God’s Word Translation
Job 38:5
5Who determined its dimensions? Certainly, you know! Who stretched a measuring line over it?
Job 38:5 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
- New International Version (NIV)Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?
- English Standard Version (ESV)Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?
- New King James Version (NKJV)Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?
Context of Job 38:5
3Brace yourself like a man! I will ask you, and you will teach me. 4“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have ⌞such⌟ insight. Who determined its dimensions? Certainly, you know! Who stretched a measuring line over it? 6On what were its footings sunk? Who laid its cornerstone 7when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Read all of Job 38Job 38:5 word by word
מִי־שָׂ֣ם מְ֭מַדֶּיהָ כִּ֣י תֵדָ֑ע א֤וֹ מִֽי־נָטָ֖ה עָלֶ֣יהָ קָּֽו׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 38:5
- Job 11:9It is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.
- Job 28:25When he gave the wind its force and measured the water ⌞in the sea⌟,
- Proverbs 8:27“When he set up the heavens, I was there. When he traced the horizon on the surface of the ocean,
- Isaiah 40:12Who has measured the water of the sea with the palm of his hand or measured the sky with the length of his hand? Who has held the dust of the earth in a bushel basket or weighed the mountains on a scale and the hills on a balance?
- Psalms 19:4⌞Yet,⌟ their sound has gone out into the entire world, their message to the ends of the earth. He has set up a tent in the heavens for the sun,
- Psalms 78:55He forced nations out of their way and gave them the land of the nations as their inheritance. He settled the tribes of Israel in their own tents.
- Isaiah 34:11Pelicans and herons will take possession of the land. Owls and crows will live there. He will stretch the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of destruction over it.
- Zechariah 2:1I looked up and saw a man with a measuring line in his hand.
- 2 Corinthians 10:16spreading the Good News in the regions far beyond you. We won’t brag about things already accomplished by someone else.
Commentaries on Job 38:5
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 5Who 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…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 5Who 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 Isaiah 28:17. The earth is represented as a building, the plan of…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 4-11Verses 4-11 For the humbling of Job, God here shows him his ignorance, even concerning the earth and the sea. As we cannot find fault with God's work, so we need not fear concerning it. The works of his providence, as well as the work of creation, never can be broken; and the work of redemption is no less firm, of which Christ himself is both the Foundation and the Corner-stone. The church stands as firm as the earth.Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 1-41God challenges Job. Job admits he cannot judge the moral world. God shows Job's ignorance of the natural world's elements related to the realm of heaven, weather, animals, and birds (38:4–21; 22–38; 39–39:30).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 55. measures--of its proportions. Image from an architect's plans of a building. line--of measurement (Is 28:17). The earth is formed on an all-wise plan.Read the comment
Topics related to Job 38:5
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 38
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
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