Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 22:12
[Is] not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!
12, 13. Eliphaz points to God’s place of abode in the lofty heavens ( Job 22:12); and under this feeling of His infinite distance from the earth Job said, How doth God know? Men’s conduct was not observed by Him; the thick clouds obscured His vision.
And thou sayest ] Rather, and thou saidst. On this mode of thought comp. Psa 94:7; Isa 29:15; Eze 8:12.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
12 20. Eliphaz, having in Job 22:6-10 suggested what Job’s offences must have been, now suggests under what feeling in regard to God he must have committed them. He thought God so far removed from the world that He did not observe men’s conduct.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Is not God in the height of heaven? – In the highest heaven. That is, Is not God exalted over all worlds? This seems to be intended to refer to the sentiments of Job, as if he had maintained that God was so exalted that he could not notice what was occurring on earth. It should, therefore, be read in connection with the following verse: God is so exalted, that thou sayest, How can he know? Can he look down through the thick clouds which intervene between him and man? Job had maintained no such opinion, but the process of thought in the mind of Eliphaz seems to have been this. Job had maintained that God did not punish the wicked in this life as they deserved, but that they lived and prospered. Eliphaz inferred that he could hold that opinion only because he supposed that God was so exalted that he could not attend to worldly affairs. He knew no other way in which the opinion could be held, and he proceeds to argue as if it were so.
Job had in the previous chapter appealed to plain facts, and had rested his whole argument on them. Eliphaz, instead of meeting the facts in the case, or showing that they did not exist as Job said they did, considered his discourse as a denial of Divine Providence, and as representing God to be so far above the earth that he could not notice what was occurring here. How common is this in theological controversy! One man, in defending his opinions, or in searching for the truth, appeals to facts, and endeavors to ascertain their nature and bearing. His adversary, instead of meeting them, or showing that they are not so, at once appeals to some admitted doctrine, to some established article of a creed, or to some tradition of the fathers, and says that the appeal to fact is but a denial of an important doctrine of revelation. It is easier to charge a man with denying the doctrine of Providence, or to call him by a harsh name, than it is to meet an argument drawn from fact and from the plain meaning of the Bible.
And behold the height of the stars – Margin, as in Hebrew head – ro’sh. God is more exalted than the highest of the stars. The stars are the highest objects in view, and the sense, therefore, is, that God is infinitely exalted.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 22:12-13
Is not God in the height of heaven?
God brought near
Is there anything that can make God a present God? Bring Him from the height of heaven beyond the stars into conscious contact with the experience of daily life? There is. What? Philosophic reasoning. Correct reasoning on the subject must indeed convince man that if there be a God, He must be everywhere, and, therefore, ever at hand. But men may reach this conclusion, and yet practically regard their God as distant. Will natural science do it? True natural science must connect God with everything. Will scriptural theology do it? (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 12. Is not God in the height of heaven?] It appears, from this and the following verses, that Eliphaz was attributing infidel and blasphemous speeches or sentiments to Job. As if he had said: “Thou allowest that there is a God, but thou sayest that he is infinitely exalted above the heavens and the stars, and that there is so much dense ether and thick cloud between his throne and the earth, that he can neither see it nor its inhabitants.” These were sentiments which Job never held, and never uttered; but if a man be dressed in a bear’s skin, he may be hunted and worried by his own dogs. Job’s friends attribute falsities to him, and then dilate upon them, and draw inferences from them injurious to his character. Polemic writers, both in theology and politics, often act in this way.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Is not God in the height of heaven? Surely he is; and from that high tower he looketh down upon men, Psa 14:2, to behold, and govern, and recompense all their actions, whether good or bad. And therefore, O Job, thou art grossly mistaken, in thinking that all things in this lower world are managed by chance, and without any regard to justice, or to just men, and not by the wise and holy providence of God; for this is the genuine consequence of thy great principle, that good men suffer as deeply as any others, whilst the vilest of men are exalted and flourish.
