Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 38:9
When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it,
9. thick darkness ] Or, and the thick cloud.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
When I made the cloud the garment thereof – Referring to the garment in which the new-born infant is wrapped up. This image is one of great beauty. It is that of the vast ocean just coming into being, with a cloud resting upon it and covering it. Thick darkness envelopes it, and it is swathed in mists; compare Gen 1:2, And darkness was upon the face of the deep. The time here referred to is that before the light of the sun arose upon the earth, before the dry land appeared, and before annuals and people had been formed. Then the new-born ocean lay carefully enveloped in clouds and darkness under the guardian care of God. The dark night rested upon it, and the mists hovered over it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 9. When I make the cloud the garment] Alluding to the cloth in which the new-born infant is first received. The cloud was the same to the newly raised vapour, as the above recipient to the new-born child.
And thick darkness a swaddlingband for it] Here is also an allusion to the first dressings of the new-born child: it is swathed in order to support the body, too tender to bear even careful handling without some medium between the hand of the nurse and the flesh of the child. “The image,” says Mr. Good, “is exquisitely maintained: the new-born ocean is represented as issuing from the womb of chaos; and its dress is that of the new-born infant.”
There is here an allusion also to the creation, as described in Ge 1:1-2. Darkness is there said to be on the face of the DEEP. Here it is said, the thick darkness was a swaddlingband for the new-born SEA.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
When I covered it with vapours and clouds which arise out of the sea. and by Gods appointment hover above it, and cover it like a garment.
Thick darkness, i. e. black and dark clouds, called darkness by a usual metonymy of the adjunct. So the same thing is repeated in other words, after the manner. Having compared the sea to a new-born infant, he continues in the same metaphor, and makes the clouds as swaddling-bands to keep the sea within its bounds; though indeed neither clouds, nor air, nor sands and shores can bound the sea, but it is God alone who doth it in and with these things.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
When I made the cloud the garment thereof,…. For this newborn babe, the sea;
and thick darkness a swaddling band for it; which was the case of the sea when it burst out of the bowels of the earth and covered it, for then darkness was upon the face of the deep, a dark, foggy, misty air, Ge 1:2; and this was before its separation from the land, and in this order it stands in this account; though since, clouds, fogs, and mists, which rise out of the sea, are as garments to it, and cover it at times, and the surrounding atmosphere, as it presses the whole terraqueous globe, and keeps the parts of the earth together, so the waters of the sea from spilling out; and these are the garments and the swaddling bands with which the hands and arms of this big and boisterous creature are wreathed; it is said of the infant in Eze 16:4 that it was neither “salted nor swaddled at all”; but both may be said of the sea; that it is salted is sufficiently known, and that it is swaddled is here affirmed; but who except the Lord Almighty could do this? and who has managed, and still does and can manage, this unruly creature, as easily as a nurse can turn about and swaddle a newborn babe upon her lap.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
9. Thick darkness a swaddling band The mighty sea, as it broke forth from unseen depths, was but an infant in the hands of God, with the cloud for garment, and the thick darkness its swaddling cloth. This carrying forward of the image of the newborn sea is evidently an allusion, if not a parallel, to “the darkness on the deep.” (Gen 1:2.) “I do not believe that this object was ever presented under a bolder figure than that by which it is expressed, of an infant which the Creator of the world swathes and clothes with its appropriate garments. It bursts forth from the clefts of the earth, as from the womb of its mother; the Ruler and Director of all things addresses it as a living being, as a young giant exulting in his subduing power, and with a word the sea is hushed, and obeys him forever.” HERDER, Hebrew Poetry, 1:89.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 38:9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,
Ver. 9. When I made the cloud the garment thereof ] When I clothed this new born child with a cloud, Elegans allegoria (Jun.); commanding the vapours which environ it to serve it for garments. Clouds are begotten of the waters, of the sea especially, and appear daily upon it.
And thick darkness a swaddling-band for it
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
thick darkness. Hebrew. ‘araphel. See note on Job 3:6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
thick: Gen 1:2
Reciprocal: Job 26:8 – bindeth up Job 36:29 – the spreadings
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
38:9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a {g} swaddlingband for it,
(g) As though the great sea was but as a little baby in the hands of God to turn to and fro.