Job 38:2
“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
English Standard Version (ESV)
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Job 38:2
“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
English Standard Version (ESV)
This page isn't yet indexed by search engines.
God isn't just pointing out Job's ignorance; He's highlighting how Job's words, though perhaps born of suffering, actually obscured God's wise plans and the truth about His governance of the world. Job's explanations didn't bring clarity but confusion, turning the divine "counsel" into something harder to understand.
After Job and his friends have debated for many chapters about God's justice and providence, God Himself finally breaks His silence. He directly challenges Job, not Elihu, asking who dares to obscure divine wisdom with ignorant pronouncements about God's ways and plans. This question sets the stage for God's powerful speeches, where He will demonstrate the vastness of His knowledge and power to Job.
Job felt abandoned and wronged, convinced God's actions didn't make sense. But was he missing something big?
God’s opening question in Job 38 isn't just rhetorical; it’s a cosmic mic drop.
God's Plan vs. Human Sight
The core of the dispute between Job and his friends revolved around God's counsel – His wise and sovereign plan, especially concerning Job's suffering. Job, through his pain and frustration, felt he understood God's dealings, but his words without knowledge ended up obscuring, rather than clarifying, God's intricate purposes. He wasn't just complaining; he was actively misrepresenting God's wise administration of the universe.
When We 'Darken Counsel'
This isn't just about Job. Anytime we try to explain God's ways with limited understanding, or impose our own logic onto His divine wisdom, we risk darkening counsel. We can make God’s perfectly good plans seem questionable or even unjust, not because they are, but because our perspective is limited.
It's easy to sound smart when we're completely out of our depth. God calls this out directly.
God’s accusation, 'words without knowledge,' cuts straight to the heart of human arrogance.
The Illusion of Understanding
Job believed he had a grasp on why he was suffering, and he voiced his strong opinions forcefully. But God points out that Job’s reasoning was flawed because it lacked true knowledge – the divine perspective.
God's Astonishment
The question, 'Who is this?' conveys astonishment and even indignation. It’s not that God is surprised by Job’s identity, but by the sheer audacity of a finite, suffering human attempting to critique and redefine divine wisdom. The discourse here isn’t necessarily about hypocrisy or deep-seated atheism, but about the dangerous tendency to speak confidently about God's ways when we are fundamentally ignorant of them.
Understand the original words
etsah · Hebrew Noun
The divine purpose, wisdom, or plan governing the universe and human history. To 'darken' it implies obscuring or misrepresenting God's sovereign intentions through human ignorance or flawed reasoning.
da'ath · Hebrew Noun
Lacking divine insight, spiritual perception, or factual truth. It refers to human speech that arises from a limited perspective, failing to grasp the vastness of God's ways.
The intense period of the Babylonian exile and its aftermath likely shaped the profound questions about suffering and God's justice explored in Job, making the book a deeply relevant reflection on faith during national crisis.
c. 6th century BC
Babylonian Exile Begins
The first wave of Jewish exiles, including nobles and skilled workers like Daniel, were taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. This marked the beginning of Judah's subjugation by Babylon.
587/586 BC
Fall of Jerusalem
Nebuchadnezzar's armies destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple, ending the kingdom of Judah and leading to a second, larger deportation of its people to Babylon. This event was a profound crisis for Jewish identity and faith.
c. 5th-4th century BC
Composition of the Book of Job
The Book of Job is believed to have been composed during or after the Babylonian exile, reflecting on themes of suffering, divine justice, and the limits of human understanding during a period of national trauma.
c. 5th-4th century BC— this verse
Job Confronts Divine Providence
The core of the book depicts Job, a righteous man, grappling with immense suffering and questioning God's justice and wisdom. His friends offer explanations rooted in conventional wisdom, but ultimately fail to satisfy Job or truly understand God's ways.
Wisdom herself cries out, asking who the simple are who lack understanding, which echoes God's question to Job about who is darkening His counsel with ignorant words.
Isaiah 55:8-9This passage highlights the vast difference between God's thoughts and ways and ours, reinforcing why Job's limited human perspective would inevitably 'darken counsel'.
Romans 11:33The Apostle Paul's exclamation of awe at the depth of God's wisdom and knowledge mirrors the astonishment God expresses when Job presumes to question His divine administration.
1 Corinthians 2:14This verse directly states that the natural person cannot accept or understand the things of the Spirit of God, because they are spiritually discerned, directly explaining why Job's 'words without knowledge' darkened God's counsel.
cambridgeJob 38:2: "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?"
2 . who is this that darkeneth counsel ] lit. who then is darkening counsel ? The word then merely adds the emphasis of impatience or astonishment to the question, who …? The expression counsel suggests that the Lord had a plan or meaning in Job’s afflictions, which the perverse and ignorant construction put on them by Job obscured. The word might have a wider sense and refer to sound wisdom in general in reference to ma…
wesleyJob 38:2: "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?"
38:2 Counsel - God's counsel. For the great matter of the dispute between Job and his friends, was concerning God's counsel and providence in afflicting Job; which Job had endeavoured to obscure and misrepresent. This first word which God spoke, struck Job to the heart. This he repeats and echoes to, chap.42:3, as the arrow that stuck fast in him.
God isn't just pointing out Job's ignorance; He's highlighting how Job's words, though perhaps born of suffering, actually obscured God's wise plans and the truth about His governance of the world. Job's explanations didn't bring clarity but confusion, turning the divine "counsel" into something harder to understand.
After Job and his friends have debated for many chapters about God's justice and providence, God Himself finally breaks His silence. He directly challenges Job, not Elihu, asking who dares to obscure divine wisdom with ignorant pronouncements about God's ways and plans. This question sets the stage for God's powerful speeches, where He will demonstrate the vastness of His knowledge and power to Job.
After Job and his friends have debated for many chapters about God's justice and providence, God Himself finally breaks His silence. He directly challenges Job, not Elihu, asking who dares to obscure divine wisdom with ignorant pronouncements about God's ways and plans. This question sets the stage for God's powerful speeches, where He will demonstrate the vastness of His knowledge and power to Job.
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c. 5th-4th century BC
Elihu's Speeches
A younger man, Elihu, intervenes, offering a perspective that highlights God's sovereignty and the inadequacy of human judgment, preparing the way for God's direct address.
c. 5th-4th century BC
God's Response to Job
God finally speaks to Job from the whirlwind, not by explaining Job's suffering, but by revealing His own infinite power, wisdom, and perspective through descriptions of creation. This challenges Job's limited understanding.
"“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" — God isn't just pointing out Job's ignorance; He's highlighting how Job's words, though perhaps born of suffering, actually obscured God's wise plans and the truth about His governance of the world. J…