The Meaning of Job 38:5 Explained

Job 38:5

KJV: Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?

YLT: Who placed its measures -- if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched out upon it a line?

Darby: Who set the measures thereof if thou knowest? or who stretched a line upon it?

ASV: Who determined the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who stretched the line upon it?

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Who hath laid  the measures  thereof, if thou knowest?  or who hath stretched  the line  upon it? 

What does Job 38:5 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 38:1-18 - Divine Power And Human Ignorance
When the storm had ceased and the thunder was hushed, a voice spoke out of the golden splendor of the sky. See Job 37:21-22. Job had challenged God to answer him and now he is taken at his word. We recall Horeb's ancient cave, where, after wind and earthquake, there came a sound of gentle stillness. "Arise," said the Eternal to Job, "and gird thyself," Job 38:3. In after years, under similar circumstances, the Spirit entered Ezekiel to strengthen him. Surely some such strengthening was forthwith given the patriarch!
A sublime series of questions is now addressed to him, not by a God of judgment and wrath, but by a Father arguing and pleading with His child and pointing out two things: first, the inability of mortal man to understand the ways of God; and second, the minuteness and tenderness of God's providence. Job had thought of Him as remote, but He is near and is ordering all things wisely and lovingly. Can He forget His child? [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 38

1  God challenges Job to answer
4  God, by his mighty works, convinces Job of ignorance
31  and weakness

What do the individual words in Job 38:5 mean?

Who determined its measurements surely you know Or who stretched upon it the line
מִי־ שָׂ֣ם מְ֭מַדֶּיהָ כִּ֣י ؟ תֵדָ֑ע א֤וֹ מִֽי־ נָטָ֖ה עָלֶ֣יהָ קָּֽו

שָׂ֣ם  determined 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Perfect, third person masculine singular
Root: שׂוּמָה 
Sense: to put, place, set, appoint, make.
מְ֭מַדֶּיהָ  its  measurements 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural construct, third person feminine singular
Root: מֵמָד  
Sense: measurement.
כִּ֣י  surely 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: כִּי 
Sense: that, for, because, when, as though, as, because that, but, then, certainly, except, surely, since.
؟ תֵדָ֑ע  you  know 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect, second person masculine singular
Root: דָּעָה 
Sense: to know.
נָטָ֖ה  stretched 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Perfect, third person masculine singular
Root: נָטָה 
Sense: to stretch out, extend, spread out, pitch, turn, pervert, incline, bend, bow.
עָלֶ֣יהָ  upon  it 
Parse: Preposition, third person feminine singular
Root: עַל 
Sense: upon, on the ground of, according to, on account of, on behalf of, concerning, beside, in addition to, together with, beyond, above, over, by, on to, towards, to, against.
קָּֽו  the  line 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: קָו 
Sense: cord, line, measuring-line.