to turn about or over · verb, hithpael active participle, masculine singular absolute
about
מְסִבּ֨וֹתme.si.Bot
H4524
a divan (as enclosing the room) · noun, common feminine plural absolute
counsels
בְּתַחְבּוּלֹתָ֣יוbe.tach.bu.la.tov
H8458
(only in plural) properly · preposition + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
do
פֹּעַלpôʻal
H6467
an act or work (concretely)
commandeth
יְצַוֵּ֓םye.tza.Vem
H6680
(intensively) to constitute · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
face
פְּנֵ֖יpe.Nei
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · noun, common masculine plural construct
world
תֵבֵ֣לte.Vel
H8398
the earth (as moist and therefore inhabited) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
earth
אָֽרְצָה'A.re.tzah
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute + directional suffix
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 148:8 Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:
Psalms 104:24 O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.
Joel 2:23 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to…
James 5:17-18 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the sp…
Psalms 65:9-10 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,…
Jeremiah 14:22 Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? ther…
Amos 4:7 And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and ca…
Revelation 11:6 These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to sm…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 37:6-13
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 them, who shows his power and serves the purposes of his providence by them! We must take notice of the glory of God, not only in the thunder and lightning, but in the more common revolutions of the weather, which are not so terrible and which make less noise. As,
I. In the snow and rain, Job 37:6. Thunder and lightning happen usually in the summer, but here he takes notice of the winter-weather. Then he saith to the snow, Be thou on the ear…
it--the cloud of lightning.
counsels--guidance (Psa 148:8); literally, "steering"; the clouds obey God's guidance, as the ship does the helmsman. So the lightning (see on Job 36:31-32); neither is haphazard in its movements.
they--the clouds, implied in the collective singular "it."
face of the world, &c.--in the face of the earth's circle.
Adam Clarke on Job 37:12
And it is turned round about by his counsels - The original is difficult: והוא מסבות מתהפך בתחבולתו vehu mesibboth mithhappech bethachbulothav; which has been thus paraphrased: And he - the sun, makes revolutions - causes the heavenly bodies to revolve round him, turning round himself - turning round his own axis, by his attachments - his attractive and repulsive influences, by which the heavenly bodies revolve round him, and by which, as if strongly tied to their center, בחבל bechebel, with a cable or rope, they are projected to their proper distances, and prevented from coming too near, or flying off too far.
That they may do whatsoever he commandeth them - That men may perform his will, a…
And it is turned round about by his counsels,.... The cloud is, and that by the wind, which is turned about to all points of the compass, according to the will of God; by the counsels of him who sits at the helm, as the word signifies, and orders all things according to the counsel of his own will: to which owing every shifting of the wind, and the various motions of the clouds;
that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth; as all his creatures do; the several meteors in the air, clouds, stormy wind, fire, hail, snow, and vapour, all fulfilling his word; and which they do everywhere in the several parts of the world whither they are sent, Psalm 107:…
The Church Fathers
"She turns in the circle that is traced to her:" she travels the whole universe. "Ready to do what the Supreme Master commands him. These commandments; who direct the cloud, are the preachers who govern the Church to fulfill the divine precepts.
Which traverse all things in a circuit, whithersoever the will of their Ruler shall lead them. To every thing which He shall command them upon the face of the earth. For holy preachers often wish to exhort some persons, but cannot do so. Some they often wish to avoid, but are yet most urgently compelled, by the impulse of inward instigation, to exhort them. Let us behold the cloud of God, how it is led by the hand of Him Who guides it, even to those things which it does not seek after: and is, again, kept from following its own impulse, by the hand of Him who governs it. When Paul was shaking his raiment, and was wishing to depart from the Corinthians, he surely heard, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. [Acts 18, 9, 10] Again, when he had wished to go to the Thessalonians, he was kept back, and said, I wished to come unto you, even I Paul, both once and again, but satan hindered me. [1 Thess. 2, 18] For satan could not of himself hinder the journeys of so mighty an Apostle; but, while opposing, he ignorantly subserved the design of the secret dispensation; in order that Paul, while he wished to visit other persons, and was unable, might more suitably benefit those, from whom he could not depart. The clouds of God, therefore, traverse all things in a circuit, because they illuminate the ends of the world with the light of preaching. But, because being subject to the Divine will, they cannot fulfil their own wishes, they cannot go any where, except where the will of their Ruler shall lead them. For often when they are led by the will of their Ruler, they seek to do one thing, but are disposed otherwise. For they frequently desire to correct some of their hearers in a gentle way, and yet their speech is turned into sharpness. They frequently seek to be severe with others, but yet their vigour is restrained by the spirit of gentleness. As, therefore, they cannot go whither they will, so also they cannot act as they will. For because the inward Judge keeps hold of them, when He sends them, so also does He modify and take them up, when He leads them on, so that sometimes they arrange one thing in their thought, but carry another into effect; they sometimes begin in one way, but end in another. Because then they serve according to that which is…
Dictionary and topics
Providence Of God, The · Is exercised in: Ruling the elements — Is exercised in: Ruling the elements
Religion · NATURAL — NATURAL
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).
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 good of His earth,
Or for mercy, He causeth it to discharge itself.
With אף extending the description, Elihu, in the presence of the storm that is in the sky, continually returns to this one marvel of nature. The old versions connect בּרי partly with בּר, electus (lxx, Syr., Theod.) or frumentum (Symm., Jer.), partly with בּרה = בּרר in the signification puritas, serenitas (Targ.); but בּרי is, as Schultens has already perceived, the Heb…
everyone stops working . . . watch his power: The ending of the agricultural work season gave people time to meditate on God’s providential control.
Rashi on Job 37:12
And he who is thus appointed.
turns around in circuits by His guidance [i.e., by the guidance] of the Omnipresent.
for their work namely, of the rains; for the work which is incumbent upon them to do, either good or evil, he is turned about with many circuits, as [the passage] that we learned (Rosh Hashanah 17b): if Israel were perfectly righteous on Rosh Hashanah so that [much] rain was decreed for them, and they should later become sinful—it would be impossible to decrease it [the amount of rain] because the decree would already have gone forth; but the Holy One, blessed be He, would let it come down out of its season and upon a land that did not require it. “And sometimes to do good”; h…
