Job 37
The full text of Job 37 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 At this also my heart trembles
and leaps out of its place.
2 Keep listening to the thunder of his voice
and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.
3 Under the whole heaven he lets it go,
and his lightning to the corners of the earth.
4 After it his voice roars;
he thunders with his majestic voice,
and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard.
5 God thunders wondrously with his voice;
he does great things that we cannot comprehend.
6 For to the snow he says, 'Fall on the earth,'
likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour.
7 He seals up the hand of every man,
that all men whom he made may know it.
8 Then the beasts go into their lairs
and remain in their dens.
9 From its chamber comes the whirlwind,
and cold from the scattering winds.
10 By the breath of God ice is given,
and the broad waters are frozen fast.
11 He loads the thick cloud with moisture;
the clouds scatter his lightning.
12 They turn around and around by his guidance,
to accomplish all that he commands them
on the face of the habitable world.
13 Whether for correction or for his land
or for love, he causes it to happen.
14 Hear this, O Job;
stop and consider the wondrous works of God.
15 Do you know how God lays his command upon them
and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?
16 Do you know the balancings of the clouds,
the wondrous works of the one perfect in knowledge?
17 you whose garments are hot
when the earth is still because of the south wind?
18 Can you, like him, spread out the skies,
hard as a cast metal mirror?
19 Teach us what we shall say to him;
we cannot draw up our case because of darkness.
20 Shall it be told him that I would speak?
Did a man ever wish that he would be swallowed up?
21 And now no one looks on the light
when it is bright in the skies,
when the wind has passed and cleared them.
22 Out of the north comes golden splendor;
God is clothed with awesome majesty.
23 The Almighty — we cannot find him;
he is great in power;
justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate.
24 Therefore men fear him;
he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.
Translation notes (8)
- Job 37:4a The Hebrew verb ʿāqav (עָקַב) means 'to restrain' or 'to hold back', conveying the sense that God's powerful voice is immediately followed by lightning without delay.
- Job 37:6a Mighty downpour renders Hebrew mitrey 'oz, literally 'rains of strength' (מִטְרֵי עֹז), an idiom for violent, heavy rain. The preceding collocation geshem matar, 'rainfall of rain' (גֶּשֶׁם מָטָר), likewise intensifies the idea, pairing near-synonyms for a deluge.
- Job 37:7a The Hebrew idiom chatham beyad, literally 'to seal up in the hand', pictures God suspending human labor: winter storms confine workers indoors, closing the hand from its work. The final clause is compressed in the Masoretic Text, literally 'that all men of his making may know', and is widely understood to mean that the enforced pause brings recognition of God's work.
- Job 37:12a Hebrew tebel (תֵּבֵל), 'habitable world', is a poetic term denoting the inhabited, ordered earth, as distinct from the more common erets, 'earth' or 'land'. The word appears frequently in the Psalms and prophetic literature, often in contexts celebrating God's cosmic governance, which suits the sweep of Elihu's storm speech here.
- Job 37:17a Hebrew darom (דָּרוֹם), 'south', underlies 'south wind' and evokes the hot, dry air from the desert. The line is literally 'when the land is quiet from the south,' an idiom for oppressive heat in a windless calm that even makes one's garments feel hot.
- Job 37:18a Mirrors in the ancient Near East were made of polished cast bronze, not glass, which explains the comparison: Hebrew re'i mutsaq (ראי מוצק) is literally 'a mirror of cast metal'. Elihu likens the brilliant, solid appearance of the sky to such a burnished metal surface.
- Job 37:20a The Hebrew is compressed: im, 'if' and ki, 'that/indeed,' allow either a conditional or an interrogative reading. The second clause literally reads, 'If a man says, surely he will be swallowed up' (yibbala, 'be swallowed up'), a sense reflected in the King James tradition; the alternative construes it as a rhetorical question expressing dread.
- Job 37:22a Golden splendor renders Hebrew zahav (זהב), 'gold', used metaphorically for radiant light in the cleared sky; the wording presents the source as 'from the north'. Elsewhere zahav denotes the metal, but here it signifies a golden glow.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is a new translation of the Bible prepared by Trinity Bible — rendered from the original Hebrew and faithful to the earliest and most reliable manuscripts. Finished in 2026, it is the most modern English Bible translation you can read today, and it is available only through Trinity Bible. All 66 books, including Job, are free to read on this site.
Continue: Job 38 → · All of Job · About the TBV · Read Job 37 in the KJV
Get the app: iOS · Android · Trinity Plus