The Meaning of Job 38:6 Explained

Job 38:6

KJV: Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;

YLT: On what have its sockets been sunk? Or who hath cast its corner-stone?

Darby: Whereupon were the foundations thereof sunken? or who laid its corner-stone,

ASV: Whereupon were the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner-stone thereof,

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Whereupon are the foundations  thereof fastened?  or who laid  the corner  stone  thereof; 

What does Job 38:6 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 38:1-18 - Divine Power And Human Ignorance
When the storm had ceased and the thunder was hushed, a voice spoke out of the golden splendor of the sky. See Job 37:21-22. Job had challenged God to answer him and now he is taken at his word. We recall Horeb's ancient cave, where, after wind and earthquake, there came a sound of gentle stillness. "Arise," said the Eternal to Job, "and gird thyself," Job 38:3. In after years, under similar circumstances, the Spirit entered Ezekiel to strengthen him. Surely some such strengthening was forthwith given the patriarch!
A sublime series of questions is now addressed to him, not by a God of judgment and wrath, but by a Father arguing and pleading with His child and pointing out two things: first, the inability of mortal man to understand the ways of God; and second, the minuteness and tenderness of God's providence. Job had thought of Him as remote, but He is near and is ordering all things wisely and lovingly. Can He forget His child? [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 38

1  God challenges Job to answer
4  God, by his mighty works, convinces Job of ignorance
31  and weakness

What do the individual words in Job 38:6 mean?

On to what its foundations were fastened Or who laid stone its cornerstone
עַל־ מָ֭ה אֲדָנֶ֣יהָ ؟ הָטְבָּ֑עוּ א֥וֹ מִֽי־ יָ֝רָ֗ה אֶ֣בֶן פִּנָּתָֽהּ

מָ֭ה  to  what 
Parse: Interrogative
Root: לָמָּה 
Sense: what, how, of what kind.
אֲדָנֶ֣יהָ  its  foundations 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural construct, third person feminine singular
Root: אֶדֶן  
Sense: base, pedestal, socket (strong, firm).
؟ הָטְבָּ֑עוּ  were  fastened 
Parse: Verb, Hofal, Perfect, third person common plural
Root: טָבַע  
Sense: to sink, sink into, sink down, pierce, settle down, drown, be settled, be planted.
יָ֝רָ֗ה  laid 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Perfect, third person masculine singular
Root: יׄורֶה 
Sense: to throw, shoot, cast, pour.
אֶ֣בֶן  stone 
Parse: Noun, feminine singular construct
Root: אֶבֶן  
Sense: stone (large or small).
פִּנָּתָֽהּ  its  cornerstone 
Parse: Noun, feminine singular construct, third person feminine singular
Root: פִּנָּה  
Sense: corner.