King James Version · The patriarchs
Job 38
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Then answered out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all shouted for joy? Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the ? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick a swaddlingband for it, And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed? Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place; That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that might be shaken out of it? It is turned as to the seal; and they stand as a garment. And from their is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken. Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth? Have the of been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of ? Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all. Where is where dwelleth? and as for , where is the place thereof, That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the to the house thereof? Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great? Hast thou entered into the of the snow? or hast thou seen the of the hail, Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war? By what way is parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth? Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder; To cause it to on the earth, where no man is; on , wherein there is no man; To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth? Hath the a ? or who hath begotten the drops of ? Out of whose came the ice? and the hoary frost of , who hath gendered it? The waters are hid as with a stone, and the of the deep is frozen. Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of ? canst thou set the thereof in the earth? Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee? Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are? Who hath put in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to ? Who can number the clouds in ? or who can stay the bottles of , 38When groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave together? Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions, When they couch in their dens, and in the covert to lie in wait? Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto , they wander for lack of meat.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The patriarchs, 2000 BC to 1600 BC ›
Abraham's family as herdsmen among settled Canaanite city-states, in a world where Egypt and Mesopotamia are the great powers and Canaan is the corridor between them.
- Mesopotamia
- Abraham's own century is Hammurabi's. The great empire of Ur has already fallen, and Babylon rises under a king who published a law code on a stone pillar for everyone to see. Reading Genesis alongside Hammurabi's laws is illuminating in both directions: some provisions are strikingly similar, and the places where Israel's later law diverges are the places worth stopping at.
- Egypt
- The Middle Kingdom, wealthy, bureaucratic, and organised around the Nile flood. Egyptian tomb paintings from this period show Semitic traders arriving with donkeys and striped cloaks, which is more or less the picture Genesis gives of a family going down to Egypt in a famine. Toward the end of the era the Hyksos, rulers of Semitic origin, take the delta.
- Anatolia and the Aegean
- Assyrian merchants run a long-distance trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia, leaving thousands of clay letters about copper, tin, and debt. On Crete the Minoan palaces are at their height, with plumbing, frescoes, and a script nobody has yet read.
- Further afield
- The Indus Valley cities are in decline after centuries of grid-planned streets and drains. In China the Erlitou culture is building the first palace complexes. Stonehenge is standing and already old.