zec 4:12, and we call happy times golden days. And so bright and fair weather may well be called golden, because then the sun gilds the air and earth with its beams, which also are called by poets golden beams.
Out of the north, i.e. from the northern winds, which scatter the clouds, and clear the sky, Pro 25:23.
With God is terrible majesty; and therefore we neither can nor may approach too near to him, nor speak presumptuously or irreverently to him, or of him. And so this is the application of what he had now said, that we could not see the sun, &c, much less God; and withal it is an epiphonema or conclusion of the whole foregoing discourse. Those glorious works of his which I have described, are testimonies of that great and terrible majesty which is in him; which should cause us to fear and reverence him, and not to behave ourselves so insolently towards him, as Job hath done.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. Rather, “goldensplendor.” MAURERtranslates “gold.” It is found in northern regions.But God cannot be “found out,” because of His”Majesty” (Job 37:23).Thus the twenty-eighth chapter corresponds; English Version issimpler.
the northBrightnessis chiefly associated with it (see on Job23:9). Here, perhaps, because the north wind clears the air (Pr25:23). Thus this clause answers to the last of Job37:21; as the second of this verse to the first of Job37:21. Inverted parallelism. (See Isa 14:13;Psa 48:2).
with Godrather, “uponGod,” as a garment (Psa 104:1;Psa 104:2).
majestysplendor.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Fair weather cometh out of the north,…. Or “gold” x, which some understand literally; this being found in northern climates as well as southern, as Pliny relates y; particularly in Colchis and Scythia, which lay to the north of Palestine and Arabia; and is thought by a learned man z to be here intended: though to understand it figuratively of the serenity of the air, bright and pure as gold, or of fair weather, which is golden weather, as Mr. Broughton renders it,
“through the north the golden cometh,”
seems best to agree with the subject Elihu is upon; and such weather comes from the north, through the north winds, which drive away rain,
Pr 25:23;
with God [is] terrible majesty; majesty belongs to him as he is King of kings, whose the kingdom of nature and providence is; and he is the Governor among and over the nations of the world. His throne is prepared in the heavens; that is his throne, and his kingdom ruleth over all: and this majesty of his is “terrible”, commanding awe and reverence among all men, who are his subjects; and especially among his saints and peculiar people; and strikes a terror to others, even to great personages, the kings and princes of the earth; to whom the Lord is sometimes terrible now, and will be hereafter; see Ps 76:12 Re 6:15; and to all Christless sinners, especially when he comes to judgment; see Isa 2:19. Or “terrible praise” a; for God is “fearful in praises”, Ex 15:11; which may respect the subject of praise, terrible things, and the manner of praising him with fear and reverence, Ps 106:22.
x “aurum”, Pagninus, Montanus, &c. y Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 11. & l. 33. c. 3, 4. z Reland. de Paradiso, s. 9, 10. p. 22, 23, 24. And, in the countries farthest north were mines of gold formerly, as Olaus Magnus relates, though now destroyed. De Ritu Gent. Septent. l. 6, 11. Vid. l. 3, 5. a , Symmachus, “formidolosa laudatio”, V. L. “terribilem laude”, Vatablus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
22. Fair weather , gold. Literally, out of the north cometh gold, and is rendered by the Septuagint, “clouds shining like gold.” It would certainly have been a descent from this sublime description of an Eastern thunderstorm for the poet to stop for the mere record of a well attested fact, that gold, in ancient times, was found in the north. The word must be used here in a figurative sense, an instance of which is given in Zec 4:12, where the word gold is used for “pure oil.” Such figurative use of gold for splendour of light is common in Oriental literature: “The sun is gold” says Abulala. God is now approaching, as Elihu himself feels, for he again breaks forth, “With (literally, upon) God is terrible majesty.” A golden sheen fills the northern sky as the awful Eloah draws near. The uplifting of the clouds indicated in the preceding verse prepares us for the irruption of divine glory.
Samuel Wesley, in his learned dissertations on Job, may not have been far out of the way in his view that this splendour was that of the Aurora Borealis, lifting itself above the storm. Wemyss indorses this view, while Tayler Lewis remarks, “that it was something that combined the beautiful, as we may judge from the name he gives it, with the terrible. That there was something of this fearful fascination about it is evident from the sudden cry which it calls out: With God is dreadful majesty.” The interpretation of Hirtzel and Delitzsch is a constrained one, to wit, that man may lay bare the hidden treasures of gold, but cannot search out God, nor comprehend the depths of his wisdom and power.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 37:22 Fair weather cometh out of the north: with God [is] terrible majesty.
