so you can lead it back to its border? Do you know the paths to its home?
Parallel translations
- WEB that you should take it to its bound, that you should discern the paths to its house?
- KJV That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof?
- NKJV That you may take it to its territory, That you may know the paths to its home?
- NASB That you would take it to its territory, And discern the paths to its home?
- NLT Can you take each to its home? Do you know how to get there?
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
Can Job lead light and darkness to their boundaries or find the way to their dwellings? He has no such authority.
Overview
Continuing from the previous verse, God asks whether Job can escort light and darkness home or trace their paths. The questions are gently ironic, exposing human helplessness over creation's order. They press Job toward humble acknowledgment of God's incomparable wisdom.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Gen 23:17So Ephron’s field at Machpelah near Mamre, the cave that was in it, and all the trees within the boundaries of the field were deeded over
- Gen 10:19and the borders of Canaan extended from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.
- Job 26:10He has inscribed a horizon on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 38:20 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.