Job 38:21

21 Gij weet het, want gij waart toen geboren, en uw dagen zijn veel in getal.

Job 38:21 Meaning and Commentary

Job 38:21

Knowest thou [it], because thou wast then born?
&c.] When light and darkness were first separated, and had their several apartments assigned them; their laws and rules given them, and their bounds and limits set them? No; he was not: and, had he been the first man, could not have been early enough to have been present at the doing of this, and so come at the knowledge thereof; since man was not made until the sixth day of the creation;

or [because] the number of thy days [is] great;
reach to the beginning of time, and so as old as the creation. This was not the case. Some understand these words ironically; "thou knowest" the places and bounds of light and darkness, since thou art a very old man, born as soon as the world was. Whereas he was of yesterday, and knew nothing; which to convince him of is the design of this biting, cutting, expression. The Targum is,

``didst thou know then that thou shouldest be born, and the number of thy days many?''

No, Job did not know when he was born, nor of whom, and in what circumstances, but by the relation of others; and much less could he know before he was born, that he should be, or how long he should live in the world: but God knows all this beforehand; when men shall come into the world, at what period and of what parents, and how long they shall continue in it.

Job 38:21 In-Context

19 Waar is de weg, daar het licht woont? En de duisternis, waar is haar plaats?
20 Dat gij dat brengen zoudt tot zijn pale, en dat gij merken zoudt de paden zijns huizes?
21 Gij weet het, want gij waart toen geboren, en uw dagen zijn veel in getal.
22 Zijt gij gekomen tot de schatkameren der sneeuw, en hebt gij de schatkameren des hagels gezien?
23 Dien Ik ophoude tot den tijd der benauwdheid, tot den dag des strijds en des oorlogs!
The Dutch Staten Vertaling translation is in the public domain.