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Selected Verse: Job 37:14 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Job 37:14 |
King James |
Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
(Psa 111:2). |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Hearken unto this, O Job - That is, to the lesson which such events are fitted to convey respecting God.
Stand still - In a posture of reverence and attention. The object is to secure a calm contemplation of the works of God, so that the mind might be filled with suitable reverence for him. |
Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
14 Hearken unto this, O Job;
Stand still and consider the wonderful works of God!
15 Dost thou know when God designeth
To cause the light of His clouds to shine?
16 Dost thou understand the balancings of the clouds,
The wondrous things of Him who is perfect in knowledge?
Job is to stand still, instead of dictating to God, in order to draw from His wondrous acts in nature a conclusion with reference to his mystery of suffering. In Job 37:15 ידע בּ does not, as Job 35:15 (Ew. 217, S. 557), belong together, but בּ is the temporal Beth. שׂוּם is equivalent to שׂים לבּו (vid., on Job 34:23); עליהם does not refer to נפלאות (Hirz.) or the phenomena of the storm (Ew.), but is intended as neuter (as בּם Job 36:31, בּהם Job 22:21), and finds in Job 37:15 its distinctive development: "the light of His clouds" is their effulgent splendour. Without further support, ידע על is to have knowledge concerning anything, Job 37:16; מפלשׂי is also ἁπ. γεγρ.. It is unnecessary to consider it as wrongly written from מפרשׂי, Job 36:29, or as from it by change of letter (as אלמנות = ארמנות, Isa 13:22). The verb פּלּס signifies to make level, prepare (viz., a way, also weakened: to take a certain way, Pro 5:6), once: to weigh, Psa 58:3, as denom. from פּלס, a balance (and indeed a steelyard, statera), which is thus mentioned as the means of adjustment. מפלשׂי accordingly signifies either, as synon. of משׁקלי (thus the Midrash, vid., Jalkut, 522), weights (the relations of weight), or even equipoised balancings (Aben-Ezra, Kimchi, and others), Lat. quomodo librentur nubes in are.
(Note: The word is therefore a metaphor taken from the balance, and it may be observed that the Syro-Arabic, on account of the most extensive application of the balance, is unusually rich in such metaphors. Moreover, the Arabic has no corresponding noun: the teflı̂s (a balance) brought forward by Ges. in his Thes. and Handwrterbuch from Schindler's Pentaglotton, is a word devoid of all evidence from original sources and from the modern usage of the language, in this signification.)
מפלאות is also a word that does not occur elsewhere; in like manner דּע belongs exclusively to Elihu. God is called תּמים דּעים (comp. Job 36:4) as the Omniscient One, whose knowledge is absolute as to its depth as well as its circumference. |
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
Consider - If there be so much matter of wonder in the most obvious works of God, how wonderful must his secret counsels be? |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Hearken unto this - Hear what I say on the part of God. Stand still - Enter into deep contemplation on the subject.
And consider - Weigh every thing; examine separately and collectively; and draw right conclusions from the whole.
The wondrous works of God - Endless in their variety; stupendous in their structure; complicated in their parts; indescribable in their relations and connections; and incomprehensible in the mode of their formation, in the cohesion of their parts, and in the ends of their creation. |
2 The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.
4 For truly my words shall not be false: he that is perfect in knowledge is with thee.
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
6 Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
22 And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.
29 Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?
16 Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge?
15 Dost thou know when God disposed them, and caused the light of his cloud to shine?
21 Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.
31 For by them judgeth he the people; he giveth meat in abundance.
23 For he will not lay upon man more than right; that he should enter into judgment with God.
15 But now, because it is not so, he hath visited in his anger; yet he knoweth it not in great extremity:
15 Dost thou know when God disposed them, and caused the light of his cloud to shine?