TEXT [Commentary]

  3.   Beauty and mystery in the heavens (38:22-38)

22 “Have you visited the storehouses of the snow

or seen the storehouses of hail?

23 (I have reserved them as weapons for the time of trouble,

for the day of battle and war.)

24 Where is the path to the source of light?

Where is the home of the east wind?

25 “Who created a channel for the torrents of rain?

Who laid out the path for the lightning?

26 Who makes the rain fall on barren land,

in a desert where no one lives?

27 Who sends rain to satisfy the parched ground

and make the tender grass spring up?

28 “Does the rain have a father?

Who gives birth to the dew?

29 Who is the mother of the ice?

Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens?

30 For the water turns to ice as hard as rock,

and the surface of the water freezes.

31 “Can you direct the movement of the stars—

binding the cluster of the Pleiades

or loosening the cords of Orion?

32 Can you direct the constellations through the seasons

or guide the Bear with her cubs across the heavens?

33 Do you know the laws of the universe?

Can you use them to regulate the earth?

34 “Can you shout to the clouds

and make it rain?

35 Can you make lightning appear

and cause it to strike as you direct?

36 Who gives intuition to the heart

and instinct to the mind?

37 Who is wise enough to count all the clouds?

Who can tilt the water jars of heaven

38 when the parched ground is dry

and the soil has hardened into clods?

NOTES

38:24 the source of light. Though the Masoretes read this as the word “light” (’or [TH216, ZH240]), it is clear that it should be read as “heat” (’ur [TH217, ZH241]), a word known elsewhere in the Scriptures (cf. Isa 44:16; 47:14). The origin of the light has already been mentioned (38:19), and this section is about elements of the weather. Both the Gr. and apparently the Qumran Targum (11QtgJob) read this as something other than light.

38:30 turns to ice. The expression, “the waters are hid as with a stone” (KJV), seems to be exactly what the Heb. says (Grabbe 1977:118-120). None of the attempts to make the Heb. word “hide” (khaba’ [TH2244, ZH2461]) mean something like “congeal” can be regarded as viable. The poet seems to be describing the way the formation of ice conceals the waters below.

38:31 Pleiades or . . . Orion. The precise identification of the ancient names with these constellations is not possible. These are the ones generally accepted.

38:32 the constellations through the seasons. The verse is about the movements of the stars, as is evident from the second half of the verse. The mazzaroth [TH4216, ZH4666] (“Mazzaroth”; KJV, RSV, NRSV, NAB) is otherwise unknown but must refer to some aspect of the constellations.

38:36 heart . . . mind. Lit., “ibis . . . rooster.” The mention of the ibis (tukhoth [TH2910, ZH3219]) and the rooster (sekwi [TH7907, ZH8498]) in this verse has been made clearer by the discovery of a seal at Nimrod dating from the eighth century before Christ. The ibis as the bird of the Egyptian god Thot is well known as announcing the flooding of the Nile. Ancient Jewish and Christian tradition has associated the rooster with the announcement of coming rain. This idea has been confirmed by an eighth-century seal from Calah that has an image of the rooster with the water jars of heaven (Keel 1981:221-222). The ibis and the rooster were believed to have wisdom, for they predicted the coming of the rain.

COMMENTARY [Text]

No less mysterious than the creation of the world is God’s governing of that creation. God directs Job’s attention to meteorological phenomena. Precipitation in all its forms (38:22-30), the associated movements of the stars in their seasons (38:31-33), and the coming of the storms (38:34-38) are all described. Sometimes precipitation arrives as snow and ice, which may function as more than just moisture for the ground. The plagues (Exod 9:18) and the conquest of the Promised Land (Josh 10:11) are two of the best-known examples of hail being sent by God for judgment (38:23), but hail and frost are present in other times of judgment as well (Ps 78:47; Hag 2:17). The deserts are beaten into parched dusty sands by the hot east winds; the deserts are uninhabitable places, being absolutely desolate and barren. Even such arid deserts are periodically turned green by the cloudbursts; the grass sprouts from the place where it had been hidden. The seasons run their courses according to unfailing laws. Ice forms upon the water, hiding it and trapping it beneath its grip.

The constellations make their rounds in a perfectly predictable fashion. No mortal can link the seven stars in Pleiades or disassociate the stars of Orion. The movements of the stars and planets are so perfectly regular that it is possible to use notations of eclipses in ancient history to calculate the very day on which certain events took place. Though telescopes transmitting images from outside the atmosphere have enabled astronomers to peer into the wonders of space beyond what the poet of Job could have imagined, the forces of the stars and planets have only proved to be more mysterious and marvelous than humans can know. An advanced technological age is still completely dependent on the rain clouds to bring moisture in its time. Scientists are not capable of raising their voices to the clouds to get them to respond. It is still true that the animals have a better sense for when the rain will come than the weather forecaster, and, in spite of many irrigation techniques, farmers still rely on the rain more than anything else for the growth of successful crops.

It is often thought that birth imagery is present in this section as well, in that it notes God as the father of the dew and the rain (38:28) and the mother of the ice and frost (38:29). The form of the question, however, indicates that the rain does not have a father. The point is the mystery of the origin of rain and snow (Vall 1995:509-513). In ancient religions the nature deities were responsible for precipitation and fertility. In those contexts, dew had a father and ice had a mother. When God asked the question, he was challenging such assumptions. The arrival of snow and rain is a mystery, and questions about its origin are a riddle. Yahweh, the God who was speaking, must not be compared in any sense to the nature deities who supposedly bring about fruitfulness. God alone is the one responsible for the beauties and wonders of the earth.