Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Job 37:7

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Job 37:7. He sealeth up the hand of every man — After all that has been said, and much of it most learnedly, on this verse, I think that the act of freezing is probably intended; that when the earth is bound up by intense frost, the hand, yad, labour, of every man is sealed up; he can do no more labour in the field, till the south wind blow, by which a thaw takes place. While the earth is in this state of rigidity, the beasts go into their dens, and remain in their places, Job 37:8, some of them sleeping out the winter in a state of torpor, and others of them feeding on the stores which they had collected in autumn. However, the passage may mean no more than by the severity of the rains beasts are drawn to their covers; and man is obliged to intermit all his labours. The mighty rains are past. Who would have thought that on this verse, as its Scriptural foundation, the doctrine of chiromancy is built! God has so marked the hand of every man by the lines thereon exhibited, that they tell all the good or bad fortune they shall have during life; and he has done this that all men, by a judicious examination of their hands, may know his work! On this John Taisnier, a famous mathematician, lawyer, musician, and poet laureate of Cologne, has written a large folio volume, with more hands in it than fell to the lot of Briareus:-printed at Cologne, 1683.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

God’s unknowable purposes (36:1-37:24)

Elihu, believing he has all the answers to Job’s questions, says he will now answer Job on God’s behalf (36:1-4). Certainly, God punishes the wicked, but he does not despise all who suffer. If the afflicted are truly righteous, they will soon be exalted (5-7). The reason he afflicts them is to show them their sin. If they repent, they will enjoy renewed and unbroken contentment; if not, they will suffer horrible deaths (8-12).
Only the ungodly rebel against God because of their afflictions; the righteous submit. They listen to what God teaches them through suffering and so find new life and renewed prosperity (13-16). Job’s present suffering is a fitting punishment from God. No payment of money, no cry to God, no longing for death will bring him relief (17-21).
Instead of accusing God of injustice, Job should submit to his afflictions, realizing that by these God is teaching him (22-23). Elihu then reminds Job of the mighty God before whom Job should bow. This God is great beyond a person’s understanding (24-26). God controls everything. He makes clouds, rain, lightning and thunder, and he uses these things to bring upon people either blessing or judgment (27-33). Thunder is like the voice of God proclaiming his majesty (37:1-5). When he sends rain, snow and ice, people have to stop work and animals look for warmth in their dens (6-10). God uses the forces of nature according to his perfect purposes (11-13).
Who is Job to argue with such a God? What does he know of God’s workings (14-18)? Who can question such a God? By arguing with him, Job is running the risk of being struck dead (19-20). If even the sun is too bright for people to look at, how much more will the majesty of God blind them. People cannot fully understand God, but they know he always acts rightly. Job should not argue with God but stand in awe of him (21-24).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

REGARDING OTHER NATURAL PHENOMENA

"For he saith to the snow, Fall thou on the earth; Likewise to the shower of rain, And to the showers of the mighty rain. He sealeth up the hand of every man, That all men that he hath made may know it. Then the beasts go into coverts, And remain in their dens. Out of the chamber of the south cometh the storm, And cold out of the north. By the breath of God ice is given; And the breadth of the waters is straitened. Yea, he ladeth the thick cloud with moisture; He spreadeth abroad the cloud of his lightning: And it is turned around by his guidance, That they may do whatever he commandeth them Upon the face of the habitable world, Whether it be for correction, or for his land, Or for lovingkindness, that he cause it to come."

"He sealeth up the hand of every man" Rawlinson interpreted this to mean that, "In winter time and in periods of heavy rain, God puts an end to ordinary out-of-doors labor, that during the time of their enforced idleness, men may have leisure for reflection, and that they may employ it in meditating upon God and his marvelous work."The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 7d, p. 597.

"By the breath of God, ice is given; and the breadth of the waters is straitened" Driver wrote that the possible meaning here is: "The cold wind freezes the streams and pools."International Critical Commentary, Job, p. 319.

