Job
Job 37
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5 commentators · 80 notes on this chapter
Matthew Henry4
Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.
Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.
Thunder and lightning, which usually go together, are sensible indications of the glory and majesty, the power and terror, of Almighty God, one to the ear and the other to the eye; in these God leaves not himself without witness of his greatness, as, in the…
The changes and extremities of the weather, wet or dry, hot or cold, are the subject of a great deal of our common talk and observation; but how seldom do we think and speak of these things, as Elihu does here, with an awful regard to God the director of…
Elihu here addresses himself closely to Job, desiring him to apply what he had hitherto said to himself. He begs that he would hearken to this discourse (Job 37:14), that he would pause awhile: Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God. What we hear…
John Gill24
The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.
Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.
At this also my heart trembleth,.... At the greatness and majesty of God, not only as displayed in those works of his before observed, but as displayed in those he was about to speak of: such terrible majesty is there with God, that all rational creatures…
Hear attentively the noise of his voice,.... Of the voice of God in the clouds; and of thunder, which is his voice, Job 40:9. Elihu being affected with it himself, exhorts the company about him to hearken and listen to it, and learn something from it; and the…
He directeth it under the whole heaven,.... His voice of thunder, which rolls from one end of the heaven to the other: he charges the clouds with it, and directs both it and them where they shall go and discharge; what tree, house, or man, it shall strike…
Adam Clarke23
The linguist of this set. Expect Hebrew and Greek word study, oriental custom, and geography — and an Arminian reading of grace and free will where Gill or Henry would read election. Note one real divergence: Clarke denied the eternal sonship of Christ, a position most of the tradition rejects, so read him closely on the person of Christ.
Why this voice is here: Where you want to know what a word actually says, Clarke is the one who will tell you — with the caveat above on Christ’s sonship.
My heart trembleth - This is what the Septuagint has anticipated; see under Job 36:28 (note). A proper consideration of God's majesty in the thunder and lightning is enough to appall the stoutest heart, confound the wisest mind, and fill all with humility and…
Hear attentively - "Hear with hearing." The words seem to intimate that there was actually at that time a violent storm of thunder and lightning, and that the successive peals were now breaking over the house, and the lightning flashing before their eyes. The…
He directeth it under the whole heaven - He directeth it (the lightning) under the whole heaven, in the twinkling of an eye from east to west; and its light - the reflection of the flash, not the lightning, unto the ends of the earth, so that a whole…
Keil & Delitzsch6
The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.
Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.
1 Yea, at this my heart trembleth And tottereth from its place. 2 Hear, O hear the roar of His voice, And the murmur that goeth out of His mouth. 3 He sendeth it forth under the whole heaven, And His lightning unto the ends of the earth. 4 After it roareth…
6 For He saith to the snow: Fall towards the earth, And to the rain-shower And the showers of His mighty rain. 7 He putteth a seal on the hand of every man, That all men may come to a knowledge of His creative work. 8 The wild beast creepeth into a…
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…
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown23
The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.
Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.
Hear attentively--the thunder (noise), &c., and then you will feel that there is good reason to tremble. sound--muttering of the thunder.
directeth it--however zigzag the lightning's course; or, rather, it applies to the pealing roll of the thunder. God's all-embracing power. ends--literally, "wings," "skirts," the habitable earth being often compared to an extended garment (Job 38:13; Isa…
The thunderclap follows at an interval after the flash. stay them--He will not hold back the lightnings (Job 37:3), when the thunder is heard [MAURER]. Rather, take "them" as the usual concomitants of thunder, namely, rain and hail [UMBREIT] (Job 40:9).
World English Bible — Public domain