What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone
Parallel translations
- WEB Whereupon were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone,
- KJV Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
- BSB On what were its foundations set, or who laid its cornerstone,
- NKJV To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone,
- NASB “On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone,
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 asks on what the earth's foundations rest and who laid its cornerstone. The world's stability is God's handiwork, not Job's.
Overview
Drawing on building imagery, the LORD pictures the earth as a great structure with footings and a cornerstone. The questions emphasize that only God established the world's order and security. Scripture elsewhere names Christ the true cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20), hinting at God's foundational work in both creation and redemption.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Job 26:7He stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs the earth on nothing.
- Ps 104:5He laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be moved forever.
- Ps 93:1Yahweh reigns! He is clothed with majesty! Yahweh is armed with strength. The world also is established. It can’t be moved.
- 2 Pet 3:5For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water, by the word of God;
- Isa 28:16Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily.
- Zech 12:1A revelation, Yahweh’s word concerning Israel. Yahweh, who stretches out the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him says:
- Ps 118:22The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
- Ps 24:2For he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the floods.
- Ps 144:12Then our sons will be like well-nurtured plants, our daughters like pillars carved to adorn a palace.
- Exod 26:18–25You shall make the boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards for the south side southward.
- Eph 2:20–21being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone;
- 1 Sam 2:8He raises up the poor out of the dust. He lifts up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes, and inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are Yahweh’s. He has set the world on them.
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 38:6 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
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