Job 37:11-13 is rendered as follows in the Anchor Bible:The Anchor Bible (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1982), op. cit., pp. 239, 240.

"He hurls lightning from the nimbus, Scatters his light from the clouds.
It changes direction as he wills,
Doing whatever he commands
All over his inhabited earth.
Whether for discipline, or for grace,
Or for mercy, he makes it find its mark."

(See Pope's comment on this in the chapter introduction.)

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

He sealeth up the hand of every man - That is, in the winter, when the snow is on the ground, when the streams are frozen, and when the labors of the husbandman cease. The idea of “sealing up the hand” is derived from the common purpose of a seal, to make fast, to close up, to secure (compare Job 9:7, note; Job 33:16, note), and the sense is, that the hands can no more be used in ordinary toil. Every man in the snow and rain of winter is prevented from going abroad to his accustomed toil, and is, as it were, sealed up in his dwelling. The idea is exquisitely beautiful. God confines human beings and beasts in their houses or caves, until the winter has passed by.

That all men may know his work - The Septuagint renders this,” That every man may know his own weakness” - ἀσθένειαν astheneian. Various interpretations have been given of the passage, but our common version has probably expressed in the main the true sense, that God thus interrupts the labors of man, and confines him in his home, that he may feel his dependence on God, and may recognize the constant agency of his Creator. The Hebrew literally is “For the knowledge of all the men of his making;” that is, that all the people whom he has created may have knowledge. The changing seasons thus keep before us the constant evidence of the unceasing agency of God in his works, and prevent the feeling which we might have, if everything was uniform that the universe was under the control of “fate.” As it is, the succession of the seasons, the snow, the rain, the dew, and the sunshine, all bear marks of being under the control of an intelligent Being, and are so regulated that we need not forget that his unceasing agency is constantly round about us. It may be added, that when the farmer in the winter is laid aside from his usual toil, and confined to his dwelling, it is a favorable time for him to meditate on the works of God, and to acquaint himself with his Creator. The labors of man are thus interrupted; the busy affairs of life come to a pause, and while nature is silent around us, and the earth wrapped in her fleecy mantle forbids the labor of the husbandman, everything invites to the contemplation of the Creator, and of the works of his hands. The winter, therefore, might be improved by every farmer to enlarge his knowledge of God, and should be regarded as a season wisely appointed for him to cultivate his understanding and improve his heart.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 37

At this also my heart trembled, and is moved out of his place. Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that goeth out of his mouth. He directs it under the whole heaven, and his lightning to the ends of the earth. And after it a voice roars: and he thunders with the voice of his excellency; and he will not stay them when his voice is heard. God thunders marvelously with his voice; great things doeth he. And out of the south comes the whirlwind ( Job 37:1-5 , Job 37:9 ):

And the waters... and he goes on and uses actually this gathering storm and weaving it into his speech with Job. He's not really saying much, just a lot of words. And then,

Fair weather comes out of the north: with God is awesome majesty. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict. Men do therefore fear him [or reverence him]: and he respecteth not any that are wise of heart ( Job 37:22-24 ).

Chapter 37

At this also my heart trembled, and is moved out of his place. Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that goeth out of his mouth. He directs it under the whole heaven, and his lightning to the ends of the earth. And after it a voice roars: and he thunders with the voice of his excellency; and he will not stay them when his voice is heard. God thunders marvelously with his voice; great things doeth he. And out of the south comes the whirlwind ( Job 37:1-5 , Job 37:9 ):

And the waters... and he goes on and uses actually this gathering storm and weaving it into his speech with Job. He's not really saying much, just a lot of words. And then,

Fair weather comes out of the north: with God is awesome majesty. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict. Men do therefore fear him [or reverence him]: and he respecteth not any that are wise of heart ( Job 37:22-24 ). "

