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Job 38

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The Lord Speaks

1 Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind.[a] He said:
2 Who is this who obscures [My] counsel with ignorant words?[b]
3 Get ready to answer Me like a man; when I question you, you will inform Me.[c]
4 Where were you when I established[d] the earth? Tell [Me], if you have[e] understanding.
5 Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 What supports its foundations? Or who laid its cornerstone
7 while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God[f] shouted for joy?
8 Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst from the womb,
9 when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket,[g][h]
10 when I determined its boundaries[i] and put [its] bars and doors in place,
11 when I declared: "You may come this far, but no farther; your proud waves stop here"?
12 Have you ever in your life commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place,
13 so it may seize the edges of the earth and shake the wicked out of it?
14 The earth is changed as clay is by a seal; [its hills] stand out like [the folds of] a garment.
15 Light[j] is withheld from the wicked, and the arm raised [in violence] is broken.
16 Have you traveled to the sources of the sea or walked in the depths of the oceans?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of death's shadow?[k]
18 Have you comprehended the extent of the earth? Tell [Me], if you know all this.
19 Where is the road to the home of light? [Do you know] where darkness lives,[l]
20 so you can lead it back to its border? Are you familiar with the paths to its home?
21 Don't you know? You were already born;[m] you have lived so long![n]
22 Have you entered the [place] where the snow is stored? Or have you seen the storehouses of hail,[o]
23 which I hold in reserve for times of trouble, for the day of warfare and battle?[p]
24 What road leads to [the place] where light is dispersed?[q] [Where is the source of] the east wind that spreads across the earth?[r]
25 Who cuts a channel for the flooding rain[s] or clears the way for lightning,
26 to bring rain on an uninhabited land, [on] a desert with no human life,[t]
27 to satisfy the parched wasteland and cause the grass to sprout?[u]
28 Does the rain have a father? Who fathered the drops of dew?[v]
29 Whose womb did the ice come from? Who gave birth to the frost of heaven[w]
30 when water becomes as hard as stone,[x] and the surface of the watery depths is frozen?
31 Can you fasten the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?
32 Can you bring out the constellations[y] in their season and lead the Bear[z] and her cubs?[aa]
33 Do you know the laws of heaven? Can you impose its[ab] authority on earth?[ac]
34 Can you command[ad] the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?[ae]
35 Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go?[af] Do they report to you: "Here we are"?
36 Who put wisdom in the heart[ag] or gave the mind understanding?[ah]
37 Who has the wisdom to number the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of heaven
38 when the dust hardens like cast metal[ai] and the clods [of dirt] stick together?
39 Can you hunt prey for a lioness or satisfy the appetite of young lions
40 when they crouch in their dens and lie in wait within their lairs?[aj]
41 Who provides the raven's food[ak] when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?
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Job 38:4

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.

Taken from Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise)

Footnotes 37

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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Job 38 Commentaries

Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.