Verses 11 and 12 refer to the action of the clouds and so may be treated together. Good News Translation notes that in Hebrew verse 11 is unclear. Good News Translation assumes the sense of the two lines is the same and so combines them.
He loads the thick cloud with moisture: He loads occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible, and its meaning is uncertain, but in Isaiah 1.14 there is a corresponding noun form meaning “burden,” and so He loads is likely the sense. Moisture translates a Hebrew word which occurs only here and whose meaning is uncertain. The word seems to be clearly parallel to “his light” in line b, but other suggestions for its meaning are “hail” and “lightning.”
The clouds scatter his lightning: as in 36.32; 37.3, the Hebrew for “light” is generally understood here to mean lightning. Good News Translation‘s single-line translation is adequate to represent line a, but for line b something like Revised Standard Version should be followed. It is apparent from the uncertainties in the Hebrew text that the translation of these two verses will remain doubtful. However, here are two models which may be suggested for verse 11: “God fills the clouds with rain and sends them out full of lightning” or “God fills the clouds with lightning and sends them flashing everywhere.”
They turn round and round by his guidance describes how these natural forces obey God’s commands. Good News Translation links verse 12 to verse 11, making the clouds in verse 11 the subject of the verb “move” in verse 12a. According to Rowley the sense of verse 12a is “The cloud goes round in circles, wheeling about according to his plans.” The word translated turn round is the same as that used to describe the turning round of the flaming sword in Genesis 3.24. By his guidance means “according to his plans or purposes.”
To accomplish all that he commands them: that is, “they do all that God commands them to do.” On the face of the habitable world is literally “on the face of the world the earth.” The phrase translated the habitable world occurs elsewhere only in Proverbs 8.31. However, the sense of the full expression is as in Good News Translation, “throughout the world,” or as Bible en français courant says more broadly, “in the universe.” Verse 12 may also be rendered, for example, “The clouds whirl about as God directs them; they obey God’s commands throughout the whole world” or “God sends the clouds whirling around; they obey him everywhere they go.”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .