Job 37:9

Out of the south cometh the whirlwind - See the note on Job 9:9. What is rendered south here, is there rendered chambers. Mr. Good translates here, the utmost zone. The Chaldee: - "From the supreme chamber the commotion shall come; and from the cataracts of Arcturus the cold." What the whirlwind, סופה suphah, is, we know not. It might have been a wind peculiar to that district; and it is very possible that it was a scorching wind, something like the simoom.

Out of the south - Margin, "chamber." Jerome, "ab interioribus - from the interior," or "inner places." Septuagint, ἐκ ταυείων ek taueiōn - "from their chambers issue sorrows" - ὀωύνας othunas. The Hebrew word used here (חדר cheder) denotes properly "an apartment," or "chamber," especially an inner apartment, or a chamber in the interior of a house or tent: Genesis 43:30; Judges 16:9, Judges 16:12. Hence, it means a bed-chamber, 2 Samuel 4:7, or a female apartment or harem, Sol 1:4; Sol 3:4. In Job 9:9, it is connected with the "south" - "the chambers of the south" (see the notes at that place), and means some remote, hidden regions in that quarter. There can be little doubt that the word "south "is here also to be understood, as it stands in contrast with a word which properly denotes the north. Still there may have been reference to a supposed opinion that whirlwinds had their origin in deep, hollow caves, and that they were owing to the winds which were supposed to be pent up there, and which raged tumultuously until they broke open the doors of their prison, and then poured forth with violence over the earth; compare the description of the storm in Virgil, as quoted above in Job 37:5. There are frequent allusions in the Scriptures to the fact that whirlwinds come from the South; see the notes at Isaiah 21:1; compare Zechariah 9:14. Savary says of the south wind, which blows in Egypt from February to May, that it fills the atmosphere with a fine dust, rendering breathing difficult, and that it is filled with an injurious vapor. Sometimes it appears in the form of a furious whirlwind, which advances with great rapidity, and which is highly dangerous to those who traverse the desert. It drives before it clouds of burning sand; the horizon appears covered with a thick veil, and the sun appears red as blood. Occasionally whole caravans are buried by it in the sand. It is possible that there may be reference to such a whirlwind in the passage before us; compare Burder, in Rosenmuller's Alte u. neue Morgenland. No. 765.

The whirlwind - See Job 1:19, note; Job 30:22, note.

And cold out of the north - Margin, "scattering" winds. The Hebrew word used here (מזרים mezâriym) means literally, "the scattering," and is hence used for the north winds, says Gesenius which scatter the clouds, and bring severe cold. Umbreit thinks the word is used to denote the north, because we seem to see the north winds strewed on the clouds. Probably the reference is to the north wind as scattering the snow or hail on the ground. Heated winds come from the south; but those which scatter the snow, and are the source of cold, come from the north. In all places north of the equator it is true that the winds from the northern quarter are the source of cold. The idea of Elihu is, that all these things are under the control of God, and that these various arrangements for heat and cold are striking proofs of his greatness.

37:9 Cold - Freezing winds.