Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 32:8
But [there is] a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
8. the inspiration of the Almighty ] lit. the breath of the Almighty, as ch. Job 33:4. Both “spirit” and “breath” refer to God’s spirit of life breathed into man when he is brought into existence (Gen 2:7), there is no allusion to any extraordinary illumination given to Elihu at the moment when he speaks. This spirit of God is a spirit of intelligence as well as of life (ch. Job 33:4), and under the impulse of the crowding thoughts which rush into his mind at this instant Elihu feels that this spirit has been given to himself in great fulness.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But there is a spirit in man – This evidently refers to a spirit imparted from above; a spirit from the Almighty. The parallelism seems to require this, for it responds to the phrase the inspiration of the Almighty in the other hemistich. The Hebrew expression here also seems to require this interpretation. It is, ruach hu’, the Spirit itself; meaning the very Spirit that gives wisdom, or the Spirit of inspiration. He had said, in the previous verse, that it was reasonable to expect to find wisdom among the aged and the experienced. But in this he had been disappointed. He now finds that wisdom is not the attribute of rank or station, but that it is the gift of God, and therefore it may be found in a youth. All true wisdom, is the sentiment, is from above; and where the inspiration of the Almighty is, no matter whether with the aged or the young, there is understanding. Elihu undoubtedly means to say, that though he was much younger than they were, and though, according to the common estimate in which the aged and the young were held, he might be supposed to have much less acquaintance with the subjects under consideration, yet, as all true wisdom came from above, he might be qualified to speak. The word spirit here, therefore, refers to the spirit which God gives; and the passage is a proof that it was an early opinion that certain men were under the teachings of divine inspiration. The Chaldee renders it , a spirit of prophecy.
And the inspiration of the Almighty – The breathing of the Almighty – neshamah Shadday. The idea was, that God breathed this into man, and that this wisdom was the breath of God; compare Gen 2:7; Joh 20:22. Septuagint, pnoe, breath, breathing.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 32:8
But there is a spirit in man.
The spirit in man
We can define spirit only by negations, but the negations are positive, inasmuch as it is the limitations and imperfections of matter that they deny. Spirit, though it uses material organs and implements, is distinct from them, their owner and master. Modern science derives mans parentage from what we have been accustomed to call the lower order of beings. I confess a strong preference for the genealogy whose two connecting links are, which was the Son of Adam, which was the Son of God. Man has the same material conditions, surroundings, and necessities with his humbler fellow beings. But is there in man an immaterial, supra-material consciousness, in which he differs from the brutes, not in degree alone, but in kind, something into which: instinct could never grow, occupying a range of thought, knowledge, and aspiration which to the brute is and ever will be an unexplored region? This question we attempt to answer.
1. Note mans power of progress, as manifested both individually and collectively. The swallow builds as good a nest the first spring of his life as he will ever build. But mans antecedents and surroundings do not furnish the first elements for calculating his orbit, which may intersect the outermost circle of the material system to which he belongs, and stretch on unto the unmapped region beyond, as the comet wings its flight into depths of space remoter than the planets round. Man, also, alone of all animals, grows collectively, and from generation to generation. Each generation of men mounts on the shoulders of that which preceded it. Facts are epitomised into principles! knowledge is condensed into general truths, and the acquisitions of a thousand years are carried by the child from the primary school. There is no physical peculiarity in man that can account for this power of progress. Is it ascribed to speech? The human hand cannot account for mans progress. Mans power of progress is due to causes wholly unconnected with his physical development, and with the possibility of material consciousness. We have no proof that other animals have any knowledge, except that which comes to them immediately through the senses. They evince no apprehension of principles, of multitudinous, comprehensive facts, of general truths. Mans superiority consists in his capacity for super-sensual ideas, and these cannot be elaborated by any conceivable material apparatus. Man with his mental vision sees a class or a law as distinctly as the eye discerns an individual object; and still further, by higher stages of abstraction and generalisation, he resolves clusters of classes into more comprehensive classes, fascicles of laws into single laws of a broader scope, till in every department he seizes upon some one unifying principle under which all the classes may be grouped, or to which all the laws may be referred. He then, from these principles, deduces inferences which the senses never could have discovered. And mans entire imaginative apparatus is super-sensual.
