22:14 Thick clouds are a veil for him, so he does not see us, 1
as he goes back and forth
in the vault 2 of heaven.’ 3
37:12 The clouds 4 go round in circles,
wheeling about according to his plans,
to carry out 5 all that he commands them
over the face of the whole inhabited world.
37:21 But now, the sun 6 cannot be looked at 7 –
it is bright in the skies –
after a wind passed and swept the clouds away. 8
1 tn Heb “and he does not see.” The implied object is “us.”
2 sn The word is “circle; dome”; here it is the dome that covers the earth, beyond which God sits enthroned. A. B. Davidson (Job, 165) suggests “on the arch of heaven” that covers the earth.
3 sn The idea suggested here is that God is not only far off, but he is unconcerned as he strolls around heaven – this is what Eliphaz says Job means.
4 tn The words “the clouds” are supplied from v. 11; the sentence itself actually starts: “and it goes round,” referring to the cloud.
5 tn Heb “that it may do.”
6 tn The light here must refer to the sun in the skies that had been veiled by the storm. Then, when the winds blew the clouds away, it could not be looked at because it was so dazzling. Elihu’s analogy will be that God is the same – in his glory one cannot look at him or challenge him.
7 tn The verb has an indefinite subject, and so should be a passive here.
8 tn Heb “and cleaned them.” The referent is the clouds (v. 18), which has been supplied in the translation for clarity. There is another way of reading this verse: the word translated “bright” means “dark; obscured” in Syriac. In this interpretation the first line would mean that they could not see the sun, because it was darkened by the clouds, but then the wind came and blew the clouds away. Dhorme, Gray, and several others take it this way, as does the NAB.