Job 38:28
in Job 38Does the rain have a father? Who has begotten the drops of dew?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Hath the rain a father? Or who hath begotten the drops of dew?
KJV
Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?
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This verse in Job 38
Commentary
13 notes on this verseWho is the father of the rain? or who hath begotten the drops of dew? [ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION] As if He were saying, Except Myself, Who sprinkle, of My free grace, the barren earth of the human heart with drops of knowledge. For of this rain is said elsewhere, Thou wilt set apart, O God, a voluntary rain for thine inheritance. For God sets apart a voluntary rain for His inheritance, because He grants it to us, not for own deserts, but from the bounty of His own benignity.
This site's exposition
Does the rain have a father
on Job 38:28-30
“Does the rain have a father” asks for a genealogy. Ice and frost are given a womb and a birth, as the sea was at verse 8. Clarke reads these figures for water in its three states as one argument that every form answers to a single unseen governor.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
God does not want to say that it comes out from his womb, God forbid! But then what do the words about "begetting" and "womb" mean in this context? As when the author said about the sea, "When its mother begot it," he did not mean that it has a mother; so here he does not mean that [ice] came forth [literally] from God's womb, but he wants to speak about its formation and origin.… Why then did he constantly use here the words about "begetting"? In my opinion he wants to allude to the One who is the first and only cause of everything and to the fact that creatures were shaped even before being completely perfected.
The Medieval Church1 voice
Next he discusses the rains without the wind when he says, "Who is the father?" that is, the efficient cause "of the rain" not from necessity, but from the order of providence which befits a father. For God moves the sun and the other heavenly …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
The sense is, who was it that built this goodly fabrick, and established it so firmly that it cannot be moved. Stars - The angels, who may well be called morning-stars, because of their excellent lustre and glory. Sons of God - The angels called the sons of God, because they had their whole being from him, and because they were made partakers of his Divine and glorious image.
Hath the rain a father?....
Even the small drops of the dew he distils upon the earth, as the God of nature; and, as the God of grace, he rains righteousness upon us and is himself as the dew unto Israel. (5.) The ice and the frost, by which the waters are congealed and the earth incrustrated, are produced by his providence,
6 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
Hath the rain a father? - Or, Who is the father of the rain? We have seen above one part of the apparatus by which God produces it; other causes have been mentioned on Job 36:27, etc. The drops of dew? - אגלי egley, the sphericles, the small round drops or globules. Dew is a dense moist vapor, found on the earth in spring and summer mornings, in the form of a mizzling rain. Dr. Hutton defines it, “a thin, light, insensible mist or rain, descending with a slow motion, and falling while the sun is below the horizon.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Can any visible origin of rain and dew be assigned by man? Dew is moisture, which was suspended in the air, but becomes condensed on reaching the--in the night--lower temperature of objects on the earth.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
"What is the way (to the place wherein) light dwelleth?" The origin of light and darkness. In Ge 1:3-5, 14-18, "light" is created distinct from, and previous to, light-emitting bodies, the luminaries of heaven.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Hath the rain a father? - That is, it is produced by God and not by man. No one among men can claim that he causes it, or can regard it as his offspring. The idea is, that the production of rain is among the proofs of the wisdom and agency of God, and that it is caused in a way that demonstrates his own agency. It is not by any power of man; and it is not in such a way as to constitute a relation like that between a father and a son. The rain is often appealed to in this book as something whose cause man could not explain, and as demonstrating the wisdom and supremacy of God. Among philosophic and contemplative minds it would early excite inquiry, and give occasion for wonder. What caused it? Whence came the water which fell? How was it suspended? How was it borne from place to place? How was it made to descend in drops, and why was it not poured down at once in floods? Questions like these would early excite inquiry, and we are not to suppose that in the time of Job science was so far advanced that they could be answered; see the notes at Job 26:8; compare Job 38:37 notes. The laws of the production of rain are now better understood, but like all other laws discovered by science, they are adapted to elevate, not to diminish, our conceptions of the wisdom of God. It may be of interest, and may serve to explain the passages in this book which refer to rain, as illustrating the wisdom of God, to state what is now the commonly received theory of its cause. That theory is the one proposed by Dr. James Hutton, and first published in the Philosophical Transactions of Edinburgh, in 1784. […]
Modern Voices2 voices
The mechanical optimist endeavors to justify the universe avowedly upon the ground that it is a rational and consecutive pattern. He points out that the fine thing about the world is that it can all be explained. That is the one point, if I may …
The other great fact which, taken together with this one, makes the whole work religious instead of merely philosophical is that other great surprise which makes Job suddenly satisfied with the mere presentation of something impenetrable. Verbally speaking the enigmas of Jehovah seem darker and …
The words behind it
8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֲיֵשׁ־ | hayesh- | ¿ [is] there | H3426 → | 140 times |
| לַמָּטָ֥ר | lamatar | for the rain | H4306 → | 38 times |
| אָ֑ב | ʾav | a father | H1 → | 1212 times |
| א֥וֹ | ʾo | or | H176 → | 321 times |
| מִי־ | mi- | who? | H4310 → | 423 times |
| ה֝וֹלִ֗יד | holid | does he father | H3205 → | 496 times |
| אֶגְלֵי־ | ʾeglei- | [the] drops of | H96 → | |
| טָֽל׃ | tal | dew | H2919 → |
הֲיֵשׁ־¿ [is] there
hayesh-H3426 →140 times
לַמָּטָ֥רfor the rain
lamatarH4306 →38 times
אָ֑בa father
ʾavH1 →1212 times
א֥וֹor
ʾoH176 →321 times
מִי־who?
mi-H4310 →423 times
ה֝וֹלִ֗ידdoes he father
holidH3205 →496 times
אֶגְלֵי־[the] drops of
ʾeglei-H96 →
טָֽל׃dew
talH2919 →
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
Jeremiah 14:22Can the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies alone send showers? Is this not by You, O LORD our God? So we put our hope in You, for You have…
it leads to
- Psalms 135:7
He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Joel 2:23
Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for He has given you the autumn rains for your vindication. He sends you showers, both autumn and spring rains, as…
- Jeremiah 5:24
They have not said in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rains, both autumn and spring, in season, who keeps for us the appointed weeks of harvest.’
- Isaiah 30:23
Then He will send rain for the seed that you have sown in the ground, and the food that comes from your land will be rich and plentiful. On that day your cattle will…
- Deuteronomy 32:21
They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will…
- Psalms 135:7
Through
Proverbs 3:20By His knowledge the watery depths were broken open, and the clouds dripped with dew.
it leads to
- Genesis 7:11
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.
- Psalms 65:9–12
You attend to the earth and water it; with abundance You enrich it. The streams of God are full of water, for You prepare our grain by providing for the earth.
- Genesis 7:11
Through
Psalms 147:8who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow on the hills.
it leads to
- Job 5:10
He gives rain to the earth and sends water upon the fields.
- Job 5:10
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies10
About Job
This page draws on 11 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; GK Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job (1907); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXIX; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 38:28A-29A; 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.