Bible Strands
Job 38:6
On what were its foundations set, or who laid its cornerstone,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks to Job from the whirlwind, continuing His direct interrogation about the earth's creation immediately after asking who fixed its measurements.
The words — The Hebrew employs מָה (mah, "what") and אֶבֶן ('even, "stone") to pose a rhetorical question about the structural basis of the earth and the agent who set its cornerstone.
The thread — This foundation imagery recurs in Job 26:7, where God suspends the earth without visible support, and in Psalms 104:5 and Psalms 93:1, which declare God established the earth on secure bases.
Why it lands — The text explicitly records God asking who determined the earth's measurements and laid its cornerstone, directly preceding the description of creation's rejoicing. It requires the reader to acknowledge that cosmic structure originates from divine action rather than human calculation.
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
Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
Cross-references
- Job 26:7 He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth upon nothing.
- Psalms 104:5 He set the earth on its foundations, never to be moved.
- Psalms 93:1 The LORD reigns! He is robed in majesty; the LORD has clothed and armed Himself with strength. The world indeed is firmly established; it cannot be moved.
- Psalms 118:22 The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
- Isaiah 28:16 So this is what the Lord GOD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will never be shaken.
- Zechariah 12:1 This is the burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel. Thus declares the LORD, who stretches out the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth, who forms the spirit of man within him:
- 2 Peter 3:5 But they deliberately overlook the fact that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water,
- Exodus 26:18 Construct twenty frames for the south side of the tabernacle,
- Psalms 24:2 For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.
- Psalms 144:12 Then our sons will be like plants nurtured in their youth, our daughters like corner pillars carved to adorn a palace.