Ver. 22. Fair weather cometh out of the north ] Heb. Gold cometh, &c., that is, the golden beams of the sun, as golden oil, Zec 4:12 , Serenitas aura similis (Tit.). The north wind also cleanseth the clouds, and shows us the pleasant face of the sun, that gold maker; all whose rays come tipped and gilt with a glistering glory upon them.
With God is terrible majesty
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fair: Heb. Gold weather, Pro 25:23
with: Job 40:10, 1Ch 29:11, Psa 29:4, Psa 66:5, Psa 68:7, Psa 68:8, Psa 76:12, Psa 93:1, Psa 104:1, Psa 145:5, Isa 2:10, Isa 2:19, Mic 5:4, Nah 1:3, Hab 3:3-19, Heb 1:3, Heb 12:29, Jud 1:25
Reciprocal: Deu 10:17 – a great Neh 4:14 – great Job 35:5 – Look Eze 1:18 – they were so Eze 1:22 – the likeness Heb 8:1 – the Majesty
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 37:22-24. Fair weather cometh out of the north From the northern winds, which scatter the clouds and clear the sky. Elihu concludes with some short, but great sayings, concerning the glory of God. He speaks abruptly and in haste, because, it should seem, he perceived God was approaching, and presumed he was about to take the work into his own hands. With God is terrible majesty Those glorious works of his, which I have described, are testimonies of that great and terrible majesty which is in him; which should cause us to fear and adore him, and not to behave ourselves so irreverently and insolently toward him as Job hath done. We cannot find high out Namely, to perfection, as it is expressed Job 11:7. We cannot comprehend him; his power, wisdom, justice, and his counsels proceeding from them, are past our finding out. He is excellent in power Therefore as he doth not need any unrighteous action to advance himself, so he cannot do any, because all such things are acts and evidences of weakness. And in judgment In the just administration of judgment, he never did nor can exercise that power unjustly, as Job seemed to insinuate. And in plenty of justice In great and perfect justice, such as no man can justly reproach. He will not afflict Namely, without just cause, or above measure. He doth not afflict willingly, or from his heart, Lam 3:33. He takes no pleasure in doing it. It is his work, indeed, but a strange work, as Isaiah elegantly terms it, Job 28:21. Men do therefore fear him Hebrew, , lachen, for this cause, namely, because of Gods infinite and excellent perfections, and especially those mentioned in the foregoing verse, men do, or should, fear, or reverence him, and humbly submit to him, and not presume to quarrel or dispute with him. He respecteth not Hebrew, , lo jireh, he doth not, or will not, behold, namely, with respect or approbation; any that are wise of heart That is, such as are wise in their own eyes, that lean to their own understanding, and despise other men in comparison of themselves, and reject their counsels; or, that are so puffed up with the opinion of their own wisdom, that they dare contend with their Maker, and presume to censure his counsels and actions: which he hereby intimates to be Jobs fault, and to be the true reason why God did not respect nor regard him, nor his prayers and tears, as Job complained. And so this is also a tacit advice and exhortation to Job to be humble and little in his own eyes, if ever he expected any favour from God.
Thus Elihu, having set forth Gods omnipotence in the strongest colours he was able, concludes with an observation very applicable to the subject of dispute before them. As this speaker, says Dr. Dodd, performs the part of a moderator, he seems to have observed the errors on both sides, and to have hit upon the point where the controversy ought to rest, namely, the unsearchable depth of the divine wisdom; with a persuasion that God, who is acknowledged on all hands to be infinitely powerful and just, will certainly find a way to clear up all the irregularities, as they now appear to us, in the methods of his providence, and bring this intricate and perplexed scene, at last, to a beautiful and regular close. The great fault of the speech seems to be this; that he bears too hard upon Job; and his reproofs, though there were some grounds for them, are nevertheless too harsh and severe. Nay, where he endeavours to repeat what Job had said, he gives it, for the most part, a wrong turn, or sets it in some very disadvantageous light. The silence of this good man, therefore, during this long speech of Elihu, may be considered as none of the least instances of his patience; but as he was convinced that one part of the charge brought against him was but too true, namely, that he had been now and then too hasty and intemperate in his expressions, he was resolved not to increase the fault by entering anew into the controversy; but by his silence and attention here, and suffering his passions to subside, he was the better prepared to receive the following speech from Jehovah with that profound humility, and that absolute submission, which became him.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
37:22 {t} Fair weather cometh out of the north: with God [is] terrible majesty.
(t) In Hebrew, gold, meaning fair weather and clear as gold.