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Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Job 38:24

This verse is not available in the MSG!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Blessing;   God;   Meteorology and Celestial Phenomena;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Light;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Miracles;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - God;   Mystery;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Job, the Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Knowledge;   Nature;   World;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Winds;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Wind;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
What road leads to the place where light is dispersed?Where is the source of the east wind that spreads across the earth?
Hebrew Names Version
By what way is the lightning distributed, Or the east wind scattered on the eretz?
King James Version
By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?
English Standard Version
What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?
New Century Version
Where is the place from which light comes? Where is the place from which the east winds blow over the earth?
New English Translation
In what direction is lightning dispersed, or the east winds scattered over the earth?
Amplified Bible
"Where is the way that the light is distributed, Or the east wind scattered over the earth?
New American Standard Bible
"Where is the way that the light is divided, And the east wind scattered on the earth?
World English Bible
By what way is the lightning distributed, Or the east wind scattered on the earth?
Geneva Bible (1587)
By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the East winde vpon the earth?
Legacy Standard Bible
Where is the way that the light is divided,Or the east wind scattered on the earth?
Berean Standard Bible
In which direction is the lightning dispersed, or the east wind scattered over the earth?
Contemporary English Version
From where does lightning leap, or the east wind blow?
Complete Jewish Bible
"By what path is light dispersed, or the east wind poured out on the land?
Darby Translation
By what way is the light parted, [and] the east wind scattered upon the earth?
Easy-to-Read Version
Have you ever gone to the place where the sun comes up, where it makes the east wind blow all over the earth?
George Lamsa Translation
Or in what manner is light distributed, and whence the wind comes forth upon the earth?
Good News Translation
Have you been to the place where the sun comes up, or the place from which the east wind blows?
Lexham English Bible
Where then is the way where the light is distributed, where he scatters the east wind upon the earth?
Literal Translation
How is it, the way the light is distributed; and how does the east wind spread itself on the earth?
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
By what waye is the light parted, & the heate dealt out vpon earth?
American Standard Version
By what way is the light parted, Or the east wind scattered upon the earth?
Bible in Basic English
Which is the way to the place where the wind is measured out, and the east wind sent out over the earth?
JPS Old Testament (1917)
By what way is the light parted, or the east wind scattered upon the earth?
King James Version (1611)
By what way is the light parted? Which scattereth the East wind vpon the earth.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
By what way is the light parted? and into what land breaketh the east winde?
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And whence proceeds the frost? or whence is the south wind dispersed over the whole world under heaven?
English Revised Version
By what way is the light parted, or the east wind scattered upon the earth?
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Bi what weie is the liyt spred abrood, heete is departid on erthe?
Update Bible Version
By what way is the light parted, Or the east wind scattered on the earth?
Webster's Bible Translation
By what way is the light parted, [which] scattereth the east wind upon the earth?
New King James Version
By what way is light diffused, Or the east wind scattered over the earth?
New Living Translation
Where is the path to the source of light? Where is the home of the east wind?
New Life Bible
What is the way to the place where the light is divided, or the east wind spread over the earth?
New Revised Standard
What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Where then is the way the lightning is parted? The east wind spreadeth itself abroad over the earth.
Douay-Rheims Bible
By what way is the light spread, and heat divided upon the earth?
Revised Standard Version
What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?
Young's Literal Translation
Where [is] this, the way light is apportioned? It scattereth an east wind over the earth.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Where is the way that the light is divided, Or the east wind scattered on the earth?

Contextual Overview

12"And have you ever ordered Morning, ‘Get up!' told Dawn, ‘Get to work!' So you could seize Earth like a blanket and shake out the wicked like cockroaches? As the sun brings everything to light, brings out all the colors and shapes, The cover of darkness is snatched from the wicked— they're caught in the very act! 16"Have you ever gotten to the true bottom of things, explored the labyrinthine caves of deep ocean? Do you know the first thing about death? Do you have one clue regarding death's dark mysteries? And do you have any idea how large this earth is? Speak up if you have even the beginning of an answer. 19"Do you know where Light comes from and where Darkness lives So you can take them by the hand and lead them home when they get lost? Why, of course you know that. You've known them all your life, grown up in the same neighborhood with them! 22"Have you ever traveled to where snow is made, seen the vault where hail is stockpiled, The arsenals of hail and snow that I keep in readiness for times of trouble and battle and war? Can you find your way to where lightning is launched, or to the place from which the wind blows? Who do you suppose carves canyons for the downpours of rain, and charts the route of thunderstorms That bring water to unvisited fields, deserts no one ever lays eyes on, Drenching the useless wastelands so they're carpeted with wildflowers and grass? And who do you think is the father of rain and dew, the mother of ice and frost? You don't for a minute imagine these marvels of weather just happen, do you?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Job 38:12, Job 38:13, Jonah 4:8, Matthew 24:27

Reciprocal: Job 28:7 - a path Job 37:15 - the light Psalms 135:7 - he maketh lightnings Psalms 147:8 - covereth

