morally wrong · preposition + noun, common masculine plural absolute
light
אוֹרָ֑ם'o.Ram
H216
illumination or (concrete) luminary (in every sense · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
withholden
וְיִמָּנַ֣עve.yi.ma.Na'
H4513
to debar (negatively or positively) from benefit or inj… · conjunction + verb, niphal, 3rd person masculine singular
high
רָ֝מָ֗הra.Mah
H7311
to be high actively · verb, qal active participle, feminine singular absolute
arm
וּזְר֥וֹעַu.ze.Ro.a'
H2220
the arm (as stretched out) · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct
broken
תִּשָּׁבֵֽרti.sha.Ver
H7665
to burst (literally or figuratively) · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
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 10:15 Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.
Job 18:5 Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.
Psalms 37:17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the LORD upholdeth the righteous.
Proverbs 4:19 The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.
Exodus 10:21-23 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which m…
Job 5:14 They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night.
Job 18:18 He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
Ezekiel 30:22 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong, and that which was broke…
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…
their light--by which they work; namely, darkness, which is their day (Job 24:17), is extinguished by daylight.
high--Rather, "The arm uplifted" for murder or other crime is broken; it falls down suddenly, powerless, through their fear of light.
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…
And from the wicked their light is withholden,.... Whose light is darkness, and whose day is the night, of which they are deprived when the morning light breaks forth; see Job 24:17; it may be figuratively understood of the light of prosperity being removed from them, or the light of life, when they shall be sent into utter darkness;
and the high arm shall be broken; their power weakened and made useless; even the power of such wicked men who have had a large share of it, and have used it in a tyrannical manner; and especially this will be their case at death; see Isaiah 14:10.
The Church Fathers
"Have you given light to the ungodly? As one who has come, so that those who do not see see, and those who see become blind. "Have you broken the arm of the beautiful? "Their vain power, like the one who chose the weakest to confuse what was the strongest (4).
From the wicked their light shall be taken away, and the high arm shall be broken. [ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION] Because, while they refuse to believe the truth, they lose for ever the knowledge of the Law, and while they boast of having received the Law, they are, doubtless, blinded by boasting of their knowledge. For it is written, Let their eyes be darkened that they see not. And again it is written, Blind the hearts of this people, and make their ears heavy. And again it is written, For judgment I have come into this world, that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind. And because they boasted themselves in the works of the Law against the Giver of the Law, it is fitly subjoined; And the high arm shall be broken. For the high arm is broken, when the proud works of the Law are reproved, by preaching the grace of faith, when it is said, By the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified. For neither does the light of God now illumine those, who veil the malice of their iniquity with the name of faith. For while they neglect to live according to the preaching of faith, and yet in appearance reverence it, they seek for the honour of this present life under the name of religion; and they gain this light from faith, as faith cherishes them in the sight of men. But there are some who sincerely believe the eternal truths which they hear, and yet contradict by evil living the very faith which they profess. These also have their light in darkness, for while they act perversely and yet think rightly about God, they are illumined in a measure by the shining of a light, so as not to be quite in darkness. And while they love the things of earth more than those of heaven, those that they see more than those they hear of, when the season of persecution assaults them, they lose that sound belief they seemed to possess. After it was said then of the wicked; The seal shall be restored as clay, and shall stand as a garment, and their light shall be taken away from the wicked, (which is certainly to take place in that persecution of Antichrist,) he presently, consoling us concerning the destruction of the same Antichrist, says; And the high arm shall be broken. For, for what else is the high arm taken, but the proud loftiness of Antichrist, who is so exalted over the reprobate minds of men with the pride of worldly glory, that though…
Dictionary and topics
Continents · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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).
Keil & Delitzsch on Job 38:12-15
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…
