38:3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I {c} will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
(c) Because he wished to dispute with God, Job 23:3, God reasons with him, to declare his rashness.
38:3 Gird up - As warriors then did for the battle.
38:1-3 Job had silenced, but had not convinced his friends. Elihu had silenced Job, but had not brought him to admit his guilt before God. It pleased the Lord to interpose. The Lord, in this discourse, humbles Job, and brings him to repent of his passionate expressions concerning God's providential dealings with him; and this he does, by calling upon Job to compare God's being from everlasting to everlasting, with his own time; God's knowledge of all things, with his own ignorance; and God's almighty power, with his own weakness. Our darkening the counsels of God's wisdom with our folly, is a great provocation to God. Humble faith and sincere obedience see farthest and best into the will of the Lord.
