to turn about or over · verb, hithpael imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
clay
כְּחֹ֣מֶרke.Cho.mer
H2563
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
seal
חוֹתָ֑םcho.Tam
H2368
a signature-ring · noun, common masculine singular absolute
stand
וְ֝יִֽתְיַצְּב֗וּve.yit.ya.tze.Vu
H3320
to place (any thing so as to stay) · conjunction + verb, hithpael, 3rd person masculine plural
garment
לְבֽוּשׁle.Vush
H3830
a garment (literally or figuratively) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 104:6 Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.
Psalms 104:2 Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 38:12-24
The Lord here proceeds to ask Job many puzzling questions, to convince him of his ignorance, and so to shame him for his folly in prescribing to God. If we will but try ourselves with such interrogatories as these, we shall soon be brought to own that what we know is nothing in comparison with what we know not. Job is here challenged to give an account of six things: -
I. Of the springs of the morning, the day-spring from on high, Job 38:12-15. As there is no visible being of which we may be more firmly assured that it is, so there is none which we are more puzzled in describing, nor more doubtful in determining what it is, than the light. We welcome the morning, and are glad of the day-spr…
Explaining the first clause of Job 38:13, as Job 38:15 does the second clause. As the plastic clay presents the various figures impressed on it by a seal, so the earth, which in the dark was void of all form, when illuminated by the dayspring, presents a variety of forms, hills, valleys, &c.
turned--(Hebrew, "turns itself") alludes to the rolling cylinder seal, such as is found in Babylon, which leaves its impressions on the clay, as it is turned about; so the morning light rolling on over the earth.
they stand--The forms of beauty, unfolded by the dawn, stand forth as a garment, in which the earth is clad.
Adam Clarke on Job 38:14
It is turned as clay to the seal - The earth, like soft clay, is capable of modifying itself in endless ways, and assuming infinite forms. As a proof of this, see the astonishing variety of plants, flowers, and fruits, and the infinitely diversified hues, odours, tastes, consistency, and properties, of its vegetable productions. There seems to be an allusion here to the sealing of clay, which I believe has been, and is now, frequent in the East. Six of those Eastern seals for sealing clay, made of brass, the figures and characters all in relief, the interstices being entirely perforated and cut out, so that the upper side of the seal is the same as the lower, now lie before me. They seem to…
"Is it you who, with a little mud, created the living body? It is necessary to apply this or the creation of Adam on the sixth day, or what is happening now in the sixth age of the world, when drawn from the multitude of sinners, as from the silt of the earth, the man is formed in the image of the One who created it (1). This is not the work of the Church, but itself was created; to receive this grace by the One who created everything, by the Word incarnated in the favorable time (2). "And publish his name by all the earth. This character refers to the man of the sixth age rather than the man of the sixth day created before those of his race can make him known, unless it is said that it is especially at the sixth age that his name has spread.
The seal shall be restored as clay, and shall stand as a garment. [ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION] What else but 'clay' did the Lord find the people of Israel, whom He came unto when given up to the practices of the Gentiles, and toiling at bricks in Egypt? And whilst He led it forth by so many miracles to the land of promise, and filled it, when brought thither, with the knowledge of His wisdom, whilst He conferred on it so many secret mysteries by means of Prophecy, what else did He make it but a 'seal' for preserving His mystery? For Divine Prophecy itself kept secret, whatever the Truth revealed of Itself at the end. But when, after so many Divine secrets, after the many miracles which it witnessed at the coming of our Redeemer, it loved its land, in preference to the truth, (saying by the Priests, If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe on Him, and the Romans will come, and take away our place and nation;) it returned, as it were, to those bricks, which it had left in Egypt: and that which had been made the seal of God, turned back again to that which it had abandoned. And, having been a 'seal,' it appeared as 'clay' in the eyes of the Truth, when it lost, through the wickedness of impiety, the mysteries of the word, which it had received, and chose to savour only of the things of earth, which pollute. Where it is fitly subjoined, And shall stand as a garment. For because garments which are unfinished and of thicker texture, even when put on, do not adhere, nor are well fitted to the limbs of the wearer, they are said to stand. Judaea therefore, even when it seemed to be labouring in the knowledge of the truth, stood as a garment; because it professed to serve God in external commands, but refused to cling to Him by the understanding of love. While it observed the letter only, in the precepts of God, and did not through the Spirit unite itself to their inmost meanings, it did not cling, so to speak, to Him Who had put it on. Whence it is also fitly subjoined, The seal shall he restored as clay. For those whom we now believe to be faithful, we shall then find to be the very enemies of the faith; and though, when not tempted, they appear to be a 'seal,' they will doubtless, when tempted, be 'clay.' Of whom it is fitly subjoined, And shall stand as a garment. For Holy Church is now clothed as it were with garments, as many in number as the faithful, by…
Dictionary and topics
Clay — This word is used of sediment found in pits or in streets (Isa. 57:20; Jer. 38:60), of dust mixed with spittle (John 9:6), and of potter’s clay (Isa. 41:25; Nah. 3:14; Jer. 18:1-6; Rom. 9:21). Clay…
Clay · Seals ma — Seals ma
Continents · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Seals · Impressions of: Frequently taken in clay — Impressions of: Frequently taken in clay
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Gill on Job 38:14
It is turned as clay to the seal,.... As the clay receives a different form by the impress of the seal upon it, so the earth appears in a different manner by the spring of morning light upon it; in the darkness of the night nothing of its form and beauty is to be seen; it is a mere "tohu" and "bohu", like the chaos, Genesis 1:2; its rising hills, and spreading dales, and beautiful landscapes, cannot be observed with pleasure; but when the light breaks forth in the morning, it is seen in all its beauty and glory: of the change the light of the Gospel makes in men, see 2 Corinthians 3:18;
and they stand as a garment; or things stand upon it as a garment, as Mr. Broughton renders the words; he…
12 Hast thou in thy life commanded a morning,
Caused the dawn to know its place,
13 That it may take hold of the ends of the earth,
So that the evil-doers are shaken under it?
14 That it changeth like the clay of a signet-ring,
And everything fashioneth itself as a garment.
15 Their light is removed from the evil-doers,
And the out-stretched arm is broken.
The dawn of the morning, spreading out from one point, takes hold of the carpet of the earth as it were by the edges, and shakes off from it the evil-doers, who had laid themselves to rest upon it the night before. נער, combining in itself the significations to thrust and to shake, has the latter here, as in the Arab. nâ‛ûra, a water-whe…
it is robed in brilliant colors: The rising sun brings out the colors, shapes, and textures of things.
Rashi on Job 38:14
changes in formation.
The seal...like clay The cast of man’s countenance [changes] when he dies, and at the resurrection of the dead they will live again, and they will stand up in their clothing.
