Job 38:9-19

9 when I made the clouds its blanket and dense fog its swaddling cloth,

10 when I made the breakers its boundary set its gates and bars,

11 and said, 'You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop'?

12 "Have you ever in your life called up the dawn and made the morning know its place,

13 so that it could take hold of the edges of the earth and shake the wicked out of it?

14 Then the earth is changed like clay under a seal, until its colors are fixed like those of a garment.

15 But from the wicked the light is withheld, and the arm raised [to strike] is broken.

16 "Have you gone down to the springs of the sea or explored the limits of the deep?

17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you, the gates of death-like darkness?

18 Have you surveyed the full extent of the earth? Say so, if you know it all!

19 "Which way leads to where light has its home? and darkness, where does it dwell?

Job 38:9-19 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.