Then Job answered,
Parallel Translations
-
Then Job answered,
-
But Job answered and said,
-
Then Job answered and said:
Cross-references
No cross-references for this verse.
Explain this verse (17 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 26:1 But Job answered and said,
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.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain One would not have thought that Job, when he…
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 (Job 26:3): 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, Job 37:19. 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.
Read full note →
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? Job 26:2. How hast thou, with thy grave dictates, counselled him that has no wisdom? Job 26:3. 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? Job 26:4. 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 50:4), 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.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain But Job answered,.... In a very sharp and biting…
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.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Job observes, that Bildad's discourse was foreign to the…
Job observes, that Bildad's discourse was foreign to the matter, ver. 1-4. Enlarges on the power and greatness of God, which yet are unsearchable, ver. 5-14.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Job, perceiving that his friends could no longer support…
CHAPTER XXVI
Job, perceiving that his friends could no longer support their
Read full note →
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
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Job 26:1. But Job answered and said — Job,…
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.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1. But Job answered — As Bildad had made…
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.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) Then answered Job.—Job himself has virtually said much…
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.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The long discourse of Job now begins, which forms…
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 (vers. 1-4), proceeds to deliver his real sentiments apart from controversial issues. He sets forth, first of all, the might and majesty of God (vers. 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) In Job 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) and contrasted it with his actual life of degradation, contempt, and suffering, (Job 30) 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) In this way he brings to its termination the colloquy begun with his three friends in Job 3, 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)
Vers. 1, 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)
Read full note →
Vers. 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 (vers. 2, 3); meaning, of course, the opposite that 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 (ver. 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 (ver. 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 (ver. 4). Since it could not be from God Bildad always swore by the fathers it 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. (Vers. 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 region Sheol 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 region under 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, 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. (Mat_5:29 Mat_18:8, 9 Mar_9:43 Luk_16:25) So the ancient Egyptians celebrated Ra as "the supreme power who cuts off the head of these who are in the infernal regions" (vide "Records of the Past," vol. 8. p. 111).
(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. (Vers. 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 (ver. 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 (vers. 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 (ver. 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 (vers. 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 (ver. 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 arrested a 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 endpoints 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 Vers. 1-14. Praises of the Eternal
I REPARTEE AND REPROOF. (Vers. 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. (Vers. 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. (Vers. 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" (ver. 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 Jam_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; ver. 6) The Northern heaven taken here by a figure, as the part for the whole is stretched over the void, and the earth hangs upon nothing (ver. 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).
1. The clouds and the heavenly region. (Vers. 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. (ver. 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 (ver. 9). He has drawn a circling boundary over the water"s surface to the crossing of the light with the darkness. (ver. 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.
2. Mountains; the sea; constellations. (Vers. 11-13) The heaven"s pillars that is, the great mountains, conceived as bearing up the firmament fall into trembling, and the earthquake is represented as caused by their affright at his reproof. (ver. 11; comp. Ps 29 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 (ver. 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 (ver. 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. (Ver. 14) "Lo, these are ends of his ways but the outlines or sketches the 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 here in 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! (comp. 1Co_13:9-12) 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 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.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain But Job answered and said.
Job_26:1-14
But Job answered and said.
Read full note →
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.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Job 26,27
XXII.
THE OUTSKIRTS OF HIS WAYS
Read full note →
Job 26,27
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.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Job, more alive to Bildad’s want of sympathy than…
JOB’S REPLY TO BILDAD
Job, more alive to Bildad’s 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.
Read full note →
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 Bildad’s 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. Job’s ironical and indignant reflection on Bildad’s speech (Job_26:2-4).
1. Its want of sympathy and succour. Job_26:2—“How 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. Bildad’s 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.” Job’s 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 minister’s 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_26:3—“How hath thou counselled him that hath no wisdom!” Still refers to himself. Addressed by Bildad as if ignorant of the Divine perfections. Bildad’s 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 man’s 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 believer’s 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 Job’s 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 one’s 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).” Bildad’s 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 Job’s 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. Paul’s 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). Peter’s “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 Bildad’s 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 men’s productions as their own. If other men’s sermons are read or repeated, it should be acknowledged.
(2) Preachers not to be mere imitators or retailers of other men’s 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 preacher—a 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, sir—very fine; but people can’t 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 actor’s greater power in moving an audience than the preacher’s]: 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 men’s hearts.”
Leigh Richmond’s 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 man’s cottage.”
“I’ll preach as though I ne’er 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_26:5—“Dead 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 trembling—“wailing and gnashing of teeth.” The consciousness of God’s power exercised in the invisible world only an increase to their suffering.
2. God’s 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_26:7—“He 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_26:8—“He 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 day’s work of creation—the 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 earth’s 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 earth’s 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_26:9—“He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it.” The sky, or heaven, viewed as God’s 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 sun’s 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. Observe—God 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_26:10—“He 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 day’s work at the creation—the 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 earth’s 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 God’s 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 hail’d!”
