Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 26:1
But Job answered and said,
Job 26:1-14
But Job answered and said.
The transcendent greatness of God
I. God appears incomprehensibly great in that portion of the universe that is brought under human observation.
1. In connection with the world of disembodied spirits. Dead things are formed from under the waters and the inhabitants thereof. Hell is naked before Him, and destruction hath no covering.
2. In connection with this terraqueous globe. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. It is evident that the true figure of the earth had early engaged the attention of men, and that occasionally the truth on this subject was before their minds, though it was neither brought into a system nor sustained there by sufficient evidence to make it an article of established belief.
3. In connection with the starry universe. By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens. W. Herschell observed one hundred and sixteen thousand stars pass the feeblest telescope in one quarter of an hour. But what are they? Only a few drops to the ocean.
II. Insignificant compared with those parts that are undiscovered in immensity. Lo, these are parts of His ways; but how little a portion is heard of Him? but the thunder of His power who can understand? Conclusion–
1. Gods greatness is not inconsistent with His attention to little things.
2. Gods greatness is a vital subject for human thought. No subject is so soul quickening. No subject is so humbling. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XXVI
Job, perceiving that his friends could no longer support their
arguments on the ground they had assumed, sharply reproves
them for their want both of wisdom and feeling, 1-4;
shows that the power and wisdom of God are manifest in the
works of creation and providence; gives several proofs; and
then adds that these are a small specimen of his infinite
skill and unlimited power, 5-14.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXVI
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But Job answered,…. In a very sharp and biting manner; one would wonder that a man in such circumstances should have so much keenness of spirit, and deal in so much irony, and be master of so much satire, and be able to laugh at his antagonist in the manner he does:
and said; as follows.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1 Then Job began, and said:
2 How has thou helped him that is without power,
Raised the arm that hath no strength!
3 How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom,
And fully declared the essence of the matter!
4 To whom hast thou uttered words,
And whose breath proceeded from thee?
Bildad is the person addressed, and the exclamations in Job 26:2, Job 26:3 are ironical: how thy speech contains nothing whatever that might help me, the supposedly feeble one, in conquering my affliction and my temptation; me, the supposedly ignorant one, in comprehending man’s mysterious lot, and mine! , according to the idea, is only equivalent to ( ) , and equivalent to ( ); the former is the abstr. pro concreto, the latter the genitival connection – the arm of the no-power, i.e., powerless (Ges. 152, 1). The powerless one is Job himself, not God (Merc., Schlottm.), as even the choice of the verbs, Job 26:2, Job 26:3, shows. Respecting , which we have translated essentiality, duration, completion, we said, on Job 5:12, that it is formed from (vid., Pro 8:21), not directly indeed, but by means of a verb brev a fo ( ), in the signification subsistere (comp. Arab. kan , and Syriac );
(Note: Comp. also Spiegel, Grammatik der Huzvresch-Sprache, S. 103.)
it is a Hophal -formation (like ), and signifies, so to speak, durability, subsistentia, substantia, , so that the comparison of with , Arab. ‘ss (whence , Arab. ass , asas , etc., fundamentum ) is forced upon one, and the relationship to the Sanskrit as ( asmi = ) can remain undecided. The observation of J. D. Michaelis
(Note: Against the comparison of the Arab. wasa , solari , by Michaelis, Ges., and others (who assume the primary significations solatium , auxilium ), Lagarde ( Anmerkungen zur griech. Uebersetzung der Proverbien, 1863, S. 57f.) correctly remarks that Arab. wasa , is only a change of letters of the common language for Arab. asa ; but Arab. wasa , to finish painting (whence Arab. twsyt , decoration), or as a transposition from , to be level, simple (Hitzig on Pro 3:21), leads to no suitable sense.)
to the contrary, Supplem. p. 1167: non placent in linguis ejusmodi etyma metaphysica nimis a vulgari sensu remota; philosophi in scholis ejusmodi vocabula condunt, non plebs , is removed by the consideration that , which out of Prov. and Job occurs only in Isa 28:29, Mich. Job 6:9, is a Chokma-word: it signifies here, as frequently, vera et realis sapientia (J. H. Michaelis). The speech of Bildad is a proof of poverty of thought, of which he himself gives the evidence. His words – such is the thought of Job 26:4 – are altogether inappropriate, inasmuch as they have no reference whatever to the chief point of Job’s speech; and they are, moreover, not his own, but the suggestion of another, and that not God, but Eliphaz, from whom Bildad has borrowed the substance of his brief declamation. Since this is the meaning of Job 26:4, it might seem as though were intended to signify by whose assistance (Arnh., Hahn); but as the poet also, in Job 31:37, comp. Eze 43:10, uses seq. acc., in the sense of explaining anything to any one, to instruct him concerning anything, it is to be interpreted: to whom hast thou divulged the words (lxx, ), i.e., thinking and designing thereby to affect him?
In what follows, Job now continues the description of God’s exalted rule, which Bildad had attempted, by tracing it through every department of creation; and thus proves by fact, that he is wanting neither in a recognition nor reverence of God the almighty Ruler.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Job’s Reproof of Bildad. | B. C. 1520. |
1 But Job answered and said, 2 How hast thou helped him that is without power? how savest thou the arm that hath no strength? 3 How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? and how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is? 4 To whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee?
One would not have thought that Job, when he was in so much pain and misery, could banter his friend as he does here and make himself merry with the impertinency of his discourse. Bildad thought that he had made a fine speech, that the matter was so weighty, and the language so fine, that he had gained the reputation both of an oracle and of an orator; but Job peevishly enough shows that his performance was not so valuable as he thought it and ridicules him for it. He shows,
I. That there was no great matter to be found in it (v. 3): How hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is? This is spoken ironically, upbraiding Bildad with the good conceit he himself had of what he had said. 1. He thought he had spoken very clearly, had declared the thing as it is. He was very fond (as we are all apt to be) of his own notions, and thought they only were right, and true, and intelligible, and all other notions of the thing were false, mistaken, and confused; whereas, when we speak of the glory of God, we cannot declare the thing as it is, for we see it through a glass darkly, or but by reflection, and shall not see him as he is till we come to heaven. Here we cannot order our speech concerning him, ch. xxxvii. 19. 2. He thought he had spoken very fully, though in few words, that he had plentifully declared it, and, alas! it was but poorly and scantily that he declared it, in comparison with the vast compass and copiousness of the subject.
II. That there was no great use to be made of it. Cui bono—What good hast thou done by all that thou hast said? How hast thou, with all this mighty flourish, helped him that is without power? v. 2. How hast thou, with thy grave dictates, counselled him that has no wisdom? v. 3. Job would convince him, 1. That he had done God no service by it, nor made him in the least beholden to him. It is indeed our duty, and will be our honour, to speak on God’s behalf; but we must not think that he needs our service, or is indebted to us for it, nor will he accept it if it come from a spirit of contention and contradiction, and not from a sincere regard to God’s glory. 2. That he had done his cause no service by it. He thought his friends were mightily beholden to him for helping them, at a dead lift, to make their part good against Job, when they were quite at a loss, and had no strength, no wisdom. Even weak disputants, when warm, are apt to think truth more beholden to them than it really is. 3. That he had done him no service by it. He pretended to convince, instruct, and comfort, Job; but, alas! what he had said was so little to the purpose that it would not avail to rectify any mistakes, nor to assist him either in bearing his afflictions or in getting good by them: “To whom has thou uttered words? v. 4. Was it to me that thou didst direct thy discourse? And dost thou take me for such a child as to need these instructions? Or dost thou think them proper for one in my condition?” Every thing that is true and good is not suitable and seasonable. To one that was humbled, and broken, and grieved in spirit, as Job was, he ought to have preached of the grace and mercy of God, rather than of his greatness and majesty, to have laid before him the consolations rather than the terrors of the Almighty. Christ knows how to speak what is proper for the weary (Isa. l. 4), and his ministers should learn rightly to divide the word of truth, and not make those sad whom God would not have made sad, as Bildad did; and therefore Job asks him, Whose spirit came from thee? that is, “What troubled soul would ever be revived, and relieved, and brought to itself, by such discourses as these?” Thus are we often disappointed in our expectations from our friends who should comfort us, but the Comforter, who is the Holy Ghost, never mistakes in his operations nor misses of his end.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JOB – CHAPTER 26
JOB’S REBUTTAL TO BILDAD
Verses 1-14:
BILDAD’S VIEWS LEAD TO DESPAIR BUT JOB HAS UNWAVERING FAITH IN GOD
Verses 1, 2 recount Job’s response to Bildad’s blaming him as a wicked man who was too obstinate to repent. He inquired of Bildad just what help had he offered to him in his suffering? How would he save, support, or deliver the arm of him (Job) who was without strength? Gal 6:1-2; See also Pro 25:11; Isa 35:3-4; Isa 40:14; Isa 41:5; Isa 41:7.
Verses 3, 4 inquire with irony, just how Bildad had counseled “him that hath no wisdom?” For Bildad pretended to have great wisdom while assuming Job to be a stupid anarchist against God. How had Bildad shown abundant wisdom in his accusations against Job? Job in turn asked Bildad to whom he had addressed his remarks? And whose spirit came forth from him? It was the borrowed sentiment of Eliphaz that Bildad had mouthed against Job, Job 4:17-19; Job 15:14-16; Job 32:11; Job 32:13; 1Co 2:4.
Verses 5, 6 relate that dead things, or “dead ones” are formed from under the waters, even the inhabitants, those buried at sea.
They do not cease to be. They shall come forth in the resurrection. Hell, (Heb Sheol) is naked (uncovered) before the eyes of the Lord, having no cover to conceal its occupants from the all seeing eye of the Lord. Each shall one day come forth to be united with its own soul, Joh 5:28; Joh 5:19; 1Co 15:38; Psa 139:8; Psa 139:11; Pro 15:11; Heb 4:13; Isa 14:9; Amo 9:2.
Verse 7 declares that the Lord continually stretches out and sustains the north over the empty place, and hangs, supports, or sustains the earth upon nothing, nothing but His own sustaining power, Psa 24:2. The north is believed to be the highest part of the earth, stretched out like a canopy, Isa 14:13; Psa 104:2. While the southern hemisphere is called “the chambers of the south,” consistent with the earth’s globe-like form, Job 9:9.
Verse 8 adds that the Lord binds up the waters in His or their dense clouds, which though light, do not burst under the weight of their water in them, Pro 30:4.
Verse 9 states that “He,” the Lord “holds back” the face of His throne from the view of men, spreading His cloud as an earlier veil to screen the glory of His person from carnal men, from profane eyes; For he is invisible, Psa 18:11; Psa 104:3.
Verses 10, 11 certify that the Almighty God has circled the waters with bounds, so that the horizon appears as a circle, Pro 8:27; Psa 104:9. This He does until the day and night come to an end, to fulfill their purpose, Gen 1:4; Gen 1:6; Gen 1:9; Jer 5:22. The “pillars of heaven” that tremble and are astonished at His reproof, allude to the mountains that seem to support the sky. The thunder reverberates from cliff to cliff, as if it were the voice of the creator in anger, Psa 104:7; Psa 104:32; Hab 3:10; Nah 1:5. See also Job 38:8; Psa 33:7; Pro 8:29.
Verse 12 declares that the Almighty God divides or separates the sea (7 seas) by His power, at creation, Gen 1:9-10 perhaps “in the days of Peleg,” after the flood, Gen 10:25. By His understanding “He smiteth through the proud,” perhaps alluding to His judgment smiting of the flood, Gen 8:1; Psa 74:13; Psa 104:7. See also Exo 14:21; Isa 5115; Jer 31:35.
Verse 13 explains that by the instrument of His spirit He, the Almighty, has garnished, polished the heavens; The Spirit is the Divine power of God that gives life and form to created things and persons, Gen 1:2; Job 33:4; Psa 33:6; Mal 2:15. It is added that “his hand has formed the crooked serpent,” the literal serpent and the constellation, splendor of all the stars which the Lord formed, Isa 27:1.
Verse 14 concludes that “these are parts (fragments) of His ways,” but only a little portion, Isa 55:8-9. Job adds, “how little a portion is heard of him?” It is like a “word-whisper” only, of His acts of power that we really hear or heed. Who can comprehend the “thunder of His power?” Job asks. Israel could not in the mount, when He spoke from Sinai, Exodus ch. 19, 20. When He speaks man should give heed, obey, Act 5:29; 1Pe 4:17-18.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
JOBS REPLY TO BILDAD
Job, more alive to Bildads want of sympathy than to the excellence of his sentiments in regard to the Divine perfections, speaks somewhat petulantly,certainly with irony and sarcasm. Job not yet humbled. He hears of God by the hearing of the ear, but as yet his eye does not see him (ch. Job. 42:5). Mere verbal representations, even of the truth, not sufficient to humble and pacify the soul. God must reveal Himself.
Uncertain whether the larger portion of this chapter, viz., from Job. 26:5 to the end, does not properly belong to the preceding one as part of Bildads speech. Viewed as belonging to Job, its object would be to show that Job could as easily, and more comprehensively, descant on the Divine perfections as Bildad himself. The sentiments contained in the portion not affected by the question as to the speaker.
I. Jobs ironical and indignant reflection on Bildads speech (Job. 26:2-4).
1. Its want of sympathy and succour. Job. 26:2How hast thou helped him that is without power! How savest thou the arm that hath no strength! Means himself,either seriously, as really without power and strength; or ironically, being so in the esteem of Bildad and his friends. Bildads speech contained nothing calculated to support Job in his deep prostration. Its object rather to convict him of pride and self-righteousness, and to overwhelm him with a view of the Divine perfections. Job needed sympathy and support, and found none. So with his great antitype (Mat. 26:40). Observe
(1) Our duty to succour by our words those who are in trouble and distress, and to support those who are weak and ready to fall. Words sometimes more effectual than deeds in helping those who are without strength. Jobs own practice in his better days (ch. Job. 4:3-4). All the more painfully sensible of the want of it in his friends.
(2) Ministers and preachers to be careful in their ministrations and addresses to come up to their profession. One great part of a ministers duty to support the weak, comfort the feeble-minded, and strengthen the tempted (Act. 20:35; 1Th. 2:7; 1Th. 5:14; Heb. 12:12). Peter required, when converted after his fall, to strengthen his brethren (Luk. 22:32). The duty best discharged by those who have realized their own weakness and need of support. According to Luther, temptation one of the three things that make a preacher. Christ Himself able to succour them that are tempted, having been tempted Himself.
2. Its want of suitable counsel. Job. 26:3How hath thou counselled him that hath no wisdom! Still refers to himself. Addressed by Bildad as if ignorant of the Divine perfections. Bildads speech as void of counsel as of sympathy. Counsel never more needed than when in spiritual darkness and affliction. One of the blessings of true friendship. Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart; so doth the sweetness of a mans friend by hearty counsel (Pro. 27:9). One of the offices of Jesus, as the Saviour of men and Head of His Church, to give counsel. Therefore possessed of the spirit of counsel and might (Isa. 11:2). One of His titles, The Counsellor (Isa. 9:6). One of the believers privileges to enjoy such counsel (Psa. 16:7). Observe
(1) The part of ministers, preachers, and Christians in general, to counsel erring, perplexed, and troubled souls. (i.) Men out of Christ constantly in need of right and loving counsel. Christ counsels such to buy of Him gold tried in the fire, &c. (Rev. 3:17-18). Preachers and believers to do the same. (ii.) Anxious souls in need of sound counsel. The question to be wisely answered: Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Men and brethren, what shall we do? (iii.) Believers themselves often in circumstances requiring judicious spiritual counsel.
(2) Ministers and others to seek to be well qualified to give true spiritual counsel both to perplexed believers and to anxious inquirers. The tongue of the spiritually-learned needed to speak a word in season to him that is weary (Isa. 50:4).
3. Its defectiveness in regard to the matter in hand. How hast thou plentifully declared the tiling as it is (the real truth, or sound wisdom, as ch. Job. 11:6; Pro. 8:14). Bildad had declared the truth, but not the whole truth, nor yet, in Jobs view at least, the seasonable truth. Job did not require to be instructed by Bildad about the Divine perfections. It was one thing for these to be set forth by Bildad, and another for them to be exhibited by God Himself, as was afterwards done. Observe
(1) Not only is truth to be spoken in addressing men on Divine things, but the whole truth, and especially seasonable truth.
(2) Words and high-sounding descriptions, however true, not suited to carry conviction to the hearts of hearers. General declamations about the Divine perfections not such as to meet the case cither of the careless or the concerned.
(3) Preachers to be careful to give just representations of Divine things, and such as are adapted to meet the case of the hearers. The pulpit not the place to indulge ones taste for elegant composition, learned research, metaphysical subtleties, or poetic description. Pompous common-places and flights of rhetoric only famish the hearers, and render the preacher himself ridiculous. A Nero fiddled while Rome was burning. Paul an example to preachers: would rather speak five words in the Church that he might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue (1Co. 14:19).
4. Its conceit. Job. 26:4.To whom hast thou uttered words? (verses or set phrases). Bildads speech ridiculed by Job as rather mere words or set phrases; light-sounding diction, rather than plain homely truth suited to the occasion. Probably more of the traditional poetry of the country, which he pompously repeats to a man crushed under a weight of sorrow. Had treated Job as an ignorant and godless man. Had set himself forth as his teacher in regard to the Divine character and works. Had spoken as immensely Jobs superior both in piety and knowledge. Conceit one of the most repulsive and contemptible things in a preacher. Modesty in regard to himself, and due respect for his hearears, to be exhibited by every teacher of Divine truth. Pauls example: I speak as unto wise men; judge ye what I say. I am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye are filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another; nevertheless I have written to you in some sort, as putting you in mind (1Co. 10:15; Rom. 15:14-15). Peters I put you in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance (2Pe. 1:12; 2Pe. 2:1).
5. Its want of originality and divine unction. Whose spirit (breath, or inspiration) came from thee. Job ridicules Bildads speech as either an echo of those of his brothers, or a string of trite maxims of the sages; at the most, the effusion of his own spirit, not that of the spirit of God. Says nothing against the sentiments themselves. However uttered by Bildad, they are recorded by the Spirit of God for our instruction. Observe
(1) Preachers to beware of giving other mens productions as their own. If other mens sermons are read or repeated, it should be acknowledged.
(2) Preachers not to be mere imitators or retailers of other mens sentiments.
(3) A preacher to speak from his own heart, if he would reach the hearts of his hearers.
(4) Preachers to give to their hearers not merely the effusion of their own spirit, but what they have received from the Spirit of God. Five plain words uttered from the heart by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit worth more than five thousand of the most polished sentences, whether borrowed from others or the product of our own talent and study. The preacher who would win souls or edify believers, while not neglecting study and preparation, to be mainly concerned to receive his messages from God in answer to prayer, and to have the Spirit of God in the delivery of them. Two things to be sought by every preachera Divine unction in his discourses, and a Divine energy with them.
Stray hints for preachers:
He who desires, according to Paul, to be apt to teach, must first himself be taught of God.Erasmus.
Those are the best preachers to the common people who teach with the simplicity of a child.Luther.
Let your discourses be neither absolutely without ornament, nor indecently clothed with it.Augustine.
It requires all our learning to make things plain.Archbishop Usher.
Preachers are to feed the people, not with gay tulips and useless daffodils, but with the bread of life, and medicinal plants springing from the margin of the fountain of salvation.Jeremy Taylor.
Very fine, sirvery fine; but people cant live upon flowers.Robert Hall.
I had rather be fully understood by ten, than be admired by ten thousand.Dr. John Edwards.
Aim at pricking the heart, not at stroking the skin.Jerome.
Here lies the secret [of the actors greater power in moving an audience than the preachers]: you deliver your truths as if they were fictions; we deliver our fictions as if they were truths.Garrick.
The prayer of an old writer: Lord, let me never be guilty, by painting the windows, of hindering the Light of thy glorious Gospel from shining powerfully into mens hearts.
Leigh Richmonds dying message to his son: Tell him, his father learnt his most valuable lessons for the ministry, and his most useful experience, in the poor mans cottage.
Ill preach as though I neer shall preach again,
And as a dying man to dying men.
Richard Baxter.
II. Descants more largely on the Divine perfections and works both in creation and providence (Job. 26:5-13).
1. His sovereignty over the dead and the invisible world. Job. 26:5Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof (or, the dead groan from beneath the waters, and the inhabitants thereof). Bildad had represented God as exercising sovereign dominion in his high places (Job. 25:2). Here Job (if not Bildad himself) apparently shows that sovereignty extending to the lower world or place of the dead. The dead, or shades of the departed, perhaps more especially the wicked dead, and in particular the giants or mighty ones before the flood (Gen. 6:4). These represented as groaning or trembling from beneath, under the mighty hand of God upon them. The waters probably the deep or abyss (Luk. 8:31; Rom. 10:7), supposed by Jewish rabbis to be lower than the earth; the place of the dead (Rom. 10:7), and the prepared abode of the fallen angels from which they recoil with horror (Luk. 8:31). Perhaps the fountains of the great deep, broken up at the time of the Deluge (Gen. 8:11), and the water under the earth (Exo. 20:4). Possibly what shall afterwards constitute the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone (Rev. 20:10; Rev. 20:14-15; Rev. 21:8).
The language of the text according to the Old Testament view of the state of the dead in general. According to it the spirits of the departed still in conscious existence. That existence, however, one rather of pain and privation than of enjoyment. The place of the disembodied spirits represented as one of darkness (chap. Job. 10:21-22); Psa. 88:12), and of pain (ch. Job. 14:22). Hence the great shrinking from death on the part of Old Testament saints (Psa. 30:8-9; Psa. 88:9-12; Isa. 38:10-12; Isa. 38:17-18). Yet Enoch and Elijah both taken to be with God. Abraham and Moses in a state of blessedness (Luk. 9:30-31; Luk. 16:23). Lazarus comforted in the world of spirits, while Dives was tormented (Luk. 16:25). The doctrine of the state of the dead only gradually developed. Its full exhibition reserved for the advent of the Messiah (2Ti. 1:10). Possibly a change made in the state of departed saints after his resurrection (Mat. 27:52-53). Perhaps, in more senses than one, Christ, after overcoming the sharpness of death, opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
(1) A separate state of conscious existence after death not only the doctrine of the Bible, but the general sense of mankind. Consistent with reason. Mind not necessarily dependent on matter or any material organization.
(2) The state of the departed ungodly one of pain and tremblingwailing and gnashing of teeth. The consciousness of Gods power exercised in the invisible world only an increase to their suffering.
2. Gods perfect cognizance of the invisible world. (Job. 26:6)Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering. Hell (Hebrew, Sheol; Greek, Hades) used in Scripture to denote
(1) The grave, or receptacle for the dead body.
(2) The invisible world, or place of departed spirits in general, without respect to character or experience. The latter supposed by the Jews to be a vast cavern far in the interior of the earth. Probably the prison mentioned by Peter as enclosing the spirits of the disobedient Antediluvians (1Pe. 3:19-20). May include both prison and paradise. The place into which the disembodied spirit of the Saviour went, in order to satisfy the law of death as other men. Yet his spirit on the same day in Paradise (Luk. 23:43). The clause in the so-called Apostles Creed, he descended into hell, not found in the early Roman or Oriental creeds. First used as a part of the Creed by the Church of Aquileia, not quite 400 years after Christ. See Pearson on the Creed, Art. v. Destruction (Hebrew, Abaddon, the name given to the Angel of the Bottomless Pit (Rev. 9:11), like hell, the place of the dead or of departed spirits, its inhabitants being lost to human view; perhaps more especially the place of lost men and angels. Hell and destruction, as synonymous terms denoting the invisible world or place of the dead, found together also in Pro. 15:11; Pro. 27:20; perhaps another hint as to the period of the composition of the book. Hell and death mentioned together in Rev. 1:18; Rev. 20:13-14. Their keys in the hand of Jesus as Lord of the invisible world (Rev. 1:18.)
