Job 38:12
in Job 38In your days, have you commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days began, And caused the dayspring to know its place;
KJV
Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place;
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This verse in Job 38
Commentary
8 notes on this verseHast thou commanded the morning since thy birth, and hast thou shewn to the day-spring its place? Our Lord Jesus Christ, in that He is the Power and Wisdom of God, is born of the Father before all times, or rather, because He neither began, nor ceased to be born, let us say more truly that He was ever born. Yet we cannot say, He is ever being born, lest He should seem imperfect.
This site's exposition
have you commanded the morning
on Job 38:12-15
“In your days, have you commanded the morning” asks whether Job has set one day in motion. “The earth takes shape like clay under a seal” pictures the dawn stamping the world each day. Delitzsch reads “Light is withheld from the wicked” as the revealing daylight exposing what darkness covered.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
After the land and the water, he proceeds on to the air, which, according to appearances, is joined to heaven. The first disposition common to the whole body which stretches over the waters and the land is the variation of night and day, which happens …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
The constant and regular succession of day and night was no contrivance of ours; it is the glory of God that it shows, and his handy work, not ours, Ps. xix. It is quite out of our power to alter this course: " Hast thou countermanded the morning since thy days?
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days;....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Hast thou commanded the morning - This refers to dawn or morning twilight, occasioned by the refraction of the solar rays by means of the atmosphere; so that we receive the light by degrees, which would otherwise burst at once upon our eyes, and injure, if not destroy, our sight; and by which even the body of the sun himself becomes evident several minutes before he rises above the horizon.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Passing from creation to phenomena in the existing inanimate world. Hast thou--as God daily does. commanded the morning--to rise. since thy days--since thou hast come into being. his place--It varies in its place of rising from day to day, and yet it has its place each day according to fixed laws.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days - That is, in thy lifetime hast thou ordered the light of the morning to shine, and directed its beams over the world? God appeals to this as one of the proofs of his majesty and power - and who can look upon the spreading light of the morning and be insensible to the force and beauty of the appeal? The transition from the ocean to the morning may have been partly because the light of the morning is one of the striking exhibitions of the power of God, and partly because in the creation of the world the light of the sun was made to dawn soon after the gathering together of the waters into seas; see Gen 1:10, Gen 1:14. The phrase “since thy days,” implies that the laws determining the rising of the sun were fixed long before the time of Job. It is asked whether this had been done since he had an existence, and whether he had an agency in effecting it - implying that it was an ancient and established ordinance long before he was born. Caused the day-spring to know his place - The day-spring (שׁחר shachar) means the “aurora, the dawn, the morning.” The mention of its “place” here seems to be an allusion to the fact that it does not always occupy the same position. At one season of the year it appears on the equator, at another north, and at another south of it, and is constantly varying its position. Yet it always knows its place. It never fails to appear where by the long-observed laws it ought to appear. It is regular in its motions, and is evidently under the control of an intelligent Being, who has fixed the laws of its appearing.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
To grasp the corners of the earth Moreover, in all your days, did you command [anyone] to grasp the corners of the earth like a man who grasps the corners of a garment and shakes it?
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הְֽ֭מִיָּמֶיךָ | hemiyameikha | ¿ from days your | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| צִוִּ֣יתָ | tzivita | have you commanded | H6680 → | 494 times |
| בֹּ֑קֶר | boker | morning | H1242 → | 214 times |
| יִדַּ֖עְתָּ | yida'ta | you caused to know | H3045 → | 945 times |
| הַשַּׁ֣חַר | hashachar | the dawn | H7837 → | 23 times |
| מְקֹמֽוֹ׃ | mekomo | place its | H4725 → | 401 times |
הְֽ֭מִיָּמֶיךָ¿ from days your
hemiyameikhaH3117 →2304 times
צִוִּ֣יתָhave you commanded
tzivitaH6680 →494 times
בֹּ֑קֶרmorning
bokerH1242 →214 times
יִדַּ֖עְתָּyou caused to know
yida'taH3045 →945 times
הַשַּׁ֣חַרthe dawn
hashacharH7837 →23 times
מְקֹמֽוֹ׃place its
mekomoH4725 →401 times
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
Genesis 1:5God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
it leads to
- Psalms 74:16
The day is Yours, and also the night; You established the moon and the sun.
- Isaiah 45:7
I form the light and create the darkness; I bring prosperity and create calamity. I, the LORD, do all these things.
- Psalms 104:20
You bring darkness, and it becomes night, when all the beasts of the forest prowl.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:5
For you are all sons of the light and sons of the day; we do not belong to the night or to the darkness.
- Psalms 74:16
Through
2 Peter 1:19We also have the word of the prophets as confirmed beyond doubt. And you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day…
it leads to
- Psalms 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
- Revelation 22:16
“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star.”
- Isaiah 9:2
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.
- John 5:39
You pore over the Scriptures because you presume that by them you possess eternal life. These are the very words that testify about Me,
- Psalms 119:105
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies10
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 (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXIX; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.