1 Then Jehovah answered Job out of the storm, and said:

2 Who then darkeneth counsel

With words without knowledge?

3 Gird up now thy loins as a man:

I will question thee, and inform thou me!

"May the Almighty answer me!" Job has said, Job 31:35; He now really answers, and indeed out of the storm (Chethib, according to a mode of writing occurring only here and Job 40:6, מנהסערה, arranged in two words by the Keri), which is generally the forerunner of His self-manifestation in the world, of that at least by which He reveals Himself in His absolute awe-inspiring greatness and judicial grandeur. The art. is to be understood generically, but, with respect to Elihu's speeches, refers to the storm which has risen up in the meanwhile. It is not to be translated: Who is he who ... , which ought to be המחשׁיך, but: Who then is darkening; זה makes the interrogative מי more vivid and demonstrative, Ges. 122, 2; the part. מחשׁיך (instead of which it might also be יחשׁיך) favours the assumption that Job has uttered such words immediately before, and is interrupted by Jehovah, without an intervening speaker having come forward. It is intentionally עצה for עצתי (comp. עם for עמי, Isaiah 26:11), to describe that which is spoken of according to its quality: it is nothing less than a decree or plan full of purpose and connection which Job darkness, i.e., distorts by judging it falsely, or, as we say: places in a false light, and in fact by meaningless words.

(Note: The correct accentuation is מחשׁיך with Mercha, עצה with Athnach, במלין with Rebia mugrasch, bly (without Makkeph) with Munach.)

When now Jehovah condescends to negotiate with Job by question and answer, He does not do exactly what Job wished (Job 13:22), but something different, of which Job never thought. He surprises him with questions which are intended to bring him indirectly to the consciousness of the wrong and absurdity of his challenge - questions among which "there are many which the natural philosophy of the present day can frame more scientifically, but cannot satisfactorily solve."

(Note: Alex. v. Humboldt, Kosmos, ii. 48 (1st edition), comp. Tholuck, Vermischte Schriften, i.354.)

Instead of כגבר (the received reading of Ben-Ascher), Ben-Naphtali's text offered כּג (as Ezekiel 17:10), in order not to allow two so similar, aspirated mutae to come together.

Job 38:8 Parallel Commentaries

who

Job 38:10 And broke up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,

Genesis 1:9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

Psalm 33:7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as an heap: he lays up the depth in storehouses.

Psalm 104:9 You have set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.

Proverbs 8:29 When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:

Jeremiah 5:22 Fear you not me? said the LORD: will you not tremble at my presence...

out

Job 38:29 Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who has gendered it?