See how He scatters His lightning around Him and covers the depths of the sea.
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea.
- KJV Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it, and covereth the bottom of the sea.
- NKJV Look, He scatters His light upon it, And covers the depths of the sea.
- NASB “Behold, He spreads His lightning about Him, And He covers the depths of the sea.
- NLT See how he spreads the lightning around him and how it lights up the depths of the sea.
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 spreads His lightning around Him and covers the depths of the sea. His power reaches from the heights to the ocean depths.
Overview
Elihu describes God flashing His light across the sky while also governing the depths of the sea. The imagery conveys that no realm, however high or deep, lies outside God's command (cf. Ps. 135:6-7). This sweeping sovereignty over all creation magnifies the One who later stilled the storm and ruled the sea in the person of Christ (Mark 4:39-41).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 104:5–9He set the earth on its foundations, never to be moved.
- Job 38:8–11Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,
- Job 38:34–35Can you command the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?
- Gen 1:9And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place, so that the dry land may appear.” And it was so.
- Exod 14:28The waters flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had chased the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.
- Exod 14:22and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on their right and on their left.
- Job 38:25Who cuts a channel for the flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt,
- Ps 18:11–16He made darkness His hiding place, and storm clouds a canopy around Him.
- Exod 15:4–5Pharaoh’s chariots and army He has cast into the sea; the finest of his officers are drowned in the Red Sea.
- Luke 17:24For just as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so will be the Son of Man in His day.
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 36:30 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.