Bible Strands
Job 38:32
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear and her cubs?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses Job during His rhetorical speech, challenging human capacity against cosmic order. The exchange occurs within a broader divine monologue establishing authority over creation.
The words — מַזָּר֣וֹת (ma.za.rot) translates to constellations, and תֹצִ֣יא (to.Tzi') literally means will you lead out. These terms frame the celestial bodies as entities directed by divine action rather than human command.
The thread — The celestial motif continues in Job 38:31 with the Pleiades and Orion, and echoes Job 9:9 where God is identified as the Maker of the Bear and Orion. This constellation theme consistently marks divine sovereignty over the heavens.
Why it lands — The verse asks the reader to recognize human limitation regarding cosmic cycles. It demands acknowledgment that celestial order operates by divine timing, not human instruction.
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
Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
Cross-references
- Job 38:31 Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?
- 2 Kings 23:5 Josiah also did away with the idolatrous priests ordained by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem—those who had burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.
- Job 9:9 He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, of the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.