Job 37:22

Fair weather cometh out of the north,.... Or "gold" (x), which some understand literally; this being found in northern climates as well as southern, as Pliny relates (y); particularly in Colchis and

Fair weather cometh out of the north: with God is terrible majesty. Rather, golden splendour. Maurer translates, gold. It is found in northern regions.

Fair weather; or, when (which particle may well be understood out of, the foregoing verse; and so this may be a further description of the time when men cannot see or gaze upon the sun, namely, when) fair weather, &c. Heb. gold; either, 1. Properly. And so this may be noted as another wonderful work of God, that the choicest of metals, to wit, gold, should be found in and fetched out of the bowels of cold northern countries. Or, 2. Metaphorically, as this word is oft used of bright and shining things; as we read of golden oil, , and we call happy times golden days. And so bright and fair weather may well be called golden, because then the sun gilds the air and earth with its beams, which also are called by poets golden beams. Out of the north, i.e. from the northern winds, which scatter the clouds, and clear the sky, . With God is terrible majesty; and therefore we neither can nor may approach too near to him, nor speak presumptuously or irreverently to him, or of him. And so this is the application of what he had now said, that we could not see the sun, &c, much less God; and withal it is an epiphonema or conclusion of the whole foregoing discourse. Those glorious works of his which I have described, are testimonies of that great and terrible majesty which is in him; which should cause us to fear and reverence him, and not to behave ourselves so insolently towards him, as Job hath done.

Job 37:22 Fair weather cometh out of the north: with God [is] terrible majesty.Ver. 22. Fair weather cometh out of the north] Heb. Gold cometh, &c., that is, the golden beams of the sun, as golden oil, Zechariah 4:12, Serenitas aura similis (Tit.). The north wind also cleanseth the clouds, and shows us the pleasant face of the sun, that gold maker; all whose rays come tipped and gilt with a glistering glory upon them. With God is terrible majesty] Far beyond that of the sun or of the most dread sovereign upon earth; be it an Augustus Caesar, or a terrible Tamerlane, in whose eyes sate such a rare and reverend majesty as a man could hardly endure to behold them without closing his own. The Tigurines render it, Ad Deum reverendissimum pertinet confessio, To the most reverend God belongeth praise. Others, by way of doxology, Unto God be reverend majesty; a fit perclose of Elihu’ s excellent discourse. It was the last speech of dying Chrysostom, Glory be to God from all creatures. Let it be the badge of the beast, Laus Deo, et beatae Virgini. Cry we, Deus terribilis landetur, as Brentius rendereth this text, Let God alone be praised.

Verse 22. Fair weather cometh out of the north] Is this any version of the original מצפון זהב יאתה mitstsaphon zahab yeetheh? which is rendered by almost every version, ancient and modern, thus, or to this effect: "From the north cometh gold." Calmet justly remarks, that in the time of Moses, Job, and Solomon, and for a long time after, gold was obtained from Colchis, Armenia, Phasis, and the land of Ophir, which were all north of Judea and Idumea; and are in the Scriptures ordinarily termed the north country. "But what relation can there be between, Gold cometh out of the north, and, With God is terrible majesty?" Answer: Each thing has its properties, and proper characteristics, which distinguish it; and each country has its advantages. Gold, for instance, comes from the northern countries; so praises offered to the Supreme God should be accompanied with fear and trembling: and as this metal is from the north, and northern countries are the places whence it must be procured; so terrible majesty belongs to God, and in him alone such majesty is eternally resident. As זהב zahob, which we translate gold, (see Job 28:16,) comes from a root that signifies to be clear, bright, resplendent, c. Mr. Good avails himself of the radical idea, and translates it splendour: - "Splendour itself is with God; Insufferable majesty." But he alters the text a little to get this meaning, particularly in the word יאתה yeetheh, which we translate cometh, and which he contends is the pronoun אתה itself; the י yod, as a performative, here being, as he thinks, an interpolation. This makes a very good sense; but none of the ancient versions understood the place thus, and none of the MSS. countenance this very learned critic's emendation.

22. fair weather] lit. gold, that is, probably, golden brightness or splendour, the reference being to the light (Job 37:21). This is said to come from the North because the north wind (Job 37:21) clears away the clouds and reveals it. With this sense the verse carries on the thought of Job 37:21, and the antithesis is expressed in the second clause of Job 37:22, with God is terrible glory—if men cannot look upon the light when it shines in the cloudless heaven, how much less shall they bear to look upon the majesty of God, surrounded with terrible glory. Others adhere to the literal sense of gold, considering the general meaning to be, that men may penetrate into the furthest and darkest regions of the earth and bring out to view whatever precious things they contain, but around God is a terrible majesty which exalts Him above all comprehension. However good this meaning be in itself, it leaves Job 37:21 isolated and incomplete in sense. And although to Classical Antiquity the North may have been the region of gold, no trace of such a conception appears in the Old Testament, for any identification of Havilah (Genesis 2:11) with Colchis is more than adventurous. The comparison too of the light to gold is common in the poetry of all languages.

Fair weather - Margin, “gold,” The Hebrew word (זהב zâhâb) properly means “gold,” and is so rendered by the Vulgate, the Syriac, and by most versions.

22. Fair weather — æäá, gold. Literally, out of the north cometh gold, and is rendered by the Septuagint, “clouds shining like gold.” It would certainly have been a descent from this sublime