Albert Barnes Commentary Job 38:24

"By what way is the light parted, Or the east wind scattered upon the earth?" — Job 38:24 (ASV)

By what way is the light parted—The reference here is to the light of the morning, that seems to come from one point and spread itself at once over the whole earth. It seems to be collected in the east, or, as it were, condensed or concentrated there, and then to divide itself and expand over the face of the world.

God here asks Job whether he could explain this or show how it was done. This was one of the subjects which one might suppose would have excited inquiry early on, and it is one which can be explained as little now as it was then.

The causes of the propagation of light, which seems to proceed from a center and spread rapidly in every direction, are perhaps as little known now as they were in Job's time. Philosophy has done little to explain this. The mode in which light travels in eight minutes from the sun to the earth—a distance of ninety million miles—and the manner in which it is “divided” or “parted” from that great center and spread over the solar system, is as much a real mystery as it was in Job's day. Indeed, the question posed here can be asked now with as much emphasis as it was then.

Which scattereth the east wind upon the earth—According to this translation, the idea would be that somehow light is the cause of the east wind. But it may be doubted whether this is the true interpretation, and whether it is meant to be affirmed that light has any agency in causing the wind to blow. Herder renders it:

“When does the light divide itself,
When the east wind strews it upon the earth?”

According to this, the idea would be that the morning light seemed to be carried along by the wind. Umbreit renders it, “Where is the way on which the east wind flows out upon the earth?” That is, the east wind, like the light, comes from a certain point and seems to spread out over the world; and the question is whether Job could explain this. This interpretation is adopted by Rosenmuller and Noyes and seems to be demanded by the parallelism and by the nature of the case.

The cause of the rapid spreading of the wind from a certain point of the compass was involved in as much obscurity as the propagation of light, nor is that cause much better understood now. There is no reason to suppose that the spread of light has any particular agency in causing the east wind, as our common version seems to suppose, nor is that idea necessarily in the Hebrew text. The east wind is mentioned here either because the light comes from the east, and wind from that quarter was more naturally suggested than any other, or because the east wind was remarkable for its violence. The idea that a strong east wind was somehow connected with the dawn of day or the rising of the sun was one that prevailed, at least to some extent, among the ancients. Thus, Catullus (64:270 and following) says:

Hic qualis flatu placidum mare matutino
Horrificans zephyrus proclivas incitat undas
Aurora exoriente, vagi sub lumina solis.