Job 38:26

Job 38:26 To cause it to rain on the earth, [where] no man [is; on] the wilderness, wherein [there is] no man;

Ver. 26. To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is] But wild beasts only. These also are God’s creatures, and he provideth food for them. How much more will he do so for us, though small faiths.

In the wilderness, wherein there is no man] Repetitio ad varietatem et elegantiam, as also to show the certainty of the thing.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job 38:26-27. To cause it to rain, &c. — That the clouds, being broken by lightning and thunder, might pour down rain. On the wilderness wherein there is no man? — Namely, no one to water those parts by art and industry, as is usual in cultivated and inhabited places. Which makes this work of Divine Providence more necessary, and more remarkable, as hereby provision is made for the relief of the wild beasts, and plants, and other fruits of those forsaken lands, which otherwise would perish with drought. To satisfy the desolate and waste ground — By raining not sparingly, but liberally and abundantly upon it. To cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth — There being many excellent and useful herbs found in desert places, for the growth of which the rain is absolutely necessary. Thus, as God had before put such questions to Job as were proper to convince him of his ignorance; so he now puts such to him as were calculated to convince him of his impotence. As it was but little that he could know, and therefore he ought not to have arraigned the divine counsels, so it was but little he could do, and therefore he ought not to oppose the divine providence.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Since rain fails also on places uninhabited by man, it cannot be that man guides its course. Such rain, though man cannot explain the reason for it, is not lost. God has some wise design in it.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 26. To cause it to rain on the earth] It is well known that rain falls copiously in thunder-storms. The flash is first seen, the clap is next heard, and last the rain descends. The lightning travels all lengths in no perceivable succession of time. Sound is propagated at the rate of 1142 feet in a second. Rain travels still more slowly, and will be seen sooner or later according to the weight of the drops, and the distance of the cloud from the place of the spectator. Now the flash, the clap, and the rain, take place all in the same moment, but are discernible by us in the succession already mentioned, and for the reasons given above; and more at large in Clarke's note on "Job 36:29", c.

But how are these things formed? The lightning is represented as coming immediately from the hand of God. The clap is the effect of the lightning, which causes a vacuum in that part of the atmosphere through which it passes the air rushing in to restore the equilibrium may cause much of the noise that is heard in the clap. An easy experiment on the airpump illustrates this: Take a glass receiver open at both ends, over one end tie a piece of sheep's bladder wet, and let it stand till thoroughly dry. Then place the open end on the plate of the airpump, and exhaust the air slowly from under it. The bladder soon becomes concave, owing to the pressure of the atmospheric air on it, the supporting air in the receiver being partly thrown out. Carry on the exhaustion, and the air presses at the rate of fifteen pounds on every square inch; see on Job 28:28. The fibres of the bladder, being no longer capable of bearing the pressure of the atmospheric column upon the receiver, are torn to pieces, with a noise equal to the report of a musket, which is occasioned by the air rushing in to restore the equilibrium. Imagine a rapid succession of such experiments, and you have the peal of thunder, the rupture of the first bladder being the clap. But the explosion of the gases (oxygen and hydrogen) of which water is composed will also account for the noise. See below.

But how does the thunder cause rain? By the most accurate and incontestable experiments it is proved that water is a composition of two elastic airs or gases as they are called, oxygen and hydrogen. In 100 parts of water there are 88 1/4 of oxygen, and 11 3/4 of hydrogen. Pass a succession of electric sparks through water by means of a proper apparatus, and the two gases are produced in the proportions mentioned above.

To decompose water by galvanism: - Take a narrow glass tube three or four inches long; fit each end with a cork penetrated by a piece of slender iron wire, and fill the tube with water. Let the ends of the two wires within the tube be distant from each other about three quarters of an inch, and let one be made to communicate with the top, the other with the bottom of a galvanic pile in action. On making this communication, bubbles of air will be formed, and ascend to the top of the tube, the water decreasing as it is decomposed.

The oxygen and hydrogen formed by this experiment may be recomposed into the same weight of water. Take any quantity of the oxygen and hydrogen gases in the proportions already mentioned; ignite them by the electric spark, and they produce a quantity of water equal in weight to the gases employed. Thus, then, we can convert water into air, and reconvert this air into water; and the proportions hold as above. I have repeatedly seen this done, and assisted in doing it, but cannot, in this place, describe every thing in detail.

