The Lord’s First Speech, 1-3
38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind:
Consider carefully how the Lord answers Job:
‘In speaking to Job, God never addressed the problem of suffering, though He gave him the answer he needed. Job and the other men had been trying to answer Why? But this was the wrong question, which accounts for all their wrong answers. The right question was not Why? but Who? Once Job understood who he was (verse 2; 42.3) and who God is (verses 5-6; etc.), all was well. The ultimate answer to all our questions about evil and suffering is not information, but a person: the Lord Himself. The heart cry of believers is always to see the glory of their God and Savior. One day, that cry will be answered forever (John 17.24; Titus 2.13).’ Beeke (Ed) (Family Bible Worship Guide)
2 “Who is this that darkens my counsel
with words without knowledge?
3 Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.
God’s questions to Job, 4-41
38:4 “Where were you
when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you possess understanding!
38:5 Who set its measurements—if you know—
or who stretched a measuring line across it?
38:6 On what were its bases set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
38:7 when the morning stars sang in chorus,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
The morning stars sang in chorus – Harold Lindsell (The Battle for the Bible, p38) comments:
‘That sounds far-fetched and it has even been thought of a figurative language. But scientists now tell us that in the air there is music that comes from the stars.’
I regard the notion that the book of Job anticipates the modern study of astroseismology as absurd, and flies in the face of the parallelism of this verse.
Very different, but similarly implausible, is the suggestion that this verse reflects the ANE belief that the stars were gods.
More probably, we might understand ‘the morning stars’/’the sons of Gd’ as angels.
The entire passage is highly figurative. The picture is of ‘a great construction project under God’s direction’ (Wilson). The laying of cornerstone (v6) would be the occasion of much celebration, and so it is here.
38:8 “Who shut up the sea with doors
when it burst forth, coming out of the womb,
38:9 when I made the storm clouds its garment,
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
38:10 when I prescribed its limits,
and set in place its bolts and doors,
38:11 when I said, ‘To here you may come
and no farther,
here your proud waves will be confined’?
38:12 Have you ever in your life commanded the morning,
or made the dawn know its place,
38:13 that it might seize the corners of the earth,
and shake the wicked out of it?
38:14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
its features are dyed like a garment.
38:15 Then from the wicked the light is withheld,
and the arm raised in violence is broken.
38:16 Have you gone to the springs that fill the sea,
or walked about in the recesses of the deep?
38:17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Have you seen the gates of deepest darkness?
38:18 Have you considered the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know it all!
38:19 “In what direction does light reside,
and darkness, where is its place,
38:20 that you may take them to their borders
and perceive the pathways to their homes?
38:21 You know, for you were born before them;
and the number of your days is great!
38:22 Have you entered the storehouse of the snow,
or seen the armory of the hail,
38:23 which I reserve for the time of trouble,
for the day of war and battle?
38:24 In what direction is lightning dispersed,
or the east winds scattered over the earth?
38:25 Who carves out a channel for the heavy rains,
and a path for the rumble of thunder,
38:26 to cause it to rain on an uninhabited land,
a desert where there are no human beings,
38:27 to satisfy a devastated and desolate land,
and to cause it to sprout with vegetation?
38:28 Does the rain have a father,
or who has fathered the drops of the dew?
38:29 From whose womb does the ice emerge,
and the frost from the sky, who gives birth to it,
38:30 when the waters become hard like stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen solid?
38:31 Can you tie the bands of the Pleiades,
or release the cords of Orion?
38:32 Can you lead out
the constellations in their seasons,
or guide the Bear with its cubs?
Apologist J. Warner Wallace, while disclaiming the view that the Bible teaches modern science, nevertheless thinks that the biblical revelation is consistent with science.
With regard to the present passage:
‘Can you tie the bands of the Pleiades?’ is consistent with the view that the components of this famous star cluster are indeed ‘bound together’ by a common origin and motion.
‘Can you…release the cords of Orion?’ would be a reference to Orion’s belts of three stars which (unlike the stars of the Pleiades) are not related to one another and do not share a common motion.
‘Can you…guide the Bear with its cubs?’ would be a reference to the bright star Arcturus, which is connected with some 52 other stars, all moving in the same direction and at an unusually high velocity. But the reference is more likely to be to the ‘Great Bear’ (Ursa Major) and the ‘Little Bear’ (Ursa Minor).
These are interesting coincidences between the Bible and science. But it is fanciful to regard them as anything more than coincidence.
Robert Clifton Robinson maintains that it was God himself who named the 12 Zodiacal constellations, and that together ‘they tell us the complete story of salvation that God promised the world.’
Turning to to Job 38:32, Robinson says that:
‘The “Mazzaroth” is the Hebrew name for the 12 constellations that are commonly known as the signs of the Zodiac. Although satan has corrupted the original purpose of these stars, which was to show the glory of God, they still maintain their original Hebrew names. Each one of these names were given by God, and each name carries a specific meaning. When these names are recited together, they tell the story of the Christian Gospel.’
But there is more doubt about the word ‘mazzaroth’ than Robinson is letting on.
Some older commentators (e.g. JFB) certainly think that the work refers to the constellations of the Zodiac. Poole allows this identification as a possibility, but by no means a certainty.
But, from a similar ‘vintage’, Barnes expresses agnosticism:
‘There has been much diversity of opinion about the meaning of this word. It occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures, and of course it is not easy to determine its signification. The LXX. retain the word μαξσνρὠθ, without attempting to translate it. Jerome renders it, Luciferum—Lucifer, the morning-star. The Chaldee, שטרי מזליא—the constellations of the planets. Coverdale, “the morning-star;” and so Luther renders it. Rosenmüller, signa celestia—the celestial signs, and so Herder, Umbreit, Gesenius, and Noyes, “the zodiac.” Gesenius regards the word מזרות—mazzaroth, as the same as מזלות mazzaloth, properly lodgings, inns; and hence the lodgings of the sun, or the places or houses in which he appears in the heavens, and thus as meaning the signs in the zodiac. Most of the Hebrew interpreters adopt this view, but it rests on no certain foundation, and as we are not certain as to the meaning of the word, the only safe way is to retain the original, as is done in our common version. I do not see how it is possible to determine its meaning with certainty, and probably it is to be regarded as a name given to some constellation or cluster of stars supposed to exert an influence over the seasons, or connected with some change in the seasons, which we cannot now accurately understand.’
Modern scholars agree that the meaning of the word is extremely uncertain:
‘The Heb. mazzarot occurs only here and its meaning is thus uncertain. However, most speculations center around particular stars, constellations, or groups of constellations.’ (Wilson, UBCS)
Alden (NAC) similarly:
‘Most translations from KJV through NRSV simply transliterate the first term as “Mazzaroth.” Others read “signs of the Zodiac” (NEB), “constellations” (NASB), “morning star” (JB, NIV footnote), or simply “stars” (AAT, NCV) or “planets.”’
38:33 Do you know the laws of the heavens,
or can you set up their rule over the earth?
38:34 Can you raise your voice to the clouds
so that a flood of water covers you?
38:35 Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go?
Will they say to you, ‘Here we are’?
According to Ramm (Christian View), O.E. Sanden claimed that v35 predicted wireless telegraphy. But this is, as Ramm comments, alien to the meaning of the verse. It is to take poetic personificaiton with crass literalism. God’s control over nature includes lightning, which he can send where he wishes to send it.