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

He sealeth up the hand of every man,.... That is, by deep snows and heavy rains being on the earth; where, as travellers are stopped in their journeys, and cannot proceed, so various artificers are hindered from their work, and husbandmen especially from their employment in the fields; so that their hands are as it were shut up and sealed, that they cannot work with them. Sephorno interprets this of the fruits and increase of the earth being produced and brought to perfection by means of the snow and rain, and so gathered by and into the hands of men; whereby they are led to observe the work of God and his goodness herein, and so to love and fear him; which he takes to be the sense of the following clause,

that all men may know his work; either their own work; what they have to do at home when they cannot work abroad; or that they may have leisure to reflect upon their moral ways and works, and consider how deficient they are: or rather the work of God; that they may know and own the snow and rain are his work, and depend upon his will; or that they may have time and opportunity of considering and meditating on the works of God, in nature, providence, and grace. Some choose to read the words, "that all men of his work may know" l; may know him the author of their beings, and the God of their mercies. For all men are the work of his hands; he has made them, and not they themselves; and the end of all God's dealings with them is, that they may know him, fear, serve, and glorify him.

l מעשהו כל אנשי "omnes homines operis ipsius", Schmidt, Michaelis; so Schultens.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      6 For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength.   7 He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work.   8 Then the beasts go into dens, and remain in their places.   9 Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: and cold out of the north.   10 By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened.   11 Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud:   12 And it is turned round about by his counsels: that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth.   13 He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.

      The changes and extremities of the weather, wet or dry, hot or cold, are the subject of a great deal of our common talk and observation; but how seldom do we think and speak of these things, as Elihu does here, with an awful regard to God the director of them, who shows his power and serves the purposes of his providence by them! We must take notice of the glory of God, not only in the thunder and lightning, but in the more common revolutions of the weather, which are not so terrible and which make less noise. As,

      I. In the snow and rain, Job 37:6; Job 37:6. Thunder and lightning happen usually in the summer, but here he takes notice of the winter-weather. Then he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; he commissions it, he commands it, he appoints it, where it shall light and how long it shall lie. He speaks, and it is done: as in the creation of the world, Let there be light, so in the works of common providence, Snow, be thou on the earth. Saying and doing are not two things with God, though they are with us. When he speaks the word the small rain distils and the great rain pours down as he pleases--the winter-rain (so the LXX.), for in those countries, when the winter was past, the rain was over and gone, Song of Solomon 2:11. The distinction in the Hebrew between the small rain and the great rain is this, that the former is called a shower of rain, the latter of rains, many showers in one; but all are the showers of his strength: the power of God is to be observed as much in the small rain that soaks into the earth as in the great rain that batters on the house-top and washes away all before it. Note, The providence of God is to be acknowledged, both by husbandmen in the fields and travellers upon the road, in every shower of rain, whether it does them a kindness of a diskindness. It is sin and folly to contend with God's providence in the weather; if he send the snow or rain, can we hinder them? Or shall we be angry at them? It is as absurd to quarrel with any other disposal of Providence concerning ourselves or ours. The effect of the extremity of the winter-weather is that it obliges both men and beasts to retire, making it uncomfortable and unsafe for them to go abroad. 1. Men retire to their houses from their labours in the field, and keep within doors (Job 37:7; Job 37:7): He seals up the hand of every man. In frost and snow, husbandmen cannot follow their business, nor some tradesmen, nor travellers, when the weather is extreme. The plough is laid by, the shipping laid up, nothing is to be done, nothing to be got, that men, being taken off from their own work, may know his work, and contemplate that, and give him the glory of that, and, by the consideration of that work of his in the weather which seals up their hands, be led to celebrate his other great and marvellous works. Note, When we are, upon any account, disabled from following our worldly business, and taken off from it, we should spend our time rather in the exercises of piety and devotion (in acquainting ourselves with the works of God and praising him in them) than in foolish idle sports and recreations. When our hands are sealed up our hearts should be thus opened, and the less we have at any time to do in the world the more we should thereby be driven to our Bibles and our knees. 2. The beasts also retire to their dens and remain in their close places,Job 37:8; Job 37:8. It is meant of the wild beasts, which, being wild, must seek a shelter for themselves, to which by instinct they are directed, while the tame beasts, which are serviceable to man, are housed and protected by his care, as Exodus 9:20. The ass has no den but his master's crib, and thither he goes, not only to be safe and warm, but to be fed. Nature directs all creatures to shelter themselves from a storm; and shall man alone be unprovided with an ark?

