Job 38:35
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Can you send lightning, that they may go and say to you, Here we are?
American King James Version (AKJV)
Can you send lightning, that they may go and say to you, Here we are?
American Standard Version (ASV)
Canst thou send forth lightnings, that they may go, And say unto thee, Here we are?
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Do you send out the thunder-flames, so that they may go, and say to you, Here we are?
Webster's Revision
Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say to thee, Here we are?
World English Bible
Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go? Do they report to you, 'Here we are?'
English Revised Version (ERV)
Canst thou send forth lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are?
Clarke's Job 38:35 Bible Commentary
Canst thou send lightnings - We have already seen that the lightning is supposed to be immediately in the hand and under the management of God. The great god of the heathen, Jupiter Brontes, is represented with the forked lightnings and thunderbolt in his hand. He seems so to grasp the bickering flame that, though it struggles for liberty, it cannot escape from his hold. Lightnings - How much like the sound of thunder is the original word: ברכים Berakim! Here are both sense and sound.
Here we are? - Will the winged lightnings be thy messengers, as they are mine?
Barnes's Job 38:35 Bible Commentary
Canst thou send lightnings? - That is, lightning is wholly under the control of God. So it is now; for after all that man has done to discover its laws, and to guard against it, yet still man has made no advances toward a power to wield it, nor is it possible that he ever should. It is one of the agencies in the universe that is always to be under the divine direction, and however much man may subsidize to his purposes wind, and water, and steam, and air, yet there can be no prospect that the forked lightning can be seized by human hands and directed by human skill to purposes of utility or destruction among people; compare the notes at Job 36:31-33.
And say unto thee, Here we are - Margin, "Behold us." That is, we are at your disposal. This language is derived from the condition, of servants presenting themselves at the call of their masters, and saying that they stood ready to obey their commands; compare 1 Samuel 3:4, 1 Samuel 3:6,1 Samuel 3:9; Isaiah 6:8.