Job Chapter 38
From The Open Bible Project
38:1 Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,
- (a) That his words might have greater majesty, and that Job might know with whom he had to do.
38:2 "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
- (b) Which by seeking out the secret counsel of God by man�s reason, makes it more obscure, and shows his own folly.
38:3 Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer me!
- (c) Because he wished to dispute with God, (Job 23:3), God reasons with him, to declare his rashness.
38:4 "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.
- (d) Seeing he could not judge those things which were done so long before he was born, he was not able to comprehend all God�s works: much less the secret causes of his judgments.
38:5 Who determined its measures, if you know? Or who stretched the line on it?
38:6 Whereupon were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone,
38:7 when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
- (e) The stars and dumb creatures are said to praise God, because his power, wisdom and goodness is manifest and known in it.
- (f) Meaning the angels.
38:8 "Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth from the womb,
38:9 when I made clouds its garment, and wrapped it in thick darkness,
- (g) As though the great sea was but as a little baby in the hands of God to turn to and fro.
38:10 marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors,
38:11 and said, 'Here you may come, but no further. Here your proud waves shall be stayed?'
- (h) That is, God�s decree and commandment as in (Job 38:10).
38:12 "Have you commanded the morning in your days, and caused the dawn to know its place;
- (i) That is, to rise, since you were born?
38:13 that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and shake the wicked out of it?
- (k) Who having in the night been given to wickedness, cannot abide the light, but hide themselves.
38:14 It is changed as clay under the seal, and stands forth as a garment.
- (l) The earth which seemed in the night to have no form by the rising of the sun, is as it were created anew, and all things in it clad with new beauty.
38:15 From the wicked, their light is withheld. The high arm is broken.
38:16 "Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?
- (m) If you are not able to seek out the depth of the sea, how much less are you able to comprehend the counsel of God?
38:17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
38:18 Have you comprehended the earth in its breadth? Declare, if you know it all.
38:19 "What is the way to the dwelling of light? As for darkness, where is its place,
38:20 that you should take it to its bound, that you should discern the paths to its house?
- (n) That you might appoint its highways and limits.
38:21 Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!
38:22 Have you entered the treasuries of the snow, or have you seen the treasures of the hail,
38:23 which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?
38:24 By what way is the lightning distributed, or the east wind scattered on the earth?
38:25 Who has cut a channel for the flood water, or the path for the thunderstorm;
38:26 To cause it to rain on a land where no man is; on the wilderness, in which there is no man;
38:27 to satisfy the waste and desolate ground, to cause the tender grass to spring forth?
38:28 Does the rain have a father? Or who fathers the drops of dew?
38:29 Out of whose womb came the ice? The gray frost of the sky, who has given birth to it?
38:30 The waters become hard like stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen.
- (p) The ice covers it, as though it were paved with stone.
38:31 "Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion?
- (q) Which rise when the sun is in Taurus, which is the spring, and brings flowers.
- (r) Which comes in winter.
38:32 Can you lead forth the constellations in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?
- (s) Certain stars so called, some think they were the twelve signs.
- (t) The north star with those that are about him.
38:33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish its dominion over the earth?
- (u) Can you cause the heavenly bodies to have any power over the earthly bodies?
38:34 "Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, That abundance of waters may cover you?
38:35 Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go? Do they report to you, 'Here we are?'
38:36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind?
- (x) In the secret parts of man.
38:37 Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the bottles of the sky,
- (y) That is, the clouds in which the water is contained as in bottles.
38:38 when the dust runs into a mass, and the clods of earth stick together?
- (z) For when God does not open these bottles, the earth comes to this inconvenience.
38:39 "Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
- (a) After he had declared God�s works in the heavens, he shows his marvellous providence in earth, even toward the brute beasts.
38:40 when they crouch in their dens, and lie in wait in the thicket?
38:41 Who provides for the raven his prey, when his young ones cry to God, and wander for lack of food?
- (b) Read (Psalms 147:9).
