Job 26:11

26:11 The pillars ¹  of the heavens tremble

and are amazed at his rebuke. ² 

Job 38:4-7

God’s questions to Job

38:4 “Where were you

when I laid the foundation ³  of the earth?

Tell me, ⁴  if you possess understanding!

38:5 Who set its measurements – if ⁵  you know –

or who stretched a measuring line across it?

38:6 On what ⁶  were its bases ⁷  set,

or who laid its cornerstone –

38:7 when the morning stars ⁸  sang ⁹  in chorus, ¹⁰ 

and all the sons of God ¹¹  shouted for joy?

Job 38:1

VI. The Divine Speeches (38:1-42:6)

The Lord’s First Speech ¹² 

38:1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: ¹³ 

Job 2:8

2:8 Job took a shard of broken pottery to scrape ¹⁴  himself ¹⁵  with while he was sitting ¹⁶  among the ashes. ¹⁷ 

Psalms 75:3

75:3 When the earth and all its inhabitants dissolve in fear, ¹⁸ 

I make its pillars secure.” ¹⁹  (Selah)

Psalms 114:7

114:7 Tremble, O earth, before the Lord –

before the God of Jacob,

Jeremiah 4:24

4:24 I looked at the mountains and saw that they were shaking.

All the hills were swaying back and forth!

Joel 2:10

2:10 The earth quakes ²⁰  before them; ²¹ 

the sky reverberates. ²² 

The sun and the moon grow dark;

the stars refuse to shine. ²³ 

¹ sn H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 173) says these are the great mountains, perceived to hold up the sky.

² sn The idea here is that when the earth quakes, or when there is thunder in the heavens, these all represent God’s rebuke, for they create terror.

³ tn The construction is the infinitive construct in a temporal clause, using the preposition and the subjective genitive suffix.

⁴ tn The verb is the imperative; it has no object “me” in the text.

⁵ tn The particle כּ (ki) is taken here for a conditional clause, “if you know” (see GKC 498 §159.dd). Others take it as “surely” with a biting irony.

⁶ tn For the interrogative serving as a genitive, see GKC 442 §136.b.

⁷ sn The world was conceived of as having bases and pillars, but these poetic descriptions should not be pressed too far (e.g., see Ps 24:2, which may be worded as much for its polemics against Canaanite mythology as anything).

⁸ sn The expression “morning stars” (Heb “stars of the morning”) is here placed in parallelism to the angels, “the sons of God.” It may refer to the angels under the imagery of the stars, or, as some prefer, it may poetically include all creation. There is a parallel also with the foundation of the temple which was accompanied by song (see Ezra 3:10,11). But then the account of the building of the original tabernacle was designed to mirror creation (see M. Fishbane, Biblical Text and Texture).

⁹ tn The construction, an adverbial clause of time, uses רָנָן (ranan), which is often a ringing cry, an exultation. The parallelism with “shout for joy” shows this to be enthusiastic acclamation. The infinitive is then continued in the next colon with the vav (ו) consecutive preterite.

¹⁰ tn Heb “together.” This is Dhorme’s suggestion for expressing how they sang together.

¹¹ tn See Job 1:6.

¹² sn This is the culmination of it all, the revelation of the Lord to Job. Most interpreters see here the style and content of the author of the book, a return to the beginning of the book. Here the Lord speaks to Job and displays his sovereign power and glory. Job has lived through the suffering – without cursing God. He has held to his integrity, and nowhere regretted it. But he was unaware of the real reason for the suffering, and will remain unaware throughout these speeches. God intervenes to resolve the spiritual issues that surfaced. Job was not punished for sin. And Job’s suffering had not cut him off from God. In the end the point is that Job cannot have the knowledge to make the assessments he made. It is wiser to bow in submission and adoration of God than to try to judge him. The first speech of God has these sections: the challenge (38:1-3), the surpassing mysteries of earth and sky beyond Job’s understanding (4-38), and the mysteries of animal and bird life that surpassed his understanding (38:39–39:30).

¹³ sn This is not the storm described by Elihu – in fact, the Lord ignores Elihu. The storm is a common accompaniment for a theophany (see Ezek 1:4; Nah 1:3; Zech 9:14).

¹⁴ tn The verb גָּרַד (garad) is a hapax legomenon (only occurring here). Modern Hebrew has retained a meaning “to scrape,” which is what the cognate Syriac and Arabic indicate. In the Hitpael it would mean “scrape himself.”

¹⁵ sn The disease required constant attention. The infection and pus had to be scraped away with a piece of broken pottery in order to prevent the spread of the infection. The skin was so disfigured that even his friends did not recognize him (2:12). The book will add that the disease afflicted him inwardly, giving him a foul breath and a loathsome smell (19:17, 20). The sores bred worms; they opened and ran, and closed and tightened (16:8). He was tormented with dreams (7:14). He felt like he was choking (7:14). His bones were racked with burning pain (30:30). And he was not able to rise from his place (19:18). The disease was incurable; but it would last for years, leaving the patient longing for death.

¹⁶ tn The construction uses the disjunctive vav (ו) with the independent pronoun with the active participle. The construction connects this clause with what has just been said, making this a circumstantial clause.

¹⁷ sn Among the ashes. It is likely that the “ashes” refers to the place outside the city where the rubbish was collected and burnt, i.e., the ash-heap (cf. CEV). This is the understanding of the LXX, which reads “dung-hill outside the city.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “melt.”

¹⁹ tn The statement is understood in a generalizing sense; God typically prevents the world from being overrun by chaos. One could take this as referring to an anticipated event, “I will make its pillars secure.”

²⁰ sn Witnesses of locust invasions have described the visual effect of large numbers of these creatures crawling over one another on the ground. At such times the ground is said to appear to be in motion, creating a dizzying effect on some observers. The reference in v. 10 to the darkening of the sun and moon probably has to do with the obscuring of visibility due to large numbers of locusts swarming in the sky.

²¹ tn Heb “before it.”

²² tn Heb “trembles.”

²³ tn Heb “gather their brightness.”