Job 36:29
in Job 36Furthermore, who can understand how the clouds spread out, how the thunder roars from His pavilion?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Yea, can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, The thunderings of his pavilion?
KJV
Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?
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This verse in Job 36
Commentary
11 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Also, can any understand the spreadings of the clouds? - The out spreading - the manner in which they expand themselves over us. The idea is, that the manner in which the clouds seem to “spread out,” or unfold themselves on the sky, could not be explained, and was a striking proof of the wisdom and power of God. In the early periods of the world, it could not be expected that the causes of these phenomena would be known.
This site's exposition
He draws up drops of water
on Job 36:27-33
The rain cycle opens a weather catalogue running into chapter 37. Delitzsch reads “by these He judges the nations” as rain doing double duty, feeding and disciplining. Gill takes “The thunder declares His presence” as the speech overtaken by the storm it describes, the whirlwind heard before it speaks.
This site's exposition
how the thunder roars from His pavilion
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see God's pavilion as the thick clouds of a storm, citing Psalm 18:11. John Wesley pictures a cloud the size of a man's hand spreading across the whole sky. Matthew Henry says it is seen daily and still unexplained.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Then he speaks about the clouds themselves saying, "If he wills to unfold the clouds like a tent," because the clouds hide heaven which is the seat of God like the seat of some man is hidden in a tent. He says, "If he wills," …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXVII · Written before 604.
proposed
If He will spread out clouds as His tent, and lighten with His light from above, He will cover also the ends of the sea. The Lord 'spreads out the clouds,' when, opening the way of preaching to His ministers, He disperses them in every direction, through the breadth of the world. But it is well said, As His tent. For a tent is wont to be pitched, on a journey. And, when holy preachers are sent into the world, they make a way for God.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Understand - Whence it comes to pass, that a small cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, suddenly spreads over the whole heavens: how the clouds come to be suddenly gathered, and so condensed as to bring forth thunder and lightning. Noise - The thunder produced in the clouds, which are often called God's tent or tabernacle.
1 Elihu also proceeded, and said, 2 Suffer me a little, and I will show thee that I have yet to speak on God's behalf. 3 I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker. 4 For truly my words shall not be false: he that is perfect in knowledge is with thee.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — scripture-overlap:89%@v2-4
): Can any understand the spreading of the clouds? They are spread over the earth as a curtain or canopy; how they come to be so, how stretched out, and how poised, as they are, we cannot understand, though we daily see they are so.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
God's marvels in thunder and lightnings. spreadings, &c.--the canopy of thick clouds, which covers the heavens in a storm (Ps 105:39). the noise--"crashing"; namely, thunder. of his tabernacle--God being poetically said to have His pavilion amid dark clouds (Ps 18:11;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Can any understand the spreadings of the clouds - Though the vapor appear to be fortuitously raised, and subject, when suspended in the atmosphere, to innumerable accidents, to different winds and currents which might drive it all to the sandy deserts, or direct its course so that it should fall again into the great deep from which it has been exhaled, without watering and refreshing the earth; yet so does the good and wise providence of God manage this matter, that every part of the arable terrene surface receives an ample supply; and in every place, where requisite, it may be truly said that “The rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and water the earth, and cause it to bring forth and bud, that it may minister seed to the sower, and bread to the eater.” In Egypt, where there is little or no rain, the earth is watered by the annual inundation of the Nile; there, because this system of evaporation is not necessary, it does not exist. Who can account for this economy? How are these clouds so judiciously and effectually spread through the atmosphere, so as to supply the wants of the earth, of men, and of cattle? I ask, with Elihu, “Who can understand the spreadings of these clouds?” And I should like to see that volunteer in the solution of paradoxes who would step forward and say, I am the man. The noise of his tabernacle? - By the tabernacle we may understand the whole firmament or atmospheric expansion; the place where the Almighty seems more particularly to dwell; whence he sends forth the rain of his strength, and the thunder of his power. The noise must refer to the blowing of winds and tempests. or to the claps, peals, and rattling of thunder, by means of the electric fluid.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אַ֣ף | ʾaf | also | H637 → | 134 times |
| אִם־ | ʾim- | if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| יָ֭בִין | yavin | anyone understands | H995 → | 170 times |
| מִפְרְשֵׂי־ | mifresei- | [the] spreading out<s> of | H4666 → | |
| עָ֑ב | ʾav | dark cloud | H5645 → | 31 times |
| תְּ֝שֻׁא֗וֹת | teshuot | [the] crashes of | H8663 → | |
| סֻכָּתֽוֹ׃ | sukato | pavilion his | H5521 → | 31 times |
אַ֣ףalso
ʾafH637 →134 times
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
יָ֭בִיןanyone understands
yavinH995 →170 times
מִפְרְשֵׂי־[the] spreading out<s> of
mifresei-H4666 →
עָ֑בdark cloud
ʾavH5645 →31 times
תְּ֝שֻׁא֗וֹת[the] crashes of
teshuotH8663 →
סֻכָּתֽוֹ׃pavilion his
sukatoH5521 →31 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Job 37:16Do you understand how the clouds float, those wonders of Him who is perfect in knowledge?
it leads to
- Job 36:4
For truly my words are free of falsehood; one perfect in knowledge is with you.
- Isaiah 40:22
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth; its dwellers are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
- Jeremiah 10:12–13
The LORD made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.
- Job 36:4
Through
Habakkuk 3:10The mountains saw You and quaked; torrents of water swept by. The deep roared with its voice and lifted its hands on high.
it leads to
- Joshua 4:23–24
For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, just as He did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until…
- Isaiah 43:20
The beasts of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I provide water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My chosen people.
- Psalms 98:7–8
Let the sea resound, and all that fills it, the world, and all who dwell in it.
- Psalms 93:3
The floodwaters have risen, O LORD; the rivers have raised their voice; the seas lift up their pounding waves.
- Jeremiah 4:24
I looked at the mountains, and behold, they were quaking; all the hills were swaying.
- Joshua 4:23–24
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXVII; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.