Whether it is for correction, or for his land, or for loving kindness, that he causes it to come.
Parallel translations
- KJV He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.
- BSB Whether for punishment or for His land, He accomplishes this in His loving devotion.
- ESV Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen.
- NKJV He causes it to come, Whether for correction, Or for His land, Or for mercy.
- NASB “Whether for correction, or for His earth, Or for goodness, He causes it to happen.
- NLT He makes these things happen either to punish people or to show his unfailing love.
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 sends weather for one of three purposes: to correct, to nourish his land, or to show covenant love. The same rain can be judgment or mercy.
Overview
Elihu names the moral and gracious purposes behind God's sovereignty over nature. Storms may discipline, sustain the land, or express loving kindness, but always serve God's wise ends. This guards against Job's despair by insisting that God's dealings, even painful ones, are purposeful rather than arbitrary.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Kgs 18:45In a little while, the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel.
- Job 38:26–27To cause it to rain on a land where no man is; on the wilderness, in which there is no man;
- 1 Sam 12:18–19So Samuel called to Yahweh; and Yahweh sent thunder and rain that day. Then all the people greatly feared Yahweh and Samuel.
- Job 36:31For by these he judges the people. He gives food in abundance.
- Exod 9:18–25Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as has not been in Egypt since the day it was founded even until now.
- 2 Sam 21:10Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water poured on them from the sky. She allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night.
- Ezra 10:9Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together to Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the wide place in front of God’s house, trembling because of this matter, and because of the great rain.
- Job 38:37–38Who can count the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the bottles of the sky,
- Job 37:6For he says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth;’ likewise to the shower of rain, and to the showers of his mighty rain.
- 2 Sam 21:14They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. After that, God answered prayer for the land.
- Joel 2:23“Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in Yahweh, your God; for he gives you the former rain in just measure, and he causes the rain to come down for you, the former rain and the latter rain, as before.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 37:13 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.