Job 38:36 - Exposition

Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? Some refer this to human wisdom, and understand the Almighty as asking—Who has put man's wisdom into his inward parts? literally, into his kidneys , or as our idiom would express it, "into his heart." But there is great difficulty in supposing a sudden transition from clouds and lightning in Job 38:34 , Job 38:35 to the human understanding in Job 38:36 , with a return to clouds and rain in Job 38:37 . Hence many of the best critics understand Job 38:36 of the purpose and intelligence that may be regarded as existing in the clouds and rain and lightning themselves, which are God's ministers, and run to and fro at his command, and execute his pleasure. (So Schultens, Rosenmuller, Professor Lee, and Professer Stanley Leathes.) To obtain this result, we must translate the word טוּחוֹת By "tempest" or "thunder-belts," and the word שׂכוי , in the next clause, by "storm n or something similar (see the Revised Version, where "dark clouds" is suggested as an alternative for "inward parts'" and "meteor" as an alternative for "heart"). The whole passage will then run thus: Who hath put wisdom in the thunderbolts? or who hath given understanding to the tempest?