Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth?
Parallel translations
- WEB Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish its dominion over the earth?
- KJV Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?
- NKJV Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth?
- NASB “Do you know the ordinances of the heavens, Or do you establish their rule over the earth?
- NLT Do you know the laws of the universe? Can you use them to regulate the earth?
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
Does Job know the laws that govern the heavens or set their rule over the earth? Such ordering belongs to God alone.
Overview
The LORD asks whether Job understands the fixed laws by which the heavens operate and influence the earth. Job grasps neither their workings nor their authority. The verse affirms that the dependable order of the universe flows from God's decree, not human insight.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Jer 31:35–36Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day, who sets in order the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the LORD of Hosts is His name:
- Gen 8:22As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease.”
- Jer 33:25This is what the LORD says: If I have not established My covenant with the day and the night and the fixed order of heaven and earth,
- Gen 1:16God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And He made the stars as well.
- Ps 148:6He established them forever and ever; He issued a decree that will never pass away.
- Job 38:12–13In your days, have you commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place,
- Ps 119:90–91Your faithfulness continues through all generations; You established the earth, and it endures.
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 38:33 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.