Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, April 29th, 2025
the Second Week after Easter
Attention!
For 10¢ a day you can enjoy StudyLight.org ads
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!

Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Job 38:38

This verse is not available in the MSG!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Blessing;   God;  

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 - Argob;   Knowledge;   Nature;   World;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Argob (2);   Clod;   Hard;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
when the dust hardens like cast metaland the clods of dirt stick together?
Hebrew Names Version
When the dust runs into a mass, And the clods of eretz stick together?
King James Version
When the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?
English Standard Version
when the dust runs into a mass and the clods stick fast together?
New Century Version
when the dust becomes hard and the clumps of dirt stick together?
New English Translation
when the dust hardens into a mass, and the clumps of earth stick together?
Amplified Bible
When the dust hardens into a mass And the clods stick together [because of the heat]?
New American Standard Bible
When the dust hardens into a mass And the clods stick together?
World English Bible
When the dust runs into a mass, And the clods of earth stick together?
Geneva Bible (1587)
When the earth groweth into hardnesse, and the clottes are fast together?
Legacy Standard Bible
When the dust hardens into a massAnd the clods stick together?
Berean Standard Bible
when the dust hardens into a mass and the clods of earth stick together?
Contemporary English Version
on the dry, lumpy soil?
Complete Jewish Bible
so that the dust becomes a mass [of mud], and its clods stick together?
Darby Translation
When the dust runneth as into a molten mass, and the clods cleave fast together?
Easy-to-Read Version
The rain makes the dust become mud, and the clumps of dirt stick together.
George Lamsa Translation
Who has poured out soil upon the earth, and who has made the steep rocks?
Good News Translation
rain that hardens the dust into lumps?
Lexham English Bible
at the flowing of the dust into a cast and the clods cling together?
Literal Translation
when the dust is melted into hardness, and the clods cling fast together?
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
who turneth the clottes to dust, & the to be clottes agayne?
American Standard Version
When the dust runneth into a mass, And the clods cleave fast together?
Bible in Basic English
When the earth becomes hard as metal, and is joined together in masses?
JPS Old Testament (1917)
When the dust runneth into a mass, and the clods cleave fast together?
King James Version (1611)
When the dust groweeh into hardnesse, and the clods cleaue fast together?
Bishop's Bible (1568)
To cause the earth to grow into hardnesse, & the clots to cleaue fast together?
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For it is spread out as dusty earth, and I have cemented it as one hewn stone to another.
English Revised Version
When the dust runneth into a mass, and the clods cleave fast together?
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whanne dust was foundid in the erthe, and clottis weren ioyned togidere?
Update Bible Version
When the dust runs into a mass, And the clods cleave fast together?
Webster's Bible Translation
When the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?
New King James Version
When the dust hardens in clumps, And the clods cling together?
New Living Translation
when the parched ground is dry and the soil has hardened into clods?
New Life Bible
when the dust gathers together and becomes hard?
New Revised Standard
when the dust runs into a mass and the clods cling together?
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
When the dust is cast into a clod, and the lumps are bound together?
Douay-Rheims Bible
When was the dust poured on the earth, and the clods fastened together?
Revised Standard Version
when the dust runs into a mass and the clods cleave fast together?
Young's Literal Translation
In the hardening of dust into hardness, And clods cleave together?
New American Standard Bible (1995)
When the dust hardens into a mass And the clods stick together?

Contextual Overview

31"Can you catch the eye of the beautiful Pleiades sisters, or distract Orion from his hunt? Can you get Venus to look your way, or get the Great Bear and her cubs to come out and play? Do you know the first thing about the sky's constellations and how they affect things on Earth? 34"Can you get the attention of the clouds, and commission a shower of rain? Can you take charge of the lightning bolts and have them report to you for orders? 36"Who do you think gave weather-wisdom to the ibis, and storm-savvy to the rooster? Does anyone know enough to number all the clouds or tip over the rain barrels of heaven When the earth is cracked and dry, the ground baked hard as a brick? 39"Can you teach the lioness to stalk her prey and satisfy the appetite of her cubs As they crouch in their den, waiting hungrily in their cave? And who sets out food for the ravens when their young cry to God, fluttering about because they have no food?"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

groweth into hardness: or, is turned into mire, Heb. is poured

Reciprocal: Job 37:13 - whether

Gill's Notes on the Bible

When the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?] When the dust is attenuated, and ground, as it were, into powder; and the clods cleave together, as if glued, as in a drought for want of rain: or the bottles of heaven being unstopped and poured out; or

"sprinkling the dust with this sprinkling,''

as Mr. Broughton. Or rather, pouring on the dust with pouring; that is, pouring down rain, by unstopping the bottles of heaven. The dust, as meal, by water poured into it, cements, unites, and is compacted, and becomes earth, that may be cultivated; is clodded and cleaves together, and may be ploughed and sown.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

When the dust groweth into hardness - Margin, “is poured, or, is turned into mire.” The words used here relate often to metals, and to the act of pouring them out when fused, for the purpose of casting. The proper idea here is, “when the dust flows into a molten mass;” that is, when wet with rain it flows together and becomes hard. The sense is, that the rain operates on the clay as heat does on metals, and that when it is dissolved it flows together and thus becomes a solid mass. The object is to compare the effect of rain with the usual effect in casting metals.

And the clods cleave fast together - That is, they are run together by the rain. They form one mass of the same consistency, and then are baked hard by the sun.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 38:38. When the dust groweth into hardness — That is, Who knows how the dust - the elementary particles of matter, were concreted; and how the clods-the several parts of the earth, continue to cohere? What is the principle of cohesion among the different particles of matter, in all metals and minerals? Even water, in a solid form, constitutes a part of several gems, called thence water of crystallization. Who can solve this question? How is it that 90 parts of alumine, 7 of silex, and 1.2 of oxide of iron, constitute the oriental ruby? and that 90 parts of silex and 19 of water, form the precious opal? And how can 46 parts of silex, 14 of alumine, 28 of carbonate of lime, 6.5 of sulphate of lime, 3 of oxide of iron, and 2 of water, enter into the constitution, and form the substance, of the lapis lazuli? How do these solids and fluids of such differing natures grow into hardness, and form this curious mineral?

Take another example from that beautiful precious stone, the emerald. Its analysis shows it to be composed of glucine 13, silex 64.5, alumine 16, lime 1.6, and oxide of chrome 3.25. Now how can these dusts, utterly worthless in themselves, grow into hardness, combine, and form one of the most beautiful, and, next to the diamond, the most precious, of all the gems? The almighty and infinitely wise God has done this in a way only known to and comprehensible by himself.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile