Job 38:4
in Job 38Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding.
KJV
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
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This verse in Job 38
Commentary
10 notes on this verseWhere wast thou when I was laying the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if thou hast understanding. ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION Behold all things are put together in historical narration, as if concerning the origin of the world. But something is immediately subjoined, which seems to be said of the creation, not of the world, but of the Church. For it is said; Or who hath laid the corner stone thereof? For by this, which was not done at the beginning of the world, it is shewn that that former expression was not used of the creation of the world.
This site's exposition
laid the foundations of the earth
on Job 38:4-6
The “measuring line” and the “cornerstone” borrow the words of a building site. Delitzsch notes the same terms return at Isaiah 28:16 for the stone laid in Zion. Gill reads the questions as pressing one point, that a man absent from creation's laying has no standing to indict its Governor.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
He questions Job about his effects which are accessible to the experience of the human senses. When a man is shown to be ignorant of these, he is much more convinced that he does not have knowledge of the higher realities. Among other sensible effects …
A commentator
BonaventureCollations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 5 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
Again, there are in angels some virtues related to rational souls through which they govern men. Indeed, they are the conveyors of light and the uplifters of intelligences so that illuminations may be received. And so there is in them a conveying power, because they …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?.... The earth has foundations, and such firm ones that it cannot be moved; but what are they, since it is hung in the air on nothing! No other than the power and will of God, who laid these foundations, and the Son of God, who has created and upholds all things by the word of his power, Heb 1:3. Where was Job then?
The first man was not, much less were we. It is the honour of Christ that he was present when this was done ( Prov. viii. 1, 2 ); but we are of yesterday and know nothing.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? - Thou hast a limited and derived being; thou art only of yesterday; what canst thou know? Didst thou see me create the world?
3 more voices 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
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? - The first appeal is to the creation. The question here, “Where wast thou?” implies that Job was not present. He had not then an existence. He could not, therefore, have aided God, or counselled him, or understood what he was doing. How presumptuous, therefore, it was in one so short-lived to sit in judgment on the doings of him who had formed the world! How little could he expect to be able to know of him! The expression, “laid the foundations of the earth,” is taken from building an edifice. The foundations are first laid, and the super-structure is then reared. It is a poetic image, and is not designed to give any intimation about the actual process by which the earth was made, or the manner in which it is sustained. If thou hast understanding - Margin, as in Hebrew “if thou knowest.” That is, “Declare how it was done. Explain the manner in which the earth was formed and fixed in its place, and by which the beautiful world grew up under the hand of God.” If Job could not do this, what presumption was it to speak as he had done of the divine adminisitration!
Modern Voices2 voices
A commentator
GK ChestertonThe Catholic Church and Conversion, Ch. 2: The Obvious Blunders (1926) (1926)
proposed
But those secondary loyalties are secondary in time and logic to the law of universal morality which justifies them. And if the patriot is such a fool as to force the issue against that universal tradition from which his own patriotism descends, if he presses …
Without once relaxing the rigid impenetrability of Jehovah in His deliberate declaration, he has contrived to let fall here and there in the metaphors, in the parenthetical imagery, sudden and splendid suggestions that the secret of God is a bright and not a sad one …
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֵיפֹ֣ה | ʾeifoh | where? | H375 → | |
| הָ֭יִיתָ | hayita | were you | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| בְּיָסְדִי־ | beyasedi- | when founded I | H3245 → | |
| אָ֑רֶץ | ʾaretz | [the] earth | H776 → | 2504 times |
| הַ֝גֵּ֗ד | haged | tell | H5046 → | 370 times |
| אִם־ | ʾim- | if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| יָדַ֥עְתָּ | yada'ta | you know | H3045 → | 945 times |
| בִינָֽה׃ | vinah | understanding | H998 → | 38 times |
אֵיפֹ֣הwhere?
ʾeifohH375 →
הָ֭יִיתָwere you
hayitaH1961 →3559 times
בְּיָסְדִי־when founded I
beyasedi-H3245 →
אָ֑רֶץ[the] earth
ʾaretzH776 →2504 times
הַ֝גֵּ֗דtell
hagedH5046 →370 times
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
יָדַ֥עְתָּyou know
yada'taH3045 →945 times
בִינָֽה׃understanding
vinahH998 →38 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
6 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 1:1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
it leads to
- John 1:1–3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
- Hebrews 11:3
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
- Isaiah 45:18
For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens—He is God; He formed the earth and fashioned it; He established it; He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be…
- Revelation 4:11
“Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things; by Your will they exist and came to be.”
- Hebrews 1:10
And: “In the beginning, O Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.
- John 1:1–3
Through
Hebrews 1:10And: “In the beginning, O Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.
it leads to
- Psalms 102:25–27
In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.
- Psalms 102:25–27
Where this verse is studied
By subject
Creation34 verses
On this page
Studies10
About Job
This page draws on 11 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); Bonaventure, Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 5; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; GK Chesterton, The Catholic Church and Conversion, Ch. 2: The Obvious Blunders (1926); GK Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job (1907); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXVIII; 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.