Job 28:26

When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder.

When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder: The decree regulating at what time and place, and in what quantity, the rain should fall.

When he made; which was either from eternity, or at the first creation, when he settled that course and order which should afterwards be continued. Or, when he maketh: but our translation seems best to suit with the then in the next verse, where the sense is completed. Decree for the rain; an appointment, and as it were a statute law, that it should fall upon the earth, and that in such times, and places, and proportions, and manner as he should think fit, either for correction or for mercy, as Elihu speaks, . A way, or path, how it should get out of the thick cloud, in which it was shut up, and as it were imprisoned; or, a course, which should for the future be observed, as to the time, and measure, and ends, and other circumstances belonging to it.

Job 28:26 When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:Ver. 26. When he made a decree for the rain] And hence it is that it raineth upon one city, and not upon another, Amos 4:7. The rise of rain out of vapours drawn up from the earth by the heat of the sun, and the generation of it in the clouds, is no less wonderful than the use of it is necessary for the refreshing and fattening of the earth; allaying the heat, and nourishing the herb and tree, &c. These showers may seem to arise and be carried up and down at random, and without a law; but Job assureth us that God maketh a decree, a statute, or a bound for them, and that he gives or withholds rain at his pleasure. And a way for the lightning of the thunder] Or, for the lightning and the thunder. In both which there is much of God to be seen and heard; these being the harbingers, as it were, and officers to make room for him, and to manifest his power, which the greatest must acknowledge, Psalms 29:1-2, and the saints must take comfort in, Job 28:11. As for those impious wretches, that slight these wonderful works of Almighty God, and speak basely of them (as he of whom Mr Perkins somewhere writeth, that hearing it thunder, said it was nothing but Tom Tumbrel a hooping his tubs, and was thereupon killed with a thunder bolt; and those old Italians that used, in time of thunder, to ring their greatest bells, and shoot off their greatest ordinance, &c., on purpose to drown the noise of the heavens); as they are worse than Pharaoh and Caligula, and other heathens, who styled their chief god Altitonans, the high thunderer; so they shall one day see the Lord Christ suddenly coming upon them as lightning, and dreadfully thundering out that dismal Discedite , Go, ye cursed.

Verse 26. When he made a decree for the rain] When he determined how that should be generated, viz., By the heat of the sun evaporation is produced: the particles of vapour being lighter than the air on the surface, ascend into the atmosphere, till they come to a region where the air is of their own density; there they are formed into thin clouds, and become suspended. When, by the sudden passages of lightning, or by winds strongly agitating these clouds, the particles are driven together and condensed so as to be weightier than the air in which they float, then they fall down in the form of rain; the drops being greater or less according to the force or momentum, or suddenness, of the agitation by which they are driven together as well as to the degree of rarity in the lower regions of the atmosphere through which they fall. A way for the lightning of the thunder] ודרך לחזיז קולות vederech lachaziz koloth. קול kol signifies voice of any kind; and koloth is the plural and is taken for the frequent claps or rattlings of thunder. חז chaz signifies to notch, indentate, or serrate, as in the edges of the leaves of trees; חזיז chaziz must refer to the zigzag form which lightning assumes in passing from one cloud into another. We are informed that "this is a frequent occurrence in hot countries." Undoubtedly it is; for it is frequent in cold countries also. I have seen this phenomenon in England in the most distinct manner for hours together, with a few seconds of interval between each flash. Nothing can better express this appearance than the original word.

23–28. Wisdom can nowhere be found either by man or by any creature (Job 28:21), only by the Creator. God knoweth the place of it and is in possession of it, for He is the maker and upholder of the universe with all its agencies. And He has assigned to man as his wisdom the fear of the Lord.

When he made a decree for the rain - A statute or law (חק chôq) by which the rain is regulated. It is not sent by chance or hap-hazard. It is under the operation of regular and settled laws.

26. A decree — A law. Thunder — Hebrew, Voices. Thunder was the voice of God. Psalms 29:3. The manifestation of the divine presence was frequently attested by thunder.