Lectionary Calendar
Saturday, August 23rd, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
Attention!
StudyLight.org has pledged to help build churches in Uganda. Help us with that pledge and support pastors in the heart of Africa.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

New Century Version

Job 38:18

Do you understand how wide the earth is? Tell me, if you know all these things.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Blessing;   Continents;   God;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Earth, the;  

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;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Have you comprehended the extent of the earth?Tell me, if you know all this.
Hebrew Names Version
Have you comprehended the eretz in its breadth? Declare, if you know it all.
King James Version
Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all.
English Standard Version
Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this.
New English Translation
Have you considered the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know it all!
Amplified Bible
"Have you understood the expanse of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this.
New American Standard Bible
"Have you understood the expanse of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this.
World English Bible
Have you comprehended the earth in its breadth? Declare, if you know it all.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Hast thou perceiued the breadth of the earth? tell if thou knowest all this.
Legacy Standard Bible
Have you carefully considered the expanse of the earth?Tell Me, if you know all this.
Berean Standard Bible
Have you surveyed the extent of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this.
Contemporary English Version
And how large is the earth? Tell me, if you know!
Complete Jewish Bible
Have you surveyed the full extent of the earth? Say so, if you know it all!
Darby Translation
Hath thine understanding compassed the breadths of the earth? Declare if thou knowest it all.
Easy-to-Read Version
Do you really understand how big the earth is? Tell me, if you know all this.
George Lamsa Translation
Have you seen the whole breadth of the earth? Declare to me if you know it all.
Good News Translation
Have you any idea how big the world is? Answer me if you know.
Lexham English Bible
Have you considered closely the earth's vast expanse? Declare it, if you know all of it.
Literal Translation
Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Declare, if you know it all!
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Hast thou also perceaued, how brode ye earth is? Now yf thou hast knowlege of all,
American Standard Version
Hast thou comprehended the earth in its breadth? Declare, if thou knowest it all.
Bible in Basic English
Have you taken note of the wide limits of the earth? Say, if you have knowledge of it all.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Hast thou surveyed unto the breadths of the earth? Declare, if thou knowest it all.
King James Version (1611)
Hast thou perceiued the breadth of the earth? Declare if thou knowest it all.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Hast thou also perceaued how brode the earth is? If thou hast knowledge of all this:
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And hast thou been instructed in the breadth of the whole earth under heaven? tell me now, what is the extent of it?
English Revised Version
Hast thou comprehended the breadth of the earth? declare, if thou knowest it all.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whethir thou hast biholde the brede of erthe? Schewe thou to me, if thou knowist alle thingis,
Update Bible Version
Have you comprehended the earth in its width? Declare, if you know it all.
Webster's Bible Translation
Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all.
New King James Version
Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this.
New Living Translation
Do you realize the extent of the earth? Tell me about it if you know!
New Life Bible
Have you understood how great the earth is? Tell Me, if you know all this.
New Revised Standard
Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Hast thou well considered, even the breadths of the earth? Tell - if thou knowest it all!
Douay-Rheims Bible
Hast thou considered the breadth of the earth? tell me, if thou knowest all things?
Revised Standard Version
Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this.
Young's Literal Translation
Thou hast understanding, Even unto the broad places of earth! Declare -- if thou hast known it all.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Have you understood the expanse of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this.

Contextual Overview

12 "Have you ever ordered the morning to begin, or shown the dawn where its place was 13 in order to take hold of the earth by its edges and shake evil people out of it? 14 At dawn the earth changes like clay being pressed by a seal; the hills and valleys stand out like folds in a coat. 15 Light is not given to evil people; their arm is raised to do harm, but it is broken. 16 "Have you ever gone to where the sea begins or walked in the valleys under the sea? 17 Have the gates of death been opened to you? Have you seen the gates of the deep darkness? 18 Do you understand how wide the earth is? Tell me, if you know all these things. 19 "What is the path to light's home, and where does darkness live? 20 Can you take them to their places? Do you know the way to their homes? 21 Surely you know, if you were already born when all this happened! Have you lived that many years?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Psalms 74:17, Psalms 89:11, Psalms 89:12, Isaiah 40:28, Jeremiah 31:37, Revelation 20:9

Cross-References

Genesis 38:25
When the people went to bring Tamar out, she sent a message to her father-in-law that said, "The man who owns these things has made me pregnant. Look at this seal and its cord and this walking stick, and tell me whose they are."
Genesis 38:26
Judah recognized them and said, "She is more in the right than I. She did this because I did not give her to my son Shelah as I promised." And Judah did not have sexual relations with her again.
Jeremiah 22:24
"As surely as I live," says the Lord , "Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, even if you were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off.
Hosea 4:11
prostitution, to old and new wine, which take away their ability to understand.
Luke 15:22
But the father said to his servants, ‘Hurry! Bring the best clothes and put them on him. Also, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth?.... Which may be put for all the dimensions of it, length, breadth, diameter, and circumference, but especially it regards the surface of it, and the measurement of that; hast thou gone over the whole face of the earth and measured it, all its parts, its hills and dales, rocks and mountains, and took a survey of all the cities, towns and villages, woods, forests, fountains, rivers, c? no if a man lived as long as Methuselah, and spent all his days in this way, he could never be able to do it; and some parts are inaccessible, and not to be measured by the most skilful geometer;

declare, if thou knowest it all; the whole earth and every part of it, and all that is in it. Whether the other hemisphere and the antipodes were known in Job's time is a question; however not America, or the new world, which is a late discovery; and even now, in our most exact maps of the world, some parts are marked with "terra incognita", the unknown land.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? - How far the earth extends. To see the force of this, we must remember that the early conception of the earth was that it was a vast plain, and that in the time of Job its limits were unknown. One of the earliest and most obvious inquiries would naturally be, What was the extent of the earth? By what was it bounded? And what was the character of the regions beyond those which were then known? All this was hidden from man at that time, and God, therefore, asks with emphasis whether Job had been able to determine this great inquiry. The knowledge of this is put on the same foundation as that of the depths of the sea, and of the dark regions of the dead, and in the time of Job the one was as much unknown as the other. God, who knew all this, must, therefore, be infinitely exalted above man.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 38:18. The breadth of the earth? — At that time the circumference of the globe was not known, because the earth itself was supposed to be a vast extended plain, bordered all round with the ocean and the sky.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile