Do you know how God controls them, and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?
Parallel translations
- KJV Dost thou know when God disposed them, and caused the light of his cloud to shine?
- BSB Do you know how God dispatches the clouds or makes the lightning flash?
- NKJV Do you know when God dispatches them, And causes the light of His cloud to shine?
- NASB “Do you know how God establishes them, And makes the lightning of His clouds to shine?
- NLT Do you know how God controls the storm and causes the lightning to flash from his clouds?
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 Job understands how God orders the clouds and makes the lightning flash. The implied answer exposes human ignorance.
Overview
With a rhetorical question, Elihu underscores that Job cannot grasp the mechanics of God's control over the storm. The point is not meteorology but humility before the Creator's incomprehensible wisdom. These questions foreshadow the long series of unanswerable questions God himself will ask Job.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Job 37:11Yes, he loads the thick cloud with moisture. He spreads abroad the cloud of his lightning.
- Job 38:4–41“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.
- Isa 40:26Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, Not one is lacking.
- Job 36:30–32Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea.
- Job 28:24–27For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole sky.
- Ps 119:90–91Your faithfulness is to all generations. You have established the earth, and it remains.
- Job 34:13Who put him in charge of the earth? or who has appointed him over the whole world?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
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 37:15 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.