Passage

Job 38.24

Book: Job · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

22. Hast thou entered the treasuries of the snow, Or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, 23. Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, Against the day of battle and war?

24. By what way is the light parted, Or the east wind scattered upon the earth?

Who hath cleft a channel for the waterflood, Or the way for the lightning of the thunder; 26. To cause it to rain on a land where no man is; On the wilderness, wherein there is no man; (Job 38:22-26, ASV)

WEB

22. Have you entered the treasuries of the snow, or have you seen the treasures of the hail, 23. which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?

24. By what way is the lightning distributed, or the east wind scattered on the earth?

Who has cut a channel for the flood water, or the path for the thunderstorm; 26. To cause it to rain on a land where no man is; on the wilderness, in which there is no man; (Job 38:22-26, WEB)

KJV

22. Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, 23. Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?

24. By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?

Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder; 26. To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man; (Job 38:22-26, KJV)

YLT

22. Hast thou come in unto the treasure of snow? Yea, the treasures of hail dost thou see? 23. That I have kept back for a time of distress, For a day of conflict and battle.

24. Where [is] this, the way light is apportioned? It scattereth an east wind over the earth.

Who hath divided for the flood a conduit? And a way for the lightning of the voices? 26. To cause [it] to rain on a land, no man, A wilderness, no man in it. (Job 38:22-26, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

Speaker: YHWH, answering Job out of the whirlwind (Job 38:1)
Audience: Job, with his three friends and Elihu present after their arguments have run out
Location: the land of Uz (Job 1:1), unlocated in the text and traditionally placed east or southeast of Israel
Time period: patriarchal in setting, with the date of composition disputed across a wide range

Theological reading

"By what way is the light parted, Or the east wind scattered upon the earth?" The KJV reads the second line differently, "which scattereth the east wind upon the earth," and the WEB renders the first line "By what way is the lightning distributed." Translators differ over whether "light" here means daylight or lightning. The KJV tags it as Strong's H216, the ordinary word for light and the same word as "light" in 38:19; the "lightning" of the next verse is a different word (H2385).

Distribution. "Parted" (Strong's H2505 in the KJV) means divided or apportioned, and the YLT renders "the way light is apportioned." Light goes out from its source and is shared across the earth, as the east wind is scattered across it. The surrounding verses describe the same kind of distribution: snow and hail kept in storehouses "against the time of trouble" (38:22-23), a channel cut "for the waterflood, Or the way for the lightning of the thunder" (38:25), and rain sent "on a land where no man is" (38:26).

God governs the routes. The KJV tags "way" (H1870) in this verse and again in verse 25. Light, wind, flood and thunderstorm all travel by roads God laid out. Job cannot say where those roads run, much less direct traffic on them. The rain on the empty wilderness (38:26) shows that God's care runs past human use: he waters land no one farms.

Not a statement about the spectrum. The verse is sometimes read as anticipating the splitting of white light into colors. "Parted" means distributed, and nothing in the verse describes a spectrum. That reading is an over-reach; see Bible Anticipates Science.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD

Quoted in

Concepts:

Bible Anticipates Science

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.