36:30 See how he scattered 1 his lightning 2 about him;
he has covered the depths 3 of the sea.
36:32 With his hands 4 he covers 5 the lightning,
and directs it against its target.
37:11 He loads the clouds with moisture; 6
he scatters his lightning through the clouds.
37:15 Do you know how God commands them, 7
how he makes lightning flash in his storm cloud? 8
38:24 In what direction is lightning 9 dispersed,
or the east winds scattered over the earth?
1 tn The word actually means “to spread,” but with lightning as the object, “to scatter” appears to fit the context better.
2 tn The word is “light,” but taken to mean “lightning.” Theodotion had “mist” here, and so most commentators follow that because it is more appropriate to the verb and the context.
3 tn Heb “roots.”
4 tn R. Gordis (Job, 422) prefers to link this word with the later Hebrew word for “arch,” not “hands.”
5 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.
6 tn The word “moisture” is drawn from רִי (ri) as a contraction for רְוִי (rÿvi). Others emended the text to get “hail” (NAB) or “lightning,” or even “the Creator.” For these, see the various commentaries. There is no reason to change the reading of the MT when it makes perfectly good sense.
7 tn The verb is בְּשׂוּם (bÿsum, from שִׂים [sim, “set”]), so the idea is how God lays [or sets] [a command] for them. The suffix is proleptic, to be clarified in the second colon.
8 tn Dhorme reads this “and how his stormcloud makes lightning to flash forth?”
9 tn Because the parallel with “light” and “east wind” is not tight, Hoffmann proposed ‘ed instead, “mist.” This has been adopted by many. G. R. Driver suggests “parching heat” (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 91-92).