(1) Believers need have no fear in entering the invisible world. Christ their Saviour and Elder Brother has been there before them, and now holds the keys.
(2) The grave with its countless dust, as well as the invisible world with its innumerable inhabitants, all open to the view of the Almighty. The dust of His saints precious in his sight and cannot be lost (Psa. 116:15).
(3) The most secret depths of earth and sea, with their countless objects and inhabitants, open to the same omniscient eye. Not an animalcule or infusiorium, thousands of which are contained in a single drop of water, but is the object of His inspection and care.
(4) Hell and destruction are before the Lord; how much more the hearts of the children of men. There is no darkness or shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves (Pro. 15:11; Job. 34:22).
3. His power and wisdom in the works of Creation and Providence (Job. 26:7-13).
(1) In giving the earth and heavenly bodies their present situation, and suspending them in empty space. Job. 26:7He stretcheth (or stretched) out [as a canopy] the north (or northern celestial hemisphere, the only part visible to Job and his friends, and here put for the heavens in general) over the empty place, and hangeth (or hung) the earth upon nothing. The former clause according to appearance, and the old opinion that the heavens formed an immense arch, or vault, stretching over the earth. The latter philosophically true, and a remarkable anticipation of the Newtonian theory of gravitation. The earth and planets suspended in empty space, and preserved in their orbit by the operation of two opposite forces, one (the centripetal) which attracts them to the sun, or centre of the system, the other (the centrifugal) which, in consequence of the rotatory motion given them, keeps them moving on in a circle or ellipse round the sun, instead of being drawn absolutely to it. The spherical form of the earth thus also indicated. Earth self-balanced on her centre hung.
(2) In forming the clouds and preserving the watery particles collected in them. Job. 26:8He bindeth up the waters (or watery vapours) in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them. Probably an allusion to the second days work of creationthe formation of the firmament, or atmosphere, for the separation of the waters beneath from those above, and collecting the latter in clouds, and preserving them in their place. An obvious manifestation of Divine wisdom, power, and goodness. The provision made for the earths fertility. Reservoirs of water kept far above the earth in clouds by the operation of natural laws. These clouds so constituted that, notwithstanding the quantity of water contained in them, they do not burst and discharge their contents in one vast destructive deluge. Their contents made on the contrary to fall in such gentle and temporary showers as to meet the earths requirements. Such discharge made to result from a change in the temperature, or the influence of electricity. The clouds on one special occasion rent under their contents, when the windows of heaven were opened to deluge a disobedient world. A partial rending in extraordinarily heavy and deluging rains.
(3) In so collecting dense clouds as to darken the sky with them. Job. 26:9He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it. The sky, or heaven, viewed as Gods throne (Mat. 5:34; Isa. 66:1). Concealed by Him from time to time by a curtain of dark clouds. These clouds of His own formation, from the watery particles exhaled by the suns heat from the earth and sea, and directed by currents of air into one locality. Clouds serve various and important purposes:(i.) In irrigating the ground. (ii.) In moderating the heat. (iii.) In beautifying the sky. The beauty of the sky, especially at sunset, thus made to vie with that of the earth. ObserveGod himself invisible, though His agency is everywhere seen and felt. His throne still there, though He spread a cloud over it. God to be trusted and to be believed in when we cannot see Him.
(4) In appointing the alternation of light and darkness, and the vicissitude of day and night. Job. 26:10He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end (or, He hath drawn a circular boundary upon the waters with exact proportion of light and darkness; or, even to the limit of light with darkness, i.e., where the light ceases and darkness begins;Margin, until the end of light with darkness). Apparent allusion to the first days work at the creationthe dividing the light from the darkness, and appointing the alternation of day and night (Gen. 1:3-5). The bound here mentioned probably the horizon. The earth popularly supposed-to be a plane bounded by the waters of the ocean on which the vault of heaven appears to rest and to form a circular boundary,the place where light ends, and darkness commences. The sun supposed to move from the eastern to the western boundary, where it disappears till the following morning. The description in the text, like others in the Bible, given popularly, according to appearance. The earths diurnal rotation on its axis not then generally known. No object of the Bible to teach the facts that progressive science was in due time to discover. The language of the Bible popular, not scientific or philosophical. The horizon an apparent boundary between light and darkness. That boundary a part of Gods work in creation and providence. Science only informs us how.
The alternation of light and darkness, day and night, one of the most conspicuous and beneficial arrangements of the Divine Creator. Among its benefits are(i.) An agreeable variety instead of the uniform sameness even of constant day. The sweet approach of even and morn, the joyous thrill of sunrise, and the gorgeous beauty of sunset, due to this alternation. (ii.) Suitable seasons afforded for the varied requirements of men and other animals. Night and darkness suitable to man for rest, as daytime and light are for labour. The darkness of night necessary for predaceous animals obtaining their food. (iii.) Evening valuable as tranquillizing the mind, inviting to sober meditation and reflection, and affording opportunity for domestic and social enjoyment. Eventide the season chosen by Isaac for meditation in the fields (Gen. 24:63).
Eve following eve,
Dear tranquil time, when the sweet sense of home
Is sweetest! Moments for their own sake haild!
(iv.) The earth kept cool and moistened with dew through the same wise and beneficent provision. (v.) Plants and animals mutually benefited by the interchange of light and darkness. In the various processes of combustion, and by the respiration of animals, a large amount of the oxygen of the atmosphere, or its vital part, is withdrawn, and, united with carbon, is returned as carbonic acidan ingredient deleterious to animal life. But this deteriorating process is counteracted, at least to a certain extent, by the vegetable tribes. The same luminous influence which serves to generate chromule (the green matter in plants), likewise aids the plant in decomposing the carbonic acid which has been absorbed; appropriating the carbon to the construction of the ligneous tissue, and returning the pure oxygen to the atmosphere, it fits it again for the purposes of respiration. Animals may therefore be viewed as preparing food for plants by the air which they vitiate; while plants, on the other hand, by their action under the influence of light, appropriate to themselves nourishment, and restore the air to its normal stateProfessor Flemings Temperature of the Seasons.
(6) The starry sky, with its entrancing beauty and elevating lessons, thus alone made visible. To the alternation of light and darknessday and nightwe owe the poets magnificent description of Evening:
Now came still evening on, and twilight gray
Had in her sober livery all things clad.
Silence was pleased. Now glowd the firmament
With living sapphires: Hesperus, that led
The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon,
Rising in clouded majesty, at length
Apparent queen, unveild her peerless light,
And oer the dark her silver mantle threw.
God to be adored as the author of this beneficent interchange of light and darkness. Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and the evening to rejoice. The day is thine; the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou makest darkness, and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth (Psa. 65:8; Psa. 74:16; Psa. 104:20).
(5) In exciting storms and disturbances in the earth and air. Job. 26:11The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his reproof. The visible heavens viewed as a magnificent edifice supported on columns. These imaginary pillars personified, and poetically represented as in some tremendous commotion of the earth or elements standing aghast at the apparent reproof of their Creator. That reproof supposed to be directed either against themselves or mankind. So the sea said to be dried up at His rebuke (Psa. 106:9; Nah. 1:4). The raging wind and waves literally rebuked by the Saviour, and hushed into a calm (Mat. 8:26). Storms and earthquakes among the most striking incidents in nature. Especially awful and sublime in hot climates and mountainous regions. Naturally strike the mind as indicatious or suggestions of Divine displeasure. Strictly due to the Divine will, and, though effected through the agency of natural laws, a part of His providential government. Serve various and important purposes(i.) Morally: as(a) Reminding us of the existence, attributes, and agency of a Divine Ruler and Judge. Few persons fail, during a tremendous thunderstorm, to think of a Supreme Being. (b) Tending to produce elevating and reverential thoughts of God. One of the sublimest descriptions of a thunderstorm, with its effects both physically and morally, found in Psa. 29:3-10. (c) Suggesting the instability of earthly things and the danger to which human life is exposed, with the importance of securing the favour of God and the assurance of a better world. (d) Tending to elevate the mind and strengthen the character by bringing it in contact with the sublime and terrible in Nature.(ii.) Physically: as(a) Purifying the atmosphere. (b) Tending to the greater irrigation of the earth. (c) Aiding in the processes of vegetation.
(6) In His power over (the ocean in exciting and stilling its waves. Job. 26:12He divideth (or cleaveth) the sea with his power; and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud (or stilleth its prideHebrew, Rahab). The sea, so uncontrollable by man, entirely subject to the will and power of God. Already literally divided, so as to form a pathway in the midst of its waters (Exo. 14:21-22; Isa. 51:10-15). Ordinarily divided and cleft by storms and tempests. By the same Divine power, its towering billows and yawning chasms made to disappear, and the storm changed into a calm (Psa. 65:7; Psa. 107:29). Done by Christ (Mat. 8:26). ObservePower more conspicuous in exciting the storm at sea; understanding, in quelling it. The latter frequently in answer to prayer (Psa. 107:28-29; Mat. 8:25-26). Prayer in such circumstances the voice of nature (Jon. 1:5-6).
(7) In making the sky bright and serene by day and studding it with stars by night. Job. 26:13By his spirit (or breath, his power or command; or perhaps the Third Person in the Godhead, also engaged in creation, Gen. 1:2) he hath garnished the heavens (or, the heavens are brightness or beauty, i.e. bright and beautiful); and his hand hath formed (possibly wounded, or slain) the crooked (gliding or darting) serpent (perhaps the Zodiac, with its twelve signs or constellations, anciently represented as a serpent with its tail in its mouth; or, more probably, a northern constellation, called Draco, or the Dragon, the description being taken from the living serpent). Apparent allusion to the fourth days work in creation (Gen. 1:14-16). The bright clear heaven lighted up with sunshine, a beautiful object, especially as succeeding a storm or the darkness of night. Still more beautiful is the nocturnal sky, spangled with stars. Affords an impressive exhibition of Divine power (Isa. 40:26). The stars countless in number. In themselves, probably so many suns and centres of systems like our own. Those forming any of the constellations millions of miles apart from each other. A nebula or white fleecy speck in the belt of Orion, resolved by the telescope into a mass of stars at incalculable distances from us and from each other. Stars early grouped, for convenience, into imaginary figures of men, animals, &c.
Some terms and ideas in the preceding verse also brought together in Isa. 51:9; Isa. 27:1; Psa. 89:10. Rahab here rendered proud, or pride; used also as a proper name for Egypt, while Pharaoh is symbolized by the dragon or leviathanthe crocodile of the Nile.Operations in the natural world analogous to those in the social and moral. The natural world itself a mirror of the spiritual. The towering billows of the ocean a picture of the swelling pride of Gods enemies, as exemplified in Egypt and her hosts at the time of the exodus (Psa. 20:7). Monsters of the land and sea symbolical of cruel and injurious men, as well as of Satan and his infernal legions. The power that quells the one employed in subduing the other. A reference in the text supposed by some to the exodus, and also to Gen. 3:15.
III. Reflection on the greatness of the Almightys works. Job. 26:14Lo, these are parts (outlines or extremities) of his ways; but how little a portion (or, what a mere whisper) is heard of him (or of what is in HimHis being and perfections); but the thunder (or full manifestation) of his power who can understand? The stupendous works and operations of His hands which are visible to us only a small partthe mere outline or extremitiesof the whole. What we see and hear of in relation to God and His works, as compared with the fulness of His power, only a mere whisper in comparison with the mighty thunder. Observe
1. Much more to be known of God and His works than is possible for us to know in our present state. Yet all His visible ordinary operations would be regarded as miracles, if not seen daily.
2. A sound and deep theology grounded on this verse. Mans knowledge confined to parts only of Gods ways. The extremities or forthgoings of His administration on earth only visible. The springs, principles, and anterior steps above and out of mans sight.Dr. Chalmers. The humbling acknowledgment of those who have penetrated farthest into the mysteries of nature. The phenomena of matter and force lie within our intellectual range. But behind and above, and around all, the real mystery of the universe remains unsolved.Professor Tyndall, Lecture to Working Men at the Dundee British Association Meeting, Sept., 1867. Alike in the external and the internal worlds, the man of science sees himself in the midst of perpetual changes, of which he can discover neither the beginning nor the end. In all directions his investigations eventually bring him face to face with an insoluble enigma; and he ever more clearly perceives it to be an insoluble enigma.Herbert Spencers First Principles. All our science is but an investigation of the mode in which the Creator acts; its highest laws are but expressions of the mode in which he manifests His agency to us. And when the physiologist is inclined to dwell unduly upon his capacity for penetrating the secrets of nature, it may be salutary for him to reflect that, even should he succeed in placing his department of study on a level with those physical sciences in which the most complete knowledge of causation (using that term in the sense of unconditional sequence) has been acquired, and in which the highest generalizations have been attained, he is still as far as ever from being able to comprehend that power which is the efficient cause alike of the simplest and most minute, and of the most complicated and most majestic, in the universe,W. B. Carpenter, General and Comparative Physiology.
3. A glorious increase of knowledge awaiting the believer in another world. There we shall know even as we are known (1Co. 13:12). From this ever-enlarging enlightenment the proud unbeliever, however scientific and philosophical now unhappily, cuts himself off. To him the future will be a world of darkness, not of light.
4. Exertions of Divine power yet to be displayed even in connection with this earth far beyond what has been already witnessed. What the Bible declares, observation confirms, sound reason assents to, and what every genuine Christian cordially believes, of a resurrection of the dead, is only an example of such power (Mat. 22:26; Eph. 1:19-20). Resurrection a miracle; but even such a miracle only something of the thunder of His power. Why thought incredible with a Being who is Almighty (Act. 26:8)?
5. The lower exertions of Gods power in the universe beyond mans comprehension; how much the higher? In the presence of Divine declarations, the part of sound philosophy, as well of true piety, is to believe and adore.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
D. GREATNESS AND GOODNESS OF GOD (Job. 26:1-14)
1. What a giant of comfort Bildad has been! (sarcasm) (Job. 26:1-4)
TEXT 26:14
26 Then Job answered and said,
2 How hast thou helped him that is without power!
How hast thou saved the arm that hath no strength!
3 How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom,
And plentifully declared sound knowledge!
4 To whom hast thou uttered words?
And whose spirit came forth from thee?
COMMENT 26:14
Job. 26:1As the text stands, from chapter 26 to 31, we have Jobs final response to his critics. The beautiful symmetry of the cycles of speeches seems to be broken when Zophar does not respond in the final stage of the debate. But that is only a literary consideration. We are left with baffling obscurities when we attempt to follow the continuity between the transitions. Nevertheless, the irony in the speech seems to fit better in Jobs response, as he has delivered himself on the theme beforeJob. 13:12; Job. 16:2; Job. 19:2; Job. 19:21. His sarcastic self-assurance leaps forth from every word, far from confessing his own moral malaise; he taunts his friends for failing to bring him Gods consolation. Despite many textual enigmas, we encounter some of the loftiest insights ever vouched safe to a tortured human spirit concerning the greatness and grandeur of God. Job will eventually cry out in resignationCan a man by searching find out God? He responds with a resounding No!
Job. 26:2In an almost violent burst of sarcasm, Job responds to the irrelevance of Bildads speech. The speech is composed of two parts: (1) Jobs confrontation with Bildad, Job. 26:2-4; and (2) Jobs unmodifiable protestation of innocence, the extent of which is one of the technical problems which shall be passed in this commentary.[270]
[270] Compare analysis in the various critical Old Testament introduction, egs. Young, Harrison, Pfeiffer, and especially Otto Eissfeldt, The Old Testament, An Introduction (Harper & Row, E.T., 196S), pp. 454470. Eissfeldts introduction is controlled by Formgeschichte and Redactiongeschichte assumptions.
There is no legitimate reason to assume that because you is singular this implies that Bildad or Zophar is addressing Job. Job has not been giving them counsel, and counsel before his calamity seems pointless. For the sarcasm in Jobs speeches, see Job. 4:3-4; Job. 6:25; Job. 12:2; Job. 13:1 ff; and Job. 16:2 ff. Elsewhere Job addresses his friends in the plural, except in Job. 12:7 ff; Job. 16:3; and Job. 21:3. Since Bildads speech was dominated by God as all powerful, it is most likely that Job is asking what consolation he has brought to him in his hours of despair. Bildads cold comfort reveals little concern or compassion in bringing consolation to this cosmic contender.
Job. 26:3As short as Bildads speech was, it was the bearer of abundant (Heb. rendered plentifully declared in A. V.) wisdom in only five verses. His speech was packed with superabundant wisdom explaining why one wicked man dies at the peak of his life without disease or despair, who has all along been robbing, murdering, and committing adultery, while another wicked man dies enslaved and embittered of spirit. Explain that, Bildad, if you are so wise.
Job. 26:4Though the Hebrew can be translated either as To whom (in A. V.) or with whose help, the latter is perhaps to be preferred. Thus, Job is saying that he is as wise and informed as they areJob. 12:3; Job. 13:2and who are they to give him instruction on the sovereignty of God and that awe is the only appropriate human response. The word rendered spirit is neshamah and is translated as the lamp of the Lord in Pro. 20:27. Job is ironically asking, Is the source of your wisdom, revelation, and illumination God? In essence he is saying as Rashi has suggested, Who does not know this? Jobs friends have often claimed that they were speaking of GodJob. 15:11; Job. 20:2; Job. 22:22.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XXVI.
(1) Then answered Job.Job himself has virtually said much the same as Bildad (Job. 9:2; Job. 14:4), so he makes no further comment on his remarks here, but merely asks how he has helped him thereby, or others like him in a weak and helpless condition.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
JOB’S EIGHTH REPLY.
1. But Job answered As Bildad had made no reply to his argument, Job, in the deepest spirit of sarcasm, fills out the jejune speech of the former with a transcendent description of the power, dominion, and works of God. Bildad had essayed the heavens; Job, on adventurous wing, explores the under world of the dead; looks down upon “the earth, that, self-balanced from her centre hung;” pores “upon the clouds and firmament that veil the throne of God;” and “passes the flaming bounds of time and space” to where the dominion of darkness is unbroken. God’s breath, he says, garnished the heavens, and “his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.” The climax is reached in a deity triumphant over evil. All this is “a whisper-word” of the might and glory of God. First division SHARP REBUKE OF BILDAD, Job 26:2-4.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 26:11 The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof.
Job 26:11
Job 26:12 He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud.
Job 26:12
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Job’s Dialogue with Three Friends – Job 3:1 to Job 31:40, which makes up the major portion of this book, consists of a dialogue between Job and his three friends. In this dialogue, Job’s friends engage in three rounds of accusations against Job, with him offering three defenses of his righteousness. Thus, Job and his friends are able to confirm each of their views with three speeches, since the Scriptures tell us that a matter is confirmed in the mouth of two or three witnesses (2Co 13:1). The underlying theme of this lengthy dialogue is man’s attempt to explain how a person is justified before God. Job will express his intense grief (Job 3:1-26), in which his three friends will answer by finding fault with Job. He will eventually respond to this condemnation in a declaration of faith that God Himself will provide a redeemer, who shall stand on earth in the latter days (Job 19:25-27). This is generally understood as a reference to the coming of Jesus Christ to redeem mankind from their sins.
Job’s declaration of his redeemer in Job 19:23-29, which would be recorded for ever, certainly moved the heart of God. This is perhaps the most popular passage in the book of Job, and reflects the depth of Job’s suffering and plea to God for redemption. God certainly answered his prayer by recording Job’s story in the eternal Word of God and by allowing Job to meet His Redeemer in Heaven. I can imagine God being moved by this prayer of Job and moving upon earth to provide someone to record Job’s testimony, and moving in the life of a man, such as Abraham, to prepare for the Coming of Christ. Perhaps it is this prayer that moved God to call Abraham out of the East and into the Promised Land.
The order in which these three friends deliver their speeches probably reflects their age of seniority, or their position in society.
Scene 1 First Round of Speeches Job 3:1 to Job 14:22
Scene 2 Second Round of Speeches Job 15:1 to Job 21:34
Scene 3 Third Round of Speeches Job 22:1 to Job 31:40
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
A Sharp Ironical Reproof
v. 1. v. 2. How hast thou helped him that is without power? v. 3. How hast thou counseled him that hath no wisdom? v. 4. To whom hast thou uttered words?
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
The long discourse of Job now begins, which forms the central and most solid mass of the book. It continues through six chapters (Job 26-31.). In it Job, after hastily brushing aside Bildad’s last speech as superfluous and out of place (verses 1-4), proceeds to deliver his real sentiments apart from controversial issues. He sets forth, first of all, the might and majesty of God (verses 5-14), after which he proceeds to deal with the questions which concern his own integrity, and God’s dealings with mankind. The former he still maintains; with respect to the latter, he recants his earlier argumentative contention (Job 24:2-24), and admits that retribution always or almost always comes upon the wicked at last (Job 27:1-23.). In Job 28:1-28; after paying a deserved tribute of admiration to man’s intelligence and ingenuity in regard to earthly things and physical phenomena, he pronounces the spiritual world and the principles of the Divine government to be inscrutable by him, and his only true wisdom to be right conduct. Finally, he returns to himself, and having given a pathetic description of his old life, with its prosperity and honour (Job 29:1-25.), and contrasted it with his actual life of degradation, contempt, and suffering (Job 30:1-31.), he concludes with a solemn protestation of his integrity in all the various duties and obligations imposed upon man by natural law and natural religion (Job 31:1-40.). In this way he brings to its termination the colloquy begun with his three friends in Job 3:1-26; and, emphatically to mark that here he closes his own part in the debate, he winds up with the statement, “The words of Job are ended” (Job 31:40).
Job 26:1, Job 26:2
But Job answered and said, How hast thou helped him that is without power? Assuming Bildad’s benevolent intentions towards himself, Job asks, how he can suppose that what he has said will in any way be helpful to a person in so helpless a condition? He had told Job nothing that Job had not repeatedly allowed. How savest thou the arm that hath no strengtht? It could not invigorate Job’s arm, any more than it could cheer his heart, to be told that man was a worm, or that he was wholly unclean in God’s sight (Job 25:4, Job 25:6).
Job 26:3
How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? What counsel or advice is there in anything that thou hast said, by following which I might be benefited? Admitting my own want of wisdom, how hast thou bettered my case? And how hast thou plenteously declared the thing as it is? rather, How hast thou plenteously declared sound knowledge? What can there be said to have been in the way of sound knowledge, or good practical common sense (), in the discourse which thou hast addressed to me?a discourse made up of truisms.
Job 26:4
To whom hast thou uttered words? Whom didst thou intend to address? Surely not me, since thy words touch none of my arguments. And whose spirit came from thee? Who prompted thy speech? Was it Eliphaz (comp. Job 4:17-19)?
Job 26:5-14
Job now turns from controversy to the realities of the case, and begins with a full acknowledgment of God’s greatness, might, and inscrutableness. As Bildad seemed to have supposed that he needed enlightenment on these points (Job 26:2-4), Job may have thought it right to make once more a plain profession of his belief (comp. Job 9:4-18; Job 12:9-25, etc.).
