Job 38:37

La Biblia de las Americas

¿Quién puede contar las nubes con sabiduría, o inclinar los odres de los cielos,

Parallel Translations

La Biblia Reina-Valera
�Qui�n puso por cuenta los cielos con sabidur�a? Y los odres de los cielos, �qui�n los hace parar,

La Biblia Reina-Valera Gomez
�Qui�n puede contar las nubes con sabidur�a? O los odres de los cielos, �qui�n los hace parar,

Sagradas Escrituras (1569)
�Qui�n puso por cuenta los cielos con sabidur�a? Y los odres de los cielos, �qui�n los hace parar,

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

number: Genesis 15:5, Psalms 147:4

or who: Genesis 8:1, Genesis 9:15

stay: Heb. cause to lie down

Reciprocal: Genesis 8:2 - the rain Job 26:8 - bindeth up Job 36:29 - the spreadings Job 37:13 - whether Psalms 104:13 - watereth Jeremiah 5:24 - that giveth

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Who can number the clouds in wisdom?.... Or has such wisdom as to be able to count them when the heavens are full of them; hence they are used to denote a great multitude, Isaiah 55:8; or "declare" them t, set forth and explain the nature of them, their matter, motion, and use; none can do this perfectly or completely. Aben Ezra interprets it, who can make them as sapphire? in which he is followed by Mr. Broughton and others u; the sapphire is a precious stone, very clear and lucid, of a sky colour. And then the sense is, who can make a clear and serene sky, when it is cloudy? None but the Lord; see Job 37:11;

or who can stay the bottles of heaven? or "barrels", as Mr. Broughton; the clouds in which the rain is bottled or barrelled up; and when it is the pleasure of God to pour them out, who can stay, stop, or restrain them? or who can "cause [them] to lie down" w? that is, on the earth; to descend or "distil" on it, as the same translator. Who can do this, when it is the will of God to withhold them? To stop or unstop, those bottles, to restrain rain, or pour it forth, is entirely at his dispose, and not man's; see Job 38:34.

t יספר "enarrabit", V. L. "vel explicabit", Mercerus, Schmidt. u Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Vid. Ravii Orthograph. Ebr. p. 22. w ישכיב "cubare faciet", Drusius, Schmidt "quiescere", Montanus; "descendere", Pagninus, so Aben Ezra; "effundit humi", Schultens.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Who can number the clouds? - The word here rendered “clouds” (שׁחקים shachaqiym) is applied to the clouds as made up of “small particles” - as if they were composed of fine dust, and hence, the word number is applied to them, not as meaning that the clouds themselves were innumerable, but that no one could estimate the number of particles which enter into their formation.

In wisdom - By his wisdom. Who has sufficient intelligence to do it?

Or who can stay the bottles of heaven? - Margin, as in Hebrew “cause to lie down.” The clouds are here compared with bottles, as if they held the water in the same manner; compare the notes at Job 26:8. The word rendered “stay” in the text, and in the margin “cause to lie down,” is rendered by Umbreit, “pour out,” from an Arabic signification of the word. Gesenius supposes that the meaning to “pour out” is derived from the idea of “causing to lie down,” from the fact that a bottle or vessel was made to lie down or was inclined to one side when its contents were poured out. This explanation seems probable, though there is no other place in the Hebrew where the word is used in this signification. The sense of pouring out agrees well with the connection.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 38:37. Who can number the clouds — Perhaps the word ספר saphar, which is commonly rendered to number, may here mean, as in Arabic, to irradiate, as Mr. Good contends; and may refer to those celestial and inimitable tinges which we sometimes behold in the sky.

Bottles of heaven — The clouds: it is an allusion to the girbahs, or bottles made of skin, in which they are accustomed to carry their water from wells and tanks.