Job 38 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Job 38

The Lord Answers Job

38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

2   “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3   Dress for action¹ like a man;
    I will question you, and you make it known to me.
4   “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
    Tell me, if you have understanding.
5   Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
    Or who stretched the line upon it?
6   On what were its bases sunk,
    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 in the sea with doors
    when it burst out from the womb,
9   when I made clouds its garment
    and thick darkness its swaddling band,
10   and prescribed limits for it
    and set bars and doors,
11   and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
    and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?
12   “Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
    and caused the dawn to know its place,
13   that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
    and the wicked be shaken out of it?
14   It is changed like clay under the seal,
    and its features stand out like a garment.
15   From the wicked their light is withheld,
    and their uplifted arm is broken.
16   “Have you entered into the springs of the sea,
    or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17   Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
    or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
18   Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
    Declare, if you know all this.
19   “Where is the way to the dwelling of light,
    and where is the place of darkness,
20   that you may take it to its territory
    and that you may discern the paths to its home?
21   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 for the time of trouble,
    for the day of battle and war?
24   What is the way to the place where the light is distributed,
    or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?
25   “Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain
    and a way for the thunderbolt,
26   to bring rain on a land where no man is,
    on the desert in which there is no man,
27   to satisfy the waste and desolate land,
    and to make the ground sprout with grass?
28   “Has the rain a father,
    or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29   From whose womb did the ice come forth,
    and who has given birth to the frost of heaven?
30   The waters become hard like stone,
    and the face of the deep is frozen.
31   “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades
    or loose the cords of Orion?
32   Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth² in their season,
    or can you guide the Bear with its children?
33   Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?
    Can you establish their rule on the earth?
34   “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
    that a flood of waters may cover you?
35   Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go
    and say to you, ‘Here we are’?
36   Who has put wisdom in the inward parts³
    or given understanding to the mind?⁴
37   Who can number the clouds by wisdom?
    Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,
38   when the dust runs into a mass
    and the clods stick fast together?
39   “Can you hunt the prey for the lion,
    or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
40   when they crouch in their dens
    or lie in wait in their thicket?
41   Who provides for the raven its prey,
    when its young ones cry to God for help,
    and wander about for lack of food?

Footnotes

[1] 38:3 Hebrew Gird up your loins
[2] 38:32 Probably the name of a constellation
[3] 38:36 Or in the ibis
[4] 38:36 Or rooster

Commentary

v1: As the Lord God answers Job (chapters 38-41), there is no explanation of Job's suffering, nor any statement about suffering in general, nor any defence of His own actions. God is answerable to no man.

v2: Words without knowledge, see 35.16.

v3: "I will question you"; the Lord's style here is to bring questions which cannot be answered; the Lord Jesus used the same style in His earthly ministry, e.g: Matt 21.25; 22.45.

v4-30: Creation itself is beyond human understanding; "tell me, if you understand...tell me, if you know all this." Elihu's words are appropriate here, "Consider God's wonders." Consider too the great God behind those wonders. God speaks of the foundations of the earth, the sea, the morning, the depths of the seas, light and darkness, and snow and rain. God uses a series of unanswerable questions, referring to things beyond the experience of man.

v4-7: None can deny that someone made the world; and that someone is God Himself. This is no accident of nature or evolution, no unguided cosmic collision; this is the mighty hand of God. And that creation was no joyless duty, but a joyful creation! The angels, the very stars, rejoiced at the work of God's hands. There is creation, and there is a Creator.

v8-11: The testimony of the seas. In Gen 1.9 the seas were gathered together, so that there would be dry land, man's habitation.

v12-15: The daily testimony of the dawn, bringing light gradually to the whole earth. The Psalmist takes up the same image in Ps 19.4-6, where the sun is pictured as a bridegroom leaving his pavilion, a champion running his race.

v16-30: The secrets of the created world. Here is vivid pictorial language, rather than detailed scientific explanation. There is the image of rain fallen in the desert far from man's knowledge, v25-27. Mankind as a whole is ignorant of so many things; how much more any individual!

v31-33: He made the stars also, Gen 1.16.

v34-38: Matters of creation are not just cold facts of creation, but matters of wisdom and the heart, truly spiritual things.

v39-41: Verses belonging with chapter 39, describing the behaviour of animals, with their great variety.

Here there is reference to one species feeding; lions eat meat, ravens fruit. Thus there is indication of what we call the food chain. This too is by God's hand, so that creation has order not chaos.