to separate mentally (or distinguish) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
spreadings
מִפְרְשֵׂיmif.re.sei-
H4666
an expansion · noun, common masculine plural construct
clouds
עָ֑ב'Av
H5645
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
noise
תְּ֝שֻׁא֗וֹתte.shu.'ot
H8663
a crashing or loud clamor · noun, common feminine plural construct
tabernacle
סֻכָּתֽוֹsu.ka.To
H5521
a hut or lair · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 37:16 Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge?
Job 37:2-5 Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that goeth out of his mouth.
1 Kings 18:44-45 And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. And he said,…
Job 26:14 Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?
Job 38:9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,
Job 38:37 Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,
Psalms 18:13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.
Psalms 29:3-10 The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 36:24–end
Elihu is here endeavouring to possess Job with great and high thoughts of God, and so to persuade him into a cheerful submission to his providence.
I. He represents the work of God, in general, as illustrious and conspicuous, Job 36:24. His whole work is so. God does nothing mean. This is a good reason why we should acquiesce in all the operations of his providence concerning us in particular. His visible works, those of nature, and which concern the world in general, are such as we admire and commend, and in which we observe the Creator's wisdom, power, and goodness; shall we then find fault with his dispensations concerning us, and the counsels of his will concerning our affairs? We are he…
(Job 37:5). God's marvels in thunder and lightnings.
spreadings, &c.--the canopy of thick clouds, which covers the heavens in a storm (Psa 105:39).
the noise--"crashing"; namely, thunder.
of his tabernacle--God being poetically said to have His pavilion amid dark clouds (Psa 18:11; Isa 40:22).
Adam Clarke on Job 36:29
Can any understand the spreadings of the clouds - Though the vapor appear to be fortuitously raised, and subject, when suspended in the atmosphere, to innumerable accidents, to different winds and currents which might drive it all to the sandy deserts, or direct its course so that it should fall again into the great deep from which it has been exhaled, without watering and refreshing the earth; yet so does the good and wise providence of God manage this matter, that every part of the arable terrene surface receives an ample supply; and in every place, where requisite, it may be truly said that "The rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and water the earth, and cause it to bring forth a…
Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds,.... Or "of a cloud" (l), a thick cloud, a single one; which sometimes at the beginning is very small, about the size of a man's hand, 1 Kings 18:44; and which in a little time spreads all over the heavens, and covers them with black clouds and darkness; none can understand, describe, and tell by what means so small a cloud at first appearance is spread to such a prodigious extent; and which is done partly for the use of God himself, to be a pavilion or tent around him, Psalm 18:11; and partly for the use of men, either to let down ram on the several parts of the world, or to be a sort of an umbrella to men, to shelter them from scorching…
The Church Fathers
"If he wanted to spread his cloud," so that those who see are blind (6). "He gives him the same measure as at his flag," he lives in his mortal flesh as in a tent: his executioners did not recognize him, when he abandoned them, and he extended on the cross.
If He will spread out clouds as His tent, and lighten with His light from above, He will cover also the ends of the sea. The Lord 'spreads out the clouds,' when, opening the way of preaching to His ministers, He disperses them in every direction, through the breadth of the world. But it is well said, As His tent. For a tent is wont to be pitched, on a journey. And, when holy preachers are sent into the world, they make a way for God. Whence it is written, Behold, I send My Messenger before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee. [Mal. 3, 1] And hence also it is said by the Psalmist, Make a way for Him Who ascendeth over the west. [Ps. 68, 4] And again, O God, when Thou wentest forth before Thy people, when Thou passedst through the desert, the earth was moved. [ib. 7] For God, Who of Himself is, not locally, in every place, walks locally into the regions of the world, by means of His preachers. Whence also it is said by the Prophet, And I will walk in them. [Lev. 26, 12] For He does in truth walk through them, whilst He pours Himself into the hearts of men by their teaching. And in this journey the tents of God are these self-same hearts of the Saints, by which He is covered, as it were, in resting on the way. Whilst coming through them to the minds of men, He effects what He has ordained, and is not beheld. Hence it is that all the synagogue together is called a 'tent,' when the Lord complains by Jeremiah that the priests had ceased from preaching, saying, There is none to stretch forth My tent any more, and to set up My curtains. [Jer. 10, 20] Hence again it is said of its extermination, He hath destroyed His tent, as a garden, He hath thrown down His tabernacle. [Lam. 2, 6] For since the Lord at that time dwelt secretly among men in the worship of a single people, He called that self-same people His tent. Whence also these clouds are now rightly called His tent, because God, when coming to us by His grace, is concealed within the hearts of His preachers. Was not Paul His tent, when coming to the hearts of men, from Jerusalem round about into Illyricum, the Lord was resting in his mind? [Rom. 15, 19] For he was a cloud for men, but a tent for God; because he was invisibly retaining Him in his heart, Whom he was by his preaching pouring into the hearts of his hearers. When the same Paul was proceeding towards Rome, bound in chains, to take…
Dictionary and topics
Clouds · Man: Ignorant of the spreading of — Man: Ignorant of the spreading of
Ignorance · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
26 Behold, God is exalted-we know Him not entirely;
The number of His years, it is unsearchable.
27 For He draweth down the drops of water,
They distil as rain in connection with its mist,
28 Which the clouds do drop,
Distil upon the multitude of men.
29 Who can altogether understand the spreadings of the clouds,
The crash of His tabernacle?
The Waw of the quasi-conclusion in Job 36:26 corresponds to the Waw of the train of thought in Job 36:26 (Ges. 145, 2). מספּר שׁניו is, as the subject-notion, conceived as a nominative (vid., on Job 4:6), not as in similar quasi-antecedent clauses, e.g., Job 23:12, as an acc. of relation. שׂגּיא here and Job 37:23 occurs otherwise only in Old Testament C…
dying from lack of understanding: See also 4:21; Prov 5:23; 10:21.
Rashi on Job 36:29
Or will one understand Or will man understand what is in the spreadings of the clouds? This is a question.
the darkness Heb. תשאות, an expression of the thick darkness of His pavilion.
