“From the south comes the storm, And from the north wind the cold.
Parallel translations
- WEB Out of its room comes the storm, and cold out of the north.
- KJV Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: and cold out of the north.
- BSB The tempest comes from its chamber, and the cold from the driving north winds.
- NKJV From the chamber of the south comes the whirlwind, And cold from the scattering winds of the north.
- NLT The stormy wind comes from its chamber, and the driving winds bring the cold.
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
The storm comes from its chamber and the cold from the north. God brings forth weather from its appointed places.
Overview
Elihu poetically describes the whirlwind and cold issuing from their storehouses in the heavens. This imagery conveys that God keeps the elements ready and dispatches them as He wills (cf. Job 38:22; Ps. 135:7). The verse reinforces God's meticulous sovereignty over weather, reminding believers that the Lord who governs the storms also rules over every season of their lives.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Job 9:9He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the rooms of the south.
- Isa 21:1The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.
- Ps 104:3He lays the beams of his rooms in the waters. He makes the clouds his chariot. He walks on the wings of the wind.
- Job 38:1Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,
- Zech 9:14Yahweh will be seen over them; and his arrow will go flash like lightning; and the Lord Yahweh will blow the trumpet, and will go with whirlwinds of the south.
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 37:9 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.