Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof,
Parallel translations
- WEB “What is the way to the dwelling of light? As for darkness, where is its place,
- BSB Where is the way to the home of light? Do you know where darkness resides,
- NKJV “Where is the way to the dwelling of light? And darkness, where is its place,
- NASB ¶“Where is the way to the dwelling of light? And darkness, where is its place,
- NLT “Where does light come from, and where does darkness go?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God asks where light dwells and where darkness has its home. Job cannot locate the origins of the most basic realities.
Overview
The LORD inquires about the very dwelling places of light and darkness, treating them almost as living things with appointed homes. Job has no answer. The poetry underscores how the most familiar phenomena remain deep mysteries known only to their Creator.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Ezek 32:8All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD.
- Deut 4:19And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.
- Ps 105:28He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word.
- Ps 18:11He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
- Matt 27:45Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
- Job 38:12–13Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place;
- Amos 4:13For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name.
- Isa 45:7I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
- Gen 1:14–18And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
- Gen 1:3–4And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
- Ps 104:20Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.
- John 1:9That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
- John 8:12Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
- Jer 13:16Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.
Resources, by level
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 38:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.