Job 38

The LORD Challenges Job

1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

2 “Who is this who obscures My counsel by words without knowledge? ^[a]

3 Now brace yourself ^[b] like a man; I will question you, and you shall inform Me. ^[c]

4 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.

5 Who fixed its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched a measuring line across it?

6 On what were its foundations set, or who laid its cornerstone, ^[d]

7 while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

8 Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,

9 when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket,

10 when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors,

11 and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop’?

12 In your days, have you commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place,

13 that it might spread to the ends of the earth and shake the wicked out of it?

14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.

15 Light is withheld from the wicked, and their upraised arm is broken.

16 Have you journeyed to the vents of the sea or walked in the trenches of the deep?

17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

18 Have you surveyed the extent of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this.

19 Where is the way to the home of light? Do you know where darkness resides,

20 so you can lead it back to its border? Do you know the paths to its home?

21 Surely you know, for you were already born! And the number of your days is great!

22 Have you entered the storehouses of snow or observed the storehouses of hail,

23 which I hold in reserve for times of trouble, for the day of war and battle?

24 In which direction is the lightning dispersed, or the east wind scattered over the earth?

25 Who cuts a channel for the flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt,

26 to bring rain on a barren land, on a desert where no man lives,

27 to satisfy the parched wasteland and make it sprout with tender grass?

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

29 From whose womb does the ice emerge? Who gives birth to the frost from heaven,

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

31 Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?

32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons ^[e] or lead out the Bear ^[f] and her cubs?

33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth?

34 Can you command the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?

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

36 Who has put wisdom in the heart ^[g] or given understanding to the mind?

37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens

38 when the dust hardens into a mass and the clods of earth stick together?

39 Can you hunt the prey for a lioness or satisfy the hunger of young lions

40 when they crouch in their dens and lie in wait in the thicket?

41 Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God as they wander about 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]. Cited in Job 42:3
• [b]. Hebrew gird up your loins
• [c]. Cited in Job 42:4
• [d]. Or who set its core in place
• [e]. Or bring forth Mazzaroth in its season
• [f]. Or Leo or Arcturus
• [g]. Or Who has given the ibis wisdom, that is, wisdom about the flooding of the Nile

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.