Behold the height of the stars, how high they are; yet God is far higher than they, and from thence can easily spy all men and things here below; as the highest places afford the best prospects.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. Eliphaz says this to provethat God can from His height behold all things; gratuitouslyinferring that Job denied it, because he denied that thewicked are punished here.
heightHebrew,“head of the stars”; that is, “elevation” (Job11:8).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[Is] not God in the height of heaven?…. The heaven is high, it has its name from its height, and is noted for it; some of the heavens are higher than others, as the heaven of heavens, the third heaven, the habitation of angels and glorified saints; and here God dwells, this is the habitation of his holiness, and the high and holy place he inhabits; his throne is in heaven, in the heaven of heavens is his throne, where he in an especial manner manifests his glory, and the lustre of it; he is not indeed continued here, the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, he is everywhere; yet this is his court and palace, where his residence and retinue is and angels behold his face, and wait upon him; and because this is the principal seat of his majesty, it becomes one of his names, Da 4:26; and the words here will bear to be rendered, “is not God the height of the heavens?” t or, as the Vulgate Latin version, “higher than the heavens”; he is above them, more exalted than they, being the Creator of them, see Heb 7:26;
and behold the height of the stars, how high they are; or “the head” or “top of the stars” u, which Ben Gersom interprets of the supreme orb, or that high and vast space in which the fixed stars are, or the highest of them, which are at the greatest distance; according to Mr. Huygens w a cannon ball discharged would be twenty five years in passing from the earth to the sun, from, Jupiter to the sun an hundred twenty five years, from Saturn two hundred fifty, and from the sun to the dog star v 691,600 years; and if therefore it would be so long going to the nearest of the fixed stars, how great must be the distance of them from our earth, which are so much higher than the dog star as that is from the sun? But, though these are so exceeding high, yet God is higher than they, see Isa 14:13; the truth contained in these words was what both Eliphaz and Job were agreed in, let them be spoken by which they will, some ascribing them to the One, and some to the other; from whence Eliphaz represents Job drawing an inference very impious, blasphemous, and atheistical.
t “sublimitas coelorum”, Bolducius; “altitudo coeli”, Michaelis; “altitudo coelorum”, Schultens. u “capat stellarum”, Montanus, Bolaucius, Mercerus, Cocceius; “verticem stellarum”, V. L. Tigurine version, Michaelis, Schultens. w Cosmotheoros, l. 2. p. 125, 137. v (The Dog Star is the brighest star in the heavens when viewed from the earth. It has a visual magnitude of -1.4 and is 8.7 light years from the earth. It is in the constellation Sirius. The closest star to the earth is Centaurus and has a visual magnitude of 0 and is 4.3 light years from the earth. It is several times fainter the the Dog Star but is still quite bright compared to neighbouring stars. 1969 Oberserver’s Handbook, p. 74, 75. The Royal Astonomical Society of Canada, Toronto, Ontario. Editor)
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
12 Is not Eloah high as the heavens?
See but the head of the stars, how exalted!
13 So then thou thinkest: “What doth God know?
Can He judge through the thick cloud?
14 Clouds veil Him that He seeth not,
And in the vault of heaven He walketh at His pleasure.”
Because Job has denied the distribution of worldly fortune, of outward prosperity and adversity, according to the law of the justice that recompenses like for like, Eliphaz charges him with that unbelief often mentioned in the Psalms (Psa 73:11; Psa 94:7; comp. Isa 29:15; Eze 8:12), which denies to the God in heaven, as Epicurus did to the gods who lead a blessed life in the spaces between the worlds, a knowledge of earthly things, and therefore the preliminary condition for a right comprehension of them. The mode of expression here is altogether peculiar. is not acc. loci, as the like accusatives in combination with the verb , Isa 57:15, may be taken: the substantival clause would lead one to expect , or better (Job 11:8); it is rather (similar to Job 11:8) nomin. praedicati: Eloah is the height of the heavens = heaven-high, as high as the heavens, therefore certainly highly, and indeed very highly, exalted above this earth. In this sense it is continued with Waw explic.: and behold (= behold then) the head of the stars, that, or how ( as in Gen 49:15; 1Sa 14:29, quod = quam ) exalted they are. has Asla ( Kadma) in correct texts, and is written ( rammu ) with a so-called Dag. affectuosum (Olsh. 83, b). It may be received as certain that , the head ( vertex), beside (not ), does not signify the sum (Aben-Ezra). But it is questionable whether the genitive that follows is gen. partitivus: the highest among the stars (Ew., Hirz., Schlottm.), or gen. epexegeticus: the head, i.e., (in relation to the rest of the universe) the height, which is formed by the stars, or even which they occupy (Ges. coelum stellatum); the partitive rendering is to be preferred, for the Semitic perception recognises, as the plural implies, nearer and more distant celestial spheres. The expression “head of the stars” is therefore somewhat like fastigium coeli (the extreme height, i.e., the middle of the vault of heaven), or culmen aereum (of the aether separating the strata of air above); the summit of the stars rising up into the extremest spheres is intended (we should say: the fixed stars, or to use a still more modern expression, the milky way), as also the naturally refers to as one notion ( summitas astrorum = summa astra).
