When He made a limit for the rain, And a course 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:
- BSB when He set a limit for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt,
- ESV 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,
- NLT He made the laws for the rain and laid out a path for the lightning.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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 has cut a channel for the flood water, or the path for the thunderstorm;
- Job 37:3He sends it out under the whole sky, and his lightning to the ends of the earth.
- Zech 10:1Ask of Yahweh rain in the spring time, Yahweh who makes storm clouds, and he gives rain showers to everyone for the plants in the field.
- Job 36:26Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.
- Job 36:32He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark.
- Amos 4:7“I also have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city. One place was rained on, and the piece where it didn’t rain withered.
- Ps 148:8lightning and hail, snow and clouds; stormy wind, fulfilling his word;
- Jer 14:22Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Aren’t you he, Yahweh our God? Therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things.
- Ps 29:3–10Yahweh’s voice is on the waters. The God of glory thunders, even Yahweh on many waters.
- Job 37:11Yes, he loads the thick cloud with moisture. He spreads abroad the cloud of his lightning.
- Job 38:27to satisfy the waste and desolate ground, to cause the tender grass to grow?
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.