Job 38:25-38

25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm,

26 to water a land where no one lives, an uninhabited desert,

27 to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?

28 Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew?

29 From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens

30 when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?

31 “Can you bind the chains^[a] of the Pleiades? Can you loosen Orion’s belt?

32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons^[b]or lead out the Bear^[c] with its cubs?

33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s^[d] dominion over the earth?

34 “Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water?

35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?

36 Who gives the ibis wisdom^[e]or gives the rooster understanding?^[f]

37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens

38 when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together?

Job 38:25-38 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 38

In this chapter the Lord takes up the controversy with Job; calls upon him to prepare to engage with him in it, and demands an answer to posing questions he puts to him, concerning the earth and the fabric of it, Job 38:1-7; concerning the sea, compared to an infant in embryo, at its birth, in its swaddling bands and cradle, Job 38:8-11; concerning the morning light, its spread and influence, Job 38:12-15; concerning the springs of the sea, the dark parts of the earth, the place both of light and darkness, Job 38:16-21; concerning the various meteors, snow, hail, rain, thunder, lightning, and the influences of the stars, Job 38:22-38; and concerning provision for lions and ravens, Job 38:40,41.

Cross References

• 1. Job 28:26
• 2. Job 36:27
• 3. Psalms 84:6; Psalms 107:35; Isaiah 41:18
• 4. S Job 28:26; S Job 37:13; S Psalms 104:14; Psalms 107:35
• 5. S 2 Samuel 1:21; S Job 5:10; Psalms 147:8; Jeremiah 14:22
• 6. Psalms 147:16-17
• 7. Job 37:10
• 8. Job 9:9; Amos 5:8
• 9. 2 Kings 23:5; Isaiah 13:10; Isaiah 40:26; Isaiah 45:12; Jeremiah 19:13
• 10. S Genesis 1:16
• 11. Psalms 148:6; Jeremiah 31:36
• 12. S Genesis 1:16
• 13. S Job 5:10; S Job 22:11; Job 36:27-28
• 14. S Job 36:32; Job 37:3
• 15. S Job 9:4; S Job 34:32; James 1:5
• 16. S Job 12:13; Job 32:8; Psalms 51:6; Ecclesiastes 2:26
• 17. S Joshua 3:16
• 18. S Job 22:11
• 19. S Leviticus 26:19
• 20. 1 Kings 18:45

Footnotes

• [a]. Septuagint; Hebrew "beauty"
• [b]. Or "the morning star in its season"
• [c]. Or "out Leo"
• [d]. Or "their"
• [e]. That is, wisdom about the flooding of the Nile
• [f]. That is, understanding of when to crow; the meaning of the Hebrew for this verse is uncertain.