2. The phenomena of mans moral nature cannot be derived from his material organisation. Of all beings on the earth, man alone cognises the distinction between right and wrong. The first question in ethics, whether theoretical or practical, concerns the nature of moral distinctions–the essential difference between right and wrong. Material philosophers see the origin of this distinction in the differing sensations of pleasure and pain; and that conscience results solely from the observation of what is approved and what disapproved. But materialism cannot account for either a mans moral or a mans religious nature. We conclude that natural science cannot detach mans hold upon the ancestral tree which traces his parentage from God. In Jesus Christ Himself we find the strongest of all arguments against the theory of material evolution as applicable to the higher portion of mans nature. (A. P. Peabody, D. D.)
Human spirit and Divine inspiration
Read text thus, There is a spirit in man, and the in-spirit-ing of the Almighty giveth them understanding. The spirit in man is that special apartment of his nature which has been contrived and fitted for personal intercourse between him and God. The spirit in man is to the great inbreathing of God what the lungs are to the circumambient air. It is the element of our being that establishes in us religious possibilities. There is a spirit in man, and like every other instinct of our being, it stands to us authoritatively, and lays its mandate upon us imperiously. We are religious by nature. It is just this faculty divinely wrought upon, and this string divinely played upon, that really composes the strength and tenacity of our religious convictions. The inspiration here has to do, in a purely general way, with Gods own personal communication of Himself to us, and, at the spirit point of our being, imparting unto us the energies of His own wisdom, holiness, and power. It is not our concern to understand how this is done. The first office work of inspiration is to create in us fresh personal vigour and new spiritual animation. Character cannot be constructed. It cannot be put together. It needs first of all a principle that is animated, and one, therefore, that is animating. It was an impulse more glowing, determined, and passionate than anything we are possessed of naturally. We need nothing so much as a determining life force at the core of character, an impulse from out the very soul of God, that shall hold us in its warm, steady, and irresistible grip, and impel us with a momentum that has the very pressure of Jehovah in it. And all of this is a draft upon the Divine inspiration. This may seem to be what theologians call regeneration. The new man, the new life, is only another name for character wrought out at the determining impulse of a Divine inspiration. What we need first of all is not to act like Christ, but to have exactly the same Divine Spirit working at the core of our lives that worked at the core of His, and then acts will take care of themselves. All true manliness grows around a core of divineness. Virtue is safe only when it is inspired. Another office work of inspiration is to create in us fresh and vivid perceptions of the Divine truth. We need as much inspiration to read the Bible as its authors needed to fit them to write it. No Christian creed is ever constructed. It is the form in which a man shapes his own experiences of the things of God, and of his own soul. As we go on to know the Lord, our creeds will change. Christian thinking will continue growing better, deeper, truer, so long as Christians, along the luminous path of Gods self-revelation to them, continue getting into the deeper things of God and the closer intimacies of God. And further, the inspirations of the Almighty are suited to become to us qualification for all kinds of holy doing. We make toilsome work of being good, because we do not let the inspirations of God work in us: and we make irksome work of doing good because we do not let the inspirations of God work through us . . . Our common and comprehensive need is of the inspiration of the Almighty, the direct breathing into us of the breath of God, with all the wisdom, holiness, and power which such a Divine afflatus involves, that whether we speak, be it by word or act, we may speak as the oracles of God; and whether we minister, we may do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Christ Jesus. (Charles H. Parkhurst, D. D.)
