New International Version
Job 38:5
5Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across 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?
- 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?
- New Living Translation (NLT)Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line?
Context of Job 38:5
3Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. 4“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? 6On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— 7while the morning stars sang together and all the angels 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 11:9Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.
- Job 28:25When he established the force of the wind and measured out the waters,
- Proverbs 8:27I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
- Isaiah 40:12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?
- Psalms 19:4Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
- Psalms 78:55He drove out nations before them and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance; he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.
- Isaiah 34:11The desert owl and screech owl will possess it; the great owl and the raven will nest there. God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation.
- Zechariah 2:1Then I looked up, and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand.
- 2 Corinthians 10:16so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about work already done in someone else’s territory.
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
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