The connection of what follows with Waw is not adversative (Hirz., Ew., and others: and yet thou speakest), it is rather consecutive (Hahn: and since thou speakest; better: and in consequence of this thou speakest; or: thus speakest thou, thinkest thou then). The undeniable truth that God is exalted, and indeed absolute in His exaltation, is misapplied by Job to the false conclusion: what does God know, or (since the perf. in interrogative sentences frequently corresponds to the Latin conjunctive, vid., on Psa 11:3) how should God know, or take knowledge, i.e., of anything that happens on earth? In Job 22:13 the potential takes the place of this modal perfect: can He rule judicially behind the dark clouds, i.e., over the world below from which He is shut out? (of like verbal origin with the Arab. bda , post, prop. distance, separation, succession, but of wider use) signifies here, as in Job 1:10; Job 9:7, behind, pone, with the secondary notion of being encompassed or covered by that which shuts off. Far from having an unlimited view of everything earthly from His absolute height, it is veiled from His by the clouds, so that He sees not what occurs here below, and unconcerned about it He walks the circle of the heavens (that which vaults the earth, the inhabitants of which seem to Him, according to Isa 40:22, as grasshoppers); is here, after the analogy of Kal, joined with the accus. of the way over which He walks at His pleasure: orbem coelum obambulat . By such unworthy views of the Deity, Job puts himself on a par with the godless race that was swept away by the flood in ancient days, without allowing himself to be warned by this example of punishment.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
3. Warning that all evil men have been punished (Job. 22:12-20)
TEXT 22:1220
12 Is not God in the height of heaven?
And behold the height of the stars, how high they are!
13 And thou sayest, What doth God know?
Can he judge through the thick darkness?
14 Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he seeth not;
And he walketh on the vault of heaven.
15 Wilt thou keep the old way
Which wicked men have trodden?
16 Who were snatched away before their time.
Whose foundation was poured out as a stream.
17 Who said unto God, Depart from us;
And, What can the Almighty do for us?
18 Yet he filled their houses with good things:
But the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
19 The righteous see it, and are glad;
And the innocent laugh them to scorn,
20 Saying, Surely they that did rise up against us are cut off,
And the remnant of them the fire hath consumed.
COMMENT 22:1220
Job. 22:12Gods transcendence is understood here in the sense that He is so far off that He is unconcerned with mans conditionPsa. 10:4; Psa. 73:11; and Isa. 29:15or as the Psalmist concludesPsa. 14:2; Psa. 33:13 ff, He is so high that He observes every event that transpires in nature-history. Yet, Eliphaz argues in Job. 22:13 that transcendence is understood by Job to mean indifference.[244] Job has actually used this theme to describe the practical atheism of the prosperous who go unpunished in spite of their impietyJob. 21:14-15. Eliphaz deliberately distorts Jobs discourse in order to identify him with the ancient wickedJob. 22:15 ff.
[244] On this matter, see M. Dahood, Orientalia, 1965, p. 171 and his Psalms, Vol. I, Psa. 10:4second note.
Job. 22:13Eliphaz intentionally distorts Jobs theology as he asks, Does the vast distance create darkness so God cannot discern human deeds? The dark cloud partially hid God from human visibilityExo. 20:18; 1Ki. 8:12; and Psa. 18:10. This verse contains the first overt distortion of Jobs position concerning Gods transcendenceJob. 7:19; Job. 10:6; Job. 10:14; Job. 14:3; Job. 14:6.
Job. 22:14God is only concerned with the circlePro. 8:27; Isa. 40:22of the heavens, not with the events on the earth, so declares Eliphaz, perhaps in response to Jobs question in Job. 21:22. God is elsewhere depicted as riding upon the cloudsIsa. 19:1and making the clouds his chariotsPsa. 104:3. Vault or dome carries a connotation not presented in the creation narratives or here. God is not described as being outside an enclosed world.
Job. 22:15Eliphaz next asserts that the attitudes espoused by Job have brought destruction on the ancient wicked. The old way[245]Jer. 6:16is best translated the dark path, or the way of darkness or ignorance (see Job. 42:3malin esahdarkening counsel; the noun occurs in Ecc. 3:11, darkness or ignorance, Ecc. 2:14 and Pro. 2:3). The wicked walk the path of ignorance of Gods presence.
