the Week of Proper 23 / Ordinary 28
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King James Version
Job 36:27
Bible Study Resources
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- InternationalParallel Translations
He draws up the water vapor and then distills it into rain.
For he draweth up the drops of water, which distil in rain from his vapour:
For he draws up the drops of water, Which distill in rain from his vapor,
"He evaporates the drops of water from the earth and turns them into rain.
He draws up drops of water; they distill the rain into its mist,
For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapor of it.
For he draws up the drops of water, Which distill in rain from his vapor,
"For He draws up the drops of water, They distill rain from the mist,
For he draws up the drops of water; they distill his mist in rain,
Which takith awei the dropis of reyn; and schedith out reynes at the licnesse of floodyatis,
For He draws up drops of water which distill the rain from the mist,
God gathers moisture into the clouds
For he draweth up the drops of water, Which distil in rain from his vapor,
For he takes up the drops from the sea; he sends them through his mist as rain,
"He makes the droplets of water, which condense into rain from his mist.
For he draweth up the drops of water: they distil in rain from the vapour which he formeth,
"God takes up water from the earth and changes it into mist and rain.
For He draweth away the drops of water, which distil rain from His vapour;
For hee maketh small the drops of water: they powre downe raine according to the vapour thereof:
For He takes up the drops of water that become rain,
For he draws up the drops of water; he distills his mist in rain,
When he restraineth the droppes of water, the rayne powreth down by the vapour thereof,
For if we should number the pillars of the heaven, and bind the drops of rain by themselves, which the skies do drop in their season;
It is God who takes water from the earth and turns it into drops of rain.
For he draweth up drops of water, They trickle as rain through his mist;
He lifteth up the drops of rain, and poureth out showers like floods:
For he draws up the drops of water, he distils his mist in rain
Sometime he restrayneth the rayne, and againe he sendeth rayne by his cloudes:
And the drops of rain are numbered by him, and shall be poured out in rain to form a cloud.
For he makes waterdrops evaporate;they distill the rain into its mist,
For he draws up the drops of water, Which distill in rain from his vapor,
Indeed, he draws up the drops of water; he distills the rain into its mist,
For He draws up the drops of water; they distill rain into mist,
When He doth diminish droppings of the waters, They refine rain according to its vapour,
He turneth ye water to smaldroppes, he dryueth his cloudes
"He pulls water up out of the sea, distills it, and fills up his rain-cloud cisterns. Then the skies open up and pour out soaking showers on everyone. Does anyone have the slightest idea how this happens? How he arranges the clouds, how he speaks in thunder? Just look at that lightning, his sky-filling light show illumining the dark depths of the sea! These are the symbols of his sovereignty, his generosity, his loving care. He hurls arrows of light, taking sure and accurate aim. The High God roars in the thunder, angry against evil."
"For He draws up the drops of water; They distill rain from its celestial stream,
For He draws up drops of water, Which distill as rain from the mist,
"For He draws up the drops of water, They distill rain from the mist,
For He draws up the drops of water,They distill rain for His stream,
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
he: Job 5:9, Job 38:25-28, Job 38:34, Genesis 2:5, Genesis 2:6, Psalms 65:9-13, Isaiah 5:6, Jeremiah 14:22
the vapour: Job 36:33, Psalms 148:8
Reciprocal: Genesis 7:4 - For Job 37:4 - he will Job 37:6 - likewise to the small Job 37:11 - he wearieth Psalms 147:8 - covereth Proverbs 3:20 - the clouds Jeremiah 5:24 - that giveth Jeremiah 10:13 - He causeth Zechariah 10:1 - bright clouds
Cross-References
And Dishon, and Ezer, and Dishan: these are the dukes of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom.
And the sons of Seir; Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah, and Dishon, and Ezar, and Dishan.
