Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Job 37:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Elihu lists correction, care for the land, and mercy as alternative purposes for the storm.
Read It With
- Job 37:6–37:13
Read Job 37:13 inside Job 37:6–37:13. Elihu lists correction, care for the land, and mercy as alternative purposes for the storm. The full unit establishes: Elihu describes snow, rain, halted labor, sheltered beasts, winds, frost, and clouds moving for correction, land, or mercy.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Elihu lists correction, care for the land, and mercy as alternative purposes for the storm. This precise contribution moves Job 37:6–37:13 toward its summary: Elihu describes snow, rain, halted labor, sheltered beasts, winds, frost, and clouds moving for correction, land, or mercy.
Follow the Context
- Identify Elihu's stated claim in Job 37:6–37:13.
- Elihu describes snow, rain, halted labor, sheltered beasts, winds, frost, and clouds moving for correction, land, or mercy.
- Keep this interpretive control visible: The verse names alternative purposes rather than a method for identifying which applies; disasters must not be assigned confidently to punishment.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Job 37:13 does not let observers identify a disaster as punishment from outcomes alone.
What Remains True
Elihu himself lists correction, care for land, and mercy as alternatives for the storm's coming.
How It Can Shape Life
- Role in Job 37:13: Elihu lists correction, care for the land, and mercy as alternative purposes for the storm. Contextual meaning in Job 37:6–37:13: Elihu describes snow, rain, halted labor, sheltered beasts, winds, frost, and clouds moving for correction, land, or mercy. As a literary contribution from Elihu, it must be evaluated with the prose frame, surrounding speech, and final verdict rather than flattened into an anonymous maxim. Proportionate enduring truth: Elihu himself lists correction, care for land, and mercy as alternatives for the storm's coming. Application: Refuse confident moral explanations for weather disasters and focus on truthful relief and protection.
Teach It Back
Explain Job 37:13's precise role in Job 37:6–37:13: Elihu lists correction, care for the land, and mercy as alternative purposes for the storm. State how “Snow, Rain, Wind, and Clouds Serve Varied Purposes” controls the line, keep this uncertainty visible—The verse names alternative purposes rather than a method for identifying which applies; disasters must not be assigned confidently to punishment.—trace role to contextual meaning to enduring truth to application, and reject one use the verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Job 37:6–37:13 — Snow, Rain, Wind, and Clouds Serve Varied PurposesSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
Where care is needed
The verse names alternative purposes rather than a method for identifying which applies; disasters must not be assigned confidently to punishment.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
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 37:6–37:13, 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 37:6–37:13
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 37:6–37:13.
Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 37:6–37:13
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 37:6–37:13
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 37:6–37:13
Open Schifferdecker on Job 38-42 ↗