Dost thou know when God disposed them, and caused the light of his cloud to shine?
Parallel translations
- WEB Do you know how God controls them, and causes the lightning 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 37:11Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud:
- Job 38:4–41Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
- Isa 40:26Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.
- Job 36:30–32Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it, and covereth the bottom of the sea.
- Job 28:24–27For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven;
- Ps 119:90–91Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.
- Job 34:13Who hath given him a charge over the earth? or who hath disposed the whole world?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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.