“He covers His hands with the lightning, And commands it to strike the target.
Parallel translations
- WEB He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark.
- KJV With clouds he covereth the light; and commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt.
- BSB He fills His hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark.
- NKJV He covers His hands with lightning, And commands it to strike.
- NLT He fills his hands with lightning bolts and hurls each at its target.
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 covers His hands with lightning and commands it to strike its target. He directs even the lightning with precision.
Overview
Elihu pictures God wielding lightning like a weapon, aiming it exactly where He wills. This vivid image conveys God's complete mastery over the most awesome natural forces. Nothing in creation is random or beyond His direction, assuring believers that the God who commands the lightning also orders every detail of their lives for good (Rom. 8:28).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ps 148:8lightning and hail, snow and clouds; stormy wind, fulfilling his word;
- Ps 135:7who causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth; who makes lightnings with the rain; who brings the wind out of his treasuries;
- Ps 147:8–9who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass grow on the mountains.
- Job 37:15Do you know how God controls them, and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?
- Ps 18:11He made darkness his hiding place, his pavilion around him, darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
- Job 26:9He encloses the face of his throne, and spreads his cloud on it.
- Job 37:12It is turned around by his guidance, that they may do whatever he commands them on the surface of the habitable world,
- Acts 27:20When neither sun nor stars shone on us for many days, and no small storm pressed on us, all hope that we would be saved was now taken away.
- Exod 10:21–23Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.”
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 36:32 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.