Job 26:5
Dead things are formed from under the waters; rather, the dead from under the waters tremble. Hehraists generally are agreed that one of the meanings of Rephaim () is “the dead” or the departed, considered especially as inhabitants of Hades (comp. Psa 88:11; Pro 2:18; Isa 14:9; Isa 26:14). And if so, this meaning is certainly appropriate here. Blidad had illustrated God’s dominion from his power in heaven. Job shows that it exists alike in heaven and earth (verses 7-13), and in the region under the earth (verses 5, 6). There, in Sheol, under the waters of the ocean, the dead tremble at the thought of the Most High; they tremble together with other inhabitants thereof, as evil spirits, rebel intelligences, east down to Hades, and there held in durance (Jud Job 1:6).
Job 26:6
Hell is naked before him; i.e. “can hide nothing from his eyes”shows all its inmost recesses. And destruction hath no covering; rather, Abaddon hath no covering (see the Revised Version). Abaddon is sometimes “destruction,” sometimes “the angel of the bottomless pit” (Rev 9:11), sometimes “the bottomless pit itself” (Pro 15:11). Here the last of these three senses seems to suit bestthe deepest depth of the bottomless pit is no secret to God,” but “naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Heb 4:13)
Job 26:7
He streteheth out the north over the empty place. Over what was “empty space” or “chaos” () God stretches out “the north”a portion of his orderly creationperhaps the northern portion of the heavens, where are the grandest constellations visible to the inhabitants of the world’s northern half. And hangeth the earth upon nothing. “Takes,” i.e; “the huge ball of the earth, and suspends it in vacancy, with nothing to support it but his own fixed will, his own firm laws.” This is an idea scarcely reached by astronomers in general, at any rate till the time of Hippar-chus; and it has, not without reason, been regarded as “a very remarkable instance of anticipation of the discoveries of science’ (Stanley Loathes).
Job 26:8
He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; i.e. he makes the clouds, that we see floating in the atmosphere, contain and hold the waters on which the productiveness of the earth depends, and which he restrains, or allows to fall in fertilizing rain, at his pleasure. And the cloud is not rent under them. The metaphor is, no doubt, drawn from those water-skins, so well known in the East, and especially in Arabia, in which men stored the water for their journeys and other needs, which were liable to be “rent” by the weight of the liquid within them.
Job 26:9
He holdeth back the face of his throne; rather, he covereth up. He makes the clouds to gather in the vault of heaven, above which is his throne, and in this way conceals it and covers it up. And spreadeth his cloud upon it; or, over it, so blotting it out from sight. Behind the more obvious meaning lies one which is deeper and more spiritual. God withdraws himself from sight, gathers clouds and darkness around him to be the habitation of his seat, hides from men the principles of his government and administration, makes himself unapproachable and inscrutable, is a mystery and an enigma which man cannot hope to understand or solve.
Job 26:10
He hath compassed the waters with bounds. God restrains within limits alike the “waters that are above the firmament” and those that are beneath it (Job 38:11). The boundary.is placed, somewhat vaguely, “at the confines of light and darkness.” Until the day and night come to an end is a mistranslation.
Job 26:11
The pillars of heaven tremble. The “pillars of heaven” are the mountains, on which the sky seems to rest. These “tremble,” or seem to tremble, at the presence of God (Psa 18:7; Psa 114:4; Isa 5:25) when he visits the earth in storm and tempest, either because the whole atmosphere is full of disturbance, and the outline of the mountains shifts and changes as rain and storm sweep over them, or because the reverberations of the thunder, which shake the air, seem to shake the earth also. And are astonished at his reproof. To the mind of the poet this “trembling” is expressive of astonishment and consternation. He regards the mountains as hearing the voice of God in the storm, recognizing it as raised in anger, and so trembling and cowering before him.
Job 26:12
He divideth the sea with his power. “Divideth” is certainly a wrong translation. The verb used () means either “stirreth up” or “stilleth.” In favour of the former rendering are Rosenmuller, Schultens, Delitzsch, Merx, and Canon Cook; in favour of the latter, the LXX; Dillmann, and Dr. Stanley Leathes. In either case the general sentiment is that God has full mastery over the sea, and can regulate its movements at his pleasure. And by his understanding he smiteth through the proud; literally, he smiteth through Rahab. (On Rahab, as the great power of evil, see the comment on Job 9:13.) God is said to have “smitten him through by his understanding‘” since in the contest between good and evil it is rather intelligence than mere force that carries the day. Power alone is sufficient to control the sea.
Job 26:13
By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; or, by his spirit the heavens are brightness; i.e. at a breath from his mouth the heavens, lately all cloud and storm (Job 26:8-11), recover their serenity, are calm and clear and bright. Our experience says, “After a storm comes a calm.” Job notes that both alike are from God. His hand hath formed the crooked serpent; rather, his hand hath pierced the swift serpent (see the Revised Version). The reference is probably to “the war in heaven,” already suggested by the mention of” Rahab” (verse 12). In that war, according to the tradition that had reached Job, a great serpent, like the Egyptian Apepi (Apophis), had borne a part.
Job 26:14
Lo, these are parts of his ways; literally, ends of his ways; i.e. the mere outskirts and fringe of his doings. But how small a portion is heard of him? rather, how small a whisper? But the thunder of his power who can understand?, or, the thunder of his mighty deeds. Job implies that he has not enumerated one-half of God’s great workshe has just hinted at them, just whispered of them. If they were all thundered out in the ears of mortal man. who could receive them or comprehend them
HOMILETICS
Job 26:1-14
Job to Bildad: another sermon on the foregoing text.
I. THE PREFACE TO THE SERMON; OR, THE DISCOURSE OF BILDAD CRITICIZED. In Job’s estimation it was:
1. Wholly unserviceable. With stinging irony Job, according to our view, represents it as having been extremely helpful to him in his feebleness, as having imparted strength to his powerless arm and wisdom to his ignorant mind (verses 2, 3); meaning, of course, the oppositethat in these respects the brief but pompous harangue to which he had listened had been of no use whatever to him in the way of assisting him either to bear his own misfortunes or to understand the mysterious enigma of Divine providence. Not only should a good man by his words, and a Christian minister by his sermons, always aim at the edification of his hearers (1Co 14:3), but the same duty is incumbent upon all (Eph 4:29). The world and the Church are full of sorrowful hearts requiring comfort, and ignorant minds in need of counsel. It is sad when neither the disconsolate can find a word of cheer nor the uninstructed hear a note of direction, to help them on in life’s battle. The lips of the wise should disperse knowledge (Pro 15:7), and the tongue of the wise should prove health to the feeble and diseased (Pro 12:18).
2. Extremely superficial. Bildad had plentifully declared the thing as it was (verse 3); i.e. while imagining he had dived into the heart of a great subject, he had merely skimmed along its surface. Yet superficial and shallow views of men and things are not to be despised. To the mass of mankind, who are themselves commonplace in their capacities, only commonplace ideas are of use. What is called profound or original thinking belongs to another sphere from that which they usually inhabit. Hence to the extent to which it is unfamiliar to their minds it fails to make an adequate impression on their hearts. Still, superficial views of truth cannot satisfy souls of nobler faculty than the uneducated crowd possess; neither can they fully represent the deep things of God on the subject either of religion or of providence. It is, however, doubtful whether all men’s thoughts, those of a Job no less than of a Bildad, are not, in comparison with the unfathomable profundity of Divine truth, at the best superficial.
3. Utterly irrelevant. Correct enough in themselves so far as they went, Bildad’s views were inappropriate to the theme under discussion, were in truth so little pertinent to the great subject by which the thoughts of Job were engrossed, that Job felt constrained to ask to whom they had been addressed (verse 4). Bildad is not the only person against whom the charge of irrelevant talking can be advanced. Modern controversialists, lecturers, preachers, orators, writers, are as prone to commit this fault as were their brethren of antiquity. Discoursing wide of the mark, whether in the pulpit, at the bar, or on the bench, in Parliament, or in common life, usually results from ignorance, want of capacity, lack of preparation, too great fluency in speech or composition, or from deliberate design. Fitness is a higher excellence in speech or writing than eloquence or elegance (1Co 14:19). “The heart of the righteous studieth to answer” (Pro 15:28);and “a word spoken in due season, how good it is!” (Pro 15:23). “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver (Pro 25:11).
4. Entirely second-hand. Whatever Job was, he was always original; whereas Bildad could only cite proverbs and quote traditionary maxims. Here Job rather wickedly asks him from whom he had borrowed his last brief oration (verse 4). Since it could not be from GodBildad always swore by the fathersit must have been either from him (Job) or from Eliphaz, both of whom had already twice descanted on the subject of man’s insignificance as contrasted with the majesty of God. It is not wrong to borrow good thoughts or to repeat them to others, provided their authorship be carefully acknowledged. Good thoughts at second hand are distinctly better than poor thoughts at first hand. Still, ministers and. preachers should aim to set forth their own views of Divine truth rather than those of other men. A clergyman who has no ideas of his own to set forth has mistaken his calling. Much can be done by earnest study and prayer to improve the feeblest capacity, and to enable it to look at truth for itself.
II. THE BODY OF THE SERMON; OR, THE MAJESTY OF GOD EXTOLLED. Catching up the anthem which Bildad had commenced (Job 25:2), Job continues in a strain of lofty adoration to dilate upon the transcendent greatness of God as absolute and universal Ruler, tracing his governmental power and authority through every department of creation.
1. In the realm of shades. (Verses 5, 6.) Bildad had said that God’s dominion pervaded “the heights,” or heavenly places (Job 25:2). Job adds that it also extends to the dark underworld of departed spirits; concerning which may be noted:
(1) The names given to this mysterious regionSheol and Abaddon; the first a subterranean abode, full of Tartarean darkness (Job 10:21, Job 10:22), to which are attributed gates (Isa 38:10) and abysmal depths (Pro 9:18); and the second a trackless waste, in which wanderers having lost their way stumble forward to destruction (Rev 9:11). On the exact import of the two terms which are hero used as synonyms for the disembodied state, the Exposition may be consulted.
(2) The situation assigned to this invisible regionunder the waters, i.e. beneath the ocean (cf. Luk 8:31), or in the lowest parts of the earth (Eph 4:9), at the remotest distance from heaven (Psa 139:8); and therefore, as such, a fitting receptacle for the dead (Rom 10:7), and a proper place of confinement for the wicked (Psa 55:15).
(3) The persons who inhabit this sunless region. While departed spirits generally are commonly represented as descending into Sheol (Job 14:13-15; Job 17:15, Job 17:16), it is here the shades of the wicked that are spoken of as tenanting its chambers. The Rephaim alluded to by Job were not the people of that name, but the pale, flaccid, bloodless ghosts of dead persons (Isa 14:10), in particular, it is supposed, of the giants, or mighty ones (Gen 6:4), who perished in the Deluge, since the word “Rephaim” may also signify heroes of colossal stature.
(4) The misery experienced in this doleful region. Besides being a place of darkness (Job 10:21, Job 10:22; Psa 88:12) and of pain (Job 14:22) generally, it is here exhibited as being specially a place of anguish for the wicked, whose marrowless and bloodless phantoms shiver and writhe, as if they were undergoing the pains of parturition every time the majesty of God is felt by them, “as perhaps by the ragtag of the sea, or the quaking of the earth” (Delitzsch). And certainly in other Scriptures the Hadeau or disembodied state is set forth as a place of woe for the ungodly. So the ancient Egyptians celebrated Ra as “the supreme power who cuts off the head of these who are in the infernal regions”.
(5) The supreme Lord of this subterranean region; he is not the Abaddon of the Apocalypse (Rev 9:11), but Shaddai, whose majesty Job depicts, since his eyes penetrate to its darkest depths, and his arm reaches to its remotest corners. As David testifies to God’s presence in Sheol (Psa 139:8), so Job affirms that presence to be the true cause of the misery of the lost, as John afterwards declares it to be the secret source of happiness to the saved (Rev 7:15).
2. In the realm of creation. (Verses 7-13.) Rising from the dark underworld, Job expatiates on the great power of God as displayed in the world of light.
(1) In spreading out the northern firmament above the self-poised earth (verse 7). That Job here alludes to the northern hemisphere of the sky which he, in common with the ancients generally, believed to be a vast arch, vault, or canopy extended above the earth, and folding it in like a tent, is morn certain than it is that he anticipated the discoveries of modern astronomy concerning the sphericity and revolutions of the earth, although there is some reason for believing that these were understood by the ancient Egyptians. But whether or not Job had attained to a dim guess of the earth’s form, he distinctly understood that it rested with its aerial canopy on no material prop, but was supported solely by the power of God. The continual upholding, not of this globe merely, but of innumerable worlds, of suns and systems past reckoning, by the word of his power, is a signal demonstration of God’s almightiness.
(2) In appointing the meteorological laws of the atmosphere (verses 8, 9), by which first rain is collected in the clouds, then the clouds are preserved from bursting before the proper moment beneath the weight of the watery particles they contain, and thirdly, the dark masses are spread around God’s throne, i.e. distributed over the face of the sky previously to bursting forth upon the thirsty soil The clouds are preeminently his clouds, i.e. God’s; since he hath ordained the wonderful mechanism by which they are formed, preserved, dispersed, distributed, and emptied; since he employs them in accordance with his own sovereign will, e.g. to shut off the face of his throne from the gaze of man whensoever it may please him; and since when they descend upon the earth they seem to proceed from his throne.
(3) In establishing a bound between light and darkness (verse 10). Job perhaps imagined that the globe was encompassed by an ocean, out of which the sun rose in Oriental splendour, and into which again it descended with Occidental glory, passing at the end of day into a dark world, which its golden beams could not illumine, and emerging at the call of morn into the clear bright realm of light. Passing by the misconception as to the sun’s movements and function, which science better enables us to understand, the truth remains that the boundaries of old ocean have been as firmly fixed (Pro 8:29), and the alternations of day and night as securely determined (Gen 1:14), by the power of the omnipotent Creator, as have been the habitations and the times of man (Act 17:26).
(4) In producing the phenomena connected with storms upon land, sea, and sky (verses 11-13). Such a storm depicted by the poet in three different stages. At its commencement, “the pillars of the heavens,” i.e. the mountains towering to the sky, appear to tremble, to sway backwards and forwards as if struck by some sudden impact, by the violent agitations of the wiled, or by the crashing blow of a fiery thunderbolt. Personified, they are pictured as filled with consternation at the token of Jehovah’s anger displayed in the commotion of the elements (Psa 29:3-8; Psa 104:32; Nah 1:5; Hab 3:10). During its continuante, “he divideth the sea with his power.” The fierce hurricane let loose among the mountains sweeping down upon the calm, still ocean, cleaves it to its inmost depths.
“The fire, and cracks
‘Of sulphurous roaring, the most mighty Neptune
Seem to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble,
Yea, his dread trident shake.”
(‘Tempest,’ act 1. as. 2.)
The spirit of evil (Rahab), awakened by the hurly-burly, bellows forth its indignant rage, “lifting up its voice on high, and thundering back to the thundering mountains,” but is again wounded to the quick by the stroke of the tempest; for “by his understanding he breaketh Rahab in pieces”words which are understood by many to point rather to the power of God in calming the troubled waters of the sea. At the close of the storm, he once more brightens up the sky with his breath (verse 13), dispersing the storm-clouds with his wind, and fixing the fugitive Dragon. This may perhaps be understood of the constellation of that name which seems to wind itself in like a sinuous serpent between the Greater and Lesser Bears, as if endeavouring to make its escape from its appointed orbit, where, however, God fixes it, wounding it or slaying it, so that its flight is arresteda poetical representation of the sublime truth that it is God’s hand that hath beautified the evening sky with stars, and that keeps all the stellar world moving on in harmony and order. Or the ides may be, in accordance with ancient mythology, that this gliding serpent, winding itself round the sun, socks to eclipse its light; but that God wounds it, and so liberates the sun to renew his shining on the earth. SO viewed, the poet’s language suggests the thought which reappears in other parts of Scripture (Mat 13:39; Rom 8:19-23; Rev 12:4)that, in the great conflict width is continually going on between the powers of light and darkness, victory will eventually, through God’s help, incline to the side of the former.
III. THE LESSON FROM THE SERMON; OR, THE TRUTH IT CONTAINS APPLIED. Job concludes his lofty anthem in celebration of the majesty of God by two remarks.
1. That man‘s knowledge of the power of God is infinitesimally small The magnificent pictures which had been given of the mysterious operation of the Almighty’s hand were only as the edges, fringes, or extremest end-points of the glorious garment in which the incomparable Worker was arrayed, as the faintest whisper of a voice which in the fulness of its tones is as the roaring of the thunder or the grand diapason of the sea. What Job asserts shout his own representations of the transcendent greatness of God is equally correct about the richest and most impressive that have ever yet been given. Man’s understanding of God’s power in nature is at best fragmentary and imperfect (1Co 13:9).
2. That the wonder-working power of God is infinitely great. So great, in fact, that it passes human comprehension. If these stupendous phenomena he only the whispers of his almighty voice, what must be the thunder-roar of its fully uttered tones? If these be occasioned, as it were, by the mere flutterings of the extreme end of his garment, what must be power residing in his Almighty arm? If the phenomena of nature, as witnessed in this lower sphere, are sufficient to impress the human mind with exalted conceptions of the greatness of God, how much more sublime should our ideas be of the incomparable glory of him who presides over, and work, in, a universe, in which this globe on which man dwells is but as the small dust of the balance to the huge forms of the mountains, as a drop of water to the ocean, as a spark of fire to the blazing sun!
Learn:
1. It is the duty of all men to seek, entertain, and, as opportunity offers. set forth, lofty conceptions of the supreme God.
2. If God’s power extends to the underworld of spirits, it cannot be withdrawn from the upper world of men.
3. If the eye of the Omniscient can explore the caverns of hell and the caves of the sea, it must also be able to search the chambers of the heart.
4. The Almighty’s hand that can hold up a world, yea, a universe, will not surely fail in sustaining one who is at best but a worm.
5. He who prepares and distributes the clouds of rain for the earth can also provide and dispense clouds of spiritual blessing for the souls of men.
6. When God draws a cloud before his throne, it is partly for his glory and partly for man’s good.
7. He who hath set a bound to the sea is able also to restrain the wrath of man.
8. If God has divided light from darkness in the physical world, much more will he do so in the intellectual and spiritual
9. If things inanimate, as well as bloodless spirits, tremble at God’s reproof, men possessed of reason should not be callous or indifferent to the same.
10. Those who are proud God is able to abase.
11. The power of God in nature is only an emblem and shadow of a higher power which God wields in the realm of grace,
12. The fullest knowledge of God which a saint attains to on earth is small and insignificant when compared with that which awaits him in heaven.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Job 26:1-14
Praises of the Eternal
I. REPARTEE AND REPROOF. (Job 26:2-4.) The tone seems to be ironical: “How well hast thou helped feebleness, supported the arm of him that has no strength, counselled unwisdom, and in fulness given utterance to good sense! To whom hast thou offered words, and whose breath went forth from thee? By whose inspiration?” possibly pointing to the borrowed character of Bildad’s speech. Words may be good in themselves, yet not pleasant or profitable if not spoken in good season. It would have been more to the purpose had Bildad spoken to the wounded spirit of his friend of the tenderness and the compassion rather than the majesty and greatness of God. The minister of God should know how to speak a word in season to the weary (Isa 50:4). “We are often disappointed in our expectations of our friends who should comfort us; but the Comforter, who is the Holy Ghost, never mistakes in his operations, nor misses his ends.” Job takes a noble revenge by painting in far more glowing and noble language the sublime greatness of God, thus showing how true in faith was his heart at bottom. His petulance and outcries are the involuntary irritation of pain; they are superficial; at the core of his being piety lives in all its intensity.
II. JOB‘S SURPASSING DESCRIPTION OF THE MAJESTY OF GOD. (Verses 5-14.) “Truth, like a torch, the more it’s shook, it shines.” “It were well if all disputes about religion might end thus, in glorifying God as Lord of all, and our Lord, with one mind and one mouth (Rom 15:6), for in that we are all agreed.”
1. Hell and heaven. (Verses 5-7.) Job begins at the opposite end of the great scale of creation from that with which Bildad began; with the lower world, the region of shadows, thence to rise to the heavenly world. “The shadows are made to tremble below the water and its inhabitants” (verse 5). By the shadows are meant the ghostly, bloodless forms as Homer has described them in the eleventh book of the ‘Odyssey,’ leading a joyless, melancholy existence, deprived of the light of the sun (Psa 88:11; Pro 2:18; Pro 9:18; Isa 26:14, Isa 26:19; comp. Job 14:9, Job 14:10). Even in Hades the vast power of the Almighty is felt, and its inhabitants own it and tremble (Psa 139:8; Pro 15:11; Jas 2:19). This lower world is naked to the eyes of God (Heb 4:13), and the chasm of Hades has no covering (Pro 15:11; Pro 15:6). The Northern heaventaken here by a figure, as the part for the wholeis stretched over the void, and the earth hangs upon nothing (verse 7). The expression “nothing” here denotes the same as the “void”the vast emptiness of space in which the earth with its heavenly canopy is placed. Compare the classical parallels in Lucret; 2:600, sqq.; Ovid, ‘Fast.,’ 6:269, sqq. A Persian poet says
“He stretches out the heaven
without pillars as the tent of the earth .
What doth the air bear? it beareth nothing,
and nothing on nothing, and absolutely nothing.”
And an Arab poet, “He has made the heaven out of smoke.” And in the Koran, “It is Allah who has built high the heaven, without supporting it on visible pillars.” The poets say that Atlas bore the heaven on his shoulders; but we confess the true Atlas, the Lord our God, who by his word upholds both heaven and earth (Brenz). As the work witnesses of the master, so does the universe testify of its Creator, Sustainer, and Governor (Psa 19:1-6); and no faint-hearted one has contemplated the eternal order which here confronts him and its secret but ever-blessed sway, and no sinner longing for salvation has tarried in the hails of this great temple of God, without being richly blessed with heavenly blessings (Wohlfarth).
2. The clouds and the heavenly region. (Verses 8-10.) Waters are firmly bound up in the clouds as in vast water-skins, according to the conception of the poet, without their bursting with the weight, if God wills to retain the rain (verse 8; Gen 7:11; Gen 8:2). God veils the “outer side” of his heavenly throne, the side turned towards earth, by drawing the clouds between (verse 9). He has drawn a circling boundary over the water’s surface to the crossing of the light with the darkness (verse 10; Pro 8:27). In both passages the idea is that the earth is surrounded by water (in Homer, by the flowing stream of ocean). Above is the circle of the hemisphere, where sun and stars run their course. Within this circle is the region of the heavenly bodies and of light, and outside it begins the realm of darkness.
3. Mountains; the sea; constellations. (Verses 11-13.) The heaven’s pillarsthat is, the great mountains, conceived as bearing up the firmamentfall into trembling, and the earthquake is represented as caused by their affright at his reproof (verse 11; comp. Psa 29:1-11.; Psa 104:7; Isa 50:2; Nah 1:4; Rev 6:12-14; Rev 20:11). He terrifies the sea by his power, and by his understanding breaks in pieces Rahab (verse 12). Rahab being here not Egypt, as in other places, but some huge monster of legendary fame. His breath makes the heaven bright and clear; and his hand has pierced through the flying serpent (verse 13). This may, perhaps, allude to the mythical representation of eclipses of sun or moon as the attempt of a monstrous dragon to swallow up the heavenly bodies, The ceremony is practised, among the Turks and others, of beating off this dragon at the time of eclipses by cries and noises. These descriptions of the Creation are founded on astronomical myths belonging to the childhood of the world; but our better knowledge of the mechanism of the heavens need not destroy our sense of the reverence and awe which pervade these descriptions, The wonder of ignorance is replaced by the nobler wonder of intelligence, of reason.
