Job 38:25

δ . Who formed the heavenly conduits, through which the water torrents flow? and who providentially guides the thunderbolt, so that untenanted wastes and the thirsty wilderness are blessed? Job 38:25-27.

25. Overflowing of waters The rain falls in such immense masses that the sky seems to overflow. Some one’s mind directs, as through aqueducts, these outpourings (literally, “the water gush” of the sky) which inundate specific regions, and even those unoccupied by man.

A way for the lightning of thunder The Hebrew is verbatim the same as in Job 28:26, on which see note. Thunder is now generally regarded as the result of the sudden re-entrance of the air into a void space, as in the experiment of a bladder tied over an open-mouthed receiver, and burst by the pressure of the external air. This vacuum is supposed to be generated by the lightning in its passage through the air. Electricity communicates a powerful repulsive force to the particles of air along the path of its discharge, producing thus a momentary void, into which immediately afterward the surrounding air rushes with a violence proportioned to the intensity of the electricity. LOOMIS’ Meteorology, p. 168. Dr. Clarke (Com., in loc.) gives a dissertation on the connexion between thunder and rain.