New Living Translation
Job 38:5
5Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line?
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, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them. 4“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line? 6What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone 7as 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 11:9It is broader than the earth and wider than the sea.
- Job 28:25He decided how hard the winds should blow and how much rain should fall.
- Proverbs 8:27I was there when he established the heavens, when he drew the horizon on the oceans.
- Isaiah 40:12Who else has held the oceans in his hand? Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers? Who else knows the weight of the earth or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale?
- Psalms 19:4Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.
- Psalms 78:55He drove out the nations before them; he gave them their inheritance by lot. He settled the tribes of Israel into their homes.
- Isaiah 34:11It will be haunted by the desert owl and the screech owl, the great owl and the raven. For God will measure that land carefully; he will measure it for chaos and destruction.
- Zechariah 2:1When I looked again, I saw a man with a measuring line in his hand.
- 2 Corinthians 10:16Then we will be able to go and preach the Good News in other places far beyond you, where no one else is working. Then there will be no question of our boasting about work 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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