Job 38

Job 38:1-41

The First Speech of the Almighty (Job 38, 39) The marvels of creation, which witness to the infinite wisdom, power, and watchful care of the Creator, are presented to Job in such a way as to force from him a confession of ignorance and weakness, and of presumption in venturing to contend with God. 1-38. The wonders of earth and heaven. What does Job know of their nature and origin and ordering?

1. Whirlwind] rather, ‘storm.’ Theophanies, or manifestations of God to man, are usually represented in OT. as accompanied by convulsions of nature: cp. Exodus 19:16-20. There is no necessary reference to the storm in Job 37.
2. The question evidently refers to Job. ‘God condemns Job for making dark the divine plan of the world. He had spoken as though it was all a tangled riddle. Really there is in it a beautiful luminous order’ (Peake). But this makes Job the last speaker, not Elihu, and supports the view that the latter’s speeches are an interpolation.
3. Job had expressed too boldly his desire to contend with God concerning his righteousness. But he has still to learn that he must trust where he cannot understand. 4-7. The creation of the earth.
4. Who hath laid] RV ‘Who determined.’
5. Sons of God] the angels. 8-11. The sea.
6. When it brake forth] The ancients thought that the sea issued from the subterranean abyss, with which it was connected by springs in the bed of the ocean: cp. Job 38:16 and Genesis 7:11. 10a. Render, ‘and prescribed for it its boundary.’ 12-15. The dawn.
7. Since thy days] RV adds ‘began.’
8. Deeds of darkness are checked by the coming of light: cp. John 3:20.
9. RM ‘It is changed as clay under the seal, and all things stand forth as in a garment.’ Objects which have hitherto been obscure and shapeless take form and colour, as if wrapped in a clinging garment, when daylight comes.
10. Darkness, which is the light of the wicked, disappears, and with it their power to harm is gone. 16, 17. The deep and the under-world. The deep lies beneath the bed of the sea.
11. Search of the depth] RV ‘recesses of the deep.’
12. Opened] RV ‘revealed.’ Death] Sheol, the place of the dead. 19-21. The abode of light and darkness.
13. Where] rather,’ whither.’
14. Take it to the bound thereof] i.e. track it.
15. Knowest thou it] RV ‘Doubtless thou knowest’: spoken ironically. 22-30. The secrets of show and hail, rain and frost.
16. Treasures] RV ’treasuries’; storehouses. 22, 23. Cp. passages such as Joshua 10:11; Psalms 18, where God is represented as intervening in the affairs of men through the elements of nature. 24b. RV ‘Or the east wind scattered upon the earth.’
17. ‘Who has made a channel for the tropical rain to pour down from the heavens through the skies?’ 26, 27. God’s providence neglects no part of His creation. Job had at the most thought of man, but mainly of himself. God reminds him of the vast animate and inanimate creation. 28a. ‘Does man beget the rain?’
18. Render, ‘The waters are congealed like stone.’ 31a. Render, ‘Canst thou group together the Pleiades?’ Sweet influences] RV ‘cluster.’ Pleiades] see on Job 9:9.
19. Render, ‘Canst thou lead forth the signs of the zodiac in the season? ‘i.e. Can you influence their appearing? The zodiacal signs were known 3,000 years b.c. (The zodiac is that part of the sky which includes the apparent paths of the sun, moon, and planets. The ‘signs’ are the divisions of 30 degrees into which, for astronomical and other purposes, it is divided.) Arcturus with his sons] or, ’the Bear over her sons,’ i.e. the revolution of the Bear round the Pole and Little Bear.
20. The laws of the seasons and their influence on the earth.
21. Inward parts] RM ‘dark clouds.’ Heart] RM ‘meteor.’
22. In] RV ‘by.’ Stay] RV ‘pour out.’ Bottles of heaven] i.e. rain-clouds. 37-41. These vv. are connected in subject with Job 39.
23. They wander] RV ‘and wander.’