381 And the Lord made answer to Job out of the storm-wind, and said, 2 Who is this who makes the purpose of God dark by words without knowledge? 3 Get your strength together like a man of war; I will put questions to you, and you will give me the answers.
4 Where were you when I put the earth on its base? Say, if you have knowledge. 5 By whom were its measures fixed? Say, if you have wisdom; or by whom was the line stretched out over it? 6 On what were its pillars based, or who put down its angle-stone, 7 When the morning stars made songs together, and all the sons of the gods gave cries of joy? 8 Or where were you when the sea came to birth, pushing out from its secret place; 9 When I made the cloud its robe, and put thick clouds as bands round it, 10 Ordering a fixed limit for it, with locks and doors; 11 And said, So far you may come, and no farther; and here the pride of your waves will be stopped?
12 Have you, from your earliest days, given orders to the morning, or made the dawn conscious of its place; 13 So that it might take a grip of the skirts of the earth, shaking all the evil-doers out of it? 14 It is changed like wet earth under a stamp, and is coloured like a robe; 15 And from the evil-doers their light is kept back, and the arm of pride is broken. 16 Have you come into the springs of the sea, walking in the secret places of the deep? 17 Have the doors of death been open to you, or have the door-keepers of the dark ever seen you? 18 Have you taken note of the wide limits of the earth? Say, if you have knowledge of it all. 19 Which is the way to the resting-place of the light, and where is the store-house of the dark; 20 So that you might take it to its limit, guiding it to its house? 21 No doubt you have knowledge of it, for then you had come to birth, and the number of your days is great.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 38:1-21
Commentary on Job 38:1-3
(Read Job 38:1-3)
Job had silenced, but had not convinced his friends. Elihu had silenced Job, but had not brought him to admit his guilt before God. It pleased the Lord to interpose. The Lord, in this discourse, humbles Job, and brings him to repent of his passionate expressions concerning God's providential dealings with him; and this he does, by calling upon Job to compare God's being from everlasting to everlasting, with his own time; God's knowledge of all things, with his own ignorance; and God's almighty power, with his own weakness. Our darkening the counsels of God's wisdom with our folly, is a great provocation to God. Humble faith and sincere obedience see farthest and best into the will of the Lord.
Commentary on Job 38:4-11
(Read Job 38:4-11)
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.
Commentary on Job 38:12-24
(Read Job 38:12-24)
The Lord questions Job, to convince him of his ignorance, and shame him for his folly in prescribing to God. If we thus try ourselves, we shall soon be brought to own that what we know is nothing in comparison with what we know not. By the tender mercy of our God, the Day-spring from on high has visited us, to give light to those that sit in darkness, whose hearts are turned to it as clay to the seal, 2 Corinthians 4:6. God's way in the government of the world is said to be in the sea; this means, that it is hid from us. Let us make sure that the gates of heaven shall be opened to us on the other side of death, and then we need not fear the opening of the gates of death. It is presumptuous for us, who perceive not the breadth of the earth, to dive into the depth of God's counsels. We should neither in the brightest noon count upon perpetual day, nor in the darkest midnight despair of the return of the morning; and this applies to our inward as well as to our outward condition. What folly it is to strive against God! How much is it our interest to seek peace with him, and to keep in his love!