Job 15:7-8

15:7 “Were you the first man ever born?

Were you brought forth before the hills?

15:8 Do you listen in on God’s secret council? ¹ 

Do you limit ²  wisdom to yourself?

Job 38:4-11

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?

38:8 “Who shut up ¹²  the sea with doors

when it burst forth, ¹³  coming out of the womb,

38:9 when I made ¹⁴  the storm clouds its garment,

and thick darkness its swaddling band, ¹⁵ 

38:10 when I prescribed ¹⁶  its limits,

and set ¹⁷  in place its bolts and doors,

38:11 when I said, ‘To here you may come ¹⁸ 

and no farther, ¹⁹ 

here your proud waves will be confined’? ²⁰ 

Psalms 90:2

90:2 Even before the mountains came into existence, ²¹ 

or you brought the world into being, ²² 

you were the eternal God. ²³ 

Psalms 102:25-28

102:25 In earlier times you established the earth;

the skies are your handiwork.

102:26 They will perish,

but you will endure. ²⁴ 

They will wear out like a garment;

like clothes you will remove them and they will disappear. ²⁵ 

102:27 But you remain; ²⁶ 

your years do not come to an end.

102:28 The children of your servants will settle down here,

and their descendants ²⁷  will live securely in your presence.” ²⁸ 

Hebrews 1:10

1:10 And,

“You founded the earth in the beginning, Lord, ²⁹ 

and the heavens are the works of your hands.

[15:8]  ¹ tn The meaning of סוֹד (sod) is “confidence.” In the context the implication is “secret counsel” of the Lord God (see Jer 23:18). It is a question of confidence on the part of God, that only wisdom can know (see Prov 8:30,31). Job seemed to them to claim to have access to the mind of God.

[15:8]  ² tn In v. 4 the word meant “limit”; here it has a slightly different sense, namely, “to reserve for oneself.”

[38:4]  ³ tn The construction is the infinitive construct in a temporal clause, using the preposition and the subjective genitive suffix.

[38:4]  ⁴ tn The verb is the imperative; it has no object “me” in the text.

[38:5]  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.

[38:6]  ⁶ tn For the interrogative serving as a genitive, see GKC 442 §136.b.

[38:6]  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).

[38:7]  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).

[38:7]  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.

[38:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “together.” This is Dhorme’s suggestion for expressing how they sang together.

[38:7]  ¹¹ tn See Job 1:6.

[38:8]  ¹² tn The MT has “and he shut up.” The Vulgate has “Who?” and so many commentaries and editions adopt this reading, if not from the Vulgate, then from the sense of the sequence in the text itself.

[38:8]  ¹³ tn The line uses two expressions, first the temporal clause with גִּיחַ (giakh, “when it burst forth”) and then the finite verb יֵצֵא (yetse’, “go out”) to mark the concomitance of the two actions.

[38:9]  ¹⁴ tn The temporal clause here uses the infinitive from שִׂים (sim, “to place; to put; to make”). It underscores the sovereign placing of things.

[38:9]  ¹⁵ tn This noun is found only here. The verb is in Ezek 16:4, and a related noun is in Ezek 30:21.

[38:10]  ¹⁶ tc The MT has “and I broke,” which cannot mean “set, prescribed” or the like. The LXX and the Vulgate have such a meaning, suggesting a verb עֲשִׁית (’ashiyt, “plan, prescribe”). A. Guillaume finds an Arabic word with a meaning “measured it by span by my decree.” Would God give himself a decree? R. Gordis simply argues that the basic meaning “break” develops the connotation of “decide, determine” (2 Sam 5:24; Job 14:3; Dan 11:36).

[38:10]  ¹⁷ tn Dhorme suggested reversing the two verbs, making this the first, and then “shatter” for the second colon.

[38:11]  ¹⁸ tn The imperfect verb receives the permission nuance here.

[38:11]  ¹⁹ tn The text has תֹסִיף (tosif, “and you may not add”), which is often used idiomatically (as in verbal hendiadys constructions).

[38:11]  ²⁰ tn The MT literally says, “here he will put on the pride of your waves.” The verb has no expressed subject and so is made a passive voice. But there has to be some object for the verb “put,” such as “limit” or “boundary”; the translations “confined; halted; stopped” all serve to paraphrase such an idea. The LXX has “broken” at this point, suggesting the verse might have been confused – but “breaking the pride” of the waves would mean controlling them. Some commentators have followed this, exchanging the verb in v. 11 with this one.

[90:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “were born.”

[90:2]  ²² tn Heb “and you gave birth to the earth and world.” The Polel verbal form in the Hebrew text pictures God giving birth to the world. The LXX and some other ancient textual witnesses assume a polal (passive) verbal form here. In this case the earth becomes the subject of the verb and the verb is understood as third feminine singular rather than second masculine singular.

[90:2]  ²³ tn Heb “and from everlasting to everlasting you [are] God.” Instead of אֵל (’el, “God”) the LXX reads אַל (’al, “not”) and joins the negative particle to the following verse, making the verb תָּשֵׁב (tashev) a jussive. In this case v. 3a reads as a prayer, “do not turn man back to a low place.” However, taking תָּשֵׁב as a jussive is problematic in light of the following following wayyiqtol form וַתֹּאמֶר (vato’mer, “and you said/say”).

[102:26]  ²⁴ tn Heb “stand.”

[102:26]  ²⁵ tn The Hebrew verb חָלַף (khalaf) occurs twice in this line, once in the Hiphil (“you will remove them”) and once in the Qal (“they will disappear”). The repetition draws attention to the statement.

[102:27]  ²⁶ tn Heb “you [are] he,” or “you [are] the one.” The statement may echo the Lord’s affirmation “I am he” in Isa 41:4; 43:10, 13; 46:10; 48:12. In each of these passages the affirmation emphasizes the fact that the Lord transcends time limitations, the very point being made in Ps 102:27.

[102:28]  ²⁷ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

[102:28]  ²⁸ tn Heb “before you will be established.”

[1:10]  ²⁹ sn You founded the earth…your years will never run out. In its original setting Ps 102:25-27 refers to the work of God in creation, but here in Hebrews 1:10-12 the writer employs it in reference to Christ, the Lord, making a strong argument for the essential deity of the Son.