Job 38:4-6

God’s questions to Job

38:4 “Where were you

when I laid the foundation ¹  of the earth?

Tell me, ²  if you possess understanding!

38:5 Who set its measurements – if ³  you know –

or who stretched a measuring line across it?

38:6 On what ⁴  were its bases ⁵  set,

or who laid its cornerstone –

Job 38:28-29

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, ⁶  who gives birth to it,

Proverbs 8:25-26

8:25 before the mountains were set in place –

before the hills – I was born,

8:26 before he made the earth and its fields, ⁷ 

or the beginning ⁸  of the dust of the world.

[38:4]  ¹ tn The construction is the infinitive construct in a temporal clause, using the preposition and the subjective genitive suffix.

[38:4]  ² tn The verb is the imperative; it has no object “me” in the text.

[38:5]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn For the interrogative serving as a genitive, see GKC 442 §136.b.

[38:6]  ⁵ 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).

[38:29]  ⁶ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[8:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “open places.”

[8:26]  ⁸ tn Here רֹאשׁ (ro’sh) means “beginning” with reference to time (BDB 911 s.v. 4.b).