Giobbe 37:9

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: Genesi 43:30; Giudici 16:9, Giudici 16:12.

Hence, it means a bed-chamber, 2 Samuele 4:7, or a female apartment or harem, Cantico dei Cantici 1:4; Cantico dei Cantici 3:4.

In Giobbe 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 Giobbe 37:5.

There are frequent allusions in the Scriptures to the fact that whirlwinds come from the South; see the notes at Isaia 21:1; compare Zaccaria 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 Giobbe 1:19, note; Giobbe 30:22, note.

And cold out of the north - Margin, “scattering” winds. The Hebrew word used here (מזרים m^ezâriym) 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.

Probabilmente il riferimento è al vento del nord come spargimento di neve o grandine sul terreno. I venti caldi provengono da sud; ma quelli che disperdono la neve, e sono fonte di freddo, vengono dal nord. In tutti i luoghi a nord dell'equatore è vero che i venti del quarto settentrionale sono la fonte del freddo. L'idea di Elihu è che tutte queste cose sono sotto il controllo di Dio e che queste varie disposizioni per il caldo e il freddo sono prove evidenti della sua grandezza.