Lectionary Calendar
Saturday, July 19th, 2025
the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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

Complete Jewish Bible

Job 38:24

"By what path is light dispersed, or the east wind poured out on the land?

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?
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 "Have you ever in your life called up the dawn and made the morning know its place, 13 so that it could take hold of the edges of the earth and shake the wicked out of it? 14 Then the earth is changed like clay under a seal, until its colors are fixed like those of a garment. 15 But from the wicked the light is withheld, and the arm raised [to strike] is broken. 16 "Have you gone down to the springs of the sea or explored the limits of the deep? 17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you, the gates of death-like darkness? 18 Have you surveyed the full extent of the earth? Say so, if you know it all! 19 "Which way leads to where light has its home? and darkness, where does it dwell? 20 If you knew, you could take each to its place and set it on its homeward path. 21 You know, of course, because you were born then; by now you must be very old!

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
But God came to Avimelekh in a dream one night and said to him, "You are about to die because of the woman you have taken, since she is someone's wife."
Genesis 20:7
Therefore, return the man's wife to him now. He is a prophet, and he will pray for you, so that you will live. But if you don't return her, know that you will certainly die — you and all who belong to you."
Genesis 20:9
Then Avimelekh called Avraham and said to him, "What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you to cause you to bring on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done things to me that are just not done."
Genesis 34:31
They replied, "Should we let our sister be treated like a whore?"
Genesis 38:1
(iv) It was at this time that Y'hudah went off from his brothers and settled near a man named Hirah who was an ‘Adulami.
Genesis 38:2
There Y'hudah saw one of the daughters of a certain Kena‘ani whose name was Shua, and he took her and slept with her.
Genesis 38:5
Then she conceived yet again and had a son whom she called Shelah; he was in K'ziv when she gave birth to him.
Genesis 38:21
He asked the people near where she had been, "Where is the prostitute who was on the road at ‘Einayim?" But they answered, "There hasn't been any prostitute here."
Genesis 38:22
So he returned to Y'hudah and said, "I couldn't find her; also the people there said, ‘There hasn't been any prostitute here.'"
Genesis 38:23
Y'hudah said, "All right, let her keep the things, so that we won't be publicly shamed. I sent the kid, but you didn't find her."

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.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile