Job 38:20
in Job 38so you can lead it back to its border? Do you know the paths to its home?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
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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This verse in Job 38
Commentary
9 notes on this verseOne 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 …
This site's exposition
the way to the home of light
on Job 38:19-21
Verse 21 turns openly sarcastic, “Surely you know, for you were already born”, since Job's age is nothing beside the ages the question assumes. Henry reads the irony as the chapter's method throughout, each question answerable by God alone and put to the man who has demanded answers.
This site's exposition
lead it back to its border
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take its border as the line between light and darkness, the same limit named at Job 26:10. John Gill pictures Job taking light by the hand and guiding it to its farthest bound. Adam Clarke calls the picture poetry.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
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 Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof,.... Either darkness, or rather the light; take it as it were by the hand, and guide and direct its course to its utmost bound.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
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.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
"What is the way (to the place wherein) light dwelleth?" The origin of light and darkness. In Ge 1:3-5, 14-18, "light" is created distinct from, and previous to, light-emitting bodies, the luminaries of heaven.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
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)?
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
That thou shouldest take it to the bounds thereof - Margin, “or, at.” The sense seems to be this: God asks Job whether he was so well acquainted with the sources of light, and the place where it dwelt, that he could take it under his guidance and reconduct it to its place of abode. And that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof? - The same idea is repeated here. Light has a home; a place of abode. It was far distant - in some region unknown to man. Did Job know the way in which it came, and the place where it dwelt so well, that he could conduct it back again to its own dwelling? Umbreit, Noyes, and Herder, suppose that this is to be understood ironically. “For thou hast reached its boundaries! For then knowest the path to its dwelling!” But it has been commonly regarded as a question, and thus understood it accords better with the connection.
The words behind it
8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּ֣י | ki | that | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| תִ֭קָּחֶנּוּ | tikachenu | you will take it | H3947 → | 966 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| גְּבוּל֑וֹ | gevulo | territory its | H1366 → | |
| וְכִֽי־ | vekhi- | and that | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| תָ֝בִ֗ין | tavin | you will discern | H995 → | 170 times |
| נְתִיב֥וֹת | netivot | [the] paths of | H5410 → | 26 times |
| בֵּיתֽוֹ׃ | beito | house its | H1004 → | 2046 times |
כִּ֣יthat
kiH3588 →4482 times
תִ֭קָּחֶנּוּyou will take it
tikachenuH3947 →966 times
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
גְּבוּל֑וֹterritory its
gevuloH1366 →
וְכִֽי־and that
vekhi-H3588 →4482 times
תָ֝בִ֗יןyou will discern
tavinH995 →170 times
נְתִיב֥וֹת[the] paths of
netivotH5410 →26 times
בֵּיתֽוֹ׃house its
beitoH1004 →2046 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
Job 26:10He has inscribed a horizon on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.
it 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…
- Proverbs 8:29
Through
Genesis 23:17So 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
it 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.
- Genesis 25:9
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies10
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); 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 (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.