Job 38:20

20 If thou shalt take it in its borders, and if thou should understand the paths to its house?

Job 38:20 Meaning and Commentary

Job 38:20

That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof
Either darkness, or rather the light; take it as it were by the hand, and guide and direct its course to its utmost bound. This only the Lord can do and does: he has set a tabernacle for the sun, which goes forth at his command as a strong man to run a race; whose going forth is from the end of the heavens, and his circuit unto the ends of it: in which his course is so steered and directed by the Lord, that he never misses his way or errs from it; but keeps his path exactly, as well as knows its rising and setting, its utmost bounds;

and that thou shouldest know the paths [to] the house thereof?
from whence it sets out, and whither it returns; see ( Psalms 19:4-6 ) . And so the light and darkness of prosperity and adversity, as well as natural light and darkness, are of God, at his disposal, and bounded by him, and therefore his will should be submitted to; which is the doctrine the Lord would teach Job by all this.

Job 38:20 In-Context

18 Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? Declare if thou knowest it all.
19 Where is the way to the habitation of the light, and where is the place of the darkness?
20 If thou shalt take it in its borders, and if thou should understand the paths to its house?
21 If thou didst know when thou wast to be born or if the number of thy days was to be great?
22 Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow, and hast thou seen the treasures of the hail,
The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010