      II. In the winds, which blow from different quarters and produce different effects (Job 37:9; Job 37:9): Out of the hidden place (so it may be read) comes the whirlwind; it turns round, and so it is hard to say from which point it comes but it comes from the secret chamber, as the word signifies, which I am not so willing to understand of the south, because he says here (Job 37:17; Job 37:17) that the wind out of the south is so far from being a whirlwind that it is a warming, quieting, wind. But at this time, perhaps, Elihu saw a whirlwind-cloud coming out of the south and making towards them, out of which the Lord spoke soon after, Job 38:1; Job 38:1. Or, if turbulent winds which bring showers come out of the south, cold and drying blasts come out of the north to scatter the vapours and clear the air of them.

      III. In the frost, Job 37:10; Job 37:10. See the cause of it: It is given by the breath of God, that is, by the word of his power and the command of his will; or, as some understand it, by the wind, which is the breath of God, as the thunder is his voice; it is caused by the cold freezing wind out of the north. See the effect of it: The breadth of the waters is straitened, that is, the waters that had spread themselves, and flowed with liberty, are congealed, benumbed, arrested, bound up in crystal fetters. This is such an instance of the power of God as, if it were not common, would be next to a miracle.

      IV. In the clouds, the womb where all these watery meteors are conceived, of which he had spoken, Job 36:28; Job 36:28. Three sorts of clouds he here speaks of:-- 1. Close, black, thick clouds, pregnant with showers; and these with watering he wearies (Job 37:11; Job 37:11), that is, they spend themselves, and are exhausted by the rain into which they melt and are dissolved, pouring out water till they are weary and can pour out no more. See what pains, as I may say, the creatures, even those above us, take to serve man: the clouds water the earth till they are weary; they spend and are spent for our benefit, which shames and condemns us for the little good we do in our places, though it would be to our own advantage, for he that watereth shall be watered also himself. 2. Bright thin clouds, clouds without water; and these he scattereth; they are dispersed of themselves, and not dissolved into rain, but what becomes of them we know not. The bright cloud, in the evening, when the sky is red, is scattered, and proves an earnest of a fair day, Matthew 16:2. 3. Flying clouds, which do not dissolve, as the thick cloud, into a close rain, but are carried upon the wings of the wind from place to place, dropping showers as they go; and these are said to be turned round about by his counsels, Job 37:12; Job 37:12. The common people say that the rain is determined by the planets, which is as bad divinity as it is philosophy, for it is guided and governed by the counsel of God, which extends even to those things that seem most casual and minute, that they may do whatsoever he commands them; for the stormy winds, and the clouds that are driven by them, fulfil his word; and by this means he causes it to rain upon one city and not upon another,Amos 4:7; Amos 4:8. Thus his will is done upon the face of the world in the earth, that is, among the children of men, to whom God has an eye in all these things, of whom it is said that he made them to dwell on the face of the earth,Acts 17:26. The inferior creatures, being incapable of doing moral actions, are incapable of receiving rewards and punishments: but, among the children of men, God causes the rain to come, either for the correction of his land or for a mercy to it, Job 37:13; Job 37:13. (1.) Rain sometimes turns into a judgment. It is a scourge to a sinful land; as once it was for the destruction of the whole world, so it is now often for the correction or discipline of some parts of it, by hindering seedness and harvest, raising the waters, and damaging the fruits. Some have said that our nation has received much more prejudice by the excess of rain than by the want of it. (2.) At other times it is a blessing. It is for his land, that this may be made fruitful; and, besides that which is just necessary, he gives for mercy, to fatten it and make it more fruitful. See what a necessary dependence we have upon God, when the very same thing, according to the proportion in which it is given, may be either a great judgment or a great mercy, and without God we cannot have either a shower or a fair gleam.