Job 38:20

That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof?

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
take	תִ֭קָּחֶנּוּ Ti.ka.che.nu	H3947	to take (in the widest variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
bound	גְּבוּל֑וֹ ge.vu.Lo	H1366	properly · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
know	תָ֝בִ֗ין ta.Vin	H995	to separate mentally (or distinguish) · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
paths	נְתִיב֥וֹת ne.ti.Vot	H5410	a (beaten) track · noun, common feminine plural construct
house	בֵּיתֽוֹ bei.To	H1004	a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine 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

Genesis 10:19 And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and…
Genesis 23:17 And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that w…
Job 26:10 He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end.

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…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 38:20

Dost thou know its place so well as to be able to guide, ("take" as in Isa 36:17) it to (but UMBREIT, "reach it in") its own boundary, that is, the limit between light and darkness (Job 26:10)?

Adam Clarke on Job 38:20

Shouldest take it to the bound thereof? - Or, as Mr. Good, translates, "That thou shouldest lay hold of it in its boundary." That thou shouldest go to the very spot where light commences, and where darkness ends; and see the house where each dwells. Here darkness and light are personified, each as a real intelligent being, having a separate existence and local dwelling. But poetry animates everything. It is the region of fictitious existence. I believe this verse should be translated thus: - "For thou canst take Us to its boundary; for thou knowest the paths to its house." This is a strong irony, and there are several others in this Divine speech. Job had valued himself too much on his knowl…

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John Gill on Job 38:20

That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof,.... Either darkness, or rather the light; take it as it were by the hand, and guide and direct its course to its utmost bound. This only the Lord can do and does: he has set a tabernacle for the sun, which goes forth at his command as a strong man to run a race; whose going forth is from the end of the heavens, and his circuit unto the ends of it: in which his course is so steered and directed by the Lord, that he never misses his way or errs from it; but keeps his path exactly, as well as knows its rising and setting, its utmost bounds; and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof? from whence it sets out, and whither it retu…

The Church Fathers

"Will you lead me to their limits? Until the end of these sinners. What is there where does not penetrate the wisdom of God, who reaches with strength from one end to the other and disposes everything with gentleness (6)? So no man can be compared to him. "If you have known the traces of their passage; "
— Augustine of Hippo, ANNOTATIONS ON THE BOOK OF JOB (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Darkness · Inexplicable nature of — Inexplicable nature of
Light · The theory of, beyond man’s comprehension — The theory of, beyond man’s comprehension

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).

Job 38:20

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 38:12-24

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 38:20

Adam Clarke on Job 38:20

John Gill on Job 38:20

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Job 38:20

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 38:12-24

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 38:20

Adam Clarke on Job 38:20

John Gill on Job 38:20

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 38:16-21

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Job 38:14

Rashi on Job 38:17