Job 28:26
 Job 28:26 
New International Version (©2011)
when he made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm,

New Living Translation (©2007)
He made the laws for the rain and laid out a path for the lightning.

English Standard Version (©2001)
when he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder,

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
When He set a limit for the rain And a course for the thunderbolt,

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
when He established a limit for the rain and a path for the lightning,

International Standard Version (©2012)
He set in place ordinances for the rain; and determined the pathway for thunder that accompanies lightning.

NET Bible (©2006)
When he imposed a limit for the rain, and a path for the thunderstorm,

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
when he made rules for the rain and set paths for the thunderstorms,

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:

American King James Version
When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:

American Standard Version
When he made a decree for the rain, And a way for the lightning of the thunder;

Douay-Rheims Bible
When he gave a law for the rain, and a way for the sounding storms.

Darby Bible Translation
In appointing a statute for the rain, and a way for the thunder's flash:

English Revised Version
When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:

Webster's Bible Translation
When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:

World English Bible
When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder;

Young's Literal Translation
In His making for the rain a limit, And a way for the brightness of the voices,

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

28:20-28 There is a two-fold wisdom; one hid in God, which is secret, and belongs not to us; the other made known by him, and revealed to man. One day's events, and one man's affairs, have such reference to, and so hang one upon another, that He only, to whom all is open, and who sees the whole at one view, can rightly judge of every part. But the knowledge of God's revealed will is within our reach, and will do us good. Let man look upon this as his wisdom, To fear the Lord, and to depart from evil. Let him learn that, and he is learned enough. Where is this wisdom to be found? The treasures of it are hid in Christ, revealed by the word, received by faith, through the Holy Ghost. It will not feed pride or vanity, or amuse our vain curiosity. It teaches and encourages sinners to fear the Lord, and to depart from evil, in the exercise of repentance and faith, without desiring to solve all difficulties about the events of this life.


Pulpit Commentary

Verse 26. - When he made a decree for the rain. God "made a decree for the rain" when be placed the fall of rain under fixed and unalterable laws. In some countries rainy seasons begin almost regularly on a fixed day in the calendar, while for several months in the year it is almost certain that rain will not fall. Even where there is no such exact regularity as this, the rainfall has its laws, since there are maxima and minima which are never exceeded. And a way for the lightning of the thunder. God gave laws to the electric current, and prescribed the "way" that it should take in its passage from heaven to earth, or from cloud to cloud, or from earth to heaven. Everything was ruled beforehand by Infinite Wisdom.


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder. Decreed within himself that he would give it; for rain is his gift alone, and which none of the vanities of the Gentiles can give, and a wonderful blessing to the earth it is; and which God bestows on all sorts of men, both good and bad, and causes it to fall sometimes on one place and sometimes on another, sometimes in greater, sometimes in lesser showers; and according to his sovereign pleasure he gives or withholds it; the effects of which are quickly seen. Mr. Broughton renders the clause, "he made a bound for the rain, and a way for the lightning of thunder", or "the lightning and the thunder", as Ben Gersom, who thinks the copulative "and", is wanting. Thunder is from God, it is his voice, and the word here used is in the plural number, "voices" (m), signifying various claps of thunder; and lightning generally accompanies it, which, though first perceived, they are both at once the eye doing its office quicker than the ear; and a cloud also is usual; and so some render the word for lightning, as in Zechariah 10:1; it may signify the way of the lightning out of the thunder cloud, and attending claps of thunder; the thunder breaks the cloud and makes a path for the lightning: the Targum is,

"a path for the lightnings, which run with the voices or thunders;''

but, though the course or path the lightning steers is very quick and very extensive from east to west, and cannot be traced by us. God that made it knows it, and he knows the path and place of wisdom. Sephorno interprets this of the thunder and lightnings at the giving of the law, which he understands by wisdom, as do other Jewish writers: Pliny (n) speaks of thunder and lightning as chance matters; but Seneca (o) more truly ascribes them to divine power and Providence, as here.

(m) "vocum", Piscator, Mercerus, Drusius. (n) Nat. Hist. l. 2. c. 43. (o) Nat. Quaest. l. 2. c. 13. 31.


Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

26. The decree regulating at what time and place, and in what quantity, the rain should fall.

a way—through the parted clouds (Job 38:25; Zec 10:1).


Job 28:26 Parallel Commentaries

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Wisdom an Excellent Gift of God
25To make the weight for the winds; and he weighs the waters by measure. 26When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder: 27Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yes, and searched it out.

Job 28:27 then he looked at wisdom and appraised it; he confirmed it and tested it.
Job 37:3 He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven and sends it to the ends of the earth.
Job 37:6 He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth,' and to the rain shower, 'Be a mighty downpour.'
Job 37:11 He loads the clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightning through them.
Job 38:25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm,
Job 38:26 to water a land where no one lives, an uninhabited desert,
Psalm 135:7 He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
Proverbs 8:22 "The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old;