God the source of all wisdom
Professor Morse, the renowned electric telegraph inventor, was once asked, Professor, when you were making your experiments yonder in your rooms in the university, did you ever come to a stand, not knowing what to do next? Oh yes; mere than once. And at such times, what did you do next? I may answer you in confidence, sir, said the professor, but it is a matter of which the public knows nothing. Whenever I could not see my way clearly, I prayed for more light. And the light generally came? Yes. And I may tell you that when flattering honours came to me from America and Europe on account of the invention which bears my name, I never felt that I deserved them. I had made a valuable application of electricity, not because I was superior to other men, but solely because God, who meant it for mankind, must reveal it to someone, and was pleased to reveal it to me. The inventors first message–What hath God wrought–intimated in no uncertain way the inspiration which gave his work longevity, and made it a light to the world.
On man as a rational and moral being
The inherent excellence of our nature. Consider man–
1. As a rational being. How are we otherwise to account for that superiority which man has acquired over all the other inhabitants of this world? In the lowest conditions of human society there is always a marked preeminence in man over the other animals. In man there are at all times signs of a mind possessing in some degree a creative and inventive energy. The effects of this power in man are by no means small and insignificant. While he is yet remote from what we call civilisation, the native grandeur of the human mind shows itself in bold exertions of genius; and as he proceeds in his career, man constantly discovers new resources. What is this power? Is it not what the text declares it to be, a spirit in man, the inspiration of the Almighty? Going on the principles of natural reason,–what, indeed, is it that produces in our minds a belief of the existence of the supreme God, but the perception that the world which we inhabit bears strong indications of design and intelligence having been employed in its formation? Our connection with God is impressed on our minds by the very proofs which bring us a knowledge of His existence, and we could not know that there was such a Being unless we tried His works by the scale of our own reason.
2. The same great truth will appear if we consider man as a moral being. Other animals follow blindly the impulse of appetite. There is impressed on the mind of man a rule by which he judges himself,–a sense of right and wrong in conduct, by which he becomes conscious that he is the object either of love and esteem, or of contempt and hatred. Reflect on the very high dignity and importance of this part of our constitution; how much it elevates us above the other creatures; how close a connection it forms between us and the Almighty. How can we derive, except from God Himself, except from the spirit which He has breathed into man, any feeling of those excellencies, any love for, or any aspiration after that goodness which indisputably constitutes His own greatest attribute? Is not our relationship to the Divine nature apparent in this, that we alone, of all the creatures breathing upon earth, are capable of having any relish of those perfections which alone render God Himself the object of worship and love? (J. Morehead, M. A.)
On man as a religious being
Man has not only received understanding from the inspiration of the Almighty, but he knows that it is so; and he is prompted by nature to lift up his thoughts to the contemplation of that great Being who conferred upon him so high a preeminence. This principle it is which distinguishes us from the lower animals, even more than our reason or our moral perceptions. He alone of all creatures thinks it not presumption to address himself to the unknown God. Wherever man exists, therefore, you will find religion. By collecting together all the follies of superstition, it has been attempted to show that the religion of man is rather a proof of the weakness than of the loftiness of his nature. It must be owned that the vices and follies of man have shown themselves as frequently in the midst of his religious sentiments as in any other part of his character. Yet the perversions of religion ought never to be treated in a light and careless strain; they are rather objects of pity. But even these superstitions prove that man is by nature a religious being. Man is a spirit, clouded and obscured, struggling with darkness, and fettered by sin, yet aiming at lofty things, and striving to regain some glimpses of the Divine form, which was accustomed to walk with man while yet in the garden of primeval innocence.
1. Let students pursue their inquiries with a becoming reverence for the nature to which they belong.
2. Value Christianity which has brought immortality to light. (J. Morehead, M. A.)
The world within
There is a spirit in man–a rational, accountable, undying personality. This spirit has been called the world within, and truly of all worlds it is the greatest and most wonderful, Like the outward world of nature, it has its own orbit, and its own revolutions, and its own centre. Souls create their own centres. The Bible everywhere teaches the distinction between the soul and matter. This world is the greatest world.
1. It is a world whose existence is complete in itself.
2. It is a world that has a self-multiplying power.
3. It is a world conscious of its own existence.
4. It is a world that can make use of the outward.
5. It is a world that can devoutly recognise its Maker.
6. It is a world which its Maker has made extraordinary efforts to restore.
7. It is a world that can shut out its Maker.
Conclusion–
(1) Consider the sad moral state of this world within.
