Job 38:5
in Job 38Who fixed its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched a measuring line across it?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Who determined the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who stretched the line upon it?
KJV
Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
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This verse in Job 38
Commentary
10 notes on this verseWho hath laid the measure of it, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION Lines of measures are stretched forth in the partition of lands, in order that fairness of dimension may be observed by their very extension. But the Lord, coming to the Church in the flesh, measured out the measures of the earth with lines, because He marked out the boundaries of the Church with the subtlety of His secret judgment.
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.
This site's exposition
Surely you know
Surely you know is irony. Barnes calls the clause wholly ironical, a rebuke of Job's claim that he could explain how God governs the world. Aquinas read the measurements as an answer to ancient thinkers who put the earth's place down to material necessity with no ordering plan behind it.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Consider that some of the ancients did not attribute the position of the earth and of the other elements to some ordering plan, but to material necessity, according to which the heavy elements sank under the light ones. So to disprove this opinion, the Lord …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest?.... Did God or a creature? The Lord, no doubt. He laid them out in his divine mind, and laid them forth by his divine power; who does all things by weight and measure. He fixed the dimensions of the earth, how long, how thick, and how broad it should be; he settled the borders and boundaries of it. This Job might know that the Lord did; but he laid them, and what they are that are laid, he knew not.
The vast bulk of the earth is moulded as regularly as if it had been done by line and measure; but who can describe how it was cast into this figure? Who can determine its circumference and diameter, and all the lines that are drawn on the terrestrial globe?
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Who hath laid the measures thereof - That is, as an architect applies his measures when he rears a house. If thou knowest - Or rather, “for thou knowest.” The expression is wholly ironical, and is designed to rebuke Job’s pretensions of being able to explain the divine administration. Or who hath stretched the line upon it - As a carpenter uses a line to mark out his work; see the notes at Isa 28:
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
measures--of its proportions. Image from an architect's plans of a building. line--of measurement (Isa 28:17). The earth is formed on an all-wise plan.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Who hath laid the measures thereof - Who hath adjusted its polar and equatorial distances from the center? Who hath stretched the line - Who hath formed its zones and its great circles, and adjusted the whole of its magnitude and gravity to the orbit in which it was to move, as well as its distance from that great center about which it was to revolve? These questions show the difficulty of the subject; and that there was an unfathomable depth of counsel and design in the formation of the earth.
Modern Voices1 voice
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
10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מִי־ | mi- | who? | H4310 → | 423 times |
| שָׂ֣ם | sam | did he appoint | H7760 → | 584 times |
| מְ֭מַדֶּיהָ | memadeiha | measurements its | H4461 → | |
| כִּ֣י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| תֵדָ֑ע | teda' | you know | H3045 → | 945 times |
| א֤וֹ | ʾo | or | H176 → | 321 times |
| מִֽי־ | mi- | who? | H4310 → | 423 times |
| נָטָ֖ה | natah | did he stretch out | H5186 → | 214 times |
| עָלֶ֣יהָ | ʾaleiha | on it | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| קָּֽו׃ | kav | a measuring-line | H6957 → |
מִי־who?
mi-H4310 →423 times
שָׂ֣םdid he appoint
samH7760 →584 times
מְ֭מַדֶּיהָmeasurements its
memadeihaH4461 →
כִּ֣יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
תֵדָ֑עyou know
teda'H3045 →945 times
א֤וֹor
ʾoH176 →321 times
מִֽי־who?
mi-H4310 →423 times
נָטָ֖הdid he stretch out
natahH5186 →214 times
עָלֶ֣יהָon it
ʾaleihaH5921 →5755 times
קָּֽו׃a measuring-line
kavH6957 →
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.
- Psalms 102:25–26
In the beginning 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.
- 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
Psalms 19:4their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun.
it leads to
- Romans 10:18
But I ask, did they not hear? Indeed they did: “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
- Romans 10:18
Through
Proverbs 8:27I was there when He established the heavens, when He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep,
it leads to
- Job 26:10
He has inscribed a horizon on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.
- Isaiah 40:22
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth; its dwellers are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
- Job 26:10
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies10
About Job
This page draws on 10 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; GK Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job (1907); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXVIII; 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.