Job 38

Yahweh Challenges Job

1 Then Yahweh answered Job from the storm, and he said,

2 "Who [is] this darkening counsel by words without knowledge?

3 {Prepare yourself for a difficult task like a man}, and I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

Yahweh Interrogates Job

4 "Where were you at my laying the foundation of [the] earth? Tell [me], if you possess understanding.

5 Who determined its measurement? Yes, you do know. Or who stretched [the] measuring line upon it?

6 On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone,

7 when [the] morning stars were singing together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

8 "Or [who] shut [the] sea in with doors at its bursting, [when] it went out of [the] womb,

9 at my making [the] clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band,

10 and I prescribed my rule for it, and I set bars and doors,

11 and I said, 'You shall come up to here, but you shall not go further, and here it will set [a boundary] {for your proud surging waves}'?

12 "Have you {ever in your life} commanded [the] morning? Have you made the dawn know its place,

13 to take hold of the earth's skirts so that the wicked might be shaken off from it?

14 It is changed like clay [under] a seal, and they appear like a garment.

15 And their light is withheld from [the] wicked, and [their] uplifted arm is broken.

16 "Have you entered into [the] sea's sources? Or have you walked around in [the] recesses of the deep?

17 Have [the] gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen [the] gates of deep shadow?

18 Have you considered closely [the] earth's vast expanse? Declare [it], if you know all of it.

19 "Where then [is] the way [where] [the] light dwells? And where then [is] its place,

20 that you may take it to its territory, and that you might discern the paths to its home?

21 You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days [is] great.

22 Have you entered into [the] storehouses of [the] snow, or have you seen [the] storehouses of [the] hail,

23 which I have reserved for [the] time of trouble, for [the] day of battle and war?

24 Where then [is] the way [where] [the] light is distributed, [where] he scatters [the] east wind upon [the] earth?

25 "Who has cut open a channel for the torrents and a way for [the] {thunder bolts},

26 to bring rain on a land {where no one lives}, a desert {where no humans live},

27 to satisfy desert and wasteland, and to cause [the ground] to put forth [the] rising of grass?

28 Is there a father for the rain, or who fathered [the] drops of dew?

29 From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who fathered [the] frost of heaven?

30 Like stone [the] waters become hard, and [the] faces of the deep freeze.

31 "Can you bind [the] chains of [the] Pleiades, or can you loosen [the] cords of Orion?

32 Can you lead forth the southern constellations at their appointed time, or can you lead [the] Bear with its children?

33 Do you know heaven's statutes, or can you establish their rule on the earth?

34 Can you lift up your voice to the clouds so that a flood of water may cover you?

35 Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go? And will they say to you, 'Here we are'?

36 Who has put wisdom in the ibis, or who has given understanding to the rooster?

37 Who can number [the] clouds with wisdom? Or who can tilt heaven's jars,

38 at [the] flowing of [the] dust into a cast and [the] clods cling together?

39 "Can you hunt prey for [the] lion? And can you satisfy [the] hunger of strong lions

40 when they are crouched in the dens, [when] they lie in the thicket in an ambush?

41 Who prepares for the crow its prey, when its young ones cry to God for help, [and] they wander around {for lack of food}?

Job 38 Commentary

Chapter 38

God calls upon Job to answer. (1-3) God questions Job. (4-11) Concerning the light and darkness. (12-24) Concerning other mighty works. (25-41)

Verses 1-3 Job had silenced, but had not convinced his friends. Elihu had silenced Job, but had not brought him to admit his guilt before God. It pleased the Lord to interpose. The Lord, in this discourse, humbles Job, and brings him to repent of his passionate expressions concerning God's providential dealings with him; and this he does, by calling upon Job to compare God's being from everlasting to everlasting, with his own time; God's knowledge of all things, with his own ignorance; and God's almighty power, with his own weakness. Our darkening the counsels of God's wisdom with our folly, is a great provocation to God. Humble faith and sincere obedience see farthest and best into the will of the Lord.

Verses 4-11 For the humbling of Job, God here shows him his ignorance, even concerning the earth and the sea. As we cannot find fault with God's work, so we need not fear concerning it. The works of his providence, as well as the work of creation, never can be broken; and the work of redemption is no less firm, of which Christ himself is both the Foundation and the Corner-stone. The church stands as firm as the earth.

Verses 12-24 The Lord questions Job, to convince him of his ignorance, and shame him for his folly in prescribing to God. If we thus try ourselves, we shall soon be brought to own that what we know is nothing in comparison with what we know not. By the tender mercy of our God, the Day-spring from on high has visited us, to give light to those that sit in darkness, whose hearts are ( 2 Corinthians. 4:6 ) government of the world is said to be in the sea; this means, that it is hid from us. Let us make sure that the gates of heaven shall be opened to us on the other side of death, and then we need not fear the opening of the gates of death. It is presumptuous for us, who perceive not the breadth of the earth, to dive into the depth of God's counsels. We should neither in the brightest noon count upon perpetual day, nor in the darkest midnight despair of the return of the morning; and this applies to our inward as well as to our outward condition. What folly it is to strive against God! How much is it our interest to seek peace with him, and to keep in his love!

Verses 25-41 Hitherto God had put questions to Job to show him his ignorance; now God shows his weakness. As it is but little that he knows, he ought not to arraign the Divine counsels; it is but little he can do, therefore he ought not to oppose the ways of Providence. See the all-sufficiency of the Divine Providence; it has wherewithal to satisfy the desire of every living thing. And he that takes care of the young ravens, certainly will not be wanting to his people. This being but one instance of the Divine compassion out of many, gives us occasion to think how much good our God does, every day, beyond what we are aware of. Every view we take of his infinite perfections, should remind us of his right to our love, the evil of sinning against him, and our need of his mercy and salvation.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew "And"
• [b]. Literally "Gird up like a man your loins"
• [c]. Or "heavenly beings"
• [d]. Hebrew "and"
• [e]. Literally "for [the] pride of your surging waves"
• [f]. Literally "from your days"
• [g]. Hebrew "and"
• [h]. Or "Where exactly"
• [i]. Or "where exactly"
• [j]. Hebrew "and"
• [k]. Or "Where exactly"
• [l]. Literally "bolt of thunders"
• [m]. Literally "not a man"
• [n]. Literally "not humans in it"
• [o]. Hebrew "and"
• [p]. Hebrew "and"
• [q]. Or "inner parts"
• [r]. Or "mind"
• [s]. Hebrew "And"
• [t]. Literally "for no food"

Chapter Summary

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.