4 "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined the measures of it, if you know? Or who stretched the line on it?
6 Whereupon were the foundations of it fastened? 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 forth from the womb,
9 When I made clouds the garment of it, Thick darkness a swaddling-band for it,
10 Marked out for it my bound, Set bars and doors,
11 And said, 'Here you may come, but no further; Here shall your proud waves be stayed?'
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 stands forth 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 breadth? Declare, if you know it all.
19 "What is the way to the dwelling of light? As for darkness, where is the place of it,
20 That you should take it to the bound of it, That you should discern the paths to the house of it?
21 Surely you know, for you were born then, And the number of your days is great!
22 Have you entered the treasuries of the snow, Or have you seen the treasures 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 no man is; On the wilderness, in which there is no man;
27 To satisfy the waste and desolate ground, To cause the tender grass to spring forth?
28 Does the rain have a father? Or who fathers the drops of dew?
29 Out of whose womb came the ice? The gray frost of the sky, who has given birth to it?
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 forth the constellations in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?
33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish the dominion of it over the earth?
34 "Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, That abundance of waters may cover you?
35 Can you send forth 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 number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the bottles 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?
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Job 38
Commentary on Job 38 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 38
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!' ch. 11:5. 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.
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.
Job 38:1-3
Let us observe here,
Job 38:4-11
For the humbling of Job, God here shows him his ignorance even concerning the earth and the sea. Though so near, though so bulky, yet he could give no account of their origination, much less of heaven above or hell beneath, which are at such a distance, or of the several parts of matter which are so minute, and then, least of all, of the divine counsels.
Job 38:12-24
The Lord here proceeds to ask Job many puzzling questions, to convince him of his ignorance, and so to shame him for his folly in prescribing to God. If we will but try ourselves with such interrogatories as these, we shall soon be brought to own that what we know is nothing in comparison with what we know not. Job is here challenged to give an account of six things:-
Job 38:25-41
Hitherto God had put such questions to Job as were proper to convince him of his ignorance and short-sightedness. Now he comes, in the same manner, to show his impotency and weakness. As it is but little that he knows, and therefore he ought not to arraign the divine counsels, so it is but little that he can do, and therefore he ought not to oppose the proceedings of Providence. Let him consider what great things God does, and try whether he can do the like, or whether he thinks himself an equal match for him.