Read Job chapter 38 online with LogosAI Bible study tools, highlights, and cross references.
Job 38 is part of “The LORD Speaks: Creation's Wonders” (38:1–40:2) in the outline of Job.
Job 38 summary
In most disputes the strife is who shall have the last word. Job's friends had, in this controversy, tamely yielded it to Job, and then he to Elihu. But, after all the wranglings of the counsel at bar, the judge upon the bench must have the last word; so God had here, and so he will have in every controversy, for every man's judgment proceeds from him and by his definitive sentence every man must stand or fall and every cause be won or lost. Job had often appealed to God, and had talked boldly how he would order his cause before him, and as a prince would he go near unto him; but, when God took the throne, Job had nothing to say in his own defence, but was silent before him. It is not so easy a matter as some think it to contest with the Almighty. Job's friends had sometimes appealed to God too: "O that God would speak!" Job 11:7. And now, at length, God does speak, when Job, by Elihu's clear and close arguings was mollified a little, and mortified, and so prepared to hear what God had to say. It is the office of ministers to prepare the way of the Lord. That which the great God designs in this discourse is to humble Job, and bring him to repent of, and to recant, his passionate indecent expressions concerning God's providential dealings with him; and this he does by calling upon Job to compare God's eternity with his own time, God's omniscience with his own ignorance, and God's omnipotence with his own impotency. I. He begins with an awakening challenge and demand in general (Job 38:2, Job 38:3). II. He proceeds in divers particular instances and proofs of Job's utter inability to contend with God, because of his ignorance and weakness: for, 1. He knew nothing of the founding of the earth (Job 38:4-7). 2. Nothing of the limiting of the sea (Job 38:8-11). 3. Nothing of the morning light (Job 38:12-15). 4. Nothing of the dark recesses of the sea and earth (Job 38:16-21). 5. Nothing of the springs in the clouds (Job 38:22-27), nor the secret counsels by which they are directed. 6. He could do nothing towards the production of the rain, or frost, or lightning (Job 38:28-30, Job 38:34, Job 38:35, Job 38:37, Job 38:38), nothing towards the directing of the stars and their influences (Job 38:31-33), nothing towards the making of his own soul (Job 38:36). And lastly, he could not provide for the lions and the ravens (Job 38:39-41). If, in these ordinary works of nature, Job was puzzled, how durst he pretend to dive into the counsels of God's government and to judge of them? In this (as bishop Patrick observes) God takes up the argument begun by Elihu (who came nearest to the truth) and prosecutes it in inimitable words, excelling his, and all other men's, in the loftiness of the style, as much as thunder does a whisper.
Source: Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706–21; Romans–Revelation completed by Nonconformist ministers). Public domain. Digital text: Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org).
1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind,
2 “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer me!
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measures, if you know? Or who stretched the line on it?
6 What were its foundations fastened on? Or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 “Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke out of the womb,
9 when I made clouds its garment, and wrapped it in thick darkness,
10 marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors,
11 and said, ‘You may come here, but no further. Your proud waves shall be stopped here’?
12 “Have you commanded the morning in your days, and caused the dawn to know its place,
13 that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and shake the wicked out of it?
14 It is changed as clay under the seal, and presented as a garment.
15 From the wicked, their light is withheld. The high arm is broken.
16 “Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
18 Have you comprehended the earth in its width? Declare, if you know it all.
19 “What is the way to the dwelling of light? As for darkness, where is its place,
20 that you should take it to its bound, that you should discern the paths to its house?
21 Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!
22 Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,
23 which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?
24 By what way is the lightning distributed, or the east wind scattered on the earth?
25 Who has cut a channel for the flood water, or the path for the thunderstorm,
26 to cause it to rain on a land where there is no man, on the wilderness, in which there is no man,
27 to satisfy the waste and desolate ground, to cause the tender grass to grow?
28 Does the rain have a father? Or who fathers the drops of dew?
29 Whose womb did the ice come out of? Who has given birth to the gray frost of the sky?
30 The waters become hard like stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen.
31 “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion?
32 Can you lead the constellations out in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?
33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish its dominion over the earth?
34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover you?
35 Can you send out lightnings, that they may go? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind?
37 Who can count the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the containers of the sky,
38 when the dust runs into a mass, and the clods of earth stick together?
39 “Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
40 when they crouch in their dens, and lie in wait in the thicket?
41 Who provides for the raven his prey, when his young ones cry to God, and wander for lack of food?