Job 37:14–37:20, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Job 37:14–37:20
Elihu Questions Job's Knowledge of the Sky
Stand still, Job, and consider the wondrous works
Elihu tells Job to listen to this, to stand still, and to consider the wondrous works of God. Does Job know when God disposed them, and caused the light of his cloud to shine? Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge?
How your garments are warm, when he quiets the earth by the south wind. Have you with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?
He almost admits that speech itself is the problem
Teach us what we shall say to him, for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness. Shall it be told him that I speak? If a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up.
Creaturely limits are now Elihu's theme, as they were Bildad's, but the tone is closer to wonder than to maggot-shame. Humility of this kind can be right. It does not cancel Job's moral questions, and it does not grant Elihu the perfect knowledge he claimed in 36:4. The sky as bronze does not make the lawsuit a mistake. It makes the human mouth small, including Elihu's.
How this should shape us
Stand still before works you did not spread. Let warmth, wind, and sky teach you the size of your mouth. Do not use that smallness to declare every justice question out of order.
Teach it back
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Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Job 37:14–37:20, 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 37:14–37:20
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 37:14–37:20.
Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 37:14–37:20
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 37:14–37:20
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 37:14–37:20
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 37:14–37:20, 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 37:14–37:20
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 37:14–37:20.
Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 37:14–37:20
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
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Exact location: Enter the Bible Job course, Introductory Issues and Outline: Elihu speeches; applied to Job 37:14–37:20
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 37:14–37:20
Open Schifferdecker on Job 38-42 ↗