Job 38:1-18

The LORD Speaks

1 Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:

2 “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?

3 Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.

4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.

5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?

6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—

7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels^[a] shouted for joy?

8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,

9 when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness,

10 when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place,

11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’?

12 “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place,

13 that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?

14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment.

15 The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken.

16 “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?

17 Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?

18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.

Job 38:1-18 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Cross References

• 1. S Job 11:5
• 2. S Exodus 14:21; S 1 Samuel 2:10; Job 40:6; Isaiah 21:1; Ezekiel 1:4
• 3. S 1 Kings 22:5; Isaiah 40:13
• 4. Job 35:16; Job 42:3; S Job 34:35; Mark 10:38; 1 Timothy 1:7
• 5. Job 40:7; Job 42:4; Mark 11:29
• 6. S ver 5; S Genesis 1:1; S 1 Samuel 2:8; Psalms 104:5; Proverbs 8:29
• 7. ver 18; S Job 34:13; Proverbs 30:4
• 8. ver 4; Psalms 102:25; Proverbs 8:29; Isaiah 40:12; Isaiah 48:13; Jeremiah 31:37
• 9. Jeremiah 31:39; Zechariah 1:16; Zechariah 4:9-10
• 10. Proverbs 8:25
• 11. S Job 26:7
• 12. S Genesis 1:16
• 13. Psalms 19:1-4; Psalms 148:2-3
• 14. S 1 Kings 22:19
• 15. S Deuteronomy 16:15
• 16. ver 11; Psalms 33:7; Proverbs 8:29; Jeremiah 5:22
• 17. S Genesis 1:9-10
• 18. S Genesis 1:2
• 19. S Job 28:25; Psalms 33:7; Psalms 104:9; Isaiah 40:12
• 20. Nehemiah 3:3; Job 7:12; Job 26:10
• 21. S ver 8
• 22. Psalms 65:7; Psalms 89:9; Psalms 104:6-9
• 23. Psalms 57:8
• 24. Psalms 74:16; Amos 5:8
• 25. Psalms 104:35
• 26. S Job 8:22
• 27. Exodus 28:11
• 28. S Deuteronomy 28:29; S Job 15:22; S Job 18:5
• 29. S Genesis 17:14; S Job 4:10; S Job 31:22; Psalms 10:15
• 30. S Genesis 1:7; S Job 9:8; Psalms 77:19
• 31. S Job 33:22; Matthew 16:18; Revelation 1:18; Psalms 9:13
• 32. S Job 7:9
• 33. S Job 28:24; Isaiah 40:12
• 34. S ver 4

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew "the sons of God"