Bible Strands
Job 9:7
He commands the sun not to shine; He seals off the stars.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses an unspecified audience, placing this declaration between his claims that God shakes the earth’s foundations and stretches the heavens alone.
The words — The phrase לַחֶרֶס (la./che.res) literally means “to the sun,” paired with יִזְרָח (yiz.Rach) “it shines,” while יַחְתֹּם (yach.Tom) means “he puts a seal” over the stars.
The thread — The text links this verse to Isaiah 13:10 and Amos 8:9, where celestial darkness functions as judgment, and notes Luke 21:25, which mentions future signs in the sun and stars without describing divine darkening.
Why it lands — The text states that God can halt solar light and cover the stars, requiring the reader to acknowledge that cosmic order depends entirely on divine command rather than human control.
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 commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; and sealeth up the stars.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 13:10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.
- Amos 8:9 And in that day, declares the Lord GOD, I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the daytime.
- Luke 21:25 There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the surging of the waves.
- Exodus 10:21 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that darkness may spread over the land of Egypt—a palpable darkness.”
- Joshua 10:12 On the day that the LORD gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua spoke to the LORD in the presence of Israel: “O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
- Job 37:7 He seals up the hand of every man, so that all men may know His work.
- Job 38:19 Where is the way to the home of light? Do you know where darkness resides,
- Ezekiel 32:7 When I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light.
- Daniel 4:35 All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”
- Amos 4:13 For behold, He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind and reveals His thoughts to man, who turns the dawn to darkness and strides on the heights of the earth—the LORD, the God of Hosts, is His name.”