perhaps properly · verb, piel imperfect, 1st person common singular
man
אִ֝֗ישׁ'Ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
speak
אָ֥מַר'A.mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
up
יְבֻלָּֽעye.vu.La'
H1104
to make away with (specifically by swallowing) · verb, pual imperfect, 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 6:3 For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up.
Job 11:7-8 Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
Psalms 139:4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.
Matthew 12:36-37 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 37:14-20
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 is not likely to profit us unless we consider it, and we are not likely to consider things fully unless we stand still and compose ourselves to the consideration of them. The works of God, being wondrous, both deserve and need our consideration, and the due consideration of them will help to reconcile us to all his providences. Elihu, for the humbling of Job, shows him,
I. That he had no insight into natural causes, could neither see th…
What I a mortal say against God's dealings is not worthy of being told HIM. In opposition to Job's wish to "speak" before God (Job 13:3, Job 13:18-22).
if . . . surely he shall be swallowed up--The parallelism more favors UMBREIT, "Durst a man speak (before Him, complaining) that he is (without cause) being destroyed?"
Adam Clarke on Job 37:20
Shall it be told him that I speak? - Shall I dare to whisper even before God? And suppose any one were to accuse me before him for what I have spoken of him, though that has been well intended, how should I be able to stand in his presence? I should be swallowed up in consternation, and consumed with the splendor of his majesty. But in what state art thou? What hast thou been doing? Thou hast arraigned God for his government of the world; thou hast found fault with the dispensations of his providence; thou hast even charged him with cruelty! What will become of Thee?
John Gill on Job 37:20
Shall it be told him that I speak?.... And what I speak? there is no need of it, since he is omniscient, and knows every word that is spoken by men; or is anything I have said concerning him, his ways, and his works, worthy relating, or worthy of his hearing, being so very imperfect? nor can the things I have spoken of, though common things, be fully explained to any; or should it be told him, the Lord, that he, Elihu, had spoke as Job had done, and arraigned his justice, and complained of his dealings? God forbid; he would not have it said they were spoken by him for all the world: or "shall it be recorded unto him what I speak?" as Mr. Broughton, or that I speak; shall it be recorded in a…
The Church Fathers
"Are you a book or a secretary for me? and is it I who imposes silence on the man? Why do not you say nothing, if you know what to say? You are not charged with gathering my word, without speaking for yourself. We are both conversing.
Who will tell Him the things which I say? Even if a man shall speak, he shall be swallowed up. As if he plainly said; The unheard truths which I declare to Him, from an acute sense of His praises, who can repeat, even after he has heard them? But because, when learning and arrogance contend together in the habitation of the same mind, there sounds forth from the mouth of the speaker not merely levity of behaviour, but also gravity of sentiment; after Eliu had been puffed up in levity by arrogance, saying, Who will tell Him the things which I say? he presently subjoined, through his learning, Even if a man shall speak, he shall be swallowed up. Every thing which devours any thing, draws it inwards, and conceals it from the eyes of beholders, and hurries into the deep an object which could be seen on the surface. A man, therefore, when he is silent about God, seems to be something on account of the reason with which he was made. But if he begins to speak about God, it is at once shewn how nought he is; because he is devoured by the immensity of His greatness, and is hurried, as it were, into the deep, and is concealed. For wishing to speak of the Ineffable, he is swallowed up by the narrowness of his own ignorance. For flesh speaks of the Spirit, the circumscribed spirit of the Uncircumscribed, the creature of the Creator, the temporal of the Eternal, the mutable of the Immutable, the mortal of the Quickener. And since, being placed in darkness, he knows not the inward light, as it really is, a man wishing to discourse of eternity, speaks as a blind man of the light. If then a man shall speak, he shall be swallowed up: because if a man wishes to speak of eternity as it is, he takes away also from himself even the sense he has of it when silent. But, behold! eternity then became truly known to men, when It shewed Itself to them by assuming man's nature. But because this had not yet been revealed, it is rightly subjoined of the same men...
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Blasphemy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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).
17 Thou whose garments became hot,
When the land is sultry from the south:
18 Dost thou with Him spread out the sky,
The strong, as it were molten, mirror?
19 Let us know what we shall say to Him! -
We can arrange nothing by reason of darkness.
20 Shall it be told Him that I speak,
Or shall one wish to be destroyed?
Most expositors connect Job 37:17 with Job 37:16 : (Dost thou know) how it comes to pass that ... ; but אשׁר after ידע signifies quod, Exo 11:7, not quomodo, as it sometimes occurs in a comparing antecedent clause, instead of כאשׁר, Exo 14:13; Jer 33:22. We therefore translate: thou whose ... , - connecting this, however, not with Job 37:16 (vid., e.g., Carey), but as Bolduc. an…
speak when they are confused? Or speak without being swallowed up? Punishment as severe as death might result from contesting God’s judgment (cp. 13:14).
Rashi on Job 37:20
Need it be told to Him when I speak Is He like mortals, that He must be told what we are saying?
or need a man tell utter with his mouth.
what is kept a secret so that it should be revealed to Him immediately, like (II Sam. 17:16), “lest the king be told secretly (יבלע)” [lest] it be revealed. But our Sages (Meg. 18a) explained: Can all His praise be told Him, that I should speak That we should speak of Him and His might? Has any man said to tell them all, he would surely be destroyed from his place.
