when He set a limit for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt,
Parallel translations
- WEB When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder;
- KJV When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:
- NKJV When He made a law for the rain, And a path for the thunderbolt,
- NASB When He made a limit for the rain, And a course for the thunderbolt,
- NLT He made the laws for the rain and laid out a path for the lightning.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God set a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt.
Overview
Job continues to portray God's wise ordering of the natural world, appointing the rain's measure and the lightning's course. These hidden laws of weather testify to the Creator's understanding. The verse magnifies God's sovereign wisdom over creation, the same wisdom He graciously imparts to those who fear Him (verse 28).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Job 38:25Who cuts a channel for the flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt,
- Job 37:3He unleashes His lightning beneath the whole sky and sends it to the ends of the earth.
- Zech 10:1Ask the LORD for rain in springtime; the LORD makes the storm clouds, and He will give everyone showers of rain and crops in the field.
- Job 36:26Indeed, God is great—beyond our knowledge; the number of His years is unsearchable.
- Job 36:32He fills His hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark.
- Amos 4:7“I also withheld the rain from you when the harvest was three months away. I sent rain on one city but withheld it from another. One field received rain; another without rain withered.
- Ps 148:8lightning and hail, snow and clouds, powerful wind fulfilling His word,
- Jer 14:22Can the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies alone send showers? Is this not by You, O LORD our God? So we put our hope in You, for You have done all these things.
- Ps 29:3–10The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders; the LORD is heard over many waters.
- Job 37:11He loads the clouds with moisture; He scatters His lightning through them.
- Job 38:27to satisfy the parched wasteland and make it sprout with tender grass?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 28:26 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.