Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Job

[Initiative]

Job is one of my favourite books of the Bible, I think it is written so beautifully.

I would be interested in any interpretations of the book more generally but the verse below more specifically. (Job 38:38-41)

"When the dust becomes hard
and the clouds of earth stick together?
Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
and satisfy the hunger of the lions
when they crouch in their dens
or lie in wait in a thicket?
Who provides food for the raven
when its young cry out to God
and wander about for lack of food?"

[jimwalton]

Job 38-41 is God's retort to the "lawsuit" that the accuser (and indirectly, Job) has brought against Him. YHWH answers that He runs the world by the mysteries of His wisdom, and can’t be interpreted by human suffering or held to account by the retribution principle. Neither Job nor anyone else can know all of what is needed to understand how God runs the world. So saying, at some point we need to trust in God's wisdom instead of drawing conclusions based solely on our thoughts and observations.

Through a chain of rhetorical questions, God lets Job (and all humans know) that there is far more going on than our thoughts and experiences could ever grasp.

The end of the chapter (the verses you specifically mentioned) are along the same lines. Can humans control the weather? Have you instilled instinct into the wild animals? Have you given animals their abilities to survive?