(2) Profoundly study this world within.
(3) Earnestly cultivate this world within. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. But there is a spirit in man] Mr. Good translates: –
“But surely there is an afflation in mankind,
And the inspiration of the Almighty actuateth them.”
Coverdale, thus: –
Every man (no doute) hath a mynde; but it is the inspyracion of the Almightie that geveth understondinge.
I will now offer my own opinion, but first give the original text: ruach hi beenosh venishmath shaddai tebinem. “The spirit itself is in miserable man, and the breath of the Almighty causeth them to understand,” How true is it that in God we live, move, and have our being! The spirit itself is in man as the spring or fountain of his animal existence, and by the afflatus of this spirit he becomes capable of understanding and reason, and consequently of discerning Divine truth. The animal and intellectual lives are here stated to be from God; and this appears to be an allusion to man’s creation, Ge 2:7: “And God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of lives,” nishmath chaiyim, i.e., animal and intellectual, and thus he became a living soul, nephesh chaiyah, a rational animal.
When man fell from God, the Spirit of God was grieved, and departed from him; but was restored, as the enlightener and corrector, in virtue of the purposed incarnation and atonement of our Lord Jesus; hence, he is “the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” Joh 1:9. That afflatus is therefore still continued to enosh, man, in his wretched, fallen state; and it is by that Spirit, the Ruach Elohim, “the Spirit of the merciful or covenant God,” that we have any conscience, knowledge of good and evil, judgment in Divine things, and, in a word, capability of being saved. And when, through the light of that Spirit, convincing of sin, righteousness, and judgment, the sinner turns to God through Christ, and finds redemption in his blood, the remission of sins; then it is the office of that same Spirit to give him understanding of the great work that has been done in and for him; “for the Spirit itself ( , Ro 8:16, the same words in Greek as the Hebrew ruach hi of Elihu) beareth witness with his spirit that he is a child of God.” It is the same Spirit which sanctifies, the same Spirit that seals, and the same Spirit that lives and works in the believer, guiding him by his counsel till it leads him into glory. In this one saying, independently of the above paraphrase, Elihu spoke more sense and sound doctrine than all Job’s friends did in the whole of the controversy.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But; or, surely; it must be confessed.
A spirit, to wit, which gives him understanding, as is easily and fitly gathered out of the last words of the verse. And this is to be understood either,
1. Of the human spirit, or reasonable soul, which is in every man. So the sense of the place is, Every man, as a man, whether old or young, hath a reasonable soul, by which he is able in some measure to discern between good and evil, and to judge of mens opinions and discourses; and therefore I also may venture to deliver my opinion. Or,
2. Of the Spirit of God; the latter clause being explicatory of the former, according to the manner. So the sense is, I expected a true and full discovery of the truth in this controversy from persons of your years, wisdom, and experience. But upon second thoughts I consider that the knowledge of these deep and Divine mysteries is not to be had or expected from any man as such, though never so aged or wise; but only from Gods Spirit, which alone knoweth the deep things of God. And this
Spirit he saith is
in man; not in every man, for the words are not universal, but indefinite, and man in this branch is no larger than them who receive Divine inspiration in the next branch. And so the sense is, God is pleased to give his Spirit unto mankind, unto men of all ages and qualities, as tie pleaseth; and having given it in some measure to me, I may take the boldness to utter my thoughts.
The inspiration of the Almighty, i.e. Gods Spirit, or the gracious gifts thereof breathed or infused into mans soul by God.
