Job 38:20

20 Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings?

Job 38:20 in Other Translations

KJV
20 That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof?
ESV
20 that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home?
NLT
20 Can you take each to its home? Do you know how to get there?
MSG
20 So you can take them by the hand and lead them home when they get lost?
CSB
20 so you can lead it back to its border? Are you familiar with the paths to its home?

Job 38:20 Meaning and Commentary

Job 38:20

That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof
Either darkness, or rather the light; take it as it were by the hand, and guide and direct its course to its utmost bound. This only the Lord can do and does: he has set a tabernacle for the sun, which goes forth at his command as a strong man to run a race; whose going forth is from the end of the heavens, and his circuit unto the ends of it: in which his course is so steered and directed by the Lord, that he never misses his way or errs from it; but keeps his path exactly, as well as knows its rising and setting, its utmost bounds;

and that thou shouldest know the paths [to] the house thereof?
from whence it sets out, and whither it returns; see ( Psalms 19:4-6 ) . And so the light and darkness of prosperity and adversity, as well as natural light and darkness, are of God, at his disposal, and bounded by him, and therefore his will should be submitted to; which is the doctrine the Lord would teach Job by all this.

Job 38:20 In-Context

18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.
19 “What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside?
20 Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
21 Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!
22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail,

Cross References 1

  • 1. S Job 24:13; Job 26:10
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