He made darkness his secret place; his canopy round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
12. "And hath made darkness His hiding place" (ver. 11). And hath settled the obscurity of the Sacraments, and the hidden hope in the heart of believers, where He may lie hid, and not abandon them. In this darkness too, wherein "we yet walk by faith, and not by sight," as long as "we hope for what we see not, and with patience wait for it." Round about Him is His tabernacle." Yet they that believe Him turn to Him and encircle Him; for that He is in the midst of them, since He is equally the friend of all, in whom as in a tabernacle He at this time dwells. "Dark water in clouds of air." Nor let any one on this account, if he understand the Scripture, imagine that he is already in that light, which will be when we shall have come out of faith into sight: for in the prophets and in all the preachers of the word of God there is obscure teaching.
Pavilion. Job xxii. 14., and xxvi. 9. The Jews had this idea of God's throne, of which we behold only the less brilliant side, as the Egyptians did that of the cloud, Exodus xiv. 19. The poets represent Jupiter surrounded with clouds and darkness. (Hesiod, op. 125 and 255.; Homer, Iliad O.)
Air. The parallel passage, (2 Kings) seems more accurate. Dropping waters out of the clouds of the heavens. Hebrew, "waters bound up in darksome clouds. "(Calmet)
God is incomprehensible in himself, and his counsels are inscrutable. (Worthington)
