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
Psalms 136:25 Who giveth food to all flesh: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Job 37:13 He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.
Acts 14:17 Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our heart…
Psalms 104:13-15 He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works.
Job 38:26-27 To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;
Psalms 65:9-13 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn,…
Psalms 104:27-28 These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.
Genesis 6:17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; a…
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…
These (rain and lightnings) are marvellous and not to be understood (Job 36:29), yet necessary. "For by them He judgeth (chastiseth on the one hand), &c. (and on the other, by them) He giveth meat" (food), &c. (Job 37:13; Job 38:23, Job 38:27; Act 14:17).
Adam Clarke on Job 36:31
By them judgeth he the people - He makes storms, tempests, winds, hurricanes, tornadoes, thunder and lightning, drought and inundation, the instruments of his justice, to punish rebellious nations.
He giveth meat in abundance - Though by these he punishes offenders, yet through the same, as instruments, he provides for the wants of men and animals in general. Storms, tempests, and hurricanes, agitate the lower regions of the atmosphere, disperse noxious vapours, and thus render it fit for respiration; and without these it would soon become a stagnant, putrid, and deadly mass, in which neither animals could live, nor vegetables thrive. And by dews, rains, snows, frosts, winds, cold, and heat,…
For by them judgeth he the people,.... That is, by the clouds; which the Lord uses both in a way of judgment, as expressed in this clause; and in a way of mercy, as in the following; by these, and what issue out of them, as rain, hail, winds, thunder, and lightning, he sometimes punishes the inhabitants of the earth, as he did the old world by a deluge of water, which came partly from the fountains of the great deep, and partly from the windows of heaven, which destroyed man and beast, and the increase of the earth, Genesis 7:11; he punished the Egyptians by a violent storm of hail, Exodus 9:23; and slew many of the Canaanites with hailstones, Joshua 10:11; Pharaoh and his host sunk like lea…
The Church Fathers
"He gave much to their food," to those who acknowledge and confess their sins, to those who are hungry and thirsty for justice.
For by these things judgeth He the people, and giveth food to many mortals. By these words of preachers, that is drops of the clouds, by these lightnings of miracles, God doubtless judges the peoples; because He invites their terrified hearts to repentance. For when they hear heavenly things, when they attend to marvellous works, they soon return into their own hearts, and afflicting themselves for their former wickednesses, dread eternal torments. But food is given too by these same clouds by which terror is inflicted: since mighty is the trust committed to preachers to know how so to afflict the minds of the haughty, as yet to be skilful in cherishing them when afflicted, with words of consolation; so as to alarm sinners with eternal punishments, and support penitents with the joys of the kingdom of heaven. Whence the very course of this dispensation is well observed, so that Eliu said, in proper order, that God first judges the people by these, clouds, and afterwards gives them food. Because, in truth Almighty God first reproves and rouses us from our evil deeds, by means of His preachers, and afterwards cherishes and consoles us by hope. For if the Divine dispensation did not act the part of a judge, by these clouds, He never would have said to these same clouds, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. [John 20, 22. 23.] And again, if He did not feed by them our famished hearts, the Lord would never say to His disciples, of the hungering people, Give ye them to eat. But we believe that that was then done thus by their hands, that we may see that this is daily taking place without ceasing by their words. [Mat. 14, 16] For what does Peter effect, when he speaks by his Epistles, unless it be, that our miserably hungry hearts may be fed with the food of the word? What are Paul and John labouring at, when speaking by their Epistles, except that our minds may enjoy heavenly food, and overcome that loathing of hunger with which they were dying? Let it be said then, When He will spread out the clouds as His tent, and lighten with His light from above, He will cover also the ends of the sea; for by these things He judgeth the people, and giveth food to many mortals. As if he were plainly saying, If He sends forth His Saints for the ministry of preaching, and aids…
30 Behold, He spreadeth His light over Himself,
And the roots of the sea He covereth.
31 For thereby He judgeth peoples,
He giveth food in abundance.
32 Both hands He covereth over with light,
And directeth it as one who hitteth the mark.
33 His noise announceth Him,
The cattle even that He is approaching.
A few expositors (Hirz., Hahn, Schlottm.) understand the celestial ocean, or the sea of the upper waters, by ים, Job 36:30; but it is more than questionable (vid., on Job 9:8) whether ים is used anywhere in this sense. Others as (Umbr., Ew.) the masses of water drawn up to the sky out of the depths of the sea, on which a Persian passage cited by Stick. (who, however, regards the Waw of ושׁ…
The Hebrew yadin can mean he governs or he nourishes, which parallels food in abundance (38:26; Pss 65:9-13; 104:13-15, 27-28). The more common meaning for yadin is “judge,” which would mean that God does all things to bless his people and judge his enemies (Job 37:11-13; 38:22-23; see Gen 6:17; 19:24; Exod 9:23-25; Josh 10:11-14; 1 Sam 12:18).
Rashi on Job 36:31
For...therewith With the clouds He judges peoples and chastises them by withholding rain, causing famine, as well as all sorts of plagues. When the Generation of the Flood sinned (Gen. 7:11), “and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.” As for the people of Sodom (Deut. 29:22), “Sulfur and salt, all the soil is burned up.” As for Sisera (Jud. 5:20), “From heaven they fought...against Sisera.”
He gives food to one who has many From there comes sustenance (Ex. 16:4): “See, I am about to have bread rain down from heaven for you.” This is to be compared to a baker who is standing before the oven. If an enemy comes in, he rakes coals and casts them at him; if his friend comes in, he takes ou…
