Job 38:24

24 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?

Job 38:24 in Other Translations

KJV
24 By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?
ESV
24 What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?
NLT
24 Where is the path to the source of light? Where is the home of the east wind?
MSG
24 Can you find your way to where lightning is launched, or to the place from which the wind blows?
CSB
24 What road leads to [the place] where light is dispersed? [Where is the source of] the east wind that spreads across the earth?

Job 38:24 Meaning and Commentary

Job 38:24

By what way is the light parted
That is, dost thou know by what way it is parted or divided? as at the first creation, when God divided the light from darkness, ( Genesis 1:4 ) ; or at sun rising and sun setting; and so in the two hemispheres, when there is darkness on the one, and light on the other; or under the two poles, when there are interchangeably six months light and six months darkness. Or how it is parted in an unequal distribution of day and night, at different seasons and in different climates; or how on one and the same day, and at the same time, the sun shall shine in one part of the earth, and not another; and more especially if this had been now a fact, and known, that there should be darkness all over the land of Egypt, and light in Goshen. Some understand this of lightning, but that is later mentioned;

[which] scattereth the east wind upon the earth?
that rising sometimes with the sun, or first spring of light; see ( Jonah 4:8 ) ; or which light spreads and diffuses itself "from the east", as it may be rendered. The sun rises in the east, and in a very quick and surprising manner spreads and diffuses its light throughout the hemisphere. Or this may respect the east wind itself, which scatters the clouds; and either spreads them in the heavens over the earth, or disperses them and drives away rain F24, as the north wind does: or as Mr. Broughton renders the words, "and the east wind scattereth itself over the earth"; it blowing invisibly and without our knowledge, goes and returns as other winds do, ( John 3:8 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F24 "Agente nimbos ocyor euro". Horat. Carmin. l. 2. Ode 16.

Job 38:24 In-Context

22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail,
23 which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle?
24 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
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,

Cross References 3

  • 1. S Job 28:24
  • 2. S Job 27:21
  • 3. Jeremiah 10:13; Jeremiah 51:16
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