Now to the purpose of this note: the rain descending after the flash and the peal. The electric spark or matter of lightning, passing through the atmosphere, ignites and decomposes the oxygen and hydrogen, which explode, and the water which was formed of these two falls down in the form of rain. The explosion of the gases, as well as the rushing in of the circumambient air to restore the equilibrium, will account for the clap and peal: as the decomposition and ignition of them will account for the water or rain which is the attendant of a thunder storm. Thus by the lightning of thunder God causes it to rain on the earth. How marvellous and instructive are his ways!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(26) To cause it to rain on the earth.—Because God is mindful of His creation, independently of the wants of man.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26, 27. Man is not, as he might think, the only object of God’s regard. God is great and His providence very wide. His goodness is over all His works. He satisfies with rain the thirsty wilderness where no man is, that the tender grass may be refreshed.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hath the rain a father?.... None but God; hence the Heathens themselves call God (y), and (z); see Jer 14:22; he that is our Father in heaven is the Father of rain, and him only; whatever secondary causes there be, God only is the efficient cause, parent, and producer of it: so the Gospel is not of men but of God, is a gift of his, comes down from heaven, tarries not for men, and is a great blessing, as rain is;

or who hath begotten the drops of the dew? which are innumerable; he that is the parent of the rain is of the dew also, and he only (a); to which sometimes not only the word of God, and his free favour and good will, but the people of God themselves are compared for their number, influence, and use; see Psa 110:3; and their new birth is similar to the generation of dew, it being not of the will of man, but of God, according to his abundant mercy, free favour, and good will, is from above, from heaven, and is effected silently, secretly, suddenly, at an unawares; Joh 1:13.

(y) Aristot. de Mundo, c. 7. (z) Pausan. Attica, sive, l. 1. p. 60. (a) Though a certain poet (Alcman Lyricus apud Macrob. Saturnal. l. 7. c. 16.) says that dew is the offspring of the air and of the moon; but these can only at most be reckoned but secondary causes. The Arabs speak of an angel over dew. Abulpharag, Hist. Dynast. p. 75.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is - This is designed to heighten the conception of the power of God. It could not be pretended that this was done by man, for the rain was caused to fall in the desolate regions where no one dwelt. In the lonely desert, in the wastes remote from the dwellings of people, the rain is sent down, evidently by the providential care of God, and far beyond the reach of the agency of man. There is very great beauty in this whole description of God as superintending the falling rain far away from the homes of people, and in those lonely wastes pouring down the waters, that the tender herb may spring up, and the flowers bloom under his hand. All this may seem to be wasted, but it is not so in the eye of God. Not a drop of rain falls in the sandy desert or on the barren rock, however useless it may seem to be, that is not seen to be of value by God, and that is not designated to accomplish some important purpose there.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Dwelleth. This shews the magnificence of God, (Menochius) at least. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

To cause it to rain; that the clouds being broken by lightning and thunder might pour down rain.

Wherein there is no man, to wit, to water those parts by art and industry, as is usual in cultivated and inhabited places; which makes this work of Divine Providence more necessary and more remarkable, in providing for the relief of the wild beasts, and plants, and other fruits of these forsaken lands, which otherwise would perish with drought.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

26. Where no man is — God lays stress on this circumstance in order to humble man, and to show him that the earth was made neither by him nor for him. (Renan.) The subject trenches upon the unfathomable mystery of lavish expenditure, if not apparent waste, in the universe of God.

Mat_26:8. For instance, according to Lockyer, our earth intercepts only one ray out of about two thousand million rays of the sun, the rest, for the most part, falling on no planet, but seemingly poured uselessly into empty space. One of the Arabian poets of the Moallakat — works on account of their superexcellence suspended in the Kaaba at Mecca — beautifully says, “The cloud unloadeth its freight on the Desert of Ghabeit, like a merchant of Yemen alighting with his bales of rich apparel.”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man. God not only causes his rain to fall equally on the just and on the unjust, (Mat_5:45) but equally, or almost equally, on inhabited lauds and uninhabited. His providence does not limit itself to supplying the wants of man, but has tender regard to the beasts, and birds, and reptiles, and insects which possess the lands whereon man has not yet set his foot.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To cause - That the clouds being broken by lightning and thunder might pour down rain. No man - To water those parts by art and industry, as is usual in cultivated places.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.