Do you know the balancings of the clouds…?: balancings translates a word that occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament. A verb root with the same consonants meaning “equalize, balance” suggests the rendering of Revised Standard Version. However, balancings of the clouds does not give a clear picture of cloud activity, and so Good News Translation “float in the sky” is probably the intended idea. Wondrous works differs from the same wording used in verse 14 by only one letter and is best taken as a variation without trying to change it to something else. The expression is sometimes rendered “miracle” and refers to the activity in line a, as Good News Translation makes clear: “the work of God’s amazing skill.” Perfect in knowledge is the way Elihu modestly describes himself in 36.4. Here the expression applies to God.

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 .