What Does Job 37:13 Mean in the King James?
He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.
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 weather is not given a single verdict: it can arrive as a rod, serve the land, or carry faithful love.
THE MEANING
The weather that reaches you can correct, serve the land, or carry faithful love. Its arrival alone does not tell you which purpose is at work; the verse holds all three possibilities in one act of divine direction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This loosens the assumption that severe weather can only signify punishment: it may also serve the land or arrive as faithful love.
THE ROOT
יַמְצִאֵהוּ
yamtzi'ehu
GROWS FROM
מצא
matsa
To find, encounter, or come upon.
“causeth it to come” in this verse is yamtzi'ehu. The English says the weather is caused to come; the Hebrew verb carries the image of causing it to find or meet its destination. The event is pictured as reaching something, not merely appearing.
ALSO GROWS
matsa: To find or encounter.
מָצָא
This is the root’s basic sense: the weather is directed toward something it will meet.
nimtsa: To be found or be present.
נִמְצָא
The same root can describe what has arrived and is now there, giving the verse’s movement a point of arrival.
שֵׁבֶט
shevet
GROWS FROM
שבט
shevet
Rod or staff; also tribe, clan, or scepter.
The phrase translated “for correction” carries the concrete image of a rod. The same word can name a tribe or scepter, so correction is pictured with an instrument of authority and a social order, not only as inward regret.
ALSO GROWS
shevet: Rod or staff.
שֵׁבֶט
This is the concrete image behind the verse’s corrective purpose.
shevet: Tribe or clan; also a scepter.
שֵׁבֶט
The same word’s social and governing senses widen the image from a blow to authority and order.
חֶסֶד
chesed
GROWS FROM
חסד
chesed
Faithful love; loyalty expressed in relationship.
The word translated “mercy” names faithful love, not only a feeling of pity. Here, the weather itself may arrive as an expression of that steady care.
ALSO GROWS
chasid: A faithful or loyal person.
חָסִיד
The related word describes someone characterized by the same quality, showing that chesed is a way of being in relationship.
titchassad: You act faithfully or show loyal care.
תִּתְחַסָּד
This verbal form presents the root as something enacted, bringing the verse’s faithful love into action.
THE PATTERN
The same weather can be directed toward correction, the land’s life, or faithful love.
Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.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.Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.THE THREAD
Who giveth food to all flesh: for his mercy endureth for ever.Job names chesed, faithful love, as one purpose the weather may serve. Psalm 136:25 uses that same word for the enduring care expressed in feeding all flesh.
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