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31 Can you tie the bands[a] of the Pleiades,
or release the cords of Orion?
32 Can you lead out
the constellations[b] in their seasons,
or guide the Bear with its cubs?[c]
33 Do you know the laws of the heavens,
or can you set up their rule over the earth?

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Footnotes

  1. Job 38:31 tn This word is found here and in 1 Sam 15:32. Dhorme suggests, with others, that there has been a metathesis (a reversal of consonants), and it is the same word found in Job 31:36 (“bind”). G. R. Driver takes it as “cluster” without changing the text (“Two astronomical passages in the Old Testament,” JTS 7 [1956] :3).
  2. Job 38:32 tn The word מַזָּרוֹת (mazzarot) is taken by some to refer to the constellations (see 2 Kgs 23:5), and by others as connected to the word for “crown,” and so “corona.”
  3. Job 38:32 sn See Job 9:9.

31 “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades
    or loose the cords of Orion?(A)
32 Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season,
    or can you guide the Bear with its children?
33 Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?
    Can you establish their rule on the earth?(B)

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