Mazmur 89:11

89:11 The heavens belong to you, as does the earth.

You made the world and all it contains. ¹ 

Mazmur 93:1

Psalm 93 ² 

93:1 The Lord reigns!

He is robed in majesty,

the Lord is robed,

he wears strength around his waist. ³ 

Indeed, the world is established, it cannot be moved.

Mazmur 104:5

104:5 He established the earth on its foundations;

it will never be upended.

Ayub 38:4-7

God’s questions to Job

38:4 “Where were you

when I laid the foundation ⁴  of the earth?

Tell me, ⁵  if you possess understanding!

38:5 Who set its measurements – if ⁶  you know –

or who stretched a measuring line across it?

38:6 On what ⁷  were its bases ⁸  set,

or who laid its cornerstone –

38:7 when the morning stars ⁹  sang ¹⁰  in chorus, ¹¹ 

and all the sons of God ¹²  shouted for joy?

Ayub 38:2

38:2 “Who is this ¹³  who darkens counsel ¹⁴ 

with words without knowledge?

Pengkhotbah 3:5-7

3:5 A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

3:6 A time to search, and a time to give something up as lost; ¹⁵ 

a time to keep, and a time to throw away;

3:7 A time to rip, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silent, and a time to speak.

[89:11]  ¹ tn Heb “the world and its fullness, you established them.”

[93:1]  ² sn Psalm 93. The psalmist affirms that the Lord is the king of the universe who preserves order and suppresses the destructive forces in the world.

[93:1]  ³ sn Strength is compared here to a belt that one wears for support. The Lord’s power undergirds his rule.

[38:4]  ⁴ tn The construction is the infinitive construct in a temporal clause, using the preposition and the subjective genitive suffix.

[38:4]  ⁵ tn The verb is the imperative; it has no object “me” in the text.

[38:5]  ⁶ tn The particle כּ (ki) is taken here for a conditional clause, “if you know” (see GKC 498 §159.dd). Others take it as “surely” with a biting irony.

[38:6]  ⁷ tn For the interrogative serving as a genitive, see GKC 442 §136.b.

[38:6]  ⁸ sn The world was conceived of as having bases and pillars, but these poetic descriptions should not be pressed too far (e.g., see Ps 24:2, which may be worded as much for its polemics against Canaanite mythology as anything).

[38:7]  ⁹ sn The expression “morning stars” (Heb “stars of the morning”) is here placed in parallelism to the angels, “the sons of God.” It may refer to the angels under the imagery of the stars, or, as some prefer, it may poetically include all creation. There is a parallel also with the foundation of the temple which was accompanied by song (see Ezra 3:10,11). But then the account of the building of the original tabernacle was designed to mirror creation (see M. Fishbane, Biblical Text and Texture).

[38:7]  ¹⁰ tn The construction, an adverbial clause of time, uses רָנָן (ranan), which is often a ringing cry, an exultation. The parallelism with “shout for joy” shows this to be enthusiastic acclamation. The infinitive is then continued in the next colon with the vav (ו) consecutive preterite.

[38:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “together.” This is Dhorme’s suggestion for expressing how they sang together.

[38:7]  ¹² tn See Job 1:6.

[38:2]  ¹³ tn The demonstrative pronoun is used here to emphasize the interrogative pronoun (see GKC 442 §136.c).

[38:2]  ¹⁴ sn The referent of “counsel” here is not the debate between Job and the friends, but the purposes of God (see Ps 33:10; Prov 19:21; Isa 19:17). Dhorme translates it “Providence.”

[3:6]  ¹⁵ tn The term לְאַבֵּד (lÿ’abbed, Piel infinitive construct from אָבַד, ’avad, “to destroy”) means “to lose” (e.g., Jer 23:1) as the contrast with בָּקַשׁ (baqash, “to seek to find”) indicates (HALOT 3 s.v. I אבד; BDB 2 s.v. אבד 3). This is the declarative or delocutive-estimative sense of the Piel: “to view something as lost” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 28, §145; IBHS 403 §24.2g).