Job 37:13 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Whether for correction Hebrew, אם לשׁבשׂ, im leshebet, whether for a rod, to scourge or correct men by immoderate showers. The word, however, also means, a tribe, for a certain portion of land, which God intends particularly to favour or punish, in that way. Or for his land Hebrew, לארצו le-artzo, for his earth; the whole earth, which is said to be the Lord's, Psalms 24:1; Psalms 50:12; and so this may denote a general judgment by excessive rains inflicted upon the whole earth, and all its inhabitants, namely, the universal deluge, which came, in a great measure, out of the clouds, and was, in a manner, then fresh in the memories of men. And thus these first two members of the sentence speak of correction, and the last of relief and comfort. Or for mercy For the benefit of mankind, by cooling and cleansing the air, and refreshing and improving all the fruits of the earth. “It seems not improbable to me,” says Bishop Sherlock, “that these reflections arose from the methods made use of by providence (not worn out of memory in the time of the writer of this book) in punishing the old world, in consequence of the curse laid upon the ground. Such methods they are by which the ground may, at any time, be cursed, and the toil and labour of men increased to what degree God thinks fit.”