CONCLUSION. (Verse 14.) “Lo, these are ends of his ways”but the outlines or sketchesthe nearest and most familiar evidences of his government of the world; “and what a gently whispering word it is that we hear!but the thunder of his omnipotence who can understand?” The full unfolding of his power, the thundering course of the heavenly spheres, what mortal ear could bear?
“If nature thundered in our opening ears,
And stunned us with the music of the spheres,
How should we wish that Heaven had left us still
The gentle zephyr and the purling rill?”
The whole contemplation is fitted to teach us our ignorance, and to lead to humility, to wonder, to adoration. We see but a small part of the immeasurable kingdom of God. We play with a few pebbles on the verge of the infinite ocean of existence. The knowledge of the greatest philosopher is but the short-sighted glance of a tiny insect! Our earth is but a grain of sand in the vast whole, a drop in the bucket. Thus the discoveries made of God lead us to the depth and height of the undiscovered and unknown. A modem philosopher says that religion and science find their point of union and reconciliation herein the recognition of the unknown, unknowable Power in the universe. This recognition stills vain rivalries and idle controversies. “When we have said all we can concerning God, we must, even as St. Paul (Rom 11:33), despair to find the bottom; we must sit down at the brink and adore the depth: ‘Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!'”. But, again, the sense of what is unknown should lead us to hold the more firmly to that which is known, especially through the gospel of his grace and love. There he speaks to us from out the vastness and splendour of the creation with a voice that we can understand, that touches the heart”My child!” This everlasting God is ours-our Father and our Love. Without the knowledge of his grace and mercy in Christ, the knowledge of his majesty and purity must drive us to despair.J.
HOMILIES BY R. GREEN
Job 26:2-4
Cruel reproof helps not the sufferer.
Job has endured the reproaches of his would-be friends. Their words, instead of calming and comforting his wounded spirit, have only irritated and tried him. He has sought in vain for the refreshment of sympathy. One prolonged attempt to prove his guiltiness, and to establish the justice of his affliction on that ground, he has had to meet by protestations of innocence. But the ill-judged and imperfectly instructed comforters, mistaking the ground of Job’s affliction, had poured gall into his troubled spirit. The testimony of the book is to the insufficiency of human consolation, and to the great truth that there are afflictions which come upon men for other reasons than as punishments of offence. The picture of Job suffering bodily pain is sad enough, but it is heightened by the cruel manner in which the professed words of comfort are turned into keen reproofs. Such reproofs are powerless to help the sufferer, for
1. THERE IS NO ELEMENT OF REAL CONSOLATION IN THEM. The wise consoler may take opportunity to lead the sufferer to a just penitence for his sin; but merely to dwell upon wrong, and to point to it as the sole cause of suffering, is to leave the sufferer devoid of all true consolation. There is no word of hope, no promise of relief, no bracing of the spirit, by the whisper of lofty principles.
II. THEY BUT SERVE TO IRRITATE THE ALREADY TRIED SPIRIT. Bowed down by manifold sufferings, the afflicted one is sensitive to every word, even every look, of those around him. Their tender patience, even their very silence, gives them some assurance of kindly feeling; but to speak words of reproof when the spirit is weak and oppressed with anguish is to add weight to weight, and to subject the sufferer to greater pain. He needs the balmy word of friendship, the touch of the tender hand; not to be rudely taunted with keen thrusts of accusation which are as the bite of an adder, nor to be scourged by the severities of an antagonist.
III. THEY AFFORD NO EVIDENCE OF THAT SYMPATHY WHICH IS THE BASIS OF ALL, TRUE CONSOLATION. With the words of inspiriting brotherly love the truly afflicted one has borne the heaviest calamity and remained calm under the severest trials. Pain has lost its power in presence of sympathy. To lay the aching head upon the shoulder of a strong friend gives might to the weak. The truest succour for the wounded is tender sympathy, whether the wounds pierce the flesh or the spirit. But sympathy knows nothing of severity or harsh accusation. It hides offence and soothes the self-accused spirit until it has gained strength to bear the weight of condemnation. But no sign of this is present in the words of Job’s friends; no sympathy is expressed by cruel reproof: “How hast thou helped him that is without power?”
IV. To all they add THE PAINFUL RECALL OF THE FRAILTIES OF THE SOUL AT THE TIME WHEN IT IS OVERBURDENED AND UNABLE TO MAKE ANSWER. This is not the appropriate time to speak accusingly. When the soul is in its strength it is hard to reply to either just or unjust accusation, but in its weakness and sorrow it is utterly incapable of reply. It is adding weight to weight, and taking unfair advantage of feebleness. This is neither neighbourly, nor brotherly, nor even kind. It shows a faulty judgment and an unsympathetic spirit.R.G.
Job 26:6-14
The Divine ways but partially revealed.
Bildad had given Job no comfort. And Job at first (verses 1-3) retorts upon him a reproof for his unhelpful words. He then bursts into an impressive representation of the wonderful works of God to whom Bildad had referred. The works of God in the heavens, the earth, and the deep sea are great and manifold; so are his works amongst the creatures of his power, of whom the serpent alone is mentioned. But the hidden hand of God Job confesses, and the greatness of the Divine works and ways, of which only a part is revealed. We may take a wider sweep than even Job does, and say
I. Parts of the Divine ways are revealed IN THE VISIBLE CREATION. His wonderful works.
II. IN HIS WAYS TO THE CHILDREN OF MEN. In the working of that providence that ever guards the interests of the human life.
III. IN THE REVELATIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. Here light falls especially
(1) on the Divine Name;
(2) on the mysteries of the Divine providence;
(3) on the spiritual futureon God, on human life and duty, on immortality.
Yet with all the teachings it must still be said,” How little a portion is heard of him?” We have heard the whisper; “but the thunder of his power who can understand?” A plain duty is to judge of that which is hidden by that which is made known. And the question instantly arises to our lipsAre the revelations which God has made of himself and of his ways in nature, in human life, in the Holy Scriptures, such as encourage us to trust in those ways, and in him, where all is covered with clouds and thick darkness? If the revealed things are good and trust worthy, it is most reasonable to demand faith in the hidden and unseen. Faith in the unseen is warranted by
(1) the beauty,
(2) utility,
(3) perfectness,
(4) beneficence of the Divine ways, as they are traceable in the works of the Divine hand;
but faith’s highest warrant is in the Divine Namethe absolutely good, pure, just, and beneficent One.R.G.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY
Job 26:2
Helping the weak.
Job returns to the old complaint, more than ever justified by the obstinacy of his friends. They came to sympathize and help in the time of trouble; how have they carried out their self-appointed task?
I. IT IS A CHRISTIAN DUTY TO HELP THE WEAK. The worldly maxim is “each for himself.” This seems to be natural; but it is not true to our better nature. The higher self is required to rectify the cruel impulses of the lower regions of nature.
1. Because of the solidarity of the race. We are members one of another, and when one member suffers all the members suffer. It is not good for us that any of our fellow-men should fail.
2. Because of the brotherhood of Christians. We are called to more than a care for the whole body; individual needs appeal to our sympathy, and the special cases of those who are known to us come before us with peculiar claims. We have to remember our family relationship as children of our Father.
3. Because of the work of Christ. He came to help the weak, and our standing is only on the ground that he has done so for us. If all had come to us by self-seeking and personal exclusiveness, we should not have had the power to help others, for that power was given to us in our weakness by the grace of God in Christ.
II. HELP TO THE WEAK SHOULD BE BY AIDING THEM TO BECOME STRONG. There is an excessive helplessness that can only be relieved by direct aid. But in the main it is not wise to make people simply dependent on us. While we help them materially we may hurt them morally. It is a more difficult task to lift men than to dole out charity while they grovel in destitution; but it is a much more truly helpful thing. When we deal with men in spiritual work the same principle applies. It is not enough to bring consolation and peace and other spiritual blessings. The more important work is to lead feeble, broken-down creatures to the Source of new life and strength, that they may be renewed and converted. It is well to help the weak in their weakness, but it is better to help them out of it.
III. IT IS POSSIBLE TO FAIL MISERABLY IN ATTEMPTING TO HELP THE WEAK This is one of the most obvious lessons of the Book of Job, and it is constantly recurring to us from different points of view. Few tasks are more difficult, and therefore it is not surprising that failure is frequent, but the surprising thing is that it is not anticipated. We are astounded at the confidence of Job’s comforters. Their self-assurance is perfectly amazing. They persevere in their conventional assertions without perceiving how utterly useless, how vexatiously mischievous, their whole method of procedure is. Not understanding Job, they cannot help him. Too often blundering attempts at doing good only aggravate the evil they would alleviate. We must study social problems; we must understand the people; we must come to know the individual persons we desire to help. A large part of the duty of Christian angels of mercy is to visit the afflicted, to enter into their condition, see their homes, hear their troubles, know their circumstances and the cause of their misery. The story of Christian charity is full of most disheartening failures which arise simply from neglecting these first conditions of success.W.F.A.
Job 26:6
God’s vision of death.
Bildad has just spoken of the exalted dominion of God that reaches to heavenly heights, overawing the very moon and stars. Job now replies, turning his eyes downward, and noticing how the dim underworld is all open to the inspection of God.
I. THE DEAD ARE NOT BEYOND THE VISION OF GOD. He lives in light, and they lie in darkness; yet he sees them. There is no escaping from his presence. “If I make my bed in Hades, behold, thou art there” (Psa 139:8).
1. There is no eluding his observation. A man cannot flee from God by dying. Indeed, is not suicide rightly regarded as rushing into the presence of God? No darkness hides from God, for day and night are alike with him, and no change of sphere removes from the reach of him who rules through all the spheres.
2. There is no loss of his notice. No one can be beneath the attention of Godtoo low, too degraded, in too dark and desolate a region to be seen by him. Perhaps this was Job’s thought. He was longing for God to come and vindicate his cause; but he could not but admit that death might come first, for his disease was making fearful inroads on his constitution. Still, he would not lose the chance of meeting God. If not on earth, then it should be after death. God will follow his children wherever they go in the next world, as he follows them in this world.
II. GOD‘S VISION OF THE DEAD IS OF GREAT CONSEQUENCE TO THEM. If Hades and destruction have no covering before God, this means very much to Hades and destruction. It cannot be the same thing whether we are looked upon by God or not. Surely it means much to know that the abode of death is not deserted by God. God cannot look down into this dark region as a mere spectator. He is everywhere a Life, a Power, an Authority. Therefore we must conclude that the rule of God extends over the unseen world. Certain important consequences flow from this truth.
1. Justice will be done there. God will not allow injustice to go on for ever. The process of rectification is slow; but God is infinitely patient, and he has eternity before him. The unpunished sinner will meet his dreadful deserts in the next world, and the ill-used and misunderstood good man will be vindicated there.
2. Life will be given there. God cannot look on the dead and leave them in their natural darkness. His gaze quickens. If he visits the realm of the dead he will bring about a resurrection. The dead are not cast out, forgotten, left to fade and melt out of all being. God touches them, and they awake, like the frost-bound earth at the touch of spring.
3. Mercy will extend to them. How and to what extent this may be received by the dead is a mystery concerning which we have little or no light. But we know that “the mercy of the Lord endureth for ever.” We know that God is changeless. His love is unfailing. He must ever desire the recovery of his children. Yet dogmatic universalism is as false to human nature as it is to the warnings of Scripture. For men may harden themselves against the mercy of God; if they do so on earth, how can we say that they will not do so after death?W.F.A.
Job 26:8
Clouds.
As we proceed through the poem we cannot but be struck with the wonderful wealth of its nature-imagery, which continues to open out with ever-increasing luxuriance till it reaches its fulness in the burst of splendour that accompanies the final theophany. Each aspect of nature touched by the poet has its special lessons. Now he calls us to look at the gorgeous pageantry of the clouds. Here truths of Divine order and government are displayed before our eyes.
I. CLOUDS ARE OF DIVINE ORIGIN. God bindeth up the waters; the thick clouds are his. Whenever we touch nature we should move with reverence, for we are in the temple of God. Whether we understand the clouds, whether we can see the wisdom by which they are shaped and led out over the heavens or not, at least we must discuss them with the humility that becomes a consideration of the works of the infinitely Wise and the perfectly Good.
II. CLOUDS ARE BENEFICIAL TO THE WORLD. In Southern countries they are greatly valued both for their shade and for the much-needed showers they bring to the parched land. The arrangement by which they float overhead, and then descend on broad areas in finely distributed drops of water, makes man’s most advanced system of irrigation look childish and clumsy. Great masses of water are stored aloft and driven through the air, and made to descend so that every minute plant is watered, and not a blade of grass is crushed. Here is the perfection of the art of distribution.
III. CLOUDS ILLUSTRATE THE MUTUAL MINISTRIES OF NATURE. Drawn up from the sea in invisible vapour, driven over the land by strong winds, condensed against the mountains or in cool currents of the upper air, descending in gentle rain over fields and gardens, over woods and hills and plains, trickling through the soil, breaking out in little springs, streaming down the slopes in minute rills, gathering supplies from all directions in the valleys, and flowing back to the sea in full-fed rivers, the water of the clouds moves through a circuit, every stage of which is of use in the economy of nature, while the whole is completed by the help of many forces and circumstances.
IV. CLOUDS COME AS MERCIES IN DISGUISE. Thick clouds are black and ugly, hiding the blue sky, and casting gloom on the earth. They do not always have a silver lining. They may be heavy and lowering, sombre and threatening. Yet they burst in refreshing showers. When shall we believe that it is the same with those apprehensions of trouble which are really the chariots in which God’s love rides?
V. CLOUDS ARE BEAUTIFUL IN THE SUNLIGHT. It is only a difference of light, and their gloom is turned into splendour. When the sun touches the clouds it sets them on fire. Morning and evening unroll leagues of rose and gold curtains on the distant horizon. When God’s love touches our clouds, by a magic alchemy they pass into heavenly beauty.
VI. CLOUDS ARE FLEETING AND TRANSIENT. Moulded out of invisible vapours, they melt while we gaze at them. Their high bastions and clustered domes, their silvery lakes and purple mountains, are in rapid dissolution. For they must serve their purpose. They must vanish to fulfil their mission. Earthly joys like palaces of cloudland, earthly terrors like its gloomy shadows, both melt away, and must do so to serve their purpose of blessing and discipline. But beyond the clouds is the blue sky. We are thankful for the clouds. But we must neither cling to them, nor shrink from them. Standing on the solid earth, our lasting hope is in the eternal heavens.W.F.A.
Job 26:14
The thunder of his power.
We only see the edges of God’s ways; we hear but a slight whisper of him; the thunder of his power is beyond our comprehension.
I. IN NATURE. We can see but a small part of God’s works. Astronomy hints at vast regions of unexplored space. Even in limited regions the variety of teeming life goes beyond our comprehension. We cannot see the infinitely small. Further, we only use our five senses. Who can tell but that a sixth sense would reveal much more of the wonderful works of God? We can conceive of an indefinite multiplication of senses. Suppose there were ten senses, or fifty, or any number more; who can say but that they would discover corresponding objects that are quite unknown to us because we have not the faculty of perceiving them? Next consider how small a period of time our observation extends over. Geology stretches back a long way, but with how meagre a record of immense ages! Then note that all these observations deal with the material universe. But what of the spiritual? How far may this extend? What are its contents?
II. IN PROVIDENCE. The mistake of Job’s friends was that they were both shortsighted and narrow in their vision. They could see but a very small part of God’s work and purpose; yet they drew universal conclusions, and dogmatized. Their mistake is only too common. We have to recollect that we have not the materials with which to form a judgment of God’s actions. In our own lives we see a very small part of the Divine plan. All may look dark and dreadful. But we are only at the early seed-sowing. We have to see the harvest before we can judge of the crop. And the harvest is not yet.
III. IN REVELATION. This was true of the Old Testament in comparison with the New. But a fringe of the grace afterwards revealed in Christ was made known to the ancient Jews. Now it is impossible to say how much more of the nature and thought of God still lies beyond the region of revelation. We have enough to guide us, sufficient for salvation and for duty. But we dare not limit God to his revelations of himself. All attempts to define God, to draw a circle about the Divine, refute themselves, for they would make out that the Infinite is finite.
IV. IN JUDGMENT. Whispers of God’s judgment make us tremble; and we have only heard whispers as yet. What, then, must the thunder of his power be? At a mere touch from “the Traveller unknown” the sinew of Jacob’s thigh shrank (Gen 32:25). What would have been the result if the mysterious Wrestler had put forth his full power? Earthly troubles are hard to bear; these are but whispers compared to the thunder of doom!
V. IN REDEMPTION. There is a bright side to this picture. “God is love,” and the half has not been told us of God’s nature. Future ages have yet to explore its marvellous wealth of grace. Throughout eternity it will still stretch beyond all human experience. With the grace is a corresponding blessing. The future blessedness that God offers to his children is also beyond all present estimates. “Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be” (1Jn 3:2).W.F.A.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
CHAP. XXVI.
Job, reproving the uncharitable spirit of Bildad, acknowledges the power of God to be infinite and unsearchable.
Before Christ 1645.
Job 26:1. But Job answered and said Job, finding his friends quite driven from their strong hold, and reduced to give up the argument, now tells them, Job 26:2-3 if the business was to celebrate the power and wisdom of the Almighty, he could produce as many shining instances of it as they could; but at the same time he intimates, that their behaviour was mean, after so great a parade of wisdom as they had exhibited, to shelter themselves at last behind the power of God, rather than generously give up an argument which they were unable to maintain, and acquit him of a suspicion which they were not capable of supporting by a conviction. Heath.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
II. Bildad and Job: Chap. 2526
A.Bildad: Again setting forth the contrast between Gods exaltation and human impotence
Job 25
1. Man cannot argue with God
Job 25:2-4
1Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said:
2Dominion and fear are with Him,
He maketh peace in His high places.
3Is there any number of His armies?
and upon whom doth not His light arise?
4How then can man be justified with God?
or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?
2. Man is not pure before God: Job 25:5-6
5Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not;
yea, the stars are not pure in His sight.
6How much less man, that is a worm;
and the son of man, which is a worm?
B.Job: Rebuke of his opponent, accompanied by a description, far surpassing his, of the exaltation and greatness of God
Job 26
1. Sharp rebuff of Bildad: Job 26:1-4
1But Job answered, and said:
2How hast thou helped him that is without power?
how savest thou the arm that hath no strength?
3How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom?
and how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is?
4To whom hast thou uttered words?
and whose spirit came from thee?
2. Description of the incomparable sovereignty and exaltation of God, given to surpass the far less spirited effort of Bildad in this direction: Job 26:6-14
5Dead things are formed
from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof.
6Hell is naked before Him,
and destruction hath no covering.
7He stretcheth out the north over the empty place,
and hangeth the earth upon nothing.
8He bindeth up the waters in His thick clouds;
and the cloud is not rent under them.
9He holdeth back the face of His throne,
and spreadeth His cloud upon it.
10He hath compassed the waters with bounds,
until the day and night come to an end.
11The pillars of heaven tremble,
and are astonished at His reproof.
12He divideth the sea with His power,
and by His understanding He smiteth through the proud.
13By His spirit He hath garnished the heavens;
His hand hath formed the crooked serpent.
14Lo, these are parts of His ways:
but how little a portion is heard of Him?
but the thunder of His power who can understand?
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Jobs reply to the last assaults of Eliphaz had certainly avoided all personality, but had at the same time asserted his complete innocence in very strong, almost objectionable language (Job 23:10-12). It is more particularly to this vulnerable point that Bildad turns his attention in this, his last discourse, which limits itself to showing how unbecoming it is for manthis miserable worm of the earthto arrogate to himself any right whatever before God, or to impute to himself any justice. In substance, accordingly, he lays down only two propositions, and that without enlarging on them, to wit: (1) Man cannot argue with God, the Almighty; (2) Before God, the Holy One, man cannot be pure. In this discourse, which closes the series of attacks on Job, he describes the divine greatness and exaltation, a description which is decidedly meagre, made up only of repetitions of what Eliphaz had said in his former discourses (comp. Job 4:17 seq.; Job 15:14 seq.). No wonder that Job discovers the opportunity thus presented to him, and in his reply, first of all, addresses to the speaker a sharp, bitterly satirical rebuff, and then meets his propositions in regard to Gods greatness and holiness, not by denying them, but by surpassing them with a far more magnificent and eloquent description of the same divine attributes. [And note particularly that as Bildads illustrations of his theme are drawn from the heavenly hosts and luminaries, Job in his reply dwells principally, though not exclusively on Gods greatness as manifested in the heavens above.E.]The Strophe-scheme of both discourses is very simple, Bildads discourse containing only two strophes, the first of three, the second of two verses; Jobs discourse containing four strophes, each of three verses.
2. The last discourse of Bildad: Job 25. Man can neither argue with God, nor is he pure before Him.
First Strophe: Job 25:2-4.Dominion and fear are with Him, who maketh peace in His high places., lit. to wield dominion, to exercise sovereignty, a substantive Inf. absol. Hiph.; comp. Ewald, 156, e.[ is added in order to set forth the terrible majesty of this sovereignty.Schlott.] cannot be understood as a more precise qualification of the subject: He in His high places, He who is enthroned in the heights of heaven (Reimarus, Umbreit, Hahn). It is rather a local qualification of the action affirmed of the subject. It accordingly describes the peace founded by God as established in the heights of heaven, and so having reference to the inhabitants of heaven, and pre-supposing their former strife. Bear in mind what was said above by Job of Gods judging those in heaven (Job 21:22), and comp. Isa 24:21; also below Job 26:13.It is a weakening of the sense which is scarcely justified by the language to understand the passage as teaching Gods agency in harmonizing either the elements of the heavenly Kosmos (the perpetually recurring cycle, the wonderfully ordered paths of the stars, comp. Clemens Rom. 1 Cor. 19), or the discord of the heavenly spirits, conceived of only in the most abstract possible manner, but in truth continually averted by God, and thus as teaching the maintenance, not the making or institution, of peace (so Seb. Schmidt, J. Lange, Starke, etc.). [Ewald explains the words of the heavenly powers and spirits represented by the innumerable host of the stars, which might indeed some time be at war among themselves, but which are ever brought again by the Higher Power into order and peace. But nothing whatever is said elsewhere of such a discord as now coming to pass in the upper world. All analogies point rather to a definite fact which is assigned to the beginning of creation. Schlott.].
Job 25:3. Is there any number to His armies?, synonymous with , which is used elsewhere in this sense, are Gods hosts or armies, the stars, first of all, indeed, the heavenly armies, together with the angels which rule and inhabit them (comp. above on Job 15:15). Whether also the lower forces of nature, such as lightnings, winds, etc. (comp. Job 38:19 seq.; Psa 104:4, etc.) are intended, as Dillmann thinks is doubtful in view of the indefiniteness of the figurative form of expression. And upon whom does not His light arise?The emphatic suffix ehu in (comp. , Job 24:23) puts His light, to wit Gods own light, in contrast with the derived lower light of His hosts. The expression is scarcely to be understood of the sunlight, which indeed itself belongs to the number of these : neither can be taken = (neither here, nor Job 11:17). It is inadmissible accordingly to refer the words to the rising sun, as a sign of the fatherly beneficent solicitude of God for His earthly creatures (comp. Mat 5:45. So against Mercier, Hirz. Hahn, Schlott., etc.). We are to understand them rather of that absolutely supra-terrestrial light in which God dwells, which He wears as His garment, by which indeed He manifests His being, His heavenly doxa (Psa 104:2; Eze 1:27 seq.; 1Ti 6:16, etc.). In respect to this light Bildad asks: upon whom does it not arise? The question is not: whom does it not surpass? [over whom (i.e. which of these beings of light) does it not rise, leaving it behind, and exceeding it in brightness? Delitzsch], for would scarcely be appropriate for this thought, since the degree of light is not measured by its height (against Ewald, Heiligst., Del.)but: upon whom does it not dispense blessings and happiness? (Dillm.)
