1 And after Elihu had ceased from speaking, the Lord spoke to Job through the whirlwind and clouds, [saying], 2 Who is this that hides counsel from me, And confines words in [his] heart, and thinks to conceal [them] from me? 3 Gird thy loins like a man; And I will ask thee, and do thou answer me. 4 Where wast thou when I founded the earth? Tell me now, if thou hast knowledge, 5 Who set the measures of it, if thou knowest? Or who stretched a line upon it? 6 On what are its rings fastened? And who is he that laid the cornerstone upon it? 7 When the stars were made, All my angels praised me with a loud voice. 8 And I shut up the sea with gates, When it rushed out, coming forth out of its mother’s womb. 9 And I made a cloud its clothing, And swathed it in mist. 10 And I set bounds to it, Surrounding it with bars and gates. 11 And I said to it, Hitherto shalt thou come, but thou shalt not go beyond, But thy waves shall be confined within thee. 12 Or did I order the morning light in thy time; And [did] the morning star [then first] see his appointed place; 13 To lay hold of the extremities of the earth, To cast out the ungodly out of it? 14 Or didst thou take clay of the ground, and form a living creature, And set it with the power of speech upon the earth? 15 And hast thou removed light from the ungodly, And crushed the arm of the proud? 16 Or hast thou gone to the source of the sea, And walked in the tracks of the deep? 17 And do the gates of death open to thee for fear; And did the porters of hell quake when they saw thee? 18 And hast thou been instructed in the breadth of the [whole earth] under heaven? Tell me now, what is the extent of it? 19 And in what kind of a land does the light dwell? And of what kind is the place of darkness? 20 If thou couldest bring me to their [utmost] boundaries, And if also thou knowest their paths; 21 I know then that thou wert born at that time, And the number of thy years is great. 22 But hast thou gone to the treasures of snow? And hast thou seen the treasures of hail? 23 And is there a store [of them], For thee against the time of [thine] enemies, For the day of wars and battle? 24 And whence proceeds the frost? Or [whence] is the south wind dispersed over the [whole world] under heaven? 25 And who prepared a course for the violent rain, And a way for the thunders; 26 To rain upon the land where [there is] no man, The wilderness, where there is not a man in it; So as to feed the untrodden and uninhabited [land], 27 And cause it to send forth a crop of green herbs? 28 Who is the rain’s father? And who has generated the drops of dew? 29 And out of whose womb comes the ice? And who has produced the frost in the sky, 30 Which descends like flowing water? who has terrified the face of the ungodly? 31 And dost thou understand the band of Pleiades, And hast thou opened the barrier of Orion? 32 Or wilt thou reveal Mazzaroth in his season, And the evening star with his rays? Wilt thou guide them? 33 And knowest thou the changes of heaven, Or the events which take place together under heaven? 34 And wilt thou call a cloud with thy voice, And will it obey thee with a violent shower of much rain? 35 And wilt thou send lightnings, and they shall go? And shall they say to thee, What is [thy pleasure]? 36 And who has given to women skill in weaving, Or knowledge of embroidery? 37 And who is he that numbers the clouds in wisdom, And has bowed the heaven [down] to the earth? 38 For it is spread out as dusty earth, And I have cemented it as one hewn stone to another. 39 And wilt thou hunt a prey for the lions? And satisfy the desires of the serpents? 40 For they fear in their lairs, And lying in wait couch in the woods. 41 And who has prepared food for the raven? For its young ones wander and cry to the Lord, In search of food.
Job · Updated Brenton English Septuagint
Job 38 Updated Brenton English Septuagint
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (1)
- Same Septuagint text as Brenton, with modernised spelling.
