Job 37:1–37:5, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Job 37:1–37:5
Elihu Trembles at the Thunderous Voice
Elihu's own heart is moved by the noise
At this also his heart trembles and is moved out of its place. Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that goes out of his mouth. He directs it under the whole heaven, and his lightning to the ends of the earth.
After it a voice roars. He thunders with the voice of his excellency, and he will not restrain them when his voice is heard. God thunders marvelously with his voice. Great things he does, which we cannot comprehend.
Trembling is not yet an interpretation of Job's sores
Elihu is no longer mainly prosecuting. He is being overtaken by the thing he describes. The voice is thunder, and the thunder is called God's voice, and the confession is incomprehension.
That confession is the truest thing he has said in some time. It still does not decode a storm as a personal telegram, and it does not make every weather event a verdict. The book is about to let God speak from a whirlwind. Elihu cannot be merged with that speech just because he heard thunder first.
How this should shape us
Tremble at what is too great for you without using the sky to convict your neighbor. Incomprehension is sometimes the beginning of honesty. It is not a method for reading a person's chart in the lightning.
Teach it back
Explain Job 37:1–37:5 in your own words. Name the speaker, the unit's place in Job, one source-controlled textual or literary observation, one uncertainty, and one harmful use the passage does not authorize.
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Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Job 37:1–37:5, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 37:1–37:5
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 37:1–37:5.
Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 37:1–37:5
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Enter the Bible Job course, Introductory Issues and Outline: Elihu speeches; applied to Job 37:1–37:5
Supports: Lament, undeserved suffering, creation's wild freedom, nonhuman value, chaos imagery, encounter, and ending, used as one responsible pastoral-scholarly reading.
Schifferdecker, Working Preacher Job series, commentary headed for Job 38:1-41:34; applied to Job 37:1–37:5
Sources for This Section
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Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Job 37:1–37:5, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 37:1–37:5
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Job
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 37:1–37:5.
Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 37:1–37:5
Open the official NET Job PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Job course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Daniel J. Simundson and Kathryn Schifferdecker
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, current online edition inspected 2026
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Job course, Introductory Issues and Outline: Elihu speeches; applied to Job 37:1–37:5
Open the Enter the Bible Job course ↗modern scholarly pastoral commentary collection
Job preaching series and creation commentaries
Kathryn M. Schifferdecker
Working Preacher, Luther Seminary, 2012-2016
Supports: Lament, undeserved suffering, creation's wild freedom, nonhuman value, chaos imagery, encounter, and ending, used as one responsible pastoral-scholarly reading.
Exact location: Schifferdecker, Working Preacher Job series, commentary headed for Job 38:1-41:34; applied to Job 37:1–37:5
Open Schifferdecker on Job 38-42 ↗