Bible Strands
Job 37:13
Whether for punishment or for His land, He accomplishes this in His loving devotion.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Elihu addresses Job to explain God’s sovereign control over the storm, immediately after describing how the clouds obey His command and immediately before urging Job to listen and consider God’s wonders.
The words — The Hebrew terms שֵׁבֶט (Shevet, “rod”) and חֶסֶד (Chesed, “covenant loyalty”) frame the verse’s contrast between judgment and mercy, while אִם ('im, “whether” or “or”) introduces the threefold purpose.
The thread — This theme of God directing atmospheric phenomena appears in 1 Kings 18:45 and 1 Samuel 12:18, where thunder and rain accompany divine action, and in Job 38:26, where rain falls on unpopulated land to fulfill His purpose.
Why it lands — The text states that God orchestrates weather for discipline, for the earth’s benefit, or for mercy, and it requires the reader to acknowledge His absolute authority over creation and to heed His works without presumption.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 18:45 Meanwhile, the sky grew dark with clouds and wind, and a heavy rain began to fall. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel.
- 1 Samuel 12:18 So Samuel called to the LORD, and on that day the LORD sent thunder and rain. As a result, all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel.
- Job 38:26 to bring rain on a barren land, on a desert where no man lives,
- Job 36:31 For by these He judges the nations and provides food in abundance.
- Exodus 9:18 Behold, at this time tomorrow I will rain down the worst hail that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded until now.
- 2 Samuel 21:10 And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest until the rain from heaven poured down on the bodies, she did not allow the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.
- Ezra 10:9 So within the three days, all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled in Jerusalem, and on the twentieth day of the ninth month, all the people sat in the square at the house of God, trembling regarding this matter and because of the heavy rain.
- Job 37:6 For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the gentle rain, ‘Pour out a mighty downpour.’
- Job 38:37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens
- 2 Samuel 21:14 And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in Zela in the land of Benjamin, in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish. After they had done everything the king had commanded, God answered their prayers for the land.