Bible Strands
Job 38:23
which I hold in reserve for times of trouble, for the day of war and battle?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses Job directly, continuing His whirlwind interrogation about the mechanics of snow and hail. The speaker positions Himself as the sole agent who controls the accumulation and deployment of atmospheric forces.
The words — The verb חָשַׂכְתִּי (cha.Sakh.ti) translates literally to "I have kept back" or "reserved." It governs the noun צָר (Tzar), meaning "distress," establishing the stored elements' designated purpose.
The thread — The motif of divinely withheld weather appears in Exodus 9:18 regarding unprecedented hail, Joshua 10:11 where God releases hail against fleeing armies, and Isaiah 30:30 where God’s wrath is manifested through voice and arm. The text consistently links stored natural phenomena to targeted judgment.
Why it lands — The verse states that God intentionally reserves weather events for times of conflict, demanding recognition of human limitation over creation. It requires the reader to accept that divine timing for judgment operates outside human control or prediction.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?
Cross-references
- Joshua 10:11 As they fled before Israel along the descent from Beth-horon to Azekah, the LORD cast down on them large hailstones from the sky, and more of them were killed by the hailstones than by the swords of the Israelites.
- Isaiah 30:30 And the LORD will cause His majestic voice to be heard and His mighty arm to be revealed, striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire, and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones.
- Exodus 9:18 Behold, at this time tomorrow I will rain down the worst hail that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded until now.
- Job 36:13 The godless in heart harbor resentment; even when He binds them, they do not cry for help.
- Ezekiel 13:11 tell those whitewashing the wall that it will fall. Rain will come in torrents, I will send hailstones plunging down, and a windstorm will burst forth.
- Revelation 16:21 And great hailstones weighing almost a hundred pounds each rained down on them from above. And men cursed God for the plague of hail, because it was so horrendous.
- Exodus 9:24 The hail fell and the lightning continued flashing through it. The hail was so severe that nothing like it had ever been seen in all the land of Egypt from the time it became a nation.
- Job 36:31 For by these He judges the nations and provides food in abundance.
- Matthew 7:27 The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its collapse!”