22:11 why it is so dark you cannot see, 1
and why a flood 2 of water covers you.
36:32 With his hands 3 he covers 4 the lightning,
and directs it against its target.
38:34 Can you raise your voice to the clouds
so that a flood of water covers you? 5
1 tn Heb “or dark you cannot see.” Some commentators and the RSV follow the LXX in reading אוֹ (’o, “or”) as אוֹר (’or, “light”) and translate it “The light has become dark” or “Your light has become dark.” A. B. Davidson suggests the reading “Or seest thou not the darkness.” This would mean Job does not understand the true meaning of the darkness and the calamities.
2 tn The word שִׁפְעַת (shif’at) means “multitude of.” It is used of men, camels, horses, and here of waters in the heavens.
3 tn R. Gordis (Job, 422) prefers to link this word with the later Hebrew word for “arch,” not “hands.”
4 tn Because the image might mean that God grabs the lightning and hurls it like a javelin (cf. NLT), some commentators want to change “covers” to other verbs. Dhorme has “lifts” (נִשָּׂא [nissa’] for כִּסָּה [kissah]). This fit the idea of God directing the lightning bolts.
5 tc The LXX has “answer you,” and some editors have adopted this. However, the reading of the MT makes better sense in the verse.