Understanding, to wit, in divine and spiritual matters, which are the matter of this debate and book.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. Elihu claims inspiration, asa divinely commissioned messenger to Job (Job 33:6;Job 33:23); and that claim is notcontradicted in Job 42:4; Job 42:5.Translate: “But the spirit (which God puts) in man, and theinspiration . . . is that which giveth,” c. it is not mere”years” which give understanding (Pro 2:6;Joh 20:22).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But [there is] a spirit in man,…. This seems to be a correction of his former sentiment; the consideration of which gave him encouragement, though young, to declare his opinion, since there is a spirit in men, both young and old; and wherever that be, there is an ability to speak and a capacity of teaching wisdom; which is not tied to age; but may he found in young men as well as in old men: some by this understand the rational soul, or spirit, which is immaterial, immortal, is of God, and is in man; and the rather it is thought this is meant, because it is in every man, whereby he has knowledge of many things, natural and divine, and particularly is capable of trying and judging things, of discerning the difference between one thing and another, and of reasoning and discoursing upon them; and this being observed by Elihu, and he being conscious to himself of having such a spirit in him, was emboldened to engage in the debate, though a young man; but if such a spirit is meant, the words may be rendered to such a sense, verily, truly, indeed “there is [such a rational spirit] in man”, which makes him capable of knowing many things, “but the inspiration of the Almighty”, c. p it is not owing to the rational powers and faculties of the soul of man, and the use of them, that a man becomes capable of teaching others wisdom; but to his soul or spirit being inspired by the Almighty; and such an one, be he young or old, that God breathes into, and he is under his inspiration, he is the man fit to engage in such work: though I rather think, that in this first clause the spirit of God is meant, and so Jarchi; who is an uncreated, infinite, and eternal Spirit; is of God, and is put into men; for he is not in men naturally, nor in everyone; and where he is, he is given, and there he abides; and it is from him men have their wisdom and knowledge; it is he that makes men know themselves, that searches the deep things of God, and reveals them to men, and that is the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, and leads into all truth, as it is in him; though rather the spirit in his gifts, than in his spiritual saving grace, is here meant; and so does not point to every good man in common, but to such who are favoured with the gifts of the spirit superior to others; and so the Targum interprets it of the spirit of prophecy; and on whomsoever this rests, whether on young or old, he is fit to teach men wisdom:
and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding; not the soul of man, or breath of God inspired by him, which is the candle of the Lord, searching the inward parts of men; for that leaves him without understanding of things of the greatest importance: rather, as the Targum, the Word of God, the essential Word, the Son of God, who gives an understanding of the best things, 1Jo 5:20; but, better, the Spirit of God, by whom the Scriptures were inspired, and who is breathed into men, Joh 20:22; and is a spirit of understanding to them; for though a man has an understanding of natural things, yet not of things spiritual; to have an understanding of them is the special gift of God, and is in particular the work of the Spirit of God: Elihu now having some reason to believe that he had the Spirit of God, and was under his inspiration, and was favoured with knowledge and understanding by him, is encouraged, though young, to interpose in this dispute between Job and his friends, and declare his opinion on the matter in debate; and which leads him to make an observation somewhat different from his former sentiment, as follows.
p So Vatablus, Beza.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
8 Still the spirit, it is in mortal man,
And the breath of the Almighty, that giveth them understanding.
9 Not the great in years are wise,
And the aged do not understand what is right.
10 Therefore I say: O hearken to me,
I will declare my knowledge, even I.
The originally affirmative and then (like ) adversative also does not occur elsewhere in the book of Job. In contradiction to biblical psychology, Rosenm. and others take Job 32:8 as antithetical: Certainly there is spirit in man, but … . The two halves of the verse are, on the contrary, a synonymous (“the spirit, it is in man, viz., that is and acts”) or progressive parallelism) thus according to the accents: ”the spirit, even that which is in man, and … ”). It is the Spirit of God to which man owes his life as a living being, according to Job 33:4; the spirit of man is the principle of life creatively wrought, and indeed breathed into him, by the Spirit of God; so that with regard to the author it can be just as much God’s or , Job 34:14, as in respect of the possessor: man’s or . All man’s life, his thinking as well as his bodily life, is effected by this inwrought principle of life which he bears within him, and all true understanding, without being confined to any special age of life, comes solely from this divinely originated and divinely living spirit, so far as he acts according to his divine origin and basis of life. are here (as the opposite of , Gen 25:23) grandes = grandaevi (lxx ). governs both members of the verse, as Job 3:10; Job 28:17; Job 30:24. Understanding or ability to form a judgment is not limited to old age, but only by our allowing the to rule in us in its connection with the divine. Elihu begs a favourable hearing for that of which he is conscious. , and the Hebr.-Aramaic , which likewise belong to his favourite words, recur here.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(8) But there is a spirit in man.Rather, But it is the spirit in man.
