Job 37:16
in Job 37Do you understand how the clouds float, those wonders of Him who is perfect in knowledge?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, The wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge?
KJV
Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge?
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This verse in Job 37
Commentary
10 notes on this verseDost thou know the balancings of the clouds - How are the clouds suspended in the atmosphere? Art thou so well acquainted with the nature of evaporation, and the gravity of the air at different heights, to support different weights of aqueous vapor, so as to keep them floating for a certain portion of time, and then let them down to water the earth; dost thou know these things so as to determine the laws by which they are regulated? Wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge - This is a paraphrase.
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 the clouds float
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown give the Hebrew as balancings, how the clouds are poised in the air. Albert Barnes states the puzzle. Clouds full of water float and never fall, and Adam Clarke asks whether Job knows the laws that hold them.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church3 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXVII · Written before 604.
proposed
Dost thou know the mighty paths of the clouds, and their perfect knowledge? These clouds have most subtle paths, namely, the ways of holy preaching. For narrow is the gate, which leadeth unto life. [Matt. 7, 14] They confine then those by paths, who do not depart from the track of their purpose by wandering through the wide desires of the world. For the strict censure of holy living is not a broad way, but a path, in which each preacher is studiously confined: because he is carefully hemmed in by the defence of precepts.
He speaks about their motion saying, "Do you know the paths of the clouds?" namely, how and from what cause they are propelled to various regions by the breath of the winds? The knowledge of clouds is the source of knowing all atmospheric changes — …
A commentator
BonaventureCollationes de Septem Donis, Collation 4 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
"Do you know the paths of the clouds, the great paths and perfect sciences?" He says "great paths," that is, philosophical and theological knowledge, which are called "great paths," because they comprehend many sciences; he says "perfect paths" with respect to gratuitous and glorious knowledge. …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
): 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 the balancings of the clouds?....
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)
Hebrew, "Hast thou understanding of the balancings," &c., how the clouds are poised in the air, so that their watery gravity does not bring them to the earth?
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds? - That is, Dost thou know how the clouds are poised and suspended in the air? The difficulty to be explained was, that the clouds, so full of water, did not fail to the earth, but remained suspended in the atmosphere. They were poised and moved about by some unseen hand. Elihu asks what kept them there; what prevented their falling to the earth; what preserved the equilibrium so that they did not all roll together. The phenomena of the clouds would be among the first that would attract the attention of man, and in the early times of Job it is not to be supposed that the subject could be explained. Elihu assumes that they were held in the sky by the power of God, but what was the nature of his agency, he says, man could not understand, and hence, he infers that God should be regarded with profound veneration. We know more of the facts and laws respecting the clouds than was understood then, but our knowledge in this, as in all other things, is fitted only to exalt our conceptions of the Deity, and to change blind wonder into intelligent adoration. The causes of the suspension of the clouds are thus stated in the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, Art. Meteorology: “When different portions of the atmosphere are intermixed so as to produce a deposition of moisture;” (compare the notes at Job 38:28), “the consequence will be the formation of a cloud. This cloud, from its increased specific gravity, will have a tendency to sink downward; and were the lower strata of the air of the same temperature with the cloud, and saturated with moisture, it would continue to descend until it reached the surface of the earth - in the form of rain, or what is commonly called mist. […]
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 |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| מִפְלְשֵׂי־ | miflesei- | [the] balancing<s> of | H4657 → | |
| עָ֑ב | ʾav | [the] cloud[s] | H5645 → | 31 times |
| מִ֝פְלְא֗וֹת | mifleot | [the] wondrous works of | H4652 → | |
| תְּמִ֣ים | temim | [one] complete of | H8549 → | 91 times |
| דֵּעִֽים׃ | deim | knowledge<s> | H1843 → | 5 times |
הֲ֭תֵדַע¿ do you know
hateda'H3045 →945 times
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
מִפְלְשֵׂי־[the] balancing<s> of
miflesei-H4657 →
עָ֑ב[the] cloud[s]
ʾavH5645 →31 times
מִ֝פְלְא֗וֹת[the] wondrous works of
mifleotH4652 →
תְּמִ֣ים[one] complete of
temimH8549 →91 times
דֵּעִֽים׃knowledge<s>
deimH1843 →5 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 40:22He 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.
it leads to
- Proverbs 8:27
I was there when He established the heavens, when He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep,
- Psalms 104:2
He wraps Himself in light as with a garment; He stretches out the heavens like a tent,
- Isaiah 42:5
This is what God the LORD says—He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to…
- Isaiah 66:1
This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me? Or where will My place of repose be?
- Jeremiah 10:12
The LORD made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.
- Proverbs 8:27
Through
Job 36:4For truly my words are free of falsehood; one perfect in knowledge is with you.
it leads to
- Proverbs 8:7–8
For my mouth will speak the truth, and wickedness is detestable to my lips.
- 2 Timothy 3:16–17
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
- Psalms 49:3
My mouth will impart wisdom, and the meditation of my heart will bring understanding.
- Proverbs 8:7–8
About Job
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bonaventure, Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 4; 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.