Ayub 36:32

36:32 With his hands ¹  he covers ²  the lightning,

and directs it against its target.

Ayub 37:3

37:3 Under the whole heaven he lets it go,

even his lightning to the far corners ³  of the earth.

Ayub 37:11

37:11 He loads the clouds with moisture; ⁴ 

he scatters his lightning through the clouds.

Ayub 37:15

37:15 Do you know how God commands them, ⁵ 

how he makes lightning flash in his storm cloud? ⁶ 

[36:32]  ¹ tn R. Gordis (Job, 422) prefers to link this word with the later Hebrew word for “arch,” not “hands.”

[36:32]  ² tn Because the image might mean that God grabs the lightning and hurls it like a javelin (cf. NLT), some commentators want to change “covers” to other verbs. Dhorme has “lifts” (נִשָּׂא [nissa’] for כִּסָּה [kissah]). This fit the idea of God directing the lightning bolts.

[37:3]  ³ tn Heb “wings,” and then figuratively for the extremities of garments, of land, etc.

[37:11]  ⁴ tn The word “moisture” is drawn from רִי (ri) as a contraction for רְוִי (rÿvi). Others emended the text to get “hail” (NAB) or “lightning,” or even “the Creator.” For these, see the various commentaries. There is no reason to change the reading of the MT when it makes perfectly good sense.

[37:15]  ⁵ tn The verb is בְּשׂוּם (bÿsum, from שִׂים [sim, “set”]), so the idea is how God lays [or sets] [a command] for them. The suffix is proleptic, to be clarified in the second colon.

[37:15]  ⁶ tn Dhorme reads this “and how his stormcloud makes lightning to flash forth?”