Job 38:10-20

10 when I set a limit for it and put up bars and gates,

11 when I said, 'You may come this far but no farther. Here your proud waves will stop'?

12 "Have you ever given orders to the morning or assigned a place for the dawn

13 so that it could grab the earth by its edges and shake wicked people out of it?

14 The earth changes like clay stamped by a seal, and [parts of it] stand out like [folds in] clothing.

15 Wicked people are deprived of their light, and an arm raised [in victory] is broken.

16 Have you gone to the springs in the sea or walked through the valleys of the ocean depths?

17 Have the gateways to death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gateways to total darkness?

18 Have you [even] considered how wide the earth is? Tell me, if you know all of this!

19 "What is the way to the place where light lives? Where is the home of darkness

20 so that you may lead it to its territory, so that you may know the path to its home?

Job 38:10-20 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.