Albert Barnes Commentary Job 26:8

"He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; And the cloud is not rent under them." — Job 26:8 (ASV)

He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds — That is, he seems to do it, or to collect the waters in the clouds, as in bottles or vessels. The clouds appear to hold the waters, as if bound up, until he is pleased to send them drop by drop upon the earth.

And the cloud is not rent under them — The wonder that Job here expresses is that so large a quantity of water as is poured down from the clouds should be held suspended in the air without seeming to rend the cloud and falling all at once. His image is that of a bottle, or vessel, filled with water, suspended in the air, and which is not rent. What views he had of the clouds, it is, of course, impossible to say now. If he regarded them as they are, as vapors, or if he considered them to be a more solid substance, capable of holding water, there was equal ground for wonder.

In the former case, his amazement would have arisen from the fact that such a light, fragile, and evanescent substance as vapor should contain so large a quantity of water; in the latter case, his wonder would have been that such a substance should distill its contents drop by drop. There is equal reason for admiring the wisdom of God in the production of rain, now that the cause is understood. The clouds are collections of vapors. They contain moisture, or vapor, which ascends from the earth, and which is held in suspension when in small particles in the clouds; as, when a room is swept, the small particles of dust will be seen to float in the room. When these small particles are attracted and form masses as large as drops, the air will no longer sustain them, and they fall to the earth.

Man never could have devised a way for causing rain. And the method—whereby it is provided that large quantities of water are carried from one place to another in the air and made to fall when needed, and whereby the vapors that ascend from the ocean are not allowed to fall again into the ocean but are instead carried to the land—this method is suited to excite our admiration for the wisdom of God now, no less than it was in the time of Job.