[245] Compare M. Dohoods essay in Bible in Current Catholic Thought, 1962, p. 65.
Job. 22:16The foundations of their existence collapsed from beneath them, swept away as by a floodMat. 7:26. They were snatched away without warning.
Job. 22:17Compare with Job. 21:14-16. Eliphaz is commenting on remarks of some of the ancient wicked. He remembers what Job has claimed, in order to assert that his prosperity was only a prelude to his devastation.[246]
[246] M. Dahood, Biblica, 1965, p. 324; also Biblica, 1966, p. 409.
Job. 22:18Eliphaz again distorts Jobs wordsJob. 21:16in order to assert that the God he scorns was the source of his prosperity. Any forthcoming disaster was merited. The blessings which the wicked receive will become to them a curse. Gods ultimate overthrow of the wicked is proof of His just rule over the affairs of men.
Job. 22:19Compare with Psa. 107:41 a and Psa. 69:33, almost verbatim. For imageries depicting the righteous rejoicing over the destruction of the wicked, see Psa. 52:6 ff; Psa. 69:32; and see Psa. 107:12 for rejoicing over the victories of the righteous.[247]
[247] See M. Bic, Le juste et limpie dans le livre de Job, Vetus Testamentum, Supplement, 15, 1966, 3343; R. B. Y. Scott, Wise and Foolish, Righteous and Wicked, Vetus Testamentum, Supplement, 1972, 146165; D. S. Shapiro, Wisdom and Knowledge of God in Biblical and Tamudic Thought, Tradition, 1971, 7089.
Job. 22:20Eliphaz argues from remoteness to impartialitysee Zophars use in Job. 11:7-20. Our adversaries, i.e., the wicked and their possessions (not as A. Vremnant) are destroyed.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
Second double strophe THE FATE OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS A WARNING TO Job , vv12-20.
a. The sceptical views of Job, which exalted God above all concern for and knowledge of the universe, have led Job into the commission of the sins alleged, and aggravated the punishment they called forth, Job 22:12-15.
12. In the height of heaven The abrupt original appears by omitting in. Is not God high as the heavens? (Job 11:8,) exalted so high that he cannot see. The language that Milton attributes to Eve after her terrible sin breathes the same godless spirit.
And I perhaps am secret: heaven is high;
High and remote to see from thence distinct
Each thing on earth.
Paradise Lost, book 9.
It belongs to sinful nature to solace itself with the treacherous sense of secrecy. “They will gladly allow God his heavens, if he will only allow them their earthly life of pleasure.” Starke.
Height of the stars The highest stars.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Warning to Avoid Further Punishments
v. 12. Is not God in the height of heaven, v. 13. And thou sayest, How doth God know? v. 14. Thick clouds are a covering to Him that He seeth not; and He walketh in the circuit of heaven, v. 15. Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden? v. 16. Which were cut down out of time, v. 17. which said unto God, Depart from us! and what could the Almighty do for them? v. 18. Yet He filled their houses with good things, v. 19. The righteous see it and are glad, v. 20. Whereas our substance is not cut down, but the remnant of them the fire consumeth.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Job 22:12. Is not God in the height of heaven? Is not God high above the heavens? Yea, see the summit of the stars how high they are. This verse is the answer which he supposes Job to make; the consequences of which he draws out at large in the following verses. He takes his handle from Job 22:16 of the former chapter, as appears from his retorting the latter clause of it against Job in Job 22:18. See Heath; who observes, that the particle rendered and at the beginning of the next verse, should be rendered from whence, as it is the inference drawn from the infinite distance at which he supposes God to be removed from human affairs.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 22:12 [Is] not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!
Ver. 12. Is not God in the height of heaven? ] Some add out of the next verse these words, Sayest thou; making Job’s atheistic speeches (here mimetically fathered upon him by Eliphaz) an argument of his great wickedness; as if Job should say, and so discover himself (“for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,” Mat 12:34 ) to be of Protagoras’s opinion, who doubted Deity, De Diis, utrum sint non ausim affirmare ( Prot.); or of Diagoras’s, who flatly denied it; or, at least, of Aristotle’s, who pent up God in heaven, and taught that he took little or no care of things done on earth. But what saith the psalmist (and Job was of the same mind whatever the Jewish doctors affirm of him to the contrary)? “Our God is in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he pleased” in heaven and in earth. “The Lord is high above all nations; and his glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high, who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth! He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,” &c., Psa 115:3 ; Psa 113:4-7 . “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth to show himself strong,” &c., 2Ch 16:9 . His wrath “is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,” Rom 1:18 . Job had frequently acknowledged and celebrated the power and providence of God, his judgments upon the wicked, his fatherly chastisements upon himself; deeply detesting all such thoughts and speeches as he is here wrongfully made the author of.
