Who can count the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the bottles of the sky,
Parallel translations
- KJV Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,
- BSB Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens
- NKJV Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the bottles of heaven,
- NASB “Who can count the clouds by wisdom, And pour out the water jars of the heavens,
- NLT Who is wise enough to count all the clouds? Who can tilt the water jars of heaven
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
Who can number the clouds by wisdom or tip over the water-jars of heaven? Only God measures and releases the rain.
Overview
God asks who has the wisdom to count the clouds and pour out the sky's waters. Job possesses no such knowledge or power. The poetic image of heavenly water-jars affirms God's intimate management of the weather.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Ps 147:4He counts the number of the stars. He calls them all by their names.
- Gen 8:1God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided.
- Gen 15:5Yahweh brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So will your offspring be.”
- Gen 9:15and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters will no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
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 38:37 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.