“Can you bring out a constellation in its season, And guide the Bear with her satellites?
Parallel translations
- WEB Can you lead the constellations out in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?
- KJV Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
- BSB Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear and her cubs?
- NKJV Can you bring out Mazzaroth in its season? Or can you guide the Great Bear with its cubs?
- NLT Can you direct the constellations through the seasons or guide the Bear with her cubs across the heavens?
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 bring out the constellations in their seasons or guide the Bear and her cubs? Only God marshals the heavenly bodies.
Overview
God asks whether Job can lead the stars in their seasonal courses. The regular, reliable movement of the heavens is God's appointment. The question reinforces that the orderly cosmos testifies to a wisdom and power utterly beyond Job's reach.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Job 38:31“Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion?
- Job 9:9He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the rooms of the south.
- 2 Kgs 23:5He got rid of the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the army of the sky.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 38:32 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.