And behold the height of the stars
How high they are!
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Is not. ? Figure of speech Erotesis. App-6.
GOD. Hebrew Eloah App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Job 22:12-16
Job 22:12-16
ELIPHAZ WARNS: JOB CANNOT HIDE HIS SINS FROM GOD
“Is not God in the height of heaven?
And behold the height of the stars, how high they are!
And thou sayest, What doth God know?
Can he judge through the thick darkness?
Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he seeth not;
And he walketh on the vault of heaven.
Wilt thou keep the old way
Which wicked men have trodden?
Who were snatched away before their time,
Whose foundation was poured out as a stream.”
Eliphaz parades himself as a mind-reader in this passage. He charges that Job thinks that God is so high and far away that he cannot see Job’s sins, and that God cannot see what Job did on cloudy days.
“Wilt thou keep the old way which wicked men have trodden” (Job 22:15)? Such unfeeling, ignorant and insulting words must have been particularly obnoxious to Job.
“Whose foundation was poured out as a stream” (Job 22:16). Our American Standard Version translators evidently missed it here. Foundations cannot be `poured out’ because they are not liquids. The KJV has, “Whose foundation was overflown with a flood”; and the RSV has, “Their foundation was washed away.” Kline, DeHoff and Driver interpreted this as a reference to the flood; and Driver gave the literal meaning as, “The foundations of whose houses were carried away by the Deluge.” However, Pope disputed this interpretation, stating that, “Many interpreters incorrectly take this line to refer to the Flood; but the thought is only of the sudden destruction of the wicked, exactly as in Jesus’s parable (Mat 7:26).” Pope himself is in error here, because Eliphaz was not referring to some local flood, but to the destruction of wicked men walking in the “way of old” (Job 22:15), which is clearly a reference to some specific event of great antiquity. In all the editions which we have consulted, the marginal references list Gen 6:5; Gen 6:13; Gen 6:17 as shedding light on what is written here. These, of course, refer to the Deluge.
E.M. Zerr:
Job 22:11-14. Eliphaz implied that Job was making his claim of innocence because he did not really know how great and wise the Lord is.
Job 22:15-17. Job was asked to recall the experiences of wicked men who had lived before him and profit thereby.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
not God: Psa 115:3, Psa 115:16, Ecc 5:2, Isa 57:15, Isa 66:1
height: Heb. head
the stars: Psa 8:3, Psa 8:4
Reciprocal: 2Ch 6:21 – thy dwelling place Job 11:8 – It is as high as heaven Job 35:5 – Look Psa 59:7 – who Psa 94:7 – they say Psa 102:19 – the height Psa 103:11 – as the Psa 139:11 – Surely Eze 8:12 – The Lord seeth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 22:12. Is not God in the height of heaven? Surely, he is; and from that high tower he looketh down upon men, to behold, and govern, and recompense all their actions, whether good or bad. And, therefore, O Job, thou art grossly mistaken, in thinking that good men suffer as deeply as any others in this lower world, while the vilest of men flourish and are exalted; which would imply that all things are managed here by chance, or without any regard to justice and to just men, and not by the wise and holy providence of God. Behold the stars, how high they are Yet God is far higher than they, and from thence can easily observe all men and things here below.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
22:12 [Is] not God in the {g} height of heaven? and behold the height of the {h} stars, how high they are!
(g) He accuses Job of impiety and contempt of God, as thought he would say, If you pass not for men, yet consider the height of God’s majesty.
(h) That so much the more by that excellent work you may fear God, and reverence him.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Job’s spiritual defiance 22:12-20
Eliphaz proceeded next to judge Job’s motives. He assumed Job had concluded that because God was far away in heaven, he would get away with sin on earth. However, Job had affirmed God’s omniscience (Job 21:22).
"Presuming to read Job’s secret thoughts, Eliphaz puts in Job’s mouth blasphemies untrue to the sentiments he has actually expressed (Job 22:12-14)." [Note: Kline, p. 478.]
Perhaps Eliphaz had in mind the wicked of Noah’s generation in Job 22:15-16. In Job 22:18 a Eliphaz seems to be admitting that some of the wicked do prosper temporarily. In his view, Job had been one of these fortunate individuals.