“That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?”
God asks 'Have you ever in your life commanded the day, and caused the dawn to know its place?' reiterating with variation the question about commanding morning, suggesting that the daily cycle is not subject to human will. This verse's near-repetition of verse 10 emphasizes the point: the cycles that structure temporal experience are divine prerogatives, not human ones. Job cannot command day or direct the dawn. The reiteration suggests that the point about cosmic order and divine control is important enough to emphasize through repetition. The verses about light and day are positioned early in God's questions, suggesting that the regular renewal of light—a source of hope and comfort—is itself a divine action that Job has not achieved and does not fully understand.
Church Fathers on Job 38:13
Hast thou held and shaken the ends of the earth, and hast thou shaken the wicked out of it? For by ‘earth’ is designated man, who savours of things below; to whom it was said in his sin; Earth thou art, and to earth shall thou go. But because the merciful Creator forsakes not His own work, He both bears with the sins of men, by His wisdom, and at last remits them by their conversion. But, when He beholds hard and insensible minds, He scares them at one time with threats, at…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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