Cross-References

Genesis 20:3
Abraham traveled from there south to the Negev and settled down between Kadesh and Shur. While he was camping in Gerar, Abraham said of his wife Sarah, "She's my sister." So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent for Sarah and took her. But God came to Abimelech in a dream that night and told him, "You're as good as dead—that woman you took, she's a married woman."
Genesis 34:31
They said, "Nobody is going to treat our sister like a whore and get by with it."
Genesis 38:1
About that time, Judah separated from his brothers and hooked up with a man in Adullam named Hirah. While there, Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua. He married her, they went to bed, she became pregnant and had a son named Er. She got pregnant again and had a son named Onan. She had still another son; she named this one Shelah. They were living at Kezib when she had him.
Genesis 38:22
He went back to Judah and said, "I couldn't find her. The men there said there never has been a prostitute there."
Genesis 38:23
Judah said, "Let her have it then. If we keep looking, everyone will be poking fun at us. I kept my part of the bargain—I sent the kid goat but you couldn't find her."
Genesis 38:27
When her time came to give birth, it turned out that there were twins in her womb. As she was giving birth, one put his hand out; the midwife tied a red thread on his hand, saying, "This one came first." But then he pulled it back and his brother came out. She said, "Oh! A breakout!" So she named him Perez (Breakout). Then his brother came out with the red thread on his hand. They named him Zerah (Bright).
Leviticus 20:10
"If a man commits adultery with another man's wife—the wife, say, of his neighbor—both the man and the woman, the adulterer and adulteress, must be put to death.
Leviticus 21:9
"If a priest's daughter defiles herself in prostitution, she disgraces her father. She must be burned at the stake.
Deuteronomy 24:16
Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their parents. Each person shall be put to death for his own sin.
2 Samuel 12:5
David exploded in anger. "As surely as God lives," he said to Nathan, "the man who did this ought to be lynched! He must repay for the lamb four times over for his crime and his stinginess!"

Gill's Notes on the Bible

By what way is the light parted,.... That is, dost thou know by what way it is parted or divided? as at the first creation, when God divided the light from darkness, Genesis 1:4; or at sun rising and sun setting; and so in the two hemispheres, when there is darkness on the one, and light on the other; or under the two poles, when there are interchangeably six months light and six months darkness. Or how it is parted in an unequal distribution of day and night, at different seasons and in different climates; or how on one and the same day, and at the same time, the sun shall shine in one part of the earth, and not another; and more especially if this had been now a fact, and known, that there should be darkness all over the land of Egypt, and light in Goshen. Some understand this of lightning, but that is later mentioned;

[which] scattereth the east wind upon the earth? that rising sometimes with the sun, or first spring of light; see Jonah 4:8; or which light spreads and diffuses itself "from the east", as it may be rendered. The sun rises in the east, and in a very quick and surprising manner spreads and diffuses its light throughout the hemisphere. Or this may respect the east wind itself, which scatters the clouds; and either spreads them in the heavens over the earth, or disperses them and drives away rain x, as the north wind does: or as Mr. Broughton renders the words, "and the east wind scattereth itself over the earth"; it blowing invisibly and without our knowledge, goes and returns as other winds do, John 3:8.

x "Agente nimbos ocyor euro". Horat. Carmin. l. 2. Ode 16.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

By what way is the light parted - The reference here is to the light of the morning, that seems to come from one point, and to spread itself at once over the whole earth. It seems to be collected in the east, or, as it were, condensed or concentrated there, and then to divide itself, and to expand over the face of the world. God here asks Job whether he could explain this, or show in what manner it was done. This was one of the subjects which might be supposed early to excite inquiry, and is one which can be as little explained now as then. The causes of the propagation of light, which seems to proceed from a center and to spread rapidly in every direction, are perhaps as little known now as they were in the time of Job. Philosophy has done little to explain this, and the mode in which light is made to travel in eight minutes from the sun to the earth - a distance of ninety million miles - and the manner in which it is “divided” or “parted” from that great center, and spread over the solar system, is as much of a real mystery as it was in the days of Job, and the question proposed here may be asked now with as much emphasis as it was then.

Which scattereth the east wind upon the earth - According to this translation, the idea would be that somehow light is the cause of the east wind. But it may be doubted whether this is the true interpretation, and whether it is meant to be affirmed that light has any agency in causing the wind to blow. Herder renders it:

“When doth the light divide itself,

When the east wind streweth it upon the earth?”

According to this, the idea would be that the light of the morning seemed to be borne along by the wind. Umbreit renders it, “Where is the way upon which the east wind flows forth upon the earth?” That is, the east wind, like the light, comes from a certain point, and seems to spread abroad over the world; and the question is, whether Job could explain this? This interpretation is adopted by Rosenmuller and Noyes, and seems to be demanded by the parallelism, and by the nature of the case. The cause of the rapid spreading of the wind from a certain point of the compass, was involved in as much obscurity as the propagation of the light, nor is that cause much better understood now. There is no reason to suppose that the spread of the light, has any particular agency in causing the east wind, as our common version seems to suppose, nor is that idea necessarily in the Hebrew text. The east wind is mentioned here either because the light comes from the east, and the wind from that quarter was more naturally suggested than any other, or because the east wind was remarkable for its violence. The idea that a strong east wind was somehow connected with the dawn of day or the rising of the sun, was one that prevailed, at least to some extent, among the ancients. Thus, Catullus (lxiv. 270ff) says:

Hic qualis flatu placidum mare matutino

Horrificans zephyrus proclivas incitat undas

Aurora exoriente, vagi sub lumina solis.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 38:24. By what way is the light parted — Who can accurately describe the cause and operation of a thunder cloud, the cause, nature, and mode of operation of the lightning itself? Is it a simple element or compound substance? What is its velocity? and why not conductible by every kind of substance, as it is known to exist in all, and, indeed, to be diffused through every portion of nature? How is it parted? How does it take its zigzag form? this is the curious, indescribable, and unknown parting. Are all the causes of positive and negative electricity found out? What are its particles, and how do they cohere, and in what order are they propagated? Much has been said on all these points, and how little of that much satisfactorily!

Scattereth the east wind upon the earth? — קדים kadim, the eastern storm, euroclydon, or levanter.


 
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