Job 28:25
in Job 28When God fixed the weight of the wind and measured out the waters,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
To make a weight for the wind: Yea, he meteth out the waters by measure.
KJV
To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure.
⋯
This verse in Job 28
Commentary
10 notes on this verseHe that governs the world is, [1.] Omniscient; for he looks to the ends of the earth, both in place and time; distant ages, distant regions, are under his view. We do not understand our own way, much less can we understand God's way, because we are short-sighted.
This site's exposition
But God understands its way
on Job 28:23-27
"But God understands its way, and He knows its place" answers the chapter's question: wisdom belongs to God. "He looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens", a sight no mine or sea could claim.
This site's exposition
measured out the waters
Barnes notes that the wind and the waters seem the hardest things to weigh or measure, yet God made all by measure and rule. Wesley reads weight and measure as the perfect wisdom by which God governs the world. Creation is where God saw wisdom, as verse 27 says.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Lest anyone believe that God receives knowledge taken from things like we do, he shows, consequently, that he knows things as the cause of everything. He therefore continues as to the hidden creatures like the winds and the rains, "he gave the winds their strength," …
Who made the weight for the winds. And he weigheth the waters by measure. For in the Holy Scripture, by the rapidity and subtlety of the winds souls are used to be denoted, as it is spoken by the Psalmist of God; Who walketh above the things of the winds; i.e. 'Who passes above the virtues of souls.' Accordingly 'He made the weight for the winds,' in that whilst Wisdom from above fills souls, it renders them weighty with imparted maturity, not with that weightiness, of which it is said, Ye children of men, how long with a heavy heart.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
A great and constant communication there is between clouds and seas, the waters above the firmament and those under it. Vapours go up, rains come down, air is condensed into water, water rarefied into air; but the great God keeps an exact account of all the stock with which this trade is carried on for the public benefit and sees that none of it be lost.
Measure - For liquid things are examined by measure, as other things are by weight: and here is both weight and measure to signify with what perfect wisdom God governs the world.
To make the weight for the wind,....
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
To make the weight for the winds - God has given an atmosphere to the earth, which, possessing a certain degree of gravity perfectly suited to the necessities of all animals, plants, vegetables, and fluids, is the cause in his hand of preserving animal and vegetative life through the creation; for by it the blood circulates in the veins of animals, and the juices in the tubes of vegetables. Without this pressure of the atmosphere, there could be no respiration; and the elasticity of the particles of air included in animal and vegetable bodies, without this superincumbent pressure, would rupture the vessels in which they are contained, and destroy both kinds of life. So exactly is this weight of the winds or atmospheric air proportioned to the necessities of the globe, that we find it in the mean neither too light to prevent the undue expansion of animal and vegetable tubes, nor too heavy to compress them so as to prevent due circulation. See at the end of the chapter, Job 28:28 (note). And he weigheth the waters by measure - He has exactly proportioned the aqueous surface of the earth to the terrene parts, so that there shall be an adequate surface to produce, by evaporation, moisture sufficient to be treasured up in the atmosphere for the irrigation of the earth, so that it may produce grass for cattle, and corn for the service of man. It has been found, by a pretty exact calculation, that the aqueous surface of the globe is to the terrene parts as three to one; or, that three-fourths of the surface of the globe is water, and about one-fourth earth. And other experiments on evaporation, or the quantity of vapours which arise from a given space in a given time, show that it requires such a proportion of aqueous surface to afford moisture sufficient for the other proportion of dry land. […]
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
To make the weight for the winds - That is, to weigh the winds and to measure the waters - things that it would seem most difficult to do. The idea here seems to be, that God had made all things by measure and by rule. Even the winds - so fleeting and imponderable - he had adjusted and balanced in the most exact manner, as if he had “weighed” them when he made them.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לַעֲשׂ֣וֹת | laasot | to make | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| לָר֣וּחַ | laruach | for the wind | H7307 → | 378 times |
| מִשְׁקָ֑ל | mishkal | weight | H4948 → | |
| וּ֝מַ֗יִם | umayim | and [the] waters | H4325 → | 581 times |
| תִּכֵּ֥ן | tiken | he has measured | H8505 → | |
| בְּמִדָּֽה׃ | bemidah | with a measure | H4060 → |
לַעֲשׂ֣וֹתto make
laasotH6213 →2628 times
לָר֣וּחַfor the wind
laruachH7307 →378 times
מִשְׁקָ֑לweight
mishkalH4948 →
וּ֝מַ֗יִםand [the] waters
umayimH4325 →581 times
תִּכֵּ֥ןhe has measured
tikenH8505 →
בְּמִדָּֽה׃with a measure
bemidahH4060 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 40:12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or…
it leads to
- Proverbs 30:4
Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in His hands? Who has bound up the waters in His cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth?…
- Hebrews 1:10–12
And: “In the beginning, O Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.
- Job 38:4–11
Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.
- Psalms 102:25–26
In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.
- Isaiah 48:13
Surely My own hand founded the earth, and My right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they stand up together.
- Proverbs 30:4
Through
Job 12:15If He holds back the waters, they dry up, and if He releases them, they overwhelm the land.
it leads to
- 1 Kings 17:1
Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD lives—the God of Israel before whom I stand—there will be neither dew nor rain in…
- 1 Kings 17:1
Through
Psalms 135:7He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 10:13
When He thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from…
- Jeremiah 51:16
When He thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from…
- Jeremiah 10:13
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies2
About Job
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XIX; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.