“Do you know the ordinances of the heavens, Or do you establish their rule 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?
- BSB Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth?
- NKJV Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you set their dominion 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 31:35–36Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar; Yahweh of Armies is his name, says:
- Gen 8:22While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”
- Jer 33:25Yahweh says: “If my covenant of day and night fails, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;
- Gen 1:16God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars.
- Ps 148:6He has also established them forever and ever. He has made a decree which will not pass away.
- Job 38:12–13“Have you commanded the morning in your days, and caused the dawn to know its place;
- Ps 119:90–91Your faithfulness is to all generations. You have established the earth, and it remains.
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.