2 Samuel 22:10

22:10 He made the sky sink ¹  as he descended;

a thick cloud was under his feet.

Ayub 22:14

22:14 Thick clouds are a veil for him, so he does not see us, ² 

as he goes back and forth

in the vault ³  of heaven.’ ⁴ 

¹ tn The verb נָטָה (natah) can carry the sense “[to cause to] bend; [to cause to] bow down” (see HALOT 693 s.v. נָטָה). For example, Gen 49:15 pictures Issachar as a donkey that “bends” its shoulder or back under a burden (cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “He bowed the heavens”; NAB “He inclined the heavens”). Here the Lord causes the sky, pictured as a dome or vault, to bend or sink down as he descends in the storm.

² tn Heb “and he does not see.” The implied object is “us.”

³ sn The word is “circle; dome”; here it is the dome that covers the earth, beyond which God sits enthroned. A. B. Davidson (Job, 165) suggests “on the arch of heaven” that covers the earth.

⁴ sn The idea suggested here is that God is not only far off, but he is unconcerned as he strolls around heaven – this is what Eliphaz says Job means.