Job 25:4. How could a mortal be just with God(comp. Job 9:2): i. e. how could he appear before Him, to whose absolute power all heavenly beings are subject, arguing with Him, and making pretensions to righteousness? The second member, with which Job 4:17; Job 15:14 may be compared, stands connected with the principal thought of the discourse, which immediately follows, to the effect that no man possesses purity or moral spotlessness before God.
Second strophe: Job 25:5-6.
Job 25:5. Behold, even the moon, it shineth not brightly, and the stars are not pure in His eyes., lit. even to the moon, i.e. even as regards the moon. In the following the is the Vav of the apodosis; comp. Gesen. 145 [ 142], 2; and see above Job 23:12. = from , an alternate form, found only here, of , to be bright, to shine; comp. Job 31:26. Gekatilias attempt to render the verbto pitch a tent, is inadmissible, for that must have read , in order to yield the meaningHe pitcheth not his tent.The clausein His eyesin the second member, belongs also to the first. Comp. the parallel passages already cited in Job 4:15.Furthermore it is only the physical light, the silver-white streaming brilliancy of the stars, which is here put beside the absolute glory of Gods light (which is at once physical and ethical). Scarcely is there reference to the angels as inhabiting the stars, and to their moral purity (against Hirzel); from which however nothing can be inferred unfavorable to the theory that the stars, i.e., the heavenly globes of the starry world, are inhabited by angels.
Job 25:6. Much less then ( , as in Job 15:16) mortal man, the worm, etc. In regard to these figures of the maggot and the worm, as setting forth the insignificance, weakness, and contemptibleness of man, comp. Psa 22:7 [6]; also Isa 53:2, and similar descriptions.
3. Jobs rejoinder: Job 26. First Division (and Strophe): Job 26:2-4 : Sharp ironical rebuke of Bildad.
Job 26:2. How hast thou helped the powerless! here, like , is equivalent to an ironicalHow well! How excellent! (comp. Job 19:28). , lit. no-power is abstr. pro conc. = the powerless; so also in b = the strengthless, the feeble; and in Job 26:3 a =the unwise, ignorant. By these three parallel descriptive clauses Job means of course himself, as the object of the well-intended, but perverted attempts of the friends to teach him (not God, as Mercier, Schlottm., etc. explain) [as though Bildad had regarded God as too feeble to maintain His own cause. But against this explanation the choice of verbs, if nothing else, would be, as Delitzsch argues, decisive].
Job 26:3..and hast declared wisdom in abundance (, lit. for multitude) [an ironical hit at the poverty-stricken brevity of B.s speech. Dillm.]. , here as in Job 5:12 may be rendered by that which is to be accomplished, provided it be referred to the intellectual world, and so understood as vera et realis sapientia (J. H. Mich.). Here indeed the word is used ironically of its opposite.
Job 26:4. To whom hast thou uttered words?i. e. whom hast thou been desirous of reaching by thy words? for whom were thy elaborate speeches coined? was it, possibly, for me, who have not been touched by them in the least? So correctly the LXX.: , and the Vulg.: quem docere voluisti? The translation: with whose assistance () hast thou utttered these words? (Arnh. Hahn) [Con.] seems indeed to be favored by b, but is condemned by the construction of the verb elsewhere in our book with a double accusative (so also Job 31:37; comp. Eze 43:10), and does not agree so well with what precedes.And whose breath went forth from thee?i.e. from what kind of inspiration (inbreathing) hast thou spoken? is it the divine? Num Deo inspirante locutus es? The question involves a biting irony; for the speech of Bildad, so poor and meagre in thought, merely repeating a little of what Eliphaz had said already, might look accordingly as though it had been inspired by the latter.
4. Second Division: Job 26:5-14 : Eclipsing and surpassing the description given by Bildad of the exaltation and majesty of God by one far more glorious.
Second Strophe: Job 26:5-7. While Bildads description took its start from heaven, and it stars, Job begins by appealing to the realm of shades, together with its subterranean inhabitants as witnesses of the divine omnipotence and majesty, in order from this depth, the lowest foundation of all that is, to mount upward to the heavenly worldThe shades are made to tremble. are not giants, as the Ancient Versions render the word, but in accordance with the root (to be slack, relaxed, exhausted, comp. Ewald, 55, e), weak, powerless, namely, the marrowless and bloodless shades or forms of the underworld, the wretched inhabitants of the realm of the dead; so also in Psa 88:11 [10]; Pro 2:18; Pro 9:18, and often: Isa 26:14; Isa 26:19; comp. Job 14:9 seq. [It seems every way reasonable to associate with the idea of weakness, nervelessness, etc., here given to the word that of gigantic stature, when we remember that this same word did denote a race of earthly giants, and that the tendency of the imagination to magnify the spectral forms of the dead is so common, if not universal. So Good: The spectres of deified heroes were conceived, in the first ages of the world, to be of vast and more than mortal stature, as we learn from the following of Lucretius:
Quippe et enim jam tum divm mortalia secla
Egregias animo fades vigilante videbant;
Et magis in somnis mirando corporis actu.
This idea will certainly add to the gloomy sublimity of the description here. Let one imagine the gigantic marrowless, bloodless phantoms or shades below writhe like a woman in travail as often as the majesty of the heavenly Ruler is felt by them, as perhaps by the raging of the sea, or the quaking of the earth. Delitzsch. That even these beings, although otherwise without feeling or motion, and situated at an immeasurable distance from Gods dwelling-place are sensible of the effects of Gods activity,this is a much stronger witness to Gods greatness than aught that B. had alleged. Hirzel]. Of these shades, living far from God in the depths under the earth and under the seas (comp. b: beneath the waters and their inhabitants), it is here said: they are put in terror, they are made to tremble and quake (, Pul. from , comp. Ewald, 141 b), an expression which, like Psa 139:8; Pro 15:11, is intended to describe the energy of the divine omnipotence as illimitable and filling all things, extending even down to Sheol. Comp. also Jam 2:19, a passage otherwise related to the one before us, and perhaps suggested by it, but having a different purpose. [The rendering of E. V. needs but to be compared with the above to show how erroneous and unsatisfactory it is.E.].
Job 26:6. Naked is the underworld before Him (comp. Heb 4:13 : ), and the abyss of hell has no covering (for Him). Comp. on Pro 15:11, a passage parallel to this in matter, where (lit. destruction, annihilation) stands precisely as here as a synonym of ; also Psa 139:8, and below Job 38:17. [The definition, destruction, annihilation here given for is of course not to be understood in the metaphysical sense of the extinction of being. It is the destruction of life, as enjoyed on the face of the earth; the extinction of light, the derangement of order, the wasting away of all vital energy and beauty. Hence as describes the underworld as the insatiable receptacle of the departed, demanding and drawing men into itself, orcus rapax, gives us a glimpse yet deeper into its abysmal horrors, its destructive, wasting potencies. Hence the fearful significance with which in Rev. (Job 9:11) it is applied, as the Hebrew equivalent to the Greek Apollyon, to the angel of the bottomless pit.E.].
Job 26:7. Who stretcheth out the northern heavens over empty space.The Participles in this and the two following verses attach themselves to God, the logical subject of the ver. preceding [and are used to describe the divine activity herein specified as continuous]. Our rendering of in the sense of the northern heavens, the northern half of the heavenly vault, has decisively in its favor the verb , which is never used of the stretching out or expansion of the earth, or a part of it, but always of the out-stretching of the heavenly vault, which is conceived of as a tent; comp. Job 9:8; Isa 40:22; Isa 44:24; Zec 12:1; Psa 104:2, etc. It would be singular, moreover, if Job had first mentioned only a part of the earth, the northern, and not until afterwards had mentioned it as a whole, however true it might be that the popular notion of oriental antiquity, which represented the north of the earth as a part of it which abounded most in mountains, and was highest and heaviest, would seem to favor this view (against Hirzel, Ewald, Heiligst., Schlottmann, Dillmann). [Ewald calls attention to the corresponding Hindu notion concerning the north. Schlottmann thinks such a reference to the north as the heaviest part of the earth best suited to the connection. Dillmann argues that it could not properly be affirmed of the heavens, that they are stretched out over the ]. The reference of to the northern hemisphere of the heavens (Umbreit, Vaih., Hahn., Olsh., Del., etc.) is favored also by this considetion in addition to those already mentioned, that all the more important constellations which our book mentions (the Bear, Pleiades, etc.) belong to this northern hemisphere, and that moreover among other people of the ancient world, the pole (i. e. the north pole), and heaven, are used as synonyms; so especially among the Romans (Varro, de L. L. vii. 2, 14; Ovid, Fast. 6, 278; Horace, and other poets). The correct view was substantially given by Brentius: Synecdoche, a part for the whole; for Aquino, which is Septentrio [North] is used for the whole heaven or firmament. Hangeth the earth upon nothing: , not anything [lit. not-what] = nothing, here substantially synonymous with the empty space, (comp. Gen 1:2), hence denoting the endless empty space in which the earth (which according to Job 26:10 is conceived of as a flat disk, rather than as a ball). together with the overarching northern heavens, hangs freely. The cosmological conception of the suspension of the earth in the empty space of the universe (with which may be compared parallel representations from the classics, such as Lucretius II., 600 seq.. Ovid, Fast. II., 269 seq.) does not conflict with the mention of the pillars of the earth in Job 9:6, for the reason that the pillars are conceived of as the inner roots or bones, the skeleton as it were of the body of the earth. It is only quite indirectly that the passage before us can be used to prove the creation of the world out of nothing. We may suggest as worthy of note the descriptions, which remind us of the one before us, in the more recent oriental poets, as e. g. the Persian Ferideddin Attar (in 5. Hammer, Geschichte der schnen Redeknste Persiens, p. 141, 143):
Pillarless he spreads out the heavens
A canopy above the earth.
What bears the atmosphere? Tis nothing,
Nothing on nothing, and only nothing;
also the Arabian Audeddin Alnasaph (de religione Sonnitar., princ. Job 5:2):
Out of a breath He made the heavens; and already in the Koran, in its Sur. Job 13:2, it is said: It is Allah, who has built the heavens on high, without founding it on visible pillars. Comp. Umbreit on the ver.
Third Strophe: Job 26:8-10. Who bindeth up (or shuts in, comp. Pro 30:4, c) the waters in His clouds: which accordingly are regarded as vessels [bags, bottles, etc.] or transparent enclosures for the waters of the heavens above: without the clouds bursting under them (the waters); i. e. so that the weight of these masses of water does not cause them to pour themselves forth in torrents of rain out of their cloud-vessels, implying that this is as God expressly wills and orders it; comp. Gen 7:11; Gen 8:2. [By which nothing more or less is meant than that the physical and meteorological laws of rain are of Gods appointment. Del.].
Job 26:9 [describes the dark and thickly clouded sky that showers down the rain in the appointed rainy season. Del.] Who enshroudeth the outside of His thronelit. of the throne, for , as in 1Ki 10:19 is for , scarcely, as Hirzel thinks, by an error of transcription for . But unquestionably the throne is simply = His throne, Gods throne in heaven (comp. Isa 66:1; Mat 5:34). It is said of the face or outside () of this throne, i. e., that side of it which is turned towards this earth, that God encloses or enshrouds it by causing the clouds to come between it and the earth. , Piel from , used here of the artificial veiling, or unclosing, draping it as it were) [ signifies to take hold of, in architecture to hold together by means of beams, or to fasten together. then also as usually in Chald. and Syr. to shut (by means of cross-bars, Neh 7:3), here to shut off by surrounding with clouds. Del. Hence not exactly to hold back, E. V. but to fasten up. Merx understands the verb of bearing, holding up, and the verse to set forth the miracle that God bears up the throne on which He sits. But in that case would be superfluous. E.]. Spreading over it His cloudsthis member of the verse explaining the former. refers to , and the quadril. verb is Inf. Absol. and may thus be rendered in Latin by expendendo, in our language by the Pres. Active Participle (comp. Ew. 141, c; and Del. on the ver.) [According to others, e. g., Dillmann, Green, 189 a, the vb. is preterite. Gesenius (Lex) regards the quadriliteral as a mixed form, from and . Delitzsch argues forcibly against this, and regards it as an intensive form of , formed by prosthesis, and an Arabic change of Sin into Shin.]
Job 26:10 [passes from the waters above to the waters below]. He hath rounded off (encircled, , comp. the of the LXX.) a bound ( as in Job 14:5) for the face of the water, to the ending of the light beside the darkness: or to the extremity (the confines, the boundary line) of the light with the darkness, ad lucis usque tenebrarumque confinia (Pareau). So correctly Del. and Dill. [E. V. Con., Words., Carey, Renan., Rod. Merx], while most moderns (Rosenm., Ewald, Hirz., Schlottm., Hahn, etc.) take by itself in an adverbial sense, most perfectly, most accurately, (comp. Job 28:3), take either as a remoter accus. of (so Hirz.), or as Genit. to , standing at the head of the clause in the construct state (so Ewald). In either case, however, we get a construction which is much too harsh. As proving that is by no means necessarily used adverbially, comp. above Job 11:7. The meaning of the verse will be rightly apprehended only by referring it not to the limit in time between light and darkness, i. e. to the regular succession of day and night (Schlottm.), but to the limit in space, the line separating between the light and dark regions of the heavenly circle, which runs along the surface of the waters of the ocean, encircling the earth. That is to say this description, like that in Pro 8:27, has for its basis the conception, prevalent also among the classic nations, and down into the middle ages, that the earth is encompassed all around by water, or a sea,that upon this earth-encircling ocean is marked out the circle of the celestial hemisphere, along which the sun and stars run their course (so that a part of the water lies within this circle)that the region of the stars, of the light, lies inside of this circle, and that the region of darkness begins outside of it; comp. Voss on Virg. Georg. I., 240 seq. Dillm.
Fourth Strophe: Job 26:11-13.The pillars of heaven are made to tremble, and are astonished at His rebuke.Pillars of heaven is the name which the poet gives to the mountains towering upon high, which seem as it were to bear up the arch of heaven; comp. the ancient classic legend of Atlas, and see above on Job 9:6. In speaking of these pillars as moved to trembling (, Piel. from , ) [the signification of violent and quick motion backwards and forwards is secured to the verb by forms in the Targ., Talm. and Arabic.Del.], and as fleeing in astonishment before Gods rebuking thunder (comp. Psa 104:7; Isa 50:2; Nah 1:4), the poet describes here he phenomenon of an earthquake, or that of a tremendous thunderstorm (comp. Psalms 29.; also Rev 6:12 seq.; Job 20:11).
Job 26:12. By His power He frightens up the sea. here not intransitive as in Job 7:5; but transitive in the sense of frightening up, arousing, (comp. Isa 51:15; Jer 31:35); hardly in the sense of intimidating, or putting at rest, as some expositors [Umbreit, Dillm. [Conant, Carey, Rod.], etc.) render the verb after the LXX. (). [E. V. divideth (and so Bernard) here, and in all the passages cited: but unsupported and less suitably.]And by His understanding He smites Rahab in pieces.Comp. on Job 9:13, where already it was shown to be necessary to understand (LXX.: ) of a colossal demon-monster of legendary antiquity (not of Egypt, nor of the raging fury of the sea, to which , to shatter, to dash in pieces would not be suitable).
Job 26:13. By His breath the heavens become bright: lit. are brightness, , a substantive found only here, which, however, does not denote a permanent quality of the heavens (Rosenm.), but one that is transiently [occasionally] produced by God [by His breath He scatters the clouds, and brightens the face of heaven]; His hand hath pierced the fleeing serpent., Po. from , Isa 51:9, hence perforavit, trucidavit; not Pil. from or , so that it would express the idea of forming, creating as the Targ., Jer., Rosenm., Arnh., Vaih., Welte, Renan [E. V., Con., Noy., Ber., Rod.], explain. For here again the discourse treats not of a creative energy of God, but of one that is exercised as a part of the established order of nature, and in all probability it discusses the same theme as that to which Job 3:8 refers, to wit, the production of eclipses of the sun and moon. For the popular superstition prevalent at the time of the composition of our book conceived of this phenomenon as consisting in the attempt of a dragon-like dark monster to swallow up these luminaries, accompanied by an intervention of God, who slays or strangles this monster [so that it was customary to say, when the sun or moon was eclipsed: The Dragon, or the Flying Serpent, has wound around it; and on the other hand when it was released from the obscuration: God has killed the Dragon. Dillm.] It is to this exercise of Gods power, bringing deliverance, that the clause refers, while (the same expression also in Isa 27:1) denotes the monster referred to, which is represented as seized upon in the act of fleeing (before God), hence as a fugitive, fleeing serpent. In that parallel passage in Isaiah, the LXX. rightly translate by , while their rendering in the passage before us, , whether we regard the language or the thought, is equally inadmissible with the coluber tortuosus of the Vulg. [followed by E. V. crooked serpent], or the serpenlem vectem of the same version in Isa 27:1 (comp. the , the barring serpent, of Symmachus).
Job 26:14. A recapitulating closing verse, standing outside of the schema of strophes.Lo, these ( pointing backwards, as in Job 18:21) are the ends of His ways; or, of His way, according to the Kthibh; the same wavering between and to be seen also in Pro 8:22. The ends or borders (Delitzsch) [Conant, Words., etc.,] of Gods ways are the extreme outlines of what He is doing in governing the world, those intimations of His heavenly activity which are lowest, and nearest, and most immediately accessible to our power of apprehension.And what a faintly whispering word (it is) that we hear! , lit. and what a whisper of a word. For this combination of with a substantive in apposition, comp. Psa 30:10; Isa 40:18; and for with of the attentive hearing of anything, see above Job 21:2; also Job 37:2; Gen 27:5; Psa 92:12. Against the partitive rendering of , advocated by Schlott. and Delitzsch, may be urged the plur form , preferred by the Masoretes, as well as the probability that to express this meaning the preposition would rather have been used. [Here again, as in Job 4:12, the incorrect rendering of E. V.: How little a portion is heard of Him, mars the poetic beauty and graphic contrast of the passage. On Wordsworth remarks: We feel as it were a zephyr of Gods Presence walking in the garden of this world in the cool of the day.]But the thunder of His omnipotence (according to the Kri , his energies) who can understand?i. e. the full, unmodified manifestation of His energies, the unsmothered thunder-course of His heavenly spheres (comp. what Raphael says in the Prologue to Faust) would be unbearable by us, frail, sinful children of earth. [Job could not have uttered in nobler language his deep feeling of the degree in which the divine glory surpasses all human knowledge. There resounds in it in truth an echo of the far-off divine thunder itself, and before this the poet has the friends now become entirely dumb. Schlottm.]
DOCTRINAL, ETHICAL AND HOMILETICAL
1. That which Bildad brings forward against Job in Job 25. is so meagre, and possesses so little novelty, that it may be said, that in his discourse the opposition of the friends dies the death of exhaustion, and that the bitter irony of Jobs rejoinder to it seems fully justified. For the real problem which underlies the whole controversythe great mystery touching the frequency with which the innocent suffer, which Job had again set forth so eloquently just beforethat problem Bildad certainly does not consider. He avoids indeed those bitter personalities and odious accusations against Job with which Eliphaz had made his exit just before in a manner that was altogether unworthy, and takes his leave of the sufferer, whom he himself also had heretofore violently assailed, in a way that is relatively friendlyin a way in which the final peaceful termination of the conflict (Job 42:7-9) is remotely intimated. That which Bildad actually brings forward is a truth which does not at all touch the real point at issue, which Job himself has on former occasions expressly conceded (see Job 9:2; Job 14:4), the same truth which Eliphaz had in his first two discourses prominently emphasized, and in the renewed statement of which, at this time, Bildad closely copies even the expressions of his older associate. He only reminds Job of the universal sinfulness of the human race once again, without direct accusation, in order that Job may himself derive from it the admonition to humble himself; and this admonition Job really needs, for his speeches are in many ways contrary to that humility which is still the duty of sinful man, even in connection with the best justified consciousness of right thoughts and actions towards the holy God (Del.).
2. Of the fact that Job is still wanting in proper humility, and in a profound perception of sin, he at once proceeds to give evidence in his rejoinder in Job 26. In this he appears as decisively victorious over his opponents, who have shown themselves totally unequal to the problem to be solved, while he, by his emphatic reference to the incomprehensibleness and unsearchableness of Gods ways, had made at least an important advance towards its solution, and had shown his appreciation of the mystery as such in its entire significance. But he makes his vanquished opponents duly sensible of this superiority which he had over them, when in replying to Bildad, the last speaker of the number, he wields the weapon of sarcasm in a way that is altogether merciless, and seeks to humiliate him by a eulogy of the divine omnipotence and exaltation which is visibly intended to surpass and eclipse that which had been said by him. It is true indeed that this very description in its incomparable grandeur gives us to understand clearly enough how entirely filled and carried away Job is by its infinitely elevated theme, and how by virtue of his flight to this height of an inspired contemplation of God. every thought respecting the unrelenting, or even vindictive persecution of his opponents disappears, so that the closing reference to the unattainable height and glory of the divine nature and activity (Job 26:14) is unaccompanied by any expression whatever of triumphant pride, or bitter enjoyment of their discomfiture (comp. V. Gerlach below, Homiletic Remarks on Job 26:2 seq.). The pure and undivided enthusiasm with which he surrenders himself to the contemplation of the Divine has manifestly an ennobling, purifying, and elevating influence on his spirit. It shows that he is not far removed at length from the goal of a perfectly correct and true solution of the dark mystery which occupies him. It makes it apparent that essentially one thing is lacking to him that he may press upward through the dark scenes of his conflict to the light of pure truth and peace with God, and that isa humble submission beneath the dealings of the only wise and true God, dealings which are righteous even towards him, sincere repentance and confession of the errors and failures of which he had been guilty even during the hot conflict of suffering through which he had passed, that repenting in dust and ashes to which Gods treatment brought him at last, as one who had been afflicted by his Heavenly Father, not indeed in accordance with the ordinary standard of retribution, but nevertheless not unjustly, not without a remedial and loving purpose.
3. That which is of greatest interest in the two short sections preceding not only to the scientific, but also to the practical and homiletic expositor, are those elements of a poetic cosmology and physical theology, which in Bildads discourse are presented more briefly and more in the way of suggestion, but which in that of Job are exhibited in a more developed and comprehensive form. It is that material which at an earlier day was treated by Baur in his Systema Mundi Jobum (Hal. 1707), Scheuchzer in his Jobi Physica Sacra, etc., and which to this day is a theme of no small interest in its theological aspects as well as in those related to cosmology and the history of civilization. The fact that certain mythological representations, and in particular a few traces of astronomical myths, are scattered over this magnificent picture of creation, and that the teachings of modern science concerning the mechanism of the heavens cannot be derived from it, cannot injure the peculiarly high value of the description, nor destroy its utility for practical purposes. It is in any case a view of the universe of incontrovertible grandeur, which in all that is described in Job 26:5-13 beholds only the fringes of Gods glory as they hang over on earth (comp. Isa 6:1), only a few meagre lineaments of the entire divine manifestation, only a muffled murmur echoing from afar off as a poor substitute for the thunder of His omnipotence. And in respect to the purity and correctness of its representations in detail, this physical theology of Job ranks sufficiently high, as is shown by that which is said of hanging the earth upon nothing (Job 26:7), a description of the fact no less surprising than the following descriptions of meteorological and geological processes are poetically bold and elevated.