The sons of Ezer; Bilhan, and Zavan, and Jakan. The sons of Dishan; Uz, and Aran.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
For he maketh small the drops of rain,.... Elihu proceeds to give instances and proofs of the greatness of God, and begins with rain, as Eliphaz does, Job 5:9; a common phenomenon, what is very frequent, and well known in all ages and countries, and by all men, more or less; and yet there are some things relative to it which are beyond the comprehension of men, and show the greatness and incomprehensibleness of God: and the design of this, and all other instances of this kind, is to convince Job of his folly in searching out the causes and reasons of God's works of providence, when the common works of nature lie out of the reach of men; and to reconcile him to them, and bring him patiently to submit to the will of God, whose ways are past finding out; and some render the words, "he restrains the drops of rain" g; he withholds it from the earth, which causes a drought, and so brings on a famine; others, "he subtracts", or draws out, or draws up, the drops of water h, which he exhales by the heat of the sun out of the earth and out of the sea; see Psalms 135:7 Amos 5:8; and which are drawn up in small particles, but form large bodies of waters in the clouds; and which are let down again upon the earth in small drops, in an easy and gentle manner, and so soak into the earth and make it fruitful; which is what is meant by our version here: this is a wonderful instance of God's power, wisdom, and goodness, and is beyond our comprehension; for no mortal man can tell how the Almighty parts and divides those large quantities of water in the clouds, that sometimes hang over our heads, into millions and ten thousand times ten thousand millions of drops, even innumerable; and causes these waters in such a manner to descend on the earth; lets them not fall at once, or in waterspouts, which would wash away the inhabitants of cities and towns, the cattle of the field, and the produce of the earth, as at the general deluge;
they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof: the water, drawn up and formed into large bodies in the heavens, pours down rain in a gentle and plentiful manner, according to the quantity of vapours exhaled out of the earth and sea; if a small quantity is drawn up, a small quantity is let down; and if a large quantity is attracted, a large quantity, or a plentiful shower, is given: some think that a small rain is meant in the preceding clause, and a great rain in this; for there is the small rain and the great rain of his strength,
Job 37:6. The word translated "pour" has the signification of liquefying, melting, and dissolving, and of purging and purifying; and which is applicable to clouds which melt and dissolve gradually as they descend in drops upon the earth; and the water which they let down is of all the most clear and pure, as Galen and Hippocrates i, those eminent physicians, have observed; and a late celebrated one tells us k, that rain water is so truly distilled by nature, that the chemist, with all his distilling art, cannot produce purer water; for, though it is exhaled out of the dirty earth, out of miry places, bogs, and ditches, yet, being bound up in the clouds as in a garment, and passing through the atmosphere, it comes down to us pure as if it had been percolated or strained through a linen cloth; and though the water as drawn up out of the sea is salt, yet carried up into the air, and there, as in an alembic, distilled, it descends to us sweet and fresh, and has not the least brackishness in it.
g יגרע נטפי מים "aufert stillas pluviae et prohibebit", Pagninus; so Vatablus, Tigurine version, Targum, Ben Gersom. h "Attrahit", Codurcus "subtrahit", i.e. "a mare", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Schultens. i Apud Pinedam in loc. k Boerhaav. Elem. Chem. p. 600. apud Schultens in loc.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
For he maketh small the drops of water - Elihu now appeals, as he proposed to do, to the works of God, and begins with what appeared so remarkable and inexplicable, the wisdom of God in the rain and the dew, the tempest and the vapor. That which excited his wonder was, the fact in regard to the suspension of water in the clouds, and the distilling of it on the earth in the form of rain and dew. This very illustration had been used by Eliphaz for a similar purpose (Notes, Job 5:9-10), and whether we regard it as it “appears” to people without the light which science has thrown upon it, or look at the manner in which God suspends water in the clouds and sends it down in the form of rain and dew, with all the light which has been furnished by science, the fact is one that evinces in an eminent degree the wisdom of God. The word which is rendered “maketh small” (גרע gâra‛), means properly “to scrape off, to detract, to diminish, to take away from.” In the Piel, the form used here, it means, according to Gesenius, “to take to one’s self, to attract;” and the sense here, according to this, is, that God attracts, or draws upward the drops of water. So it is rendered by Herder, Noyes, Umbreit, and Rosenmuller. The idea is, that he “draws up” the drops of the water to the clouds, and then pours them down in rain. If the meaning in our common version be retained, the idea would be, that it was proof of great wisdom in God that the water descended in “small drops,” instead of coming down in a deluge; compare the notes at Job 26:8.
They pour down rain - That is, the clouds pour down the rain.
According to the vapour thereof - - לאדו le'êdô. The idea seems to be, that the water thus drawn up is poured down again in the form of a “vapory rain,” and which does not descend in torrents. The subject of admiration in the mind of Elihu was, that water should evaporate and ascend to the clouds, and be held there, and then descend again in the form of a gentle rain or fine mist. The reason for admiration is not lessened by becoming more fully acquainted with the laws by which it is done than Elihu can be supposed to have been.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Job 36:27. He maketh small the drops of water — This appears simply to refer to evaporation, and perhaps it would be better to translate יגרע yegara, "he exhales;" detaches the smallest particles of the aqueous mass from the surface in order to form clouds, as reservoirs for the purpose of furnishing rain for the watering of the earth. God is seen in little things, as well as great things; and the inconceivably little, as well as the stupendously great, are equally the work of Omnipotence.
They pour down rain — These exceedingly minute drops or vapour become collected in clouds; and then, when agitated by winds, &c. many particles being united, they become too heavy to be sustained by the air in which they before were suspended, and so fall down in rain, which is either a mist, a drizzle, a shower, a storm, or a waterspout, according to the influence of different winds, or the presence and quantum of the electric fluid. And all this is proportioned, לאדו le-edo, "to its vapour," to the quantity of the fluid evaporated and condensed into clouds.
