Job 38:26-41

38:26 to cause it to rain on an uninhabited land, ¹ 

a desert where there are no human beings, ² 

38:27 to satisfy a devastated and desolate land,

and to cause it to sprout with vegetation? ³ 

38:28 Does the rain have a father,

or who has fathered the drops of the dew?

38:29 From whose womb does the ice emerge,

and the frost from the sky, ⁴  who gives birth to it,

38:30 when the waters become hard ⁵  like stone,

when the surface of the deep is frozen solid?

38:31 Can you tie the bands ⁶  of the Pleiades,

or release the cords of Orion?

38:32 Can you lead out

the constellations ⁷  in their seasons,

or guide the Bear with its cubs? ⁸ 

38:33 Do you know the laws of the heavens,

or can you set up their rule over the earth?

38:34 Can you raise your voice to the clouds

so that a flood of water covers you? ⁹ 

38:35 Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go?

Will they say to you, ‘Here we are’?

38:36 Who has put wisdom in the heart, ¹⁰ 

or has imparted understanding to the mind?

38:37 Who by wisdom can count the clouds,

and who can tip over ¹¹  the water jars of heaven,

38:38 when the dust hardens ¹²  into a mass,

and the clumps of earth stick together?

38:39 “Do you hunt prey for the lioness,

and satisfy the appetite ¹³  of the lions,

38:40 when they crouch in their dens,

when they wait in ambush in the thicket?

38:41 Who prepares prey for the raven,

when its young cry out to God

and wander about ¹⁴  for lack of food?

[38:26]  ¹ tn Heb “on a land, no man.”

[38:26]  ² tn Heb “a desert, no man in it.”

[38:27]  ³ tn Heb “to cause to sprout a source of vegetation.” The word מֹצָא (motsa’) is rendered “mine” in Job 28:1. The suggestion with the least changes is Wright’s: צָמֵא (tsame’, “thirsty”). But others choose מִצִּיָּה (mitsiyyah, “from the steppe”).

[38:29]  ⁴ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[38:30]  ⁵ tn Several suggest that the verb is not from חָבָא (khava’, “to hide”) but from a homonym, “to congeal.” This may be too difficult to support, however.

[38:31]  ⁶ tn This word is found here and in 1 Sam 15:32. Dhorme suggests, with others, that there has been a metathesis (a reversal of consonants), and it is the same word found in Job 31:36 (“bind”). G. R. Driver takes it as “cluster” without changing the text (“Two astronomical passages in the Old Testament,” JTS 7 [1956] :3).

[38:32]  ⁷ tn The word מַזָּרוֹת (mazzarot) is taken by some to refer to the constellations (see 2 Kgs 23:5), and by others as connected to the word for “crown,” and so “corona.”

[38:32]  ⁸ sn See Job 9:9.

[38:34]  ⁹ tc The LXX has “answer you,” and some editors have adopted this. However, the reading of the MT makes better sense in the verse.

[38:36]  ¹⁰ tn This verse is difficult because of the two words, טֻחוֹת (tukhot, rendered here “heart”) and שֶׂכְוִי (sekhvi, here “mind”). They have been translated a number of ways: “meteor” and “celestial appearance”; the stars “Procyon” and “Sirius”; “inward part” and “mind”; even as birds, “ibis” and “cock.” One expects them to have something to do with nature – clouds and the like. The RSV accordingly took them to mean “meteor” (from a verb “to wander”) and “a celestial appearance.” But these meanings are not well-attested.

[38:37]  ¹¹ tn The word actually means “to cause to lie down.”

[38:38]  ¹² tn The word means “to flow” or “to cast” (as in casting metals). So the noun developed the sense of “hard,” as in cast metal.

[38:39]  ¹³ tn Heb “fill up the life of.”

[38:41]  ¹⁴ tn The verse is difficult, making some suspect that a line has dropped out. The little birds in the nest hardly go wandering about looking for food. Dhorme suggest “and stagger for lack of food.”