properly · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
clouds
שְׁחָקִ֣יםshe.cha.Kim
H7834
a powder (as beaten small) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
wisdom
בְּחָכְמָ֑הbe.cha.khe.Mah
H2451
wisdom (in a good sense) · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
stay
יַשְׁכִּֽיבyash.Kiv
H7901
to lie down (for rest · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
bottles
וְנִבְלֵ֥יve.niv.Lei
H5035
a skin-bag for liquids (from collapsing when empty) · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct
heaven
שָׁ֝מַ֗יִםSha.Ma.yim
H8064
the sky (as aloft · noun, common masculine plural absolute
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 147:4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.
Genesis 8:1 And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth…
Genesis 9:15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a f…
Genesis 15:5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him,…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 38:25–end
Hitherto God had put such questions to Job as were proper to convince him of his ignorance and short-sightedness. Now he comes, in the same manner, to show his impotency and weakness. As it is but little that he knows, and therefore he ought not to arraign the divine counsels, so it is but little that he can do, and therefore he ought not to oppose the proceedings of Providence. Let him consider what great things God does, and try whether he can do the like, or whether he thinks himself an equal match for him.
I. God has thunder, and lightning, and rain, and frost, at command, but Job has not, and therefore let him not dare to compare himself with God, or to contend with him. Nothing is more…
Who appoints by his wisdom the due measure of the clouds?
stay--rather, "empty"; literally, "lay down" or "incline" so as to pour out.
bottles of heaven--rain-filled clouds.
Adam Clarke on Job 38:37
Who can number the clouds - Perhaps the word ספר saphar, which is commonly rendered to number, may here mean, as in Arabic, to irradiate, as Mr. Good contends; and may refer to those celestial and inimitable tinges which we sometimes behold in the sky.
Bottles of heaven - The clouds: it is an allusion to the girbahs, or bottles made of skin, in which they are accustomed to carry their water from wells and tanks.
John Gill on Job 38:37
Who can number the clouds in wisdom?.... Or has such wisdom as to be able to count them when the heavens are full of them; hence they are used to denote a great multitude, Isaiah 55:8; or "declare" them (t), set forth and explain the nature of them, their matter, motion, and use; none can do this perfectly or completely. Aben Ezra interprets it, who can make them as sapphire? in which he is followed by Mr. Broughton and others (u); the sapphire is a precious stone, very clear and lucid, of a sky colour. And then the sense is, who can make a clear and serene sky, when it is cloudy? None but the Lord; see Job 37:11;
or who can stay the bottles of heaven? or "barrels", as Mr. Broughton; the cl…
The Church Fathers
"Who will be learned enough to count the clouds? The Lord knows those who are his, but what man has the same knowledge? "Who brings down the voices of heaven on the earth? The angels of heaven who announce the divine oracles. They were not rushed against the first of the rebels, but the attraction of obedience brought them down to us, especially in the days of the Savior: "The angels served him," says the Gospel (3) .
Who will declare the system of the heavens? But because He withdraws their words, when He presents Himself to us in outward form, He immediately subjoined; And who will make the harmony of heaven to sleep? 17. For in this life the Lord has spoken to our weakness, not by the outward manifestation of His majesty, but by the voice of His preachers; in order that the carnal tongue might strike those hearts which are still carnal, and that they might the more readily receive unusual things, the more they heard them by the sound of an accustomed voice. But after that the flesh is resolved into dust by death, and the dust is animated by the resurrection, then we seek not to hear words from God, because we now behold in outward appearance that One Word of God, Which fills all things. Which sounds to us still louder, the more it penetrates our minds by the power of inward illumination. For when those words are taken away, which begin, and end, the very image of the inward vision becomes to us a kind of sound of eternal preaching. Whence the Lord now also says rightly to blessed Job; Who will declare the system of the heavens, and who will make the harmony of heaven to sleep? For what is meant by the system of the heavens, but the inward power of secrets? What is signified by the harmony of heaven, but the accordant language of preachers? When our Creator therefore has begun to relate the system of the heavens, He makes the harmony of heaven to sleep; doubtless, because when He is manifested to us in visible appearance, the words of preachers are withdrawn. For hence the Lord says by Jeremiah; A man shall no longer teach his neighbour and his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest, saith the Lord. [Jer. 31, 14] Hence Paul says, Whether prophecies, they shall be made void; whether tongues, they shall cease; whether knowledge, it shall be destroyed. [1 Cor. 13, 8] Or certainly the system of the heavens is that very vivifying power which forms the spirits of angels. For as God is the Cause of causes, and as He is the Life of the living, so is He the Reason of reasonable creatures. The Lord therefore then declares the system of the heavens, when He brings Himself before us, as to the way in which He rules over Elect spirits. He then relates the system of the heavens, when the mist of our mind is wiped away, and He…
Dictionary and topics
Bottle — A vessel made of skins for holding wine (Josh. 9:4. 13; 1 Sam. 16:20; Matt. 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37, 38), or milk (Judg. 4:19), or water (Gen. 21:14, 15, 19), or strong drink (Hab. 2:15).…
Bottles · Illustrative: Of the clouds — Illustrative: Of the clouds
Clouds · Called the: Bottles of heaven — Called the: Bottles of heaven
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).
34 Dost thou raise thy voice to the clouds
That an overflow of waters may cover thee?
35 Dost thou send forth lightnings, and they go,
And say to thee: Here we are?
36 Who hath put wisdom in the reins,
Or who hath given understanding to the cock?
37 Who numbereth the strata of the clouds with wisdom
And the bottles of heaven, who emptieth them,
38 When the dust flows together into a mass,
And the clods cleave together?
As Job 38:25 was worded like Job 28:26, so Job 38:34 is worded like Job 22:11; the ך of תכסך is dageshed in both passages, as Job 36:2, Job 36:18, Hab 2:17. What Jehovah here denies to the natural power of man is possible to the power which man has by faith, as the history of…
heart . . . mind: These words can also be translated ibis . . . rooster. The Egyptians thought the ibis was wise about the flooding of the Nile, the most important seasonal event in Egypt; and Israel’s rabbis thought the rooster could forecast rain or that its crow distinguished day from night. The idea would then be Who taught the ibis and the rooster? See also Ps 51:6; Prov 2:6; Jas 1:5, 17.
Rashi on Job 38:37
charges Heb. יספר, will speak and charge with their mission.
the bottles Made like bottles in which the rains are collected, as in (I Sam. 1:24), “and an earthenware jug (ונבל) of wine.”
