Job 37:7

7 {he stops all human beings from working} {so that everyone whom he has made may know it}.

Job 37:7 Meaning and Commentary

Job 37:7

He sealeth up the hand of every man
That is, by deep snows and heavy rains being on the earth; where, as travellers are stopped in their journeys, and cannot proceed, so various artificers are hindered from their work, and husbandmen especially from their employment in the fields; so that their hands are as it were shut up and sealed, that they cannot work with them. Sephorno interprets this of the fruits and increase of the earth being produced and brought to perfection by means of the snow and rain, and so gathered by and into the hands of men; whereby they are led to observe the work of God and his goodness herein, and so to love and fear him; which he takes to be the sense of the following clause,

that all men may know his work;
either their own work; what they have to do at home when they cannot work abroad; or that they may have leisure to reflect upon their moral ways and works, and consider how deficient they are: or rather the work of God; that they may know and own the snow and rain are his work, and depend upon his will; or that they may have time and opportunity of considering and meditating on the works of God, in nature, providence, and grace. Some choose to read the words, "that all men of his work may know" F12; may know him the author of their beings, and the God of their mercies. For all men are the work of his hands; he has made them, and not they themselves; and the end of all God's dealings with them is, that they may know him, fear, serve, and glorify him.


FOOTNOTES:

F12 (yvna lk whvem) "omnes homines operis ipsius", Schmidt, Michaelis; so Schultens.

Job 37:7 In-Context

5 "God thunders with his voice in marvelous ways; he does great things, and we cannot comprehend.
6 For to the snow he says, 'Fall [on the] earth'; and {the shower of rain, his heavy shower of rain}--
7 {he stops all human beings from working} {so that everyone whom he has made may know it}.
8 Then [the] animal goes into [its] den, and it remains in its den.
9 "[The] storm wind comes from its chamber and cold from [the] north wind.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Literally "on the hand of all man he seals"
  • [b]. Literally "to know all men of his work"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.