Job 38:4
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if you have understanding.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if you have understanding.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Where were you when I put the earth on its base? Say, if you have knowledge.
Webster's Revision
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
World English Bible
"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
Clarke's Job 38:4 Bible Commentary
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? - Thou hast a limited and derived being; thou art only of yesterday; what canst thou know? Didst thou see me create the world?
Barnes's Job 38:4 Bible Commentary
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? - The first appeal is to the creation. The question here, "Where wast thou?" implies that Job was not present. He had not then an existence. He could not, therefore, have aided God, or counselled him, or understood what he was doing. How presumptuous, therefore, it was in one so short-lived to sit in judgment on the doings of him who had formed the world! How little could he expect to be able to know of him! The expression, "laid the foundations of the earth," is taken from building an edifice. The foundations are first laid, and the super-structure is then reared. It is a poetic image, and is not designed to give any intimation about the actual process by which the earth was made, or the manner in which it is sustained.
If thou hast understanding - Margin, as in Hebrew "if thou knowest." That is, "Declare how it was done. Explain the manner in which the earth was formed and fixed in its place, and by which the beautiful world grew up under the hand of God." If Job could not do this, what presumption was it to speak as he had done of the divine adminisitration!
Wesley's Job 38:4 Bible Commentary
38:4 Where - Thou art but of yesterday; and dost thou presume to judge of my eternal counsels! When - When I settled it as firm upon its own center as if it had been built upon the surest foundations.