Albert Barnes Commentary Job 36:32

"He covereth his hands with the lightning, And giveth it a charge that it strike the mark." — Job 36:32 (ASV)

With clouds he covereth the light - The Hebrew here is על־כפים, ‛ al - kaphiym—“upon his hands.” Jerome, “In manibus abscondit lucem,” “he hideth the light in his hands.” The Septuagint, Ἐπὶ χειρῶν ἐκάλυψε φῶς, Epi cheirōn ekalupse fōs—“he covereth the light in his hands.” The allusion is undoubtedly to lightning, and the image is that God takes the lightning in His hands and directs it as He pleases.

There has been great variety, however, in the exposition of this verse and the following. Schultens enumerates no less than twenty-eight different interpretations, and almost every commentator has had his own view of the passage. It is quite evident that our translators did not understand it and were not able to make any tolerable sense out of it.

It would be very difficult to imagine what idea they attached to the two verses (Job 36:32–33), for what is the meaning of the phrase the cattle also concerning the vapor? (Job 36:33).

The general sense of the Hebrew appears to be that God controls the rapid lightnings, which appear so vivid, so quick, and so awful. He executes His own purposes with them and makes them, when He pleases, the instruments of inflicting punishment on His foes.

The object of Elihu is to excite admiration for the greatness of God, who is able thus to control the lightning’s flash and to make it an obedient instrument in His hands.

The particular expression before us, By his hands he covereth the light, seems to mean that He seizes or holds the lightning in His hands (Herder), or that He covers over His hands with the lightning (Umbreit), and has it under His control.

Professor Lee supposes that it means He holds the lightning in the palms of His hands, or between His two hands, as a man holds a furious wild animal which he is about to let loose for the purpose of destroying.

With this, he compares the expression of Shakespeare, “Cry havock, and let slip the dogs of war.” There can be no doubt, I think, that the phrase means that God has the lightning under His control, that it is in His hands, and that He directs it as He pleases.

According to Umbreit, the allusion is to the double use which God makes of light: in one hand holding the lightning to destroy His foes, and in the other the light of the sun to bless His friends, just as He uses rain either for purposes of destruction or mercy. But this idea is not conveyed in the Hebrew.

And commandeth it not to shine - The phrase “not to shine” is not in the Hebrew and destroys the sense.

The simple idea in the original is, “he commandeth it;” that is, He has it under His control, directs it as He pleases, and uses even the forked lightning as an instrument to execute His pleasure.

By the cloud that cometh betwixt - The words “the cloud” are also inserted by our translators and destroy the sense. There is no allusion to a cloud, and the idea that the light is intercepted by any object is not in the original.

The Hebrew word (במפגיע, b^emapgiy‛) means “in occurring, in meeting, in striking upon” (from פגע, pâga‛—to strike upon, to impinge, to fall upon, to light upon), and the sense here would be well expressed by the phrase “in striking.”

The idea is exactly that which we have when we apply the word “strike” or “struck” to lightning. The meaning is that He gives the lightning commandment “in striking,” or when “it strikes.” Nothing could better serve as an illustration for Elihu in exciting elevated views of God, for there is no exhibition of His power more wonderful than that by which He controls the lightning.