To cause it to rain on a land where there is no one, A wilderness in which there is no man;
Parallel translations
- WEB To cause it to rain on a land where no man is; on the wilderness, in which there is no man;
- KJV To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;
- BSB to bring rain on a barren land, on a desert where no man lives,
- NASB To bring rain on a land without people, On a desert without a person in it,
- NLT Who makes the rain fall on barren land, in a desert where no one lives?
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 sends rain even on uninhabited deserts where no person lives. His care extends beyond human benefit to all his creation.
Overview
The LORD points out that he waters lands no human will ever use. This reveals a generosity in God's providence that is not measured only by human advantage. It enlarges Job's view of a God whose purposes and care reach far beyond himself.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Jer 14:22Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Aren’t you he, Yahweh our God? Therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things.
- Ps 107:35He turns a desert into a pool of water, and a dry land into water springs.
- Heb 6:7–8For the land which has drunk the rain that comes often on it, and produces a crop suitable for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receives blessing from God;
- Isa 35:1–2The wilderness and the dry land will be glad. The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.
- Ps 104:10–14He sends springs into the valleys. They run among the mountains.
- Isa 43:19–20Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
- Ps 147:8–9who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass grow on the mountains.
- Job 36:27For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor,
- Isa 41:18–19I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the middle of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 38:26 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.