Particular Passages
Job 25:4 seq. Cocceius: Although in our eyes the stars may seem (to shine with some degree of purity], nevertheless even they are outside of Gods habitation, being esteemed unworthy to adorn His dwelling-place. How therefore can miserable man, who is mortal and diseased and liable to death, who is a son of Adam, who is no worthier than a worm, or a grub, who is made of earth, who crawls on the earth, who lives by the earth, who is at once foul and defiled, who in a word is as far below the stars, as the worm is below himselfhow shall he dare or be able to face God in His court, and on equal terms to argue with Him? Let him, along with the moon and the stars, keep himself in his own station, and he will enjoy Gods favors; but let him attempt to exalt himself, and he will be crushed by the weight of the divine majesty.V. Gerlach: As the hosts of heaven are types of the pure spirits of heaven, so is their brightness a type of the holiness of the inhabitants of heaven, just as immediately after (in Job 26:6) the mortality and wretchedness of man is a type of his sinfulness. In this contra-position there lies a profound truth: Holiness and shining brightness, and sin and deaths corruption correspond to each other. In his frailty and mortality man has an incessant reminder of his sin and corruption; in seeing his outward lot he should humble himself inwardly before God.
Job 26:2-4. Wohlfarth: After that Job has ironically shown to his friend the irrelevancy of his reply; he takes a nobler revenge upon him, by delivering a much worthier eulogy on Gods exalted greatness, of which notwithstanding and during his suffering he has a most vivid and penetrating conviction.V. Gerlach: Jobs frame of mind bordering on pride, which causes him altogether to misunderstand that which is glorious and exalted in Bildads last discourse, belongs to the earthly folly which clings to him, which is to be stripped away from him by the sufferings and conflicts of his inner man, and which does at last really fall away from him. The splendid description which follows, and especially its humble conclusion (Job 26:14), proves in the meanwhile that the fundamental disposition of Jobs heart was different from that which the particular expressions uttered by him in his more despondent moods would seem to indicate.
Job 26:7 seq. Brentius: The fact that God stretches out the heavens, and supports the earth, without the aid of pillars, is a great argument in proof of His power (Psa 102:26). The poets relate that Atlas supports heaven on his shoulders; but we acknowledge the true Atlas, the Lord our God, who by His word supports both heaven and earth.Wohlfarth: The look to heaven which Job here requires us to take, does not indeed reach upwards to the throne of the Eternal (Job 26:7 seq.). But although we cannot now behold Him, who dwells in His inaccessible light, we can nevertheless feel His nearness, recognize His existence, experience His influence, see His greatness and majesty, when we pray to Him as the Being who stretches out the heavens above the earth like a tent, at whose beckoning the clouds open and water the thirsty earth, who has given to the water its bounds, etc. As the work bears witness to its master, so does the universe to its Creator, Preserver, and Ruler (Psa 19:5); and no despairing one has ever beheld the eternal order which stands before him, and its mysterious, but ever beneficent movements, no sinner desiring salvation has ever tarried in the courts of this great temple of God, without being richly dowered with heavenly blessings
Job 26:14. Oecolampadius: These tokens of divine power however great will nevertheless rightly be esteemed small, as being hardly a slight whisper in comparison with the mighty thunder. There is nothing therefore so frightful, but faith will be able to endure it, when it thus exercises itself in the works of Gods power, especially with the word of promise added.Wohlfarth: We can survey only the smallest portion of Gods immeasurable realm! What is the knowledge of the greatest sages but the short-sighted vision of a worm! Our earth is a grain of sand in the All, the drop of a bucket, as the prophet says; and how little do we know of Him; how great is the sum of that which is hidden from us! (1Co 13:9 seq.).
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This Chapter, containing Job’s reply, is but short. The man of Uz seems to intimate, that though Bildad had advanced the truth, yet it was nothing to refute what he had before said. Job beautifully dwells upon the infinite and unsearchable power of God.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
(1) But Job answered and said, (2) How hast thou helped him that is without power? how savest thou the arm that hath no strength? (3) How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? and how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is? (4) To whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee?
The chief purport of Job’s reply, in these words, seems to be directed to convince Bildad, that he had not answered, because he could not contradict what Job had advanced. And if Bildad thought, by what he had said, that he had benefitted GOD’S cause, he was grossly mistaken. But, beside this Job intimated also, that had Bildad been directed of GOD’S SPIRIT, in this discourse, he would not only have taken notice of GOD’S power, but of his grace; and especially as needed so much to be shown to a poor afflicted creature, like Job. Now, said Job (for that seems the subject of his reply) if the SPIRIT of the LORD came to thee on this occasion, thou wouldest have seen how needful it is to comfort an afflicted soul, with spreading before him sweet views of GOD’S love and grace; and not so much of his power, when the heart is before so dreadfully alarmed in the contemplation of his greatness. See a sweet precept to this purport, Isa 40:1-2 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Appearances
Job 26:7
Let us see how oftentimes appearances are false. A great many things seem to be… and are not We think we see; we say, Seeing is believing: but it is not.
It does seem as though the Lord did hang the world or the earth upon nothing. But what if ‘nothing’ be greater than something? It would be like the Bible thus to educate us.
I. Now take an instance or two in illustration of the fact that the Bible often says things which it means to be taken in the contrary way. ‘The children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness’ (Mat 8:12 ). Is it possible that the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness? It is not Then what are we to make of these words? Exactly what the Speaker intended us to make of them; He uses a figure of speech, He Himself is a living parable. That is what we forget; He did not make parables, He was Himself a Parable. What, then, if He always spake in parables? The apparent children of the kingdom, the persons who set up paper claims to be in the family; the persons who professed to be children, and so much professed it as to deny that any other were children except themselves. This was Christ’s way of describing a life of hypocrisy and appearance only, a cloaked life, rottenness clad in purple, pestilence covered with a robe of silk; so-called, self-called children of the kingdom oh, the mockery of that tone as He uttered the words! shall be cast out into outer darkness.
II. Take another instance given by the Apostle Paul himself 1Co 1:21 ; 1Co 1:25 two instances almost in the same line ‘the foolishness of preaching’ and ‘the foolishness of God’. Surely these terms are so startling as to be self-annotating. The meaning is so deeply concealed as to be to spiritual discernment patent and almost glaring. ‘The foolishness of God;’ that is to say, man looking upon the apparatus, says, The whole thing is absolutely impossible; that you should simply send forth men without swords, without purses, almost without sandals to their feet, and hardly a staff to his hand has the apostle, and he is going forth to pull down the empires that are of granite and gold and wrought iron. And he will do it. Things are not what they seem.
III. Then, again, we read in Job 26:11 , ‘The pillars of heaven trembled’. They did nothing of the sort; they looked as if they trembled. It was to indicate a great action on the other side of things; compared with the greater thunder, the immenser energy, it seemed as if the very pillars of heaven trembled, reeled, and would fall; the pillared firmament was rottenness, and earth’s base built on stubble. Nothing of the kind. The geometry of the universe is perfectly safe. But it seemed as if it were so. Ay, that seeming will be the ruin of us all, if we do not take care. ‘There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is death.’
Dozens of these verses could be cited, and if they were set in consolidated array, they would all speak with one voice, saying in effect, Beware of appearances; beware of simulations; beware even of language that seems to be perfectly plain and clear; do not deceive yourselves by probabilities and by phantasmagoria of divers colour and action; always lay hold of the upper wisdom, and in the strength of that co-partnery read even the simplest document which a man sends to you; the signature may be right, but it may be subscribed to a document that is full of grammatical puzzle and contradiction; pray for the discerning mind, the penetrating soul, the all but infallible intuition and instinct.
Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. VII. p. 205.
The Voices of God
Job 26:14
All the billows of trouble had swept over the heart of Job. His riches had taken wings and fled away; his physical strength had become as weakness itself until the grasshopper was a burden; his good name had vanished; the friends that at first praised him remained only to curse. And he bemoaned the silence of God in these hours of trouble. Sooner or later in life we all feel what Job felt stars over us silent; graves under us silent; all the presences around about us all are silent.
I. God’s Effort to Speak to Us. Now I suppose your scholars are right in thinking that some four thousand years have passed away since Job uttered that sentence, and men are a little inclined to believe that Job over-estimated the silence of God, and all our philosophers, and our poets, and our practical men are a little bit in danger in the hour of trouble of thinking that the silence is more marvellous than the speech. And perhaps when we come back again to larger knowledge we must think with Jesus Christ that it is the speech of God that is the wonderful thing that instead of God being the silent one, He is the one Being who has worn His heart upon His sleeve, unrolled all His secrets, and syllables are spoken unto us by ten thousand thousand voices, and that it is man’s ear that is deaf and does not listen to the sweetest voice that was ever heard, that it is man’s eye which is blind to the marvellous writings that are yonder on pages of blue, that it is man’s heart that is dead and utterly inert in the presence of One who is trying to speak unto His children in all these various voices.
II. Our Deafness not God’s Silence. God is the world’s great artist framing Himself forth in the landscapes. God is the world’s great harvest-maker expressing Himself in the fruits and the flowers and the blossoms. God is the first great poet and philosopher and speaker. Patriots, martyrs, poets, statesmen and heroes they all borrow their qualities and heroism from Almighty God, they dim the qualities in borrowing them from God. It is the pathos of God who is speaking that is manifest in our unwillingness to hear. We have forgotten about His voices.
III. God’s Voice in Nature’s Laws. Law is simply God’s way of doing things. The laws of Almighty God are around us, and they express His Divine will, so that when we come to study the great laws of Nature, we know that this is God speaking. When therefore we speak of the sciences we mean a copy of the laws of God. Geology copies God’s handwriting on the pages of His rocks; astronomy copies God’s handwriting and voice on the pages of His stars; physiology copies God’s speech uttered through the human body; psychology it is a copy of the laws of the human intellect; art it is a copy of God’s beautiful thoughts; tools they are God’s useful thoughts organized into terms of steel or iron or wood, and they give us these marvellous textures. These laws of nature through land and sea and sky, through all the fruits, through all that lends us beauty and truth they are the voices of God speaking to us. We never can escape from Him. The angel of His goodness goes before us; the angel of His mercy follows after us. If we have a mind that is sensitive to His overtures of love, then the manifold voices of God in physical nature are, the marvellous fact and event of human life.
N. Dwight Hillis, The Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxiv. 1908, p. 65.
Job 26:14
‘Science,’ observes Herbert Spencer, ‘realizes to us in a way which nothing else can, the littleness of human intelligence in the face of that which transcends human intelligence. While towards the traditions and authorities of men its attitude may be proud, before the impenetrable veil which hides the Absolute, its attitude is humble a true pride and a true humility. Only the sincere man of science (and by this title we do not mean the mere calculator of distances, or analyser of compounds, or labeller of species; but him who through lower truths seeks higher, and eventually the highest) only the genuine man of science, we say, can truly know how utterly beyond, not only human knowledge but human conception, is the Universal Power of which Nature, and Life, and Thought, are manifestations.’
‘He dreamed of the grandeur and presence of God,’ says Victor Hugo of Bishop Myriel in Les Misrables (chap, I.); ‘of future eternity, that strange mystery; of past eternity, that even stranger mystery; of all the infinities that buried themselves before his eyes in all directions; and without seeking to comprehend the incomprehensible, he gazed at it. He did not study God; He was dazzled by Him.’ Say what we can about God, say our best, we have yet, Israel knew, to add instantly: ‘Lo, these are fringes of His ways; but how little a portion is heard of him!’
Matthew Arnold.
Most people with whom I talk, men and women even of some originality and genius, have their scheme of the universe all cut and dried very dry, I assure you, to hear, dry enough to burn, dry-rotted and powder-pest, methinks which they set up between you and them in the shortest intercourse…. The perfect God in His revelations of Himself has never got to the length of one such proposition as you, his prophets, state. Have you learned the alphabet of heaven and can count three? Do you know the number of God’s family? Do you presume to fable of the ineffable? Pray, what geographer are you, that speak of heaven’s topography?
Thoreau, A Week on the Concord.
References. XXVII. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xliv. No. 2557. XXVII. 2. Ibid. XXVII. 5 A. G. Mortimer, The Church’s Lessons, vol. i. p. 165.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Quiet Resting-places
Job 25-27
It is a curious speech with which Bildad winds up the animated colloquy between Job and his three friends. There is a streak of failure across the face of the speech, notwithstanding its dignity. Indeed, the dignity is somewhat against the speech. Bildad is as ignorant of the reality of the case in the peroration as he was in the exordium. If this is all that can be said at the close of such an intellectual and spiritual interview, then some of the parties have grievously misunderstood the case. Taken out of its setting, read as a piece of religious rhetoric, it is good and noble; but regarded in its relations to the particular case throbbing before us with such suffering as man never bore, it seems to be impertinent in its dignity, and to aggravate the wound which the man ought to have attempted to heal. These grand religious commonplaces which Bildad utters are right, they are stately, they are necessary to the completion of the great fabric of theological and spiritual truth; but how to bring them down to the immediate pain, how to extract sympathy from them, how to make all heaven so little that it can come into a broken heart, has not entered into the imagination of this comfortless comforter.
Was there an undertone in his voice, was there anything between the lines in the curious speech with which he concluded the conference?
“How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?” ( Job 25:4 ).
Is there not more than theology in that inquiry? Perhaps not to the consciousness of the speaker himself. Yet we often say things which we do not put into definite words. There is a region of inference in human association, and fellowship, and education. Was the inquiry equal to saying, We have done with thee; we cannot work this miracle of curing thine obstinacy, O thou woman-born; thou art like all the rest of thy face; thou hast thy mother’s obstinacy in thee a stubbornness that nothing can melt, or straighten, or in any wise be rendered manageable: how can he be clean that is born of a woman? how can a man such as thou art, and, indeed, such as we ourselves are, be set right if once wrong in the head and in the heart? Bildad did not say all that in words; yet we may so preach even a gospel discourse as to lead men to think that we have formed but a low opinion of them, and have no expectations as to their graciousness of reply. We may be evangelical, yet critical. We may ask a question in a tone which conveys the reply. Bildad would hurl the stars at Job, and pluck the fair moon that goddess of the dead in Oriental dreaming and throw it at the suffering patriarch, that they might all wallow in a common depravity and corruption a heap of things unclean! We should be careful how we pluck the stars. Better let them hang where God put them, and shine as much as they can upon a land that is often dark. Our little hands were never meant to gather such flowers and present them even as gifts of fragrance to other people. Let us keep steadfastly within our own limits, and talk such medicable and helpful words as we can out of our own sympathetic hearts, measured and toned and adjusted by a mysterious and subtle sympathy.
Now Job becomes the sole speaker. We have now to enter upon a wonderful parable. He has lost nothing of eloquence by all this controversial talk. He speaks the better now he has shaken his comforters from him, and he will deliver a great parable-sermon, apparently miscellaneous, yet not wholly unconnected. The marvellous thing is that this man has lost everything but his mind. Is there a drearier condition on earth, when viewed in one aspect? Do we not sometimes say, Thank God, he was unconscious; he did not know what he was suffering; the medical attendant says he could not feel the pain; his poor mind, his sensibility, quite gone: that is something to be thankful for. We had a kind meaning in that comment. But here is a man whose mind is twice quickened more a mind than it ever was. He feels a shadow; a spirit cannot pass before him without some sign of masonry, without some signal which the too-quickened mind of Job would instantly understand. All gone: the grave all set in order before him: the remembered prosperity hanging like a great cloud all round about him: not a child to touch him into hopefulness of life; not a kind voice to salute him, saying, Cheer thee! the darkest hour is just before the dawn; the angels are getting ready to come to thee on their wings of light, and presently heaven’s own morning will dawn over thee in infinite whiteness and beauty. Yet his mind was left. How eloquent he was! He could set forth his sorrow in something like equivalent words. He knew every pain that was piercing him. The river of his tears hid nothing from him as to the fountains whence they sprang. Is not misery doubled by our sensitiveness as to its presence? Do we not increase our suffering by knowing just what the loss means? This is one of the mysteries of Providence, that a man should have nothing left but his sense of loss; that a man should find himself in a universe of cloud, crying, without even the friendship of an echo to keep him company. To such depths have some men been driven. Do we not thank God for their experience now and again, because it shows us how in comparison our grief is very little, our complaint is not worth utterance, our condition is blessed as compared with their sorrow-stricken hearts? On the other hand, is it not comforting that the man’s mind should have been left? There is something grand even in this agony. A man who could talk as Job talks in this elaborate parable is not poor; his riches are indeed of another kind and quality, but they are riches still. “Oh, to create within the mind is bliss!” To have that marvellous power of withdrawment from all things merely outward, or that more marvellous power of seeing things merely outward as stairways up to celestial places, is to have wealth that can never be lost, so long as we are true to ourselves and anxious to respond to the responsibilities of life with faithfulness and diligence. Thank God for your senses that are left. This is true even in the deepest spiritual experiences. A sorrowing soul says I feel as if I had committed the unpardonable sin. What is the pastor’s answer to such complaint? An instantaneous and gracious assurance to the contrary, because the very feeling that the sin may have been committed is a proof that no such sin has been done. He who has committed the unpardonable sin knows nothing about it; he is a dead man. Who feels the traveller trampling over his grave? Who says, There is a weight upon me, when he is buried seven feet deep in the earth? The very action of sensitiveness is charged with religious significance. When you are groping for God and cannot find him, know that even groping may be prayer; when you are filled with dissatisfaction with your condition, and when you have to betake yourselves even to despised interjections, as Job has had to do now and again, know that even interjection may be theology of the best kind, poetry, prayer, worship. Woe be unto him who would seek in any wise to diminish the hope of souls that feel their need of God.
In all his tumultuous but noble talk Job now and again opens a great door as if in a rock, and enters into a sanctuary perfect in its security; then he comes out again, and plunges into clouds and wintry winds; then suddenly he enters a refuge once more, and praises God in an asylum of rocks; yet he will not abide there: so in all this parable he is in a great refuge and out of it; he is resting upon a pillow made soft by the hands of God, and then he will perversely wander amongst speculations and conjectures and self-criticisms, and come home with head fallen upon his breast, and tears stopping the hymn of praise. This parable is true. Whether spoken in this particular literary form or not, there is not one untrue line in it It is the parable of the earnest soul in all ages, in all lands. It would fit the experience of men who have never heard of the Bible. It is a great human parable. When the Bible itself becomes special its speciality acquires most of its significance from the fact that the larger part of the Bible is itself commonplace that is to say, adapted not to one community or another, but to man in all his conscious want of strength and light and peace.
Job comes as it were suddenly upon an idea which sustains him.
“Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them. He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it. He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end. The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof. He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud. By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent” ( Job 26:6-13 ).
Here at all events is a sense of almightiness, sovereignty, something that can be got hold of. We must beware how we credit Job with true astronomical ideas as to the poising of the north over the empty place, and the hanging of the earth upon nothing. Let us call it Hebrew poetry. We must be careful how we seize any one point even that is exact, and make that too much of an argument, because when we come upon points that are not so applicable how can we refuse their being turned as against the biblical contention? There is no need to make this a merely astronomic discovery: but poetry does sometimes outrun science, and get the truth first of all. The expression may have to be dressed a little, modified somewhat, perhaps lowered in temperature; but even poetry is a child of God. The idea that abides is the conception of the almightiness that keeps things in their places. Who can turn the north into the south? Who can take the earth out of the emptiness which it apparently occupies, and set it upon pillars? On what would the pillars stand? How do the stars keep in their courses? Why is it they do not break away? If heaven should come down upon us we should be crushed: what keeps the great, blue, kind heaven up where it is, as if for our use and enjoyment only? Suppose we cannot tell, that does not deprive us of the consciousness that the heaven is so kept, because there stands the obvious and gracious fact. What, then, has the soul to do in relation to these natural supports, these proofs that somehow things are kept in order and are set to music? The conception coming out of this view is a conception of omnipotence. The soul is intended to reason thus: Who keeps these things in their places has power to guide my poor little life; whatever ability it was that constructed the heavens, it is not wanting in skill and energy in the matter of building up my poor life into shapeliness and utility; I will, therefore, worship here if I cannot go further; I will say, O Great Power, be thy name what it may, take me up into thy plan of order and movement; make me part of the obedient universe: art thou deaf? canst thou speak? I know not, but it does me good to cry in the dark and to tell thee, if thou canst hear, that I want to be part of the living economy over which thou dost preside. Disdain no pagan prayer. No prayer, indeed, is pagan in any sense that deserves contempt. Our first prayers have sometimes been our best; blurred with tears, choked or interrupted with penitential sobbing, they have yet told the heart’s tale in a way which could be understood by the listening Love, which we call by the name of God sometimes by the name of Father. Seize then the idea of Omnipotence; it covers all other conceptions; it is the base-line of all argument; it gives us a starting thought. Do not be particular about giving a name to it, or defining it; enter into the consciousness of the reality of such a Power, and begin there to pray at least to stumble in prayer.
Then Job utters a word which will be abiding in its significance and in its comfort
“Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?” ( Job 26:14 ).
The man who said that was not left comfortless. Sometimes in our very desolateness we say things so deep and true as to prove that we are not desolate at all, if we were only wise enough to seize the comfort of the very power which sustains us. He who has a great thought has a great treasure. A noble conception is an incorruptible inheritance. Job’s idea is that we hear but a whisper. Lo: this is a feeble whispering: the universe is a subdued voice; even when it thunders it increases the whisper inappreciably as to bulk and force: all that is now possible to me, Job would say, is but the hearing of a whisper; but the whisper means that I shall hear more by-and-by; behind the whispering there is a great thundering, a thunder of power; I could not bear it now; the whisper is a gospel, the whisper is an adaptation to my aural capacity; it is enough, it is music, it is the tone of love, it is what I need in my littleness and weariness, in my initial manhood. How many controversies this would settle if it could only be accepted in its entirety! We know in part, therefore we prophesy in part; we see only very little portions of things, therefore we do not pronounce an opinion upon the whole; we hear a whisper, but it does not follow that we can understand the thunder. There is a Christian agnosticism. Why are men afraid to be Christian agnostics? Why should we hesitate to say with patriarchs and apostles, I cannot tell, I do not know; I am blind, and cannot see in that particular direction; I am waiting? What we hear now is a whisper, but a whisper that is a promise. We must let many mysteries alone. No candle can throw a light upon a landscape. We must know just what we are and where we are, and say we are of yesterday, and know nothing when we come into the presence of many a solemn mystery. Yet how much we do know! enough to live upon; enough to go into the world with as fighting men, that we may dispute with error, and as evangelistic men, that we may reveal the gospel. They have taken from us many words which they must bring back again. When Rationalism is restored amongst the stolen vessels of the Church, Agnosticism also will be brought in as one of the golden goblets that belong to the treasure of the sanctuary. We, too, are agnostics: we do not know, we cannot tell; we cannot turn the silence into speech, but we know enough to enable us to wait. Amid all this difficulty of ignorance we hear a voice saying, What thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter: I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now: if it were not so, I would have told you, as if to say, I know how much to tell, and when to tell it. Little children, trust your Lord.
Now Job gathers himself together again, and coming out in an attitude of noble gracious strength, he says
“I will teach you by the hand of God: that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal” ( Job 27:11 ).
