Elihu continues his praise of God and announces that God approaches from out of the North wind:
But to preclude one from believing that the knowledge of divine truth must be withdrawn from man forever he says, “But now,” in the present time, “they (men) do not see the light,” which is the clarity of divine knowledge. Yet he proclaims to the friend of God that, “he can ascend to this light” at some time as he already said. (36:33) He introduces a comparison for this, “The air will be suddenly compressed into clouds,” because of the grouping together of water vapors from the South, and because of this the air is darkened. But darkness of this kind passes away after a little while when the clouds have been broken up, and so he says, “and the wind, when it passes,” i.e., the north wind, “will chase the clouds away.” By this he means: In this way, although now he is enveloped in the darkness, yet when death comes, it will put this darkness to flight like the changing of the wind.
Sometimes shiny objects are discovered in dark places. The Northern region is called dark because of its distance from the sun, and yet much gold is discovered in Northern regions which is one of the most glittering metals. This is caused by heat withdrawing deep into the inner bowels of the earth, because of the chill of the all-encompassing air, it works more efficaciously there to produce gold,, and so he says, “Gold will be produced by the wind,” as if to say: Gold is more plentiful in the part of the earth blown by the North wind. Just as in the darkness of the Northern region one finds the brilliance of gold, so also in the darkness of the ignorance of this life one finds some of the brightness of divine knowledge, though darkly, and so he says, “and fearful praise from God.” For if nothing of divine clarity shone in us, we could in no way praise him. Even more, if the divine truth shone clearly to us as the noon day sun, we would praise him carelessly. But since something of the divine light shines in our knowledge with some darkness, we praise him with dread, as a man does something with dread which he knows he cannot do perfectly. So he says, “We cannot find him worthily,” so as to come to know him as he is through our own investigation. This is because of his excellence, and so he says, “he is great in might,” for his power infinitely exceeds all his effects, and so he cannot be fittingly found through them. He answers the objection that God uses only violence because of the greatness of his power in governing man saying “and with right judgment,” for he is great, because, “His judgments are incomprehensible.” (Rom. 11:33) Nor is this due to a lack of justice, but to the excellence of his justice. and so he says, he is great in “justice”. Because of his greatness we can neither sufficiently conceive him with our mind nor sufficiently praise him with our mouth, and so he says, “and he cannot be explained,” fittingly by man. This is the reason why his praise is dreadful, and so he then says, “Therefore men”, no matter how powerful they are, “will fear him” because of the greatness of his power, “and they will not dare to contemplate him,” i.e., presume to know him fully, “all those who seem to themselves to be wise.” He says this clearly because the wisdom of a man, however great it may seem to himself or to others, is as nothing compared to divine wisdom.
Go here to read the rest. Job has been begging God to answer him, raising questions too great for Man, and God is about to make His appearance.