Cross references (40)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Job 40:6; 2 Kings 2:11; Job 37:1–2; Exodus 19:16–19; 1 Kings 19:11
- 2 Job 42:3; Job 35:16; 1 Timothy 1:7; Job 34:35; Job 27:11
- 3 Job 40:7; Jeremiah 1:17; Exodus 12:11; 1 Kings 18:46; 1 Peter 1:13
- 4 Psalm 104:5; Hebrews 1:10; Proverbs 30:4; Hebrews 1:2; Psalm 102:25
- 5 Isaiah 40:12; Job 11:9; Zechariah 2:1–2; Proverbs 8:27; Isaiah 40:22
- 6 Job 26:7; Psalm 104:5; Psalm 93:1; Isaiah 28:16; 2 Peter 3:5
- 7 Revelation 5:11; Job 1:6; Ezra 3:11–12; Revelation 22:16; Revelation 2:28
- 8 Genesis 1:9; Proverbs 8:29; Jeremiah 5:22; Psalm 104:8–9; Psalm 33:7
- 9 Genesis 1:2
- 10 Jeremiah 5:22; Psalm 104:9; Psalm 33:7; Job 26:10; Genesis 1:9–10
- 11 Psalm 89:9; Proverbs 8:29; Psalm 65:6–7; Luke 8:32–33; Mark 4:39–41
- 12 Psalm 74:16; Psalm 148:3–5; Genesis 1:5; Job 8:9; Psalm 136:7–8
- 13 Psalm 104:35; Job 37:3; Exodus 14:27; Psalm 104:21–22; Job 24:13–17
- 14 Psalm 104:6; Psalm 104:2
- 15 Psalm 10:15; Psalm 37:17; Job 18:5; Proverbs 4:19; Ezekiel 30:22
- 16 Proverbs 8:24; Psalm 77:19; Job 26:5–6; Jeremiah 51:36
- 17 Psalm 9:13; Psalm 107:18; Job 3:5; Job 12:22; Psalm 107:14
- 18 Revelation 20:9; Psalm 89:11–12; Jeremiah 31:37; Isaiah 40:28; Job 28:24
- 19 Ezekiel 32:8; Matthew 27:45; Isaiah 45:7; Genesis 1:3–4; Amos 4:13
- 20 Job 26:10; Genesis 10:19; Genesis 23:17
- 21 Job 15:7; Job 38:4; Job 38:12
- 22 Job 37:6; Psalm 135:7; Psalm 33:7; Job 6:16
- 23 Joshua 10:11; Isaiah 30:30; Revelation 16:21; Exodus 9:18; Job 36:13
- 24 Job 38:12–13; Jonah 4:8; Matthew 24:27
- 25 Job 28:26; Psalm 29:3–10; Job 36:27–28; Job 37:3–6
- 26 Jeremiah 14:22; Psalm 107:35; Hebrews 6:7–8; Isaiah 35:1–2; Isaiah 43:19–20
- 27 Psalm 107:35; Psalm 104:14
- 28 Jeremiah 14:22; Psalm 147:8; Jeremiah 10:13; Proverbs 3:20; Deuteronomy 33:13
- 29 Psalm 147:16–17; Job 37:10; Job 6:16; Job 38:8
- 30 Job 37:10
- 31 Amos 5:8; Job 9:9
- 32 Job 38:31; 2 Kings 23:5; Job 9:9
- 33 Jeremiah 31:35–36; Genesis 8:22; Psalm 148:6; Job 38:12–13; Jeremiah 33:25
- 34 Job 22:11; Zechariah 10:1; James 5:18; Job 36:27–28; 1 Samuel 12:18
- 35 Job 36:32; Job 37:3; 2 Kings 1:14; Revelation 11:5–6; Numbers 16:35
- 36 Job 32:8; Psalm 51:6; Proverbs 2:6; Ecclesiastes 2:26; James 1:5
- 37 Psalm 147:4; Genesis 9:15; Genesis 8:1; Genesis 15:5
- 39 Psalm 104:21; Job 4:10–11; Psalm 34:10; Psalm 145:15–16
- 40 Job 37:8; Numbers 24:9; Numbers 23:24; Genesis 49:9
- 41 Luke 12:24; Matthew 6:26; Psalm 147:9; Psalm 104:27–28
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
Who is the father of the rain? And who hath begotten the drops of dew?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
And yet, O talkative Dialectician, I will ask thee one small question, and answer thou me, as He saith to Job, Who through whirlwind and cloud giveth Divine admonitions. Are there many mansions in God's House, as thou hast heard, or only one?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
Put then a limit to your thought, so that your curiosity in investigating the incomprehensible may not incur the reproaches of Job, and you be not asked by him, "Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened?" If ever you hear in the Psalms, "I bear up the pillars of it;" see in these pillars the power which sustains it.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 8 (1895)
… condensed the air into clouds, and bade them carry the waters of the rain, now bringing golden-tinted clouds from the north, now changing these into one uniform appearance, and again transforming them into manifold circles and other shapes? Who can number the clouds in wisdom?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
Whereof in Job it saith, And He knoweth the separations of the clouds, and hath bent down the heaven to the earth: and, He who numbereth the clouds in wisdom: and, the cloud is not rent under Him.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)