Who is it that proposes to teach? Actually the suffering man himself. The suffering man must always become teacher. Who can teach so well? Now he begins to see a new function in life. Hitherto he has been “my lord.” He says, I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame: when I passed by the elders rose up and saluted me, and young men fled from my path: I was a prince amongst men. The talk was indeed haughty, as became a fine sheik, a gentleman of Eastern lands, overloaded with estates; but now, having passed through all this sorrow, he says, “I will teach you.” Not only so, “I will teach you by the hand of God.” Sorrow is always eloquent True suffering is always expository, as well as comforting. Have we not seen that there are many chapters of the Bible which a prosperous man cannot read? He can spell them, parse them, pronounce the individual words correctly, but he cannot read them, round them into music, speak them with the eloquence of the heart, utter them with his soul; because they can only be read by the lame and the blind, and the sorrow-laden and the poor: but oh, how they can read them! Keep away the rhetorician from the twenty-third Psalm; the fourteenth chapter of John; the Lord’s Prayer. For a man who knows nothing but words to read such passages is blasphemy. Sometimes they cannot be read aloud; they can only be read to the heart by the heart itself. So it is with preaching. Here it is that the older man has a great advantage over the young man. Not that the young man should be deprived of an opportunity of speaking in the time of zeal and prophetic hopefulness. Nothing of the kind. The young man has a work to do, but there are some texts which he must let alone for a good many years; they do not yet belong to him; when he reaches his majority then he will have his property, so to say, given to him, and he can use it in harmony with the donor’s will. The young man must be zealous, perhaps efflorescent, certainly enthusiastic, occasionally somewhat eccentric and even wild: but was not Paul himself sometimes a fool in glorying? He would have been a less apostle if he had been a more careful man. He plunged into the great work; he leaped into it, and seemed to say to the sea, O sea, thyself teach me how to swim, that I may come right again to the shore. So we need the young, ardent, fearless, enthusiastic, chivalrous; but at the same time who can teach like the man who has suffered most? He knows all the weight of agony, all the load of grief, all the loneliness of bereavement He tells you how deep was the first grave he dug. Then you begin to think that your grief was not quite so deep as his. He has lost wife, or child, or friend, or property, or health, or hope. He tells how the battle went, how cold the wind was, how tempestuous the storm, how tremendous the foe, how nearly once he was lost, and was saved as by the last and supreme miracle of God. As he talks, you begin to take heart again; from providence you reason to redemption; and thus by help of the suffering teacher the soul revives, and God’s blessing comes upon the life. Young persons should be patient with men who are talking out of the depths of their experience. It is sometimes difficult to sit and hear an older man talk about life’s battles and life’s sorrows, when to the young hearer life is a dream, a holiday, a glad recreation; the ear full of the music of chiming bells, wedding metal clashing out its nuptial music to the willing wind to be carried everywhere, a gospel of festivity and joy. We would not chill you, we would not shorten the feast by one mouthful; but the flowers that bedeck the table are plucked flowers, and when a flower is plucked it dies.
Sorrowing men, broken hearts, souls conscious of loss and desolation, the story of the patriarchs will be lost upon us if we do not apply it to ourselves as a balm, a cordial, a gospel intended for our use and privilege. Risk it all by taking the comfort. But are we worthy of the comfort? Do not attempt too much analysis. There are some things by which analysis is resisted; they say, If you thus take us to pieces you will lose the very thing we meant to convey to you. We have heard of the patience of Job, we have listened to his colloquies with his friends, and seen how they have been puzzled and bewildered; Job has now come into the parabolical period of speech: presently another voice will come across the whole scene a young voice, bell-like in tone, incisive; a young man who will take up another tone of talk altogether, and then the great whirlwind platform will be erected, and from its lofty heights there will come a tempest of questions; then will come the long eventide quiet, solemn, more hopeful than a morning dawn. Meanwhile, at this point, here is the feast of comfort. The suffering man says, We only know a part, we only hear a whisper: the great thunder has not yet broken upon us because we are not prepared for it. Let us stand in this, that God is working out a great plan, and must not be interrupted in the continuance of his labour, in the integrity of his purpose. O mighty, gracious, miracle-working Son of God, help us to wait!
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
(See the Job Book Comments for Introductory content and general conclusions and observations).
VII
THE THIRD ROUND OF SPEECHES
Job 22-26.
Eliphaz’s third speech consists of three parts: Job 22:1-4 ; Job 22:5-20 ; Job 22:21-30 .
The subject of part one (Job 22:1-4 ) is: God’s dealings with men not for selfish interests, And the main points are:
1. A man who is wise may be profitable to himself, but not to God.
2. Man’s happiness cannot add to God’s happiness, because that resides in himself.
3. Man’s piety does not provoke affliction from God, for he does not fear man nor is he jealous of man. The subject of part two (Job 22:5-20 ) and the status of the case in general, are expressed thus:
Your wickedness is the cause of your suffering. For the first time Eliphaz now leaves insinuations, intimations, and generalities, and, in response to Job’s repeated challenge comes to specifications, which he cannot know to be true and cannot’ prove. This is the difficult part of all prosecutions, viz: to specify and to prove) as the Latin proverb expresses it: Hie labor, hoc opus est. The breakdown of Eliphaz on this point prepares the way for Job’s speedy triumph. Bildad dares not follow on the same line; all the wind is taken out of his sails; he relapses into vague generalities and with lame brevity repeats himself. Zophar who has the closing speech of the prosecution, is so completely whipped, that he makes no rejoinder. It is a tame windup of a great discussion, confessing advertising defeat.
The specifications of Eliphaz’s charges against Job are:
l. Thou hast taken pledges of thy brother for nought (Job 22:6 a). (For the heinousness of this offense see later legislation, viz: Exo 22:26 ; Deu 24:6 ; Deu 24:17 ; and the reference in Eze 18:16 .)
2. Thou hast stripped the naked of their clothing (Job 22:6 b).
3. Thou hast withheld water and bread from the famishing, and all this when thou hadst the earth and wast honorable in it (Job 22:7-8 ).
4. Thou hast refused the pleadings of necessitous widows and robbed helpless orphans [See Job’s final pathetic and eloquent reply in Job 31 , where he sums up the case and closes the defense], therefore snares, fear, and darkness have come upon thee like a flood of waters (Job 22:9-11 ).
5. These were presumptuous and blasphemous sins because you argued that God could not see you, denying his omniscience (Job 22:12-14 ).
6. You have imitated the antediluvians who, ungrateful for divine mercies, bade God depart and denied his power and who therefore were swallowed up by the flood becoming an object lesson to future ages and a joy to the righteous (Job 22:15-20 ). (Cf. 2Pe 2:4-15 and Jud 1:6-16 .)
The passage, Job 22:21-30 , consists of an exhortation and a promise. The items of the exhortation, and the implication of each are as follows:
1. Acquaint thyself with God (Job 22:21 ), which implies Job’s ignorance of him.
2. Accept his law and treasure it up in thy heart (Job 22:22 ), which implies Job’s enmity against God.
3. Repent and reform (Job 22:23 ), which implies wickedness in Job.
4. Cease worshiping gold and let God be the object of thy worship (Job 22:24 ), implying that he was covetous.
The items of the promise are:
1. God, not gold, shall be thy treasure and delight and his worship thy joy (Job 22:25-26 ).
2. Thy prayers will be heard and thy vows accepted (Job 22:27 ).
3. Thy purposes will be accomplished and thy way illumined (Job 22:28 ).
4. Thou shall hope for uplifting when cast down and thy humility will secure divine interposition (Job 22:29 ).
5. Thou shall even deliver guilty men through thy righteousness (Job 22:30 ). [Cf. Gen 18:25-32 ; ten righteous men would have saved Sodom; but compare Eze 14:14 ; Eze 14:20 and Jer 15:1 ; see also Job’s reply in Job 31 .] The items of Job’s reply as it applies to his particular case (Job 23:1-24:12 ) are:
1. Even yet my complaint is accounted rebellion by men though my hand represses my groaning (Job 23:2 ).
2. “Oh that I could now get the case before God himself he would deliver me forever, but I cannot find him, though he finds me” (Job 3:10 a).
3. When he has fully tried me, as gold is tested by fire, I shall be vindicated, for my life has been righteous (Job 23:10-12 ). [This is nearly up to Rom 8:28 ,]
4. But his mind, in continuing my present trouble though I am innocent, is immutable by prayers and his purpose to accomplish in me what he desires is inflexible (Job 23:13-14 ).
5. This terrifies me, because I am in the dark and unheard (Job 23:15-17 ).
6. Why are there not judgment days in time, so that those that know him may meet him? (Job 24:1 ).
7. Especially when there are wicked people who do all the things with which I am falsely charged, whom he regards not
The items of broad generalization in this reply are as follows Here Job passes from his particular case to a broad generalization of providential dealings and finds the same inexplicable problems]:
1. There are men who remove land marks, i.e., land stealers (Job 24:2 ). (Cf. Deu 19:14 ; Deu 27:17 ; and Hos 5:10 ; also Henry George vs. Land Ownership in severally and limitations of severally ownership when it becomes a monopoly), so that it shuts out the people from having a home. (See Isa 5:8 .)
2. There are those who openly rob the widow and orphan and turn the poor away so that they have to herd as wild asses and live on the gleanings from nature (Job 24:3-8 ).
3. There are those who pluck the fatherless from the mother’s breast for slaves and exact the clothing of the poor for a pledge, so that though laboring in the harvest they are hungry, and though treading the wine press they are thirsty (Job 24:9-11 ).
4. In the city men groan, the wounded cry out in vain for help and God regardeth not the folly (Job 24:12 ).
5. These are rebels against light, yet it is true that certain classes are punished: (1) the murderer; (2) the thief; (3) the adulterer (Job 24:13-17 ).
6. The grave gets all of them, though God spares the mighty for a while and if it is not so, let some one prove me a liar and my speech worth nothing (Job 24:18-25 ).
In Bildad’s reply to Job (Job 25 ) he ignores Job’s facts; repeats a platitude, How should man, impure and feeble, born of a woman, a mere worm, be clean before the Almighty in whose sight the moon and stars fade?
Job’s reply to Bildad is found in Job 26:1-4 , thus:
1. Thou hast neither helped nor saved the weak.
2. Thou hast not counseled them that have no wisdom.
3. Thou hast not even done justice to what is known.
4. To whom have you spoken, and who inspired you?
Job excels Bildad in speaking of God’s power (Job 26:5-14 ), the items of which are:
1. The dead tremble beneath the waters and the inhabitants thereof before him.
2. Hell and destruction are naked to his sight. [Cf. “Lord of the Dead,” Mat 22:32 and other like passages.]
3. The northern sky is over space and the suspended earth hangeth on nothing.
4. The clouds hold water and are not rent by it; his own throne is hidden by the cloud spread upon it.
5. A boundary is fixed to the waters and a horizon to man’s vision, even unto the confines of darkness.
6. The mountains shake and the pillars tremble, yet he quells the raging storm.
7. These are but the outskirts and whispers of his ways and we understand his whisper better than we understand his thunder.
Two things are worthy of note here, viz:
1. Job was a martyr, vicarious, he suffered for others.
2. Job’s sufferings were a forecast of the suffering Messiah as Abraham was of the suffering Father. So far, we have found:
1. That good men often suffer strange calamities while evil men often prosper.
2. That the sufferings of the righteous come from intelligence, power, and malice, and so, too, the prosperity of the wicked comes from supernatural power as well.
3. That man cannot solve the problem without a revelation, and the suffering good man needs a daysman, and an advocate.
4. That before one can comprehend God, God must become a man, or be incarnated.
5. That there must be a future, since even and exact Justice is not meted out here.
6. That there is a final judgment, at which all will be rewarded for what they do.
7. That there must be a resurrection and there must be a kinsman redeemer.
Many things were not understood at that time, such as the following:
1. That Satan’s power was only permitted, he being under the absolute control of God.
2. That suffering was often disciplinary and, as such, was compensated.
3. That therefore the children of God should glory in them, as in the New Testament light of revelation Paul understood all this and gloried in his tribulation.
4. That the wicked were allowed rope for free development and that they were spared for repentance. Peter in the New Testament gives us this light.
5. That there is a future retribution; that there are a heaven and a hell.
6. That this world is the Devil’s sphere of operation as it relates to God’s people.
QUESTIONS
1. Of what does Eliphaz’s third speech consist?
2. What the subject of part one (Job 22:1-4 ) and its main points?
3. What the subject of part two (Job 22:5-20 ) & in general, what the status of case?
4. What the specifications of Eliphaz’s charge against Job?
5. Of what does Job 22:21-30 consist?
6. What the items of the exhortation, and what the implication of each?
7. What the items of the promise?
8. What the items of Job’s reply as it applies to his particular case (Job 23:1-17 )?
9. What the items of broad generalization in this reply?
10. What was Bildad’s reply to Job (Job 25 )?
11. What Job’s reply to Bildad?
12. In what does Job excel Bildad (Job 26:5-14 ) and what the items?
13. What two things are worthy of note here?
14. So far, what have we found?
15. What was not understood at that time?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Job 26:1 But Job answered and said,
Ver. 1. But Job answered and said ] Bildad had vexed him with his impertinence and superfluous discourses of God’s attributes, as if Job had denied them or doubted of them, which was far from him, witness this chapter. He therefore rippleth up Bildad with a continued smart irony in the three next following verses, letting loose the reins to his justly conceived grief and indignation, and invading his adversary with these sharp questions by way of wonderment.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job Chapter 26
Job answers (Job 26 ), and certainly with quite sufficient keenness, “How hast thou helped him that is without power? How savest thou the arm that hath no strength? “He was like the poor publican, the tax-gatherer. “How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? And how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is? To whom hast thou uttered words?” He was talking in the air. “And whose spirit came from thee?” Now he showed that he entered into God’s dominion far more fully and extensively than Bildad had admitted. “Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing” – a very remarkable anticipation of modern discovery. “He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them” – i.e., whether it be the little rain or the great rain, all is under God’s control. “He holdeth back the face of his throne,” etc., etc. (vers. 8-13). “Lo these are parts of his ways” – they are only the fringes of his ways, which would give the idea – “but how little a portion is heard of him?” It is only the whisper that we hear now – “but the thunder of his power” – ah I that is reserved for the day of judgment – “who can understand?”
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
answered = replied [to Bildad]. See note on Job 4:1.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 26
So Job answers now this little saying of Bildad. It’s his third and final answer to Job, and it’s really nothing.
Job answered and said, How have you helped him that is without power? how can you save me with an arm that has no strength? How have you counseled him who has no wisdom? how have you really declared the thing as it really is? To whom have you uttered your words? and whose spirit came from you? Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering. He stretched out the north over an empty place, and hangs the earth upon nothing ( Job 26:1-7 ).
Interesting statement, indeed, in that Job is one of the oldest books in the Bible, probably as old as the book of Genesis, maybe even older; it could have been written before Genesis. And Job declares that God hangs the earth upon nothing. Now compare that with the scientific theories of those days, the men of science in those days. The wise men had drawn pictures of the earth being held up by an elephant. Now I don’t know what he was standing on. Or Atlas holding up the earth. But Job declares he hung it on nothing. Interesting indeed.
He binds up the waters in the thick clouds; and the clouds do not tear under them ( Job 26:8 ).
Now, how much water is contained in a cloud? And Job says, “Hey, He’s got all that water bound up in the cloud and yet the cloud doesn’t tear.” Yet there is not much substance to a cloud, you can run your hand right through it. But yet He can hold all that water there in the cloud.
He holds back the face of his throne, and spreads his cloud upon it. He has compassed the waters with bounds [the oceans, he has set the boundaries for the oceans], until the day and night come to an end. The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof. He divides the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smites through the proud. And by his Spirit he has garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent. Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand? ( Job 26:9-14 ) “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Job 26:1-4
Job 26
JOB’S NINTH SPEECH:
JOB’S EVALUATION OF HIS FRIENDS’ “CONSOLATIONS”
Job 26:1-4
“Then Job answered, and said,
How hast thou helped him who is without power!
How hast thou saved the arm that hath no strength!
How hast thou counseled him that hath no wisdom,
And plentifully declared sound knowledge!
To whom hast thou uttered words?
And whose spirit came forth from thee?”
Our interpretation of this passage is that it is an ironic and sarcastic rejection by Job of his friends’ inability to bring him any consolation whatever. We believe that all of the opening clauses here are interrogatives and should be followed by question marks.
“Whose spirit came forth from thee?” (Job 26:4). Driver gave the meaning here as, “You are comforting me with words you have plagiarized.” Kelly agreed with this, writing that, “Job implies that Bildad’s speech is not his own view, that he parrots another, or is repeating what some evil spirit has told him.”
E.M. Zerr:
Job 26:1-2. This is the beginning of Job’s speech of 6 chapters. The three friends have been given turns to argue against him. Here we have the wonderful spectacle of three healthy men, in possession of all their faculties and blessings, taking turns attacking one man. This one man was unaided and was compelled to talk against the 3 men while he was overwhelmed with disease and stinging from the loss of family and property. But he was strong in the righteousness of his cause. In this long speech Job will give us many truths, not only such as will directly concern the issue between him and the three friends, but will be instructive for all of us. Much of the speech will be on the goodness and greatness of God.
Job 26:3-4. The language is in question form but is intended to be positive as declaring the greatness of God.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
We come next to Job’s answer. The reply to Bildad occupies but one chapter, which is characterized from beginning to end by scorn for the man who had no more to say. In a series of fierce exclamations Job revealed the impotence of all that his friend had said to help him. Then, to show the poverty of Bildad’s argument, he spoke of the greatness of God to prove that he knew it, and even more perfectly than his friends. God’s power is exercised in the underworld. The “shades tremble,” the grave “is naked,” destruction has “no covering.” The whole material fabric is upheld simply by His power. The mysteries of controlled waters, and light and darkness are in the sphere of His government. The sweeping storm and its disappearance are alike by His power and spirit. Having thus, in almost overwhelming poetic beauty, suggested his consciousness of the greatness and government of God, Job declared that all these things are but the “outskirts of His ways,” that, after all, everything that man is conscious of is but “a whisper” of God. The “thunder of His power” evidently is beyond human comprehension.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
The Outskirts of His Ways
Job 26:1-14
Job taunts Bildad with his reply as having imparted no help or thought. He then proceeds, Job 26:5-14, to give a description of Gods power as manifested in Hades, in space, in the clouds, in the ocean, and throughout the universe. The spirits of the dead tremble before Him; the grave and destruction that veil themselves in night are stripped before His gaze; the world itself is suspended in space by invisible threads (a wonderful foreshadowing of the true theory of the earth); the waters are held in the clouds, which do not burst under their weight but act as the veil of Gods throne; the sea owns His authority, hushing under His word or rising in its might; His breath brings the dawn; His hand strangles the dragon, as representing a well-known constellation, Draco. But these are only the outskirts of His ways. Great as is their acclaim as they circle His throne in thunder and splendor, they are but as a whisper compared with His divine power and Godhead. All that the scientist has known of God is, when compared with His essential nature, what the quiver of a leaf in the breeze is to the crash of the thunder-peal. This, O child of God, is thy Father, and His power is for thy defense.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Job 26:14
The mutual relations of physical science and religious faith.
If it were possible for a solitary man to become the absolute master of all the provinces of physical science, he would be acquainted with only one realm of the Divine activity. Revelation has to do with departments of truth of which physical science can tell us nothing. Physical science is the ally, not the rival, of the Christian faith.
I. Physical science is a discovery of the working out of God’s thoughts where God’s will is absolute. Revelation discloses the principles on which God governs a race every individual of which is invested with the mysterious and awful power of resisting God’s authority. If physical science had reached the farthest limits of her true province, her glorious discoveries would include only “parts” of God’s ways; and after all she could tell us, we should still say, “How little a portion is heard of Him!”
II. The discoveries of astronomy and geology have effected a revolution in our estimate of man’s position in the universe. We know now that our own world is insignificant in size and subordinate in position compared with thousands of those shining orbs which fill the abysses of space with their glory. It is therefore felt to be improbable, almost incredible, that man should have attracted the special regard of the infinite Creator of all things; his position is too obscure to render that at all likely. But what has the human soul to do with the magnitude of the material universe, and with the long procession of ages which preceded the appearance of our race in this world? Whatever you may tell me about the mere physical magnitude of other worlds, I reply that I am conscious of a relationship to the God who created them which makes me sure that I am dearer to His heart than all the splendours of the material universe.
III. Again, constant familiarity with the perfect order of God’s physical creation originates a tendency to ignore the real character and significance of human sin. There is a natural inclination to regard sin as a necessary element in the development of the human race. This is another false bias derived from the predominance of the scientific spirit. It is false, because it does not recognise the essential difference between those provinces of thought in which it originates and all speculations concerning the moral life and destiny of mankind. In every region of the material universe, “whatever is is right;” but in the moral universe, if we may trust our own consciences and the universal judgment of the race, very many things are miserably wrong.
IV. With regard to miracles, physical science has no right to give the mind any bias whatever until it is determined whether or no we have in the New Testament the genuine and honest testimony of the friends of Christ; up to that point the whole investigation belongs to the province of historical criticism. But if it be proved, as I deliberately think it has been, that impregnable evidence sustains the good faith of the Christian records, physical science may be, and should be, appealed to to determine whether under any conceivable conditions natural phenomena could have happened which would account for men of ordinary intelligence supposing that Christ wrought supernatural wonders of the kind ascribed to Him in the four Gospels.
V. I have no fear that the splendours of physical science will make the crown of the Christian faith pale and wax dim. Let them stand before the world side by side, and let them both tell all they have to communicate concerning the nature of man and the achievements of God.
R. W. Dale, Discourses on Special Occasions, p. 285.
References: Job 26-S. Cox, Commentary on Job, p. 326. Job 27:5.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. viii., p. 351. Job 27:8-10.-Ibid., vol. xii., p. 9. Job 27:10.-Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 133. Job 27-S. Cox, Commentary on Job, pp. 336, 342.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 26Jobs Reply
1. A sarcastic beginning (Job 26:1-4)
2. Job also knows and can speak of the greatness of God (Job 26:5-14)
Job 26:1-4. You have helped me greatly, Bildad, me, who am without power. Whom dost thou instruct anyway? And what kind of a spirit is it which speaks through thee? In other words he means to say, I have no more use for your argument at all.
Job 26:5-14. But let me, Bildad, tell you something about the greatness of God before which your words pale into nothing. And so he utters a description of Gods greatness which is indeed greater than Bildads. And after this sublime unfolding of Gods greatness and power, he truthfully says:
Lo, these are but the outlines of His ways
A whisper only do we hear of Him
But who can comprehend the thunder of His power?
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Reciprocal: Job 15:3 – he reason
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 26:1. But Job answered and said Job, finding his friends quite driven from their strong hold, and reduced to give up the argument, now begins to triumph, Job 26:2-3. He tells them, if the business was to celebrate the power and wisdom of the Almighty, he could produce as many shining instances of it as they could; but, at the same time, he intimates that their behaviour was mean, after so great a parade of wisdom as they had exhibited, to shelter themselves at last behind the power of God, rather than generously give up an argument which they were unable to maintain, and acquit him of a suspicion which they were not capable of supporting by a conviction. Heath.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 26:5. Dead things, ha-raphaim, the raphaim are formed from under the waters. SCHULTENS reads, Manes orcinorum intremiscunt, de subter aquis, et la habitatores eorum. The manes of the dead tremble or howl beneath the waters, with their inhabitants; that is, the fallen angels, who inhabit those abodes of horror. Jobs allusion is to the antediluvian giants, the impious scoffers at the ark in the days of Noah. So is the running gloss of the rabbins, and of the christian fathers. The word raphaim determines the sense. We find it put for hell, Pro 2:18; Pro 9:18. Isa 14:9.
