Job 38:20 BSB — MannaFest

Job 38:20

so you can lead it back to its border? Do you know the paths to its home?

BSB

Parallel translations (2) ▾

ASV

That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, And that thou shouldest discern the paths to the house thereof?

KJV

That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof?

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Commentary

4 voices

Gregory the Dialogist

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXIX (604)

Tell Me, if thou knowest all things, in what path the light dwelleth, and what is the place of darkness? that thou mayest take each of them to the bounds thereof, and understand the paths to the house thereof. Blessed Job is tried with a weighty question, in that he is examined as to the way of light and the place of darkness, whether he should bring them each to their boundaries, and should understand the paths to the house thereof. For what is understood by the word 'light' but righteousness? and what is designated by 'darkness' but iniquity?

The record, by era

The Medieval Church1 voice

Thomas Aquinas

Commentary on Job (1274)

One cannot measure the motion of a body perfectly unless the path that it follows is known since magnitude is measured by motion and motion by magnitude, as Aristotle says in IV Physics. Therefore, since the path of motion of the luminaries cannot be known …

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible (1832)

Shouldest take it to the bound thereof? - Or, as Mr. Good, translates, “That thou shouldest lay hold of it in its boundary.” That thou shouldest go to the very spot where light commences, and where darkness ends; and see the house where each dwells. Here darkness and light are personified, each as a real intelligent being, having a separate existence and local dwelling. But poetry animates everything. It is the region of fictitious existence.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Dost thou know its place so well as to be able to guide, ("take" as in Isa 36:17) it to (but UMBREIT, "reach it in") its own boundary, that is, the limit between light and darkness (Job 26:10)?

Voices on this verse

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Original language & word study

8 tagged words

Original	Transliteration	Meaning	Word study
כִּ֣י	ki	that	H3588 →
תִ֭קָּחֶנּוּ	Ti.ka.che.nu	you will take it	H3947 →
אֶל־	'el-	to	H413 →
גְּבוּל֑וֹ	ge.vu.Lo	territory its	H1366 →
וְכִֽי־	ve.khi-	and that	H3588 →
תָ֝בִ֗ין	ta.Vin	you will discern	H995 →
נְתִיב֥וֹת	ne.ti.Vot	[the] paths of	H5410 →
בֵּיתֽוֹ׃	bei.To	house its	H1004 →

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

The walk

The walk8

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
Job 26:10
He has inscribed a horizon on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.
leads to
- Proverbs 8:29
  when He set a boundary for the sea, so that the waters would not surpass His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth.
- Job 38:8–11
  Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,
- Jeremiah 5:22
  Do you not fear Me?” declares the LORD. “Do you not tremble before Me, the One who set the sand as the boundary for the sea, an enduring barrier it cannot cross? The waves…
- Psalms 33:7
  He piles up the waters of the sea; He puts the depths into storehouses.
- Isaiah 54:9–10
  “For to Me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So I have sworn that I will not be angry…
Through
Genesis 23:17
So Ephron’s field at Machpelah near Mamre, the cave that was in it, and all the trees within the boundaries of the field were deeded over
leads to
- Genesis 25:9
  His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite.
- Genesis 50:13
  They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.
- Genesis 23:20
  So the field and its cave were deeded by the Hittites to Abraham as a burial site.

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Mazzaroth

Twelve constellation groupings; one biblical word (Job 38:32). Bullinger and Seiss read them as a gospel-arc; modern critics trace their figures to Albumazar, not Adam. The objections below are presented at full strength, and the founder's own slot on the page is his to fill.

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The Star of Bethlehem — Edward Burne-Jones

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The Stars

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About Job

Job Hears of His Misfortunes — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

Job: the study guide →Read chapter 38 →The featured study →

Continue: Job 38 →

01Commentary

The record, by era

Voices on this verse

02Original language & word study

03The walk

Where the connections lead

04Related verses

05Featured studies on this passage

06About Job

Where the connections lead

The record, by era

Commentary

Original language & word study

The walk

Related verses

Featured studies on this passage

About Job