Job 38:37
in Job 38Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the bottles of heaven,
KJV
Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,
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This verse in Job 38
Commentary
10 notes on this verseWho can number the clouds in wisdom?.... Or has such wisdom as to be able to count them when the heavens are full of them; hence they are used to denote a great multitude, Isa 55:8; or "declare" them (t), set forth and explain the nature of them, their matter, motion, and use; none can do this perfectly or completely. Aben Ezra interprets it, who can make them as sapphire? in which he is followed by Mr. Broughton and others (u); the sapphire is a precious stone, very clear and lucid, of a sky colour.
This site's exposition
the wisdom to count the clouds
on Job 38:37-38
“Who has the wisdom to count the clouds” narrows the questions toward the ground, as rain works into the soil. Gill reads the image as deliberately plain after the sky's grand catalogue. Wesley marks the verse as a quiet hinge before the chapter turns to the animals.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church3 voices
According to this, the cock seems to have a certain likeness to intelligence because he breaks forth in song at determined times as though he knew the proportions of the heavenly motions, and so he says, "Who told him", the cock, "the reasoned order of …
Who will declare the system of the heavens? But because He withdraws their words, when He presents Himself to us in outward form, He immediately subjoined; And who will make the harmony of heaven to sleep? 17. For in this life the Lord has spoken to our weakness, not by the outward manifestation of His majesty, but by the voice of His preachers; in order that the carnal tongue might strike those hearts which are still carnal, and that they might the more readily receive unusual things, the more they heard them by the sound of an accustomed voice.
A commentator
BonaventureCollations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 9 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
The third firmness of faith is found in the writings of the doctors and of those who were wise with the knowledge of things worldly or divine: Dionysius, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory of Nyssa, the Damascene, Basil, Athanasius, Chrysostom. Among the Latins, Hilarion, Gregory, Augustine, Ambrose, …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 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.
Can any man, with all his wisdom, undertake to number the clouds, or (as it may be read) to declare and describe the nature of them? Though they are near us, in our own atmosphere, yet we know little more of them than of the stars which are at so great a distance.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Who can number the clouds? - The word here rendered “clouds” (שׁחקים shachaqiym) is applied to the clouds as made up of “small particles” - as if they were composed of fine dust, and hence, the word number is applied to them, not as meaning that the clouds themselves were innumerable, but that no one could estimate the number of particles which enter into their formation. In wisdom - By his wisdom. Who has sufficient intelligence to do it?
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.
Who can number the clouds - Perhaps the word ספר saphar, which is commonly rendered to number, may here mean, as in Arabic, to irradiate, as Mr. Good contends; and may refer to those celestial and inimitable tinges which we sometimes behold in the sky. Bottles of heaven - The clouds: it is an allusion to the girbahs, or bottles made of skin, in which they are accustomed to carry their water from wells and tanks.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מִֽי־ | mi- | who? | H4310 → | 423 times |
| יְסַפֵּ֣ר | yesaper | will he count | H5608 → | 159 times |
| שְׁחָקִ֣ים | shechakim | [the] clouds | H7834 → | 21 times |
| בְּחָכְמָ֑ה | bechakhemah | by wisdom | H2451 → | 153 times |
| וְנִבְלֵ֥י | venivlei | and [the] waterskins of | H5035 → | |
| שָׁ֝מַ֗יִם | shamayim | heaven | H8064 → | 421 times |
| מִ֣י | mi | who? | H4310 → | 423 times |
| יַשְׁכִּֽיב׃ | yashkiv | will he make to lie down | H7901 → | 212 times |
מִֽי־who?
mi-H4310 →423 times
יְסַפֵּ֣רwill he count
yesaperH5608 →159 times
שְׁחָקִ֣ים[the] clouds
shechakimH7834 →21 times
בְּחָכְמָ֑הby wisdom
bechakhemahH2451 →153 times
וְנִבְלֵ֥יand [the] waterskins of
venivleiH5035 →
שָׁ֝מַ֗יִםheaven
shamayimH8064 →421 times
מִ֣יwho?
miH4310 →423 times
יַשְׁכִּֽיב׃will he make to lie down
yashkivH7901 →212 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
Genesis 8:1But God remembered Noah and all the animals and livestock that were with him in the ark. And God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters began to subside.
it leads to
- Genesis 30:22
Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb,
- Genesis 19:29
So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that destroyed the cities where he had lived.
- Psalms 136:23
He remembered us in our low estate His loving devotion endures forever.
- Exodus 2:24
So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- 1 Samuel 1:19
The next morning Elkanah and Hannah got up early to bow in worship before the LORD, and then returned home to Ramah. And Elkanah had relations with his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered…
- Genesis 30:22
Through
Genesis 15:5And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”
it leads to
- Hebrews 11:12
And so from one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
- Romans 4:18
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”
- Hebrews 11:12
Through
Psalms 147:4He determines the number of the stars; He calls them each by name.
it leads to
- Isaiah 40:26
Lift 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…
- Isaiah 40:26
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies10
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); Bonaventure, Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 9; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXX; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.