The critics admit the poets here, as collateral evidence. Homer, in his Odyssey, book 12., represents the Syrens as alluring the mariners to the rocks of shipwreck and death. They are described to us as women in their superior formation, and as fishes in their posterior, with wings. They are daughters of the river Acheloiis; and had their residence on the Pelorian promontory in the Isle of Sicily.
Rapidis Achelodes alis Sublatae, Siculi latus obsedere Pelori. CLAUDIAN 50. 3. 5:254.
Bochart derives their name from sir, which designates song. Ulysses escaped the charms of the Syrens, by lying down on a mat, and closing his ears, and the ears of his companions with cakes of wax; and at the same time he tied up the helm so as to make the vessel steer the opposite way. To this idea we add, that the noise of the breakers on the rocks Sylla are compared to the yawning caverns of Erebus, and the howlings of a lions whelp, bereft of his dam, exciting terror even to the gods.
Virgil also, in the sixth book of the neid, represents the giants, the children or young brood of Titania, as hurled down from the earth by the thunderbolts of Jove, and involved in the depths of hell.
Hic genus antiquum terr, Titania pubes, Fulmine dejecti, fundo voluntur in imo.
Job 26:8. He bindeth up the waters, by the laws of gravity, which with the exactest precision sport their tides on the shores. He elevates the vapours in vesicles, which water the plains, and descend on the mountain ranges in copious showers. This beautiful figure is frequently referred to in the sacred writings. Psa 33:7. Pro 30:4.
Job 26:11. The pillars of heaven tremble, by subterranean convulsions, by hurricanes and thunder in the air.
Job 26:12. He divideth the sea. Gen 1:7-9. The passage of the Hebrews through the red sea, was posterior to the time of Job.
Job 26:13. He hath garnished the heavens, with suns and stars, and formed the crooked serpent. The zodiac is described in chap. 9.; but the serpent in our modern celestial globes is not thought to be referred to here. Most critics think that the milky way is here intended, being an irregular extension of light in the starry heavens, pointing towards the south west. In this luminous tract, our planetary discoveries have mostly been made.
REFLECTIONS.
Job, like the palmtree, rises the more after depression. He opens his reply to Bildad with all the superiority of majestic satire. Thou art deficient in describing the grandeur of God. He reigns not in heaven alone, but also in hell. There he binds the rebel giants in chains of darkness. He has formed all the shining spheres, which revolve, and illuminate the vast expanse, and holds them in the hollow of his hand. He balances the earth on her pole to give day and night, and to change the seasons of the year. He walks through the vi lacte, treading the trackless paths of light. Lo, these are but a small part of his ways.Lord, what then is man, that thou art mindful of him; or the son of man that thou shouldest visit him!
While Thee, all infinite, I set
By faith before my ravished eye,
My weakness bends beneath the weight,
Oerpowered I sink, I faint, I die. C. WESLEY.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 26:2-4. Beginning of Jobs Reply to Bildad.He speaks sarcastically of the helpfulness and instructiveness of Bildads speech. He must have been inspired (Job 26:4)!
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
BILDAD’S WORDS FUTILE IN JOB’S CASE
(vv.1-4)
Job begins a reply that continues through six chapters, and his friends are totally silenced. His language is amazing, specially considering the length of his discourse. He asks Bildad, “How have you helped him who is without power?” (v.2). For Job fully admitted his utter weakness in the face of his sufferings, and what he needed was help, not condemnation. If it was true that Job lacked wisdom (as Bildad intimated), where was there any wise counsel in Bildad’s words? Job admitted that he did not know why God was dealing with him as He did, but his friends gave false answers to this question, so their advice was totally unsound.
“To whom have you uttered words?” (v.4). They would say they were speaking to Job, but their words were really not for him at all, but for an evil person. “And whose spirit came from you?” For Job did not consider that it was the Spirit of God who was moving Bildad.
GOD RULING IN THE DEPTHS
(vv.5-6)
Bildad had spoken of God’s greatness, but Job goes far beyond him in giving such honour to God. He speaks of various spheres in which God’s greatness is seen, beginning here with those in death and under the water. This is the sphere of “things under the earth” spoken of in Php 2:10. They tremble before God. Sheol (the state of souls and spirits as separated from their bodies) is naked before Him, in contrast to our own ignorance of those in Sheol. The state of destruction is chaos to us, but it is laid bare before God in its actual condition. He is superior to what is low and infernal.
HIS AUTHORITY IN THE HEAVENS
(v.7)
Though in contrast to the depths, the heights are also in the hand of God. “He stretches out the north over the empty space.” Had astronomers in Job’s time observed that in the north there is a large space in which no stars are observable? We understand it is common knowledge among astronomers now. “He hangs the earth upon nothing.” Mythology had all sorts of foolish explanations as to how the earth is sustained. But Job’s assertion is perfectly accurate, as science has confirmed since his day What amazing power must be involved in God’s maintaining the earth it its orbit, and all the planets and stars!
CLOUDS AND WATERS ARE IN HIS CONTROL
(vv.8-10)
Here is God’s amazing power seen also in His drawing up waters and binding them in clouds (v.8). Tremendous amounts of water are contained in clouds, yet the clouds are not broken through this, – until of course the time comes for God to release the water in rain upon the earth. In recent times we have heard of as much as three feet of rain coming as a deluge on earth in one day! How that rain was sustained in clouds until the time of its release is an astounding miracle.
Clouds too are symbolical of the obscurity by which the throne of God is covered (v.9). Psa 97:2 tells us, “Clouds and darkness surround Him: righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.”
In verse 10, another version speaks of “the dim verge of the horizon” as being the boundary of light and darkness. This is “on the face of the waters.” If one looks across the sea, the horizon appears to be a boundary beyond which all seems dark. Thus the greatness of God faces men with marvellous mysteries that awaken many questions that human wisdom cannot answer.
THE EARTH AND THE SEA
(vv.11-12)
The term, “the pillars of heaven” evidently refers to the earth with its great mountains reaching toward heaven, pillars that often tremble when an earthquake strikes with its awesome demonstration of the power of God.
That power is seen in the sea also when it is stirred by fierce winds. Even on the small “Sea of Galilee” the disciples were filled with fear of being overwhelmed by the storm (Mar 4:27-38), and the oceans experience far greater storms than Galilee. But if such storms awaken both fear and awe at the power of God, God’s rapid breaking up of the storm is also a cause of wondering awe (v.12). The disciples of the Lord Jesus found this too when “He arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.” (Mar 4:39).
SUPREME IN HEAVEN
(v.13)
“By His Spirit He adorned the heavens.” We surely know this is true today God, by His Spirit, raised the Lord Jesus from death and set Him at His own right hand in glory. Heaven is therefore adorned with the glories of One who has won the victory over sin and death. Not that Job was thinking of this adornment, but God had it in mind from eternity “His hand pierced the fleeing serpent.” Satan conceived the notion of ascending into heaven and being “like the Most High” (Isa 14:13-14), but the Most High pierced this proud serpent with a word of solemn conviction. God alone rules in heaven.
But though Job has far outdone Bildad in declaring God’s glory, he adds, “indeed, these are mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him.” In contrast to that small whisper, Job asks, “but the thunder of His power who can understand?” (v.14). Does it not put us all in our place?
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
4. Job’s third reply to Bildad chs. 26-27
Job’s long speech here contrasts strikingly with Bildad’s short preceding speech (ch. 25). In the first of these two chapters, Job addressed his remarks to Bildad’s most recent comments. In the second, he broadened his view to include all three of his companions. The "you" in Job 26:2-4 is singular in Hebrew, but the "you" in Job 27:5 is plural.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Job’s denunciation of Bildad’s wisdom ch. 26
"Chapter 26 is one of the grandest recitals in the whole book. It is excelled only by the Lord’s speeches, as is fitting. It sounds well in Job’s mouth, and ends the dialogue, like the first movement of a symphony, with great crashing chords." [Note: Andersen, p. 216.]
Job began by rebuking Bildad’s attitude (Job 26:1-4). Sarcastically he charged Bildad with the same weakness and inability Bildad had attributed to all men (Job 26:2-3). Bildad’s words were not profound but quite superficial (Job 26:4).
"These verses contain Job’s harshest rejection of a friend’s counsel." [Note: Hartley, p. 362.]
Next, Job picked up the theme of God’s greatness that Bildad had introduced (Job 26:5-14). Some commentators have understood this pericope to be the words of Bildad or Zophar. However, the lack of textual reference to either Bildad or Zophar, plus the content of the section, which is more consistent with Job’s words than theirs, makes this an unattractive view. [Note: See Andersen, p. 216.] Job’s beautiful description of God’s omnipotence in these verses shows that he had a much larger concept of God than Bildad did (cf. Job 25:3; Job 25:5-6).
"Departed spirits" (Job 26:5) is literally rephaim in Hebrew. The Rephaim, meaning giants, were both the mythical gods and human warlords of ancient Ugaritic (Canaanite) culture. They were the elite, and the Canaanites thought that those of them who had died were the most powerful and worthy of the dead. [Note: Conrad L’Heureax, "The Ugaritic and Biblical Rephaim," Harvard Theological Review 67 (1974):265-74.] Job said these trembled "under the waters" (i.e., in Sheol) because they are under God’s authority. "Abaddon" is a poetic equivalent for Sheol (cf. Job 26:6; Job 28:23; Job 31:12; Psa 88:11 margin; Pro 15:11; Pro 27:20). Job viewed the earth as sustained only by God (Job 26:7). God bottles the rain in clouds, but they do not break (Job 26:8). Probably the circle in view (Job 26:11) is the horizon that appears as a boundary for the sun. The pillars of heaven (Job 26:11) are doubtless the mountains that in one sense appear to hold up the sky. "Rahab" was a mythical sea monster that was symbolic of evil (cf. Job 9:13). The "fleeing serpent" (Job 26:13) is a synonym for Rahab.
"God’s power over and knowledge of Sheol, His creation of outer space and the earth, His control of the clouds, His demarcating of the realms of light and darkness, His shaking of the mountains, His quelling of the sea, His destruction of alleged opposing deities-to call these accomplishments the bare outlines or fragmentary sketches of God’s activities [Job 26:14] gives an awareness of the vast immensity and incomprehensible infinity of God!" [Note: Zuck, Job, p. 119.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
XXII.
THE OUTSKIRTS OF HIS WAYS
Job 26:1-14; Job 27:1-23
Job SPEAKS
BEGINNING his reply Job is full of scorn and sarcasm.
“How hast thou helped one without power!
How hast thou saved the strengthless arm!
How hast thou counselled one void of knowledge,
And plentifully declared the thing that is known!”
Well indeed hast thou spoken, O man of singular intelligence. I am very weak, my arm is powerless. What reassurance, what generous help thou hast provided! I, doubtless, know nothing, and thou hast showered illumination on my darkness.-His irony is bitter. Bildad appears almost contemptible. “To whom hast thou uttered words?” Is it thy mission to instruct me? “And whose spirit came forth from thee?” Dost thou claim Divine inspiration? Job is rancorous; and we are scarcely intended by the writer to justify him. Yet it is galling indeed to hear that calm repetition of the most ordinary ideas when the controversy has been carried into the deep waters of thought. Job desired bread and is offered a stone.
But since Bildad has chosen to descant upon the greatness and imperial power of God, the subject shall be continued. He shall be taken into the abyss beneath, where faith recognises the Divine presence, and to the heights above that he may learn how little of the dominion of God lies within the range of a mind like his, or indeed of mortal sense.
First there is a vivid glance at that mysterious underworld where the shades or spirits of the departed survive in a dim vague existence.
“The shades are shaken
Beneath the waters and their inhabitants.
Sheol is naked before Him,
And Abaddon hath no covering.”
Bildad has spoken of the lofty place where God makes peace. But that same God has the sovereignty also of the nether world. Under the bed of the ocean and those subterranean waters that flow beneath the solid ground where, in the impenetrable darkness, poor shadows of their former selves, those who lived once on earth congregate age after age-there the power of the Almighty is revealed. He does not always exert His will in order to create tranquillity. Down in Sheol the refaim are agitated. And nothing is hid from His eye. Abaddon, the devouring abyss, is naked before Him.
Let us distinguish here between the imagery and the underlying thought, the inspired vision of the writer and the form in which Job is made to present it. These notions about Sheol as a dark cavern below earth and ocean to which the spirits of the dead are supposed to descend are the common beliefs of the age. They represent opinion, not reality. But there is a new flash of inspiration in the thought that God reigns over the abode of the dead, that even if men escape punishment here, the judgments of the Almighty may reach them there. This is the writers prophetic insight into fact: and he properly assigns the thought to his hero who, already almost at the point of death, has been straining as it were to see what lies beyond the gloomy gate. The poetry is infused with the spirit of inquiry into Gods government of the present and the future. Set beside other passages both in the Old and New Testaments this is found continuous with higher revelations, even with the testimony of Christ when He says that God is Lord not of the dead but of the living.
From Sheol, the underworld, Job points to the northern heavens ablaze with stars. God, he says, stretches that wonderful dome over empty space-the immovable polar star probably appearing to mark the point of suspension. The earth, again, hangs in space on nothing, even this solid earth on which men live and build their cities. The writer is of course ignorant of what modern science teaches, but he has caught the fact which no modern knowledge can deprive of its marvellous character. Then the gathering in immense volumes of watery vapour, how strange is that, the filmy clouds holding rains that deluge a continent, yet not rent asunder. One who is wonderful in counsel must indeed have ordered this universe; but His throne, the radiant seat of His everlasting dominion, He shutteth in with clouds; it is never seen.
A bound He hath set on the face of the waters,
On the confines of light and darkness.
The pillars of heaven tremble
And are astonished at His rebuke.
He stilleth the sea with His power;
And by His understanding He smites through Rahab;
By His breath the heavens are made bright;
His hand pierceth the fleeing serpent.
Lo, these are the outskirts of His ways,
And what a whisper is that which we hear of Him!
But the thunder of His powers who can apprehend?
At the confines of light and darkness God sets a boundary, the visible horizon, the ocean being supposed to girdle the earth on every side. The pillars of heaven are the mountains, which might be seen in various directions apparently supporting the sky. With awe men looked upon them, with greater awe felt them sometimes shaken by mysterious throbs as if at Gods rebuke. From these the poet passes to the sea, the great storm waves that roll upon the shore. God smites through Rahab, subdues the fierce sea-represented as a raging monster. Here, as in the succeeding verse where the fleeing serpent is spoken of, reference is made to nature myths current in the East. The old ideas of heathen imagination are used simply in a poetical way. Job does not believe in a dragon of the sea, but it suits him to speak of the stormy ocean current under this figure so as to give vividness to his picture of Divine power. God quells the wild waves; His breath as a soft wind clears away the storm clouds and the blue sky is seen again. The hand of God pierces the fleeing serpent, the long track of angry clouds borne swiftly across the face of the heavens.
The closing words of the chapter are a testimony to the Divine greatness, negative in form yet in effect more eloquent than all the rest. It is but the outskirts of the ways of God we see, a whisper of Him we hear. The full thunder falls not on our ears. He who sits on the throne which is forever shrouded in clouds and darkness is the Creator of the visible universe but always separate from it. He reveals Himself in what we see and hear, yet the glory, the majesty remain concealed. The sun is not God, nor the storm, nor the clear shining after rain. The writer is still true to the principle of never making nature equal to God. Even where the religion is in form a nature religion, separateness is fully maintained. The phenomena of the universe are but faint adumbrations of the Divine life. Bildad may come short of the full clearness of belief, but Job has it. The great circle of existence the eye is able to include is but the skirt of that garment by which the Almighty is seen.
The question may be asked, What place has this poetical tribute to the majesty of God in the argument of the book? Viewed simply as an effort to outdo and correct the utterance of Bildad the speech is not fully explained. We ask further what is meant to be in Jobs mind at this particular point in the discussion; whether he is secretly complaining that power and dominion so wide are not manifested in executing justice on earth, or, on the other hand, comforting himself with the thought that judgment will yet return to righteousness and the Most High be proved the All-just? The inquiry has special importance because, looking forward in the book, we find that when the voice of God is heard from the storm it proclaims His matchless power and incomparable wisdom.
At present it must suffice to say that Job is now made to come very near his final discovery that complete reliance upon Eloah is not Simply the fate but the privilege of man. Fully to understand Divine providence is impossible, but it can be seen that One who is supreme in power and infinite in wisdom, responsible always to Himself for the exercise of His power, should have the complete confidence of His creatures. Of this truth Job lays hold; by strenuous thought he has forced his way almost through the tangled forest, and he is a type of man at his best on the natural plane. The world waited for the clear light which solves the difficulties of faith. While once and again a flash came before Christ, He brought the abiding revelation, the dayspring from on high which giveth light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
According to his manner Job turns now from a subject which may be described as speculative to his own position and experience. The earlier part of chapter 27 is an earnest declaration in the strain he has always maintained. As vehemently as ever he renews his claim to integrity, emphasising it with a solemn adjuration.
As God liveth who hath taken away my right,
And the Almighty who hath embittered my soul;
(For still my life is whole in me,
And the breath of the High God in my nostrils),
My lips do not speak iniquity,
Nor does my tongue utter deceit.
Far be it from me to justify you;
Till I die I will not remove my integrity from me.
My righteousness I hold fast, and let it not go;
My heart reproacheth not any of my days.
This is in the old tone of confident self defence. God has taken away his right, denied him the outward signs of innocence, the opportunity of pleading his cause. Yet, as a believer, he swears by the life of God that he is a true man, a righteous man. Whatever betides he will not fall from that conviction and claim. And let no one say that pain has impaired his reason, that now, if never before, he is speaking deliriously. No: his life is whole in him; God-given life is his, and with the consciousness of it he speaks, not ignorant of what is a mans duty, not with a lie in his right hand, but with absolute sincerity. He will not justify his accusers, for that would be to deny righteousness, the very rock which alone is firm beneath his feet. Knowing what is a mans obligation to his fellow men and to God, he will repeat his self defence. He goes back upon his past, he reviews his days. Upon none of them can his conscience fix the accusation of deliberate baseness or rebellion against God.
Having affirmed his sincerity Job proceeds to show what would be the result of deceit and hypocrisy at so solemn a crisis of his life. The underlying idea seems to be that of communion with the Most High, the spiritual fellowship necessary to mans inner life. He could not speak falsely without separating himself from God and therefore from hope. As yet he is not rejected; the consciousness of truth remains with him, and through that he is in touch at least with Eloah. No voice from on high answers him; yet this Divine principle of life remains in his soul. Shall he renounce it?
“Let mine enemy be as the wicked,
And he that riseth against me as the unrighteous.”
If I have aught to do with a wicked man such as I am now to describe, one who would pretend to pure and godly life while he had behaved in impious defiance of righteousness, if I have to do with such a man, let it be as an enemy.
“For what is the hope of the godless whom He cutteth off,
When God taketh his soul?
Will God hear his cry
When trouble cometh upon him?
Will he delight himself in the Almighty
And call upon Eloah at all times?”
The topic is access to God by prayer, that sense of security which depends on the Divine friendship. There comes one moment at least, there may be many, in which earthly possessions are seen to be worthless and the help of the Almighty is alone of any avail. In order to enjoy hope at such a time a man must habitually live with God in sincere obedience. The godless man previously described, the thief, the adulterer whose whole life is a cowardly lie, is cut off from the Almighty. He finds no resource in the Divine friendship. To call upon God always is no privilege of his; he has lost it by neglect and revolt. Job speaks of the case of such a man as in contrast to his own. Although his own prayers remain apparently unanswered he has a reserve of faith and hope. Before God he can still assure himself as the servant of His righteousness, in fellowship with Him who is eternally true. The address closes with these words of retrospection (Job 27:11-12):-
“I would teach you concerning the hand of God,
That which is with Shaddai would I not conceal.
Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it;
Why then are ye become altogether vain?”
At this point begins a passage which creates great difficulty. It is ascribed to Job, but is entirely out of harmony with all he has said. May we accept the conjecture that it is the missing third speech of Zophar, erroneously incorporated with the “parable” of Job? Do the contents warrant this departure from the received text?
All along Jobs contention has been that though an evildoer could have no fellowship with God, no joy in God, yet such a man might succeed in his schemes, amass wealth, live in glory, go down to his grave in peace. Yea, he might be laid in a stately tomb and the very clods of the valley might be sweet to him. Job has not affirmed this to be always the history of one who defies the Divine law. But he has said that often it is; and the deep darkness in which he himself lies is not caused so much by his calamity and disease as by the doubt forced upon him whether the Most High does rule in steadfast justice on this earth. How comes it, he has cried again and again, that the wicked prosper and the good are often reduced to poverty and sorrow?
Now does the passage from the twelfth verse onwards correspond with this strain of thought? It describes the fate of the wicked oppressor in strong language-defeat, desolation, terror, rejection by God, rejection by men. His children are multiplied only for the sword. Sons die and widows are left disconsolate. His treasures, his garments shall not be for his delight; the innocent shall enjoy his substance. His sudden death shall be in shame and agony, and men shall clap their hands at him and hiss him out of his place. Clearly, if Job is the speaker, he must be giving up all he has hitherto contended for, admitting that his friends have argued truly, that after all judgment does fall in this world upon arrogant men. The motive of the whole controversy would be lost if Job yielded this point. It is not as if the passage ran, This or that may take place, this or that may befall the evildoer. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar never present more strongly their own view than that view is presented here. Nor can it be said that the writer may be preparing for the confession Job makes after the Almighty has spoken from the storm. When he gives way then, it is only to the extent of withdrawing his doubts of the wisdom and justice of the Divine rule.
The suggestion that Job is here reciting the statements of his friends cannot be entertained. To read “Why are ye altogether vain, saying, This is the portion of the wicked man from God,” is incompatible with the long and detailed account of the oppressors overthrow and punishment. There would be no point or force in mere recapitulation without the slightest irony or caricature. The passage is in grim earnest. On the other hand, to imagine that Job is modifying his former language is, as Dr. A.B. Davidson shows, equally out of the question. With his own sons and daughters lying in their graves, his own riches dispersed, would he be likely to say-“If his children be multiplied it is for the sword”? and
“Though he heap up silver as the dust,
And prepare raiment as the clay;
He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on
And the innocent shall divide the silver”?
Against supposing this to be Zophars third speech the arguments drawn from the brevity of Bildads last utterance and the exhaustion of the subjects of debate have little weight, and there are distinct points of resemblance between the passage under consideration and Zophars former addresses. Assuming it to be his, it is seen to begin precisely where he left off; -only he adopts the distinction Job has pointed out and confines himself now to “oppressors.” His last speech closed with the sentence: “This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.” He begins here (Job 27:13): “This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors which they receive from the Almighty.” Again, without verbal identity, the expressions “God shall cast the fierceness of His wrath upon him,” {Job 20:23} and “God shall hurl upon him and not spare,” {Job 27:21} show the same style of representation, as also do the following: “Terrors are upon him His goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath,” {Job 20:25; Job 20:28} and “Terrors overtake him like waters”. {Job 27:20} Other similarities may be easily traced; and on the whole it seems by far the best explanation of an otherwise incomprehensible passage to suppose that here Zophar is holding doggedly to opinions which the other two friends have renounced. Job could not have spoken the passage, and there is no reason for considering it to be an interpolation by a later hand.