Job 38:12

c. If so be Job was not in being when the foundations of the world were laid, perhaps he has, during his short life, shown his power and skill in carrying on the works of nature; has, at least once, spread forth upon the earth the light of the morn, causing the aurora to know its place; and thereby, to a certain extent, wielded the moral government of the world, Job 38:12-15.

12. Hast thou commanded the morning “A morning,” בקר . Since the creation of the earth God has, uncounted times, commanded the morning to arise at its time; has Job since his birth (literally “from thy days”) commanded one morning to break ( bakar) the darkness of the night.

Dayspring This word ( שׁחר ) is rendered “day,” Job 3:9, on which see note.

To know his place “This seems to refer to the different points in which daybreak appears during the course of the earth’s revolution in its orbit; and which variety of points of appearing depends on this annual revolution. For as the earth goes round the sun every year in the ecliptic, one half of which is on the north side of the equinoctial, and the other half on its south side, the sun appears to change its place every day.” ( A. Clarke.) The aurora changes its place according to unerring law, in march and countermarch so exact, that like an intelligent being, it may be said from long association to “know its place.” See note on Job 7:10. Perhaps the so great knowledge of Job may have been by some means communicated to the fleeting, insubstantial, but beauteous, morn, ( Shahhar, to shine,) so that, like him, it deviates not from the right, though it may constantly remove its place!! As respects processes of nature, the Semitic mind, from its earliest records, manifested implicit faith in their permanence, for the obvious reason that they are but the out-goings of the Divine Being, (Psalms 65:8-11;) so much so that even the dawn stands as an abiding emblem of the divine faithfulness, for, “His rising is fixed [ nakon, ] like the morning dawn.” Hosea 6:3. See note, Job 42:7. On the other hand, to the early Aryan mind everything in nature was fanciful and capricious. “The Titanic assurance with which we [Aryans, enlightened by a divine revelation] say the sun must rise, was unknown to the early worshippers of nature.… It seems to us childish when we read in the Veda such expressions as ‘ Will the sun rise?’ ‘ Will our old friend, the dawn, come back again?’ ‘ Will the power of darkness be conquered by the God of light?’” MAX MULLER Chips, etc., 2:93-100.