Job 38:4-39:30 - Heartlight

⁴Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Tell Me, if you have understanding.

⁵Who fixed its measurements? Surely you know!

Or who stretched a measuring line across it?

⁶On what were its foundations set,

or who laid its cornerstone,

⁷while the morning stars sang together

and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁸Who enclosed the sea behind doors

when it burst forth from the womb,

⁹when I made the clouds its garment

and thick darkness its blanket,

¹⁰when I fixed its boundaries

and set in place its bars and doors,

¹¹and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther;

here your proud waves must stop’?

¹²In your days, have you commanded the morning

or assigned the dawn its place,

¹³that it might spread to the ends of the earth

and shake the wicked out of it?

¹⁴The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;

its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.

¹⁵Light is withheld from the wicked,

and their upraised arm is broken.

¹⁶Have you journeyed to the vents of the sea

or walked in the trenches of the deep?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you?

Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

¹⁸Have you surveyed the extent of the earth?

Tell Me, if you know all this.

¹⁹Where is the way to the home of light?

Do you know where darkness resides,

²⁰so you can lead it back to its border?

Do you know the paths to its home?

²¹Surely you know, for you were already born!

And the number of your days is great!

²²Have you entered the storehouses of snow

or observed the storehouses of hail,

²³which I hold in reserve for times of trouble,

for the day of war and battle?

²⁴In which direction is the lightning dispersed,

or the east wind scattered over the earth?

²⁵Who cuts a channel for the flood

or clears a path for the thunderbolt,

²⁶to bring rain on a barren land,

on a desert where no man lives,

²⁷to satisfy the parched wasteland

and make it sprout with tender grass?

²⁸Does the rain have a father?

Who has begotten the drops of dew?

²⁹From whose womb does the ice emerge?

Who gives birth to the frost from heaven,

³⁰when the waters become hard as stone

and the surface of the deep is frozen?

³¹Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades

or loosen the belt of Orion?

³²Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons

or lead out the Bear and her cubs?

³³Do you know the laws of the heavens?

Can you set their dominion over the earth?

³⁴Can you command the clouds

so that a flood of water covers you?

³⁵Can you send the lightning bolts on their way?

Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?

³⁶Who has put wisdom in the heart

or given understanding to the mind?

³⁷Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?

Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens

³⁸when the dust hardens into a mass

and the clods of earth stick together?

³⁹Can you hunt the prey for a lioness

or satisfy the hunger of young lions

⁴⁰when they crouch in their dens

and lie in wait in the thicket?

⁴¹Who provides food for the raven

when its young cry out to God

as they wander about for lack of food?

¹“Do you know when mountain goats give birth?

Have you watched the doe bear her fawn?

²Can you count the months they are pregnant?

Do you know the time they give birth?

³They crouch down and bring forth their young;

they deliver their newborn.

⁴Their young ones thrive and grow up in the open field;

they leave and do not return.

⁵Who set the wild donkey free?

Who released the swift donkey from the harness?

⁶I made the wilderness his home

and the salt flats his dwelling.

⁷He scorns the tumult of the city

and never hears the shouts of a driver.

⁸He roams the mountains for pasture,

searching for any green thing.

⁹Will the wild ox consent to serve you?

Will he stay by your manger at night?

¹⁰Can you hold him to the furrow with a harness?

Will he plow the valleys behind you?

¹¹Can you rely on his great strength?

Will you leave your hard work to him?

¹²Can you trust him to bring in your grain

and gather it to your threshing floor?

¹³The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully,

but cannot match the pinions and feathers of the stork.

¹⁴For she leaves her eggs on the ground

and lets them warm in the sand.

¹⁵She forgets that a foot may crush them,

or a wild animal may trample them.

¹⁶She treats her young harshly, as if not her own,

with no concern that her labor was in vain.

¹⁷For God has deprived her of wisdom;

He has not endowed her with understanding.

¹⁸Yet when she proudly spreads her wings,

she laughs at the horse and its rider.

¹⁹Do you give strength to the horse

or adorn his neck with a mane?

²⁰Do you make him leap like a locust,

striking terror with his proud snorting?

²¹He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength;

he charges into battle.

²²He laughs at fear, frightened of nothing;

he does not turn back from the sword.

²³A quiver rattles at his side,

along with a flashing spear and lance.

²⁴Trembling with excitement, he devours the distance;

he cannot stand still when the ram’s horn sounds.

²⁵At the blast of the horn, he snorts with fervor.

He catches the scent of battle from afar —

the shouts of captains and the cry of war.

²⁶Does the hawk take flight by your understanding

and spread his wings toward the south?

²⁷Does the eagle soar at your command

and make his nest on high?

²⁸He dwells on a cliff and lodges there;

his stronghold is on a rocky crag.

²⁹From there he spies out food;

his eyes see it from afar.

³⁰His young ones feast on blood;

and where the slain are, there he is.”

— Job 38:4-39:30

(BSB)

Related Resources from Heartlight

There are 2 resources related to this passage:

Questions

Article by Ron Rose

What big things — have you learned in life? How do you know that the big things are big things? Ron Rose wants us all to ask ourselves some important questions at this stage in our lives to be ready to instruct those who are younger and also ourselves.

Sometimes We Have to Eat Our Words

Article by Alan Smith

This is not something you want to have to choke down! We can't understand everything and we can't fix everything and being in the presence of God helps humble us to that truth.

Cross References for Job 38:4-39:30

Cross References Provided by Open Bible

The Berean Standard Bible

The Berean Standard Bible (BSB) is a modern, clear, and faithful translation based on the best available Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. Ideal for reading, study, and sharing, it entered the public domain in 2023. For more information, visit berean.bible.