And the inspiration of the Almighty.Rather, And the breath of the Almighty that giveth them understanding. It is the expression used in the Mosaic narrative of the origin of man, and may perhaps show acquaintance on the part of the writer with that narrative (Gen. 2:7). Elihu means to say that it is not years so much as the spirit and illumination of the Almighty that maketh a man pre-eminent in wisdom.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. But there is a spirit in man Literally, But the Spirit, it is in mortal man; or, , the Spirit itself is, etc. The parallel, “inspiration of the Almighty,” requires us to understand by the “spirit in man,” the divine Spirit. The Hebrew regarded all physical and spiritual power as a divine inspiration. The word rendered man is enosh, mortal or decaying man. See note Job 4:17. Frail and perishable man has a capacity for God: the vessel may be fragile, ( earthen, 2Co 4:7,) yet it may be not only the residence of the divine Spirit, but the medium through which it may act. Through faith in God Elihu is emboldened to speak upon a subject that has overtasked his superiors. The divine Spirit honoured his confidence by making him (St. Augustine says) “as superior in wisdom as he was in modesty.”
The inspiration of the Almighty , same as in Job 33:4, where it is rendered “the breath of the Almighty,” which in both cases agrees with the Vulgate; while the Septuagint, in like manner, gives for each, , breath. The same Hebrew is used in Gen 2:7 for breath of life, which leads Mercerus unhesitatingly to say that Elihu alludes to the first creation of man, when God breathed into man the breath of life. See note Job 33:4; also a sermon by Dr. Bushnell, in loc., on “The Spirit in Man,” and Eaton’s Bampton Lecture, (1872.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 32:8 But [there is] a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
Ver. 8. But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty] Or, Surely there is a spirit in man, but the inspiration, &c. Man hath a reasonable soul and a natural judgment, whereby he differeth from brute beasts; and not only so, but some there are that do animam excolere, as Cicero and Aristotle; they improve their natural abilities by art, and so go far beyond others in worth; differing from the unlearned as much almost as a man doth from a beast. Lo, such a spirit there is in some men; which yet amounteth not to wisdom without the concurrence of God’s good Spirit to sanctify all, as the altar sanctifieth the gold of the altar. If this be not attained unto, the wiser any man is the vainer he proveth, Rom 1:22 . The Lord knoweth the thoughts of those wise (even of the choicest and most picked men among them) that they are vain, 1Co 3:20 . And to such we may say, as Austin once wrote to a man of great parts, Ornari abs te diabotus quaerit, the devil desireth to be tricked up by thee.
And the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
spirit. Hebrew. ruach. App-9.
inspiration. Hebrew. neshamah. App-16.
THE ALMIGHTY. Hebrew Shaddai. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the inspiration: Job 4:12-21, Job 33:16, Job 35:11, Job 38:36, Gen 41:39, 1Ki 3:12, 1Ki 3:28, 1Ki 4:29, Pro 2:6, Ecc 2:26, Dan 1:17, Dan 2:21, 1Co 2:10-12, 1Co 12:8, 2Ti 3:16, Jam 1:5
Reciprocal: Gen 41:38 – in whom 2Ki 5:13 – his servants Job 27:11 – that which Job 33:4 – General Job 36:3 – fetch Psa 51:6 – in the hidden Psa 119:73 – give me Pro 20:27 – spirit Act 6:3 – full Act 6:10 – the spirit 1Co 14:32 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
32:8 But [there is] a spirit in man: {f} and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
(f) It is a special gift of God that man has understanding and comes neither from nature nor by age.