What Does Job 37:11 Mean in the King James?
Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The sky’s weight is a load God places, and its brightness is something God actively scatters.
THE MEANING
Above you, God loads the thick cloud with water and scatters the cloud of his light. The weight gathering in the sky remains under his hand; even what looks dense is already in motion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A heavy sky is not a sky out of control: the same God who loads the cloud also scatters it.
THE ROOT
יַטְרִיחַ
yaṭrîaḥ
GROWS FROM
טרח
ṭ-r-ḥ
to burden, load, or make heavy
The Hebrew verb describes loading the cloud, while “wearieth” can suggest that the cloud is merely exhausted. Its moisture is a weight the cloud bears, and that weight belongs to an active process in the sky.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāraḥ: to load or burden
טָרַח
This verbal form names the act behind “wearieth”: the cloud is made to carry water.
ṭorḥăkem: your burden or cumbrance
טָרְחֲכֶם
Deuteronomy 1:12 uses this root for what is borne as a load, making the cloud’s moisture a weight it carries.
יָפִיץ
yāphîṣ
GROWS FROM
פוץ
p-w-ṣ
to scatter, disperse, spread outward
“scattereth” in this verse is yāphîṣ. This root describes more than a cloud fading; it carries the motion of dispersal across a space. The same Hebrew root describes people being scattered, joining the sky’s movement to a wider scriptural pattern of things sent outward.
ALSO GROWS
wayyāpeṣ: and he scattered
וַיָּפֶץ
Genesis 11:8 uses this form for the LORD scattering people abroad, showing the same outward motion in another setting.
hĕpîṣkā: he scattered you
הֱפִיצְךָ
Deuteronomy 30:3 uses the same root for being dispersed among the nations, reinforcing scattering as a movement outward.
אוֹרוֹ
ʾôrô
GROWS FROM
אור
ʾ-w-r
light; to shine or illuminate
The Hebrew says “cloud of his light,” keeping the light itself visible beneath the English “bright cloud.” The cloud is described in relation to light, so the verse holds moisture and brightness together in the moving sky.
ALSO GROWS
ʾôr: light
אוֹר
The phrase “cloud of his light” keeps this concrete word at the center of the image.
lehāʾîr: to give light, illuminate
לְהָאִיר
Exodus 13:21 uses this form when fire gives light through the night, linking the root to light carried through darkness.
THE PATTERN
Rain, wind, and light in the sky remain within God’s active ordering, beyond human control.
For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof:He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.THE THREAD
And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:Job calls it a cloud of God’s light; Exodus uses the same root, אוֹר (ʾôr, light), when fire gives light through the night while a cloud leads the way by day. The shared root joins the cloud’s movement to light carried through darkness.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us