Job 37:15
in Job 37Do you know how God dispatches the clouds or makes the lightning flash?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Dost thou know how God layeth his charge upon them, And causeth the lightning of his cloud to shine?
KJV
Dost thou know when God disposed them, and caused the light of his cloud to shine?
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This verse in Job 37
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Dost thou know when God disposed them? - That is, the winds, the clouds, the cold, the snow, the sky, etc. The question refers to the manner in which God arranges and governs them, rather than to the time when it was done. So the Hebrew implies, and so the connection demands. The question was not whether Job knew “when” all this was done, but whether he could explain “how” it was that God thus arranged and ordered the things referred to.
This site's exposition
Listen to this, O Job
on Job 37:14-18
Elihu turns the catalogue into a direct challenge, “Listen to this, O Job”, then presses questions he cannot answer. Clarke reads the “mirror of bronze” as an image drawn from a cast metal mirror. Barnes notes that the pattern anticipates the whirlwind's method, unanswerable questions in place of argument.
This site's exposition
how God dispatches the clouds
The older English asked when God dispatches the clouds. Albert Barnes and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read how, as the Berean does, since Job is asked to understand how God makes the lightning flash. Adam Clarke reports that most critics took this light as the rainbow of Genesis 9:13.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXVII · Written before 604.
proposed
Dost thou know when God commanded the rains to shew forth the light of His clouds? If 'clouds' are holy preachers, the rains from the clouds are the words of their preaching. But when clouds fly through the air, unless rain descends from above, we know not what an immensity of waters they carry. Unless the glittering sun breaks forth amidst the rain, we cannot understand, what brightness also is concealed within them.
Among those wonderful things he begins with the rains. Men perceive them sensibly, but science still cannot understand their first origin by which God brought them into being and so he says, "Do you know when God commanded the rains," which falls upon the earth …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
That all is done by determination and with design we are sure; but what is determined, and what designed, and when the plan was laid, we know not. God often causes the light of his cloud to shine, in the rainbow (so some), in the lightning (so others); but did we foresee, or could we foretel, when he would to it?
): Dost thou know this and know that which are the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge? The perfection of God's knowledge. It is one of the most glorious perfections of God that he is perfect in knowledge; he is omniscient.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
Dost thou know when God disposed them?....
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
when--rather, "how." disposed them--lays His charge on these "wonders" (Job 37:14) to arise. light--lightning. shine--flash. How is it that light arises from the dark thundercloud?
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
Dost thou know when God disposed them - Dost thou know the laws by which they are governed; and the causes which produce such and such phenomena? And caused the light of his cloud to shine? - Almost every critic of note understands this of the rainbow, which God gave as a sign that the earth should no more be destroyed by water. See Gen 9:13 (note), and the note there.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֲ֭תֵדַע | hateda' | ¿ do you know | H3045 → | 945 times |
| בְּשׂוּם־ | besum- | when appoints | H7760 → | 584 times |
| אֱל֣וֹהַּ | ʾeloah | God | H433 → | 57 times |
| עֲלֵיהֶ֑ם | ʾaleihem | on them | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| וְ֝הוֹפִ֗יעַ | vehofia' | and he makes shine forth | H3313 → | 8 times |
| א֣וֹר | ʾor | [the] light of | H216 → | 121 times |
| עֲנָנֽוֹ׃ | anano | cloud his | H6051 → | 87 times |
הֲ֭תֵדַע¿ do you know
hateda'H3045 →945 times
בְּשׂוּם־when appoints
besum-H7760 →584 times
אֱל֣וֹהַּGod
ʾeloahH433 →57 times
עֲלֵיהֶ֑םon them
ʾaleihemH5921 →5755 times
וְ֝הוֹפִ֗יעַand he makes shine forth
vehofia'H3313 →8 times
א֣וֹר[the] light of
ʾorH216 →121 times
עֲנָנֽוֹ׃cloud his
ananoH6051 →87 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
Isaiah 40:26Lift up your eyes on high: Who created all these? He leads forth the starry host by number; He calls each one by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one…
it leads to
- Colossians 1:16–17
For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him.
- Jeremiah 32:17–19
“Oh, Lord GOD! You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!
- Isaiah 48:13
Surely My own hand founded the earth, and My right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they stand up together.
- Isaiah 51:6
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth below; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and its people will die like…
- Psalms 89:11–13
The heavens are Yours, and also the earth. The earth and its fullness You founded.
- Colossians 1:16–17
Through
Job 34:13Who gave Him charge over the earth? Who appointed Him over the whole world?
it leads to
- 1 Chronicles 29:11
Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in heaven and on earth belongs to You. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom,…
- Isaiah 40:13–14
Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or informed Him as His counselor?
- Romans 11:34–36
“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?”
- 1 Chronicles 29:11
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes 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 (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.