Who can understand the spreading of the clouds and the thunder that rolls forth from heaven?
Parallel translations
- WEB Yes, can any understand the spreading of the clouds, and the thunderings of his pavilion?
- KJV Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?
- BSB Furthermore, who can understand how the clouds spread out, how the thunder roars from His pavilion?
- NKJV Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of clouds, The thunder from His canopy?
- NASB “Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, The thundering of His pavilion?
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
Elihu asks whether anyone can understand the spreading clouds and the thunder of God's pavilion. God's workings in the heavens exceed human comprehension.
Overview
Elihu poses a rhetorical question highlighting the mystery of clouds and thunder, picturing the sky as God's dwelling or tent. No one can fully explain these heavenly workings, underscoring God's incomprehensible majesty. This wonder before creation prepares for the LORD's similar questions in chapters 38-39 and humbles us before the God whose greatness we worship in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Job 37:16Do you know the workings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge?
- Job 37:2–5Hear, oh, hear the noise of his voice, the sound that goes out of his mouth.
- Ps 18:13Yahweh also thundered in the sky. The Most High uttered his voice: hailstones and coals of fire.
- Ps 104:7At your rebuke they fled. At the voice of your thunder they hurried away.
- Ps 104:3He lays the beams of his rooms in the waters. He makes the clouds his chariot. He walks on the wings of the wind.
- Ps 77:16–19The waters saw you, God. The waters saw you, and they writhed. The depths also convulsed.
- Job 26:14Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. How small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”
- Ps 29:3–10Yahweh’s voice is on the waters. The God of glory thunders, even Yahweh on many waters.
- Nah 1:3Yahweh is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Yahweh has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
- 1 Kgs 18:44–45On the seventh time, he said, “Behold, a small cloud, like a man’s hand, is rising out of the sea.” He said, “Go up, tell Ahab, ‘Get ready and go down, so that the rain doesn’t stop you.’”
- Job 38:9when I made clouds its garment, and wrapped it in thick darkness,
- Hab 3:10The mountains saw you, and were afraid. The storm of waters passed by. The deep roared and lifted up its hands on high.
- Job 38:37Who can count the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the bottles of the sky,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 36:29 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
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