It is changed like clay under the seal, and its features stand out like a garment.
God's questions to Job move from the earth's foundations to something Job saw every morning: daybreak. Why point a suffering man to a sunrise, and what does a seal pressed into clay have to do with it?
The Setting: God's Questions About the Dawn
The verse sits inside a run of questions about day and night. God asks Job who commands them:
Samuel RidoutHas Job ever commanded a single morning to appear, or caused the dawn to know the place of its appearing? With all his supposed knowledge and power, man cannot command the forces of nature to do his bidding. Day by day the light appears in its appointed place. It floods the earth, and the guilty flee from it. Evening falls, and no word of man can stop or hurry this constant action. Only One gave His command at the beginning: "Let there be light." Since that time evening and morning have known their appointed time and place.
The Picture: Clay Under the Seal
The image comes from ordinary business in the ancient world. A seal was a stone with a design cut into it, and it left its mark on soft clay:
Morrish Bible DictionaryStones with words, letters, or symbols cut into them. In ancient times people pierced these stones and hung them from the arm or the neck by a cord or chain, or set them in rings and wore them on the finger. They pressed the design into pieces of clay attached to official documents. In the East such a document is not considered genuine unless it carries a seal.
At night the earth is the blank clay. The dawn is the stamp:
William Kelly"It is turned as clay to the seal." While the earth lies in darkness, you cannot make it out at all. It is like clay before the seal is pressed into it. But the moment the light shines, there you find its shape and its beauty as God fixed it.
(Kelly quotes an older translation of the phrase; the ESV reads, "It is changed like clay under the seal.")
The Second Image: Standing Out Like a Garment
The verse adds a second picture: clothing. What the light uncovers is not always lovely:
Samuel RidoutThe signet-ring leaves its mark on formless clay. In the same way, the light stamps the varied forms and colours of all things on the face of the earth. They stand out like a lovely garment — or the reverse, a scene of ruin — under the light. The light shows all things as they are: "Anything that becomes visible is light" (Eph. 5:13). The night is the light of the wicked; they hate the light and will not come to it, in case their deeds should be exposed.
(The older translation reads "whatsoever doth make manifest is light.")
The Wider Reach: A Morning Still to Come
Ridout reads this daybreak as a picture of a larger one. What sunrise does to those who work in the dark, God's own day will do to evil everywhere:
Samuel RidoutSo the light of God's presence detects evil. When He causes a new day to dawn — "the day of the Lord" — evildoers will be shaken out of the earth. For this reason His people, who are "children of the light and of the day," order their life by the light. For this reason, in that fair land where there is no night, nothing that defiles can enter. It is the home of the light. None could remain there but the sons of light. "The Lamb is the light of it."
The Point for Job Himself
These questions are aimed at a suffering man who had argued with God. Inside the challenge is a promise:
Samuel RidoutThis appeal to day and night is most effective. Shall Job accuse One who is Light, who sees all things as they are? Shall he doubt One who knows the secrets of his heart, and the reason for these chastenings? Do not these questions hint that God will end Job's night, and at the appointed time send His dawn to visit the poor sufferer?
Summary
- Whose morning — Job never commanded a single sunrise. God said, "Let there be light," and evening and morning have kept their appointed time and place ever since.
- Light stamps — the dark earth is blank clay. Daylight presses down like a seal, and shape and beauty appear as God fixed them.
- Light clothes — the same light brings out forms and colours like a garment. What it uncovers may be lovely, or a scene of ruin.
- Light exposes — this is why the wicked prefer night and will not come to the light: it shows all things as they are.
- Light dawns — a greater morning will shake evildoers out of the earth. The God who sends it can also end the night of a sufferer like Job.