Job 38:6

are the foundations fastened Or, were the foundations sunk? All the tenseshere should be put in the simple past.

The creation of the earth is likened to the rearing of a great edifice, whose extent was determined by line, whose pillars were sunk in their bases, and its corner-stone laid with shoutings and songs of rejoicing among the heavenly hosts (comp. Ezra 3:10 seq., Zechariah 4:7).

Such music, as "tis said,

Before was never made,

But when of old the sons of morning sung,

While the Creator great

His constellations set,

And the well balanced world on hinges hung;

And cast the dark foundations deep,

And bid the weltering waves their oozy channel keep.

Hymn on the Nativity.

The stars and the angels are here as usual conjoined, and the morning stars are named as the brightest and most glorious, as also because the earth rose into existence at the morning dawn.