(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 acid—an 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 state”—Professor Fleming’s 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 darkness—day and night—we owe the poet’s magnificent description of Evening:—
“Now came still evening on, and twilight gray
Had in her sober livery all things clad.
Silence was pleased. Now glow’d the firmament
With living sapphires: Hesperus, that led
The starry host, rode brightest, ‘till the moon,
Rising in clouded majesty, at length
Apparent queen, unveil’d her peerless light,
And o’er 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_26:11—“The 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_26:12—“He divideth (or cleaveth) the sea with his power; and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud” (or “stilleth its pride”—Hebrew, “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). Observe—Power 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_26:13—“By 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 day’s 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 leviathan—the 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 God’s 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 Almighty’s works. Job_26:14—“Lo, 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 Him’—His 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 part—the mere outline or extremities—of 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. Man’s knowledge confined to parts only of God’s ways. The extremities or forthgoings of His administration on earth only visible. The springs, principles, and anterior steps above and out of man’s 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 Spencer’s 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 God’s power in the universe beyond man’s 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.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain The mutual relations of physical science and religious faith.
Job 26:14
The mutual relations of physical science and religious faith.
Read full note →
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.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Job's Eighth Speech (Job 26, 27)
Job's Eighth Speech (Job 26, 27)
1-4. Job taunts Bildad with the worthlessness of his remarks as a solution of the problem.
Read full note →
2, 3, 4 are spoken ironically.
2. Him that is without power] i.e. Job himself.
4. To whom hast thou uttered words?] i.e. surely not to Job who knows it already.
5-14. The manifestations of God's power and work in the world below, in earth and in heaven. Some scholars think these vv., which are quite in the tone of Job_25:2-3, should be inserted after Job_25:3 as a misplaced portion of Bildad's last speech, and that Job's remarks (Job_26:1-4) are continued at Job_27:2.
5. The inhabitants] probably sea-monsters. The Babylonians believed in a judgment in Sheol under the ocean.
6. RV 'Sheol' (the place of the departed) 'is naked before him, and Abaddon' (i.e. destruction, another name for Sheol, cp. Rev_9:11) 'hath no covering,' viz. from God.
7. The empty place] RV 'empty space.' The writer seems to speak here of God stretching the vault of the northern heavens with their bright constellations above the atmosphere, and of the earth hanging unsupported, as instances of His power.
8. The retention of rain in the clouds as in a skin or bag: cp. Job_38:37.
9. He holdeth back] RV 'He closeth in.' God veils His throne from men.
10. Davidson renders, 'He hath drawn as a circle a bound upon the face of the waters (of the sea) at the confines of light and darkness': i.e. God has marked out the horizon which forms to us the limit of vision.
11. The mountains (see on Job_9:6) tremble in the earthquake.
12. Divideth] RM 'stilleth.' The sea is a power hostile to God, that tosses its waves in impotent fury towards heaven.
Pride] RV 'Rahab,' i.e. the dragon of chaos, Tiâmat: cp. Job_7:12; Job_9:13.
13. Render, 'By His breath the heavens are bright (through the scattering of the storm clouds), and His hand pierceth the flying serpent,' or dragon, which was supposed to cause darkness or eclipse by swallowing the heavenly bodies: see on Job_3:8.
14. Job (or Bildad), after thus depicting the marvels of God's working, declares that what he has said is but a faint whisper of His power.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain CHAPTER 26Job’s Reply
CHAPTER 26Job’s Reply
1. A sarcastic beginning (Job 26:1-4)
Read full note →
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 God’s greatness which is indeed greater than Bildad’s. And after this sublime unfolding of God’s 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?
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain A Sharp Ironical Reproof
A Sharp Ironical Reproof
v. 1. But Job answered and said,
Read full note →
v. 2. How hast thou helped him that is without power? How fine, indeed, how excellently well had Bildad shown himself a friend to Job, enfeebled as the latter was with illness! How savest thou the arm that hath no strength? coming to the rescue of him whose physical stamina had been taken from him.
v. 3. How hast thou counseled him that hath no wisdom? For the friends had declared Job to be an ignorant fool. Their intention may have been good enough, Job bitterly declares, but they certainly had a strange way of showing their friendly Interest. And how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is, sufficiently and abundantly exhibited proper and thorough knowledge, a real understanding of matters?
v. 4. To whom hast thou uttered words? Did Bildad really hope to strike Job with his empty talk? Did he realize that it would not make the slightest impression on him? And whose spirit came from thee? From whom had he gotten his inspiration for the wisdom which he promulgated? Surely not from God; probably from Eliphaz? Much of the cruel and biting criticism practised among men is a mere repetition of statements which have been made by others.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 How you have helped one ... the arm that…
How you have helped one ... the arm that has no strength
In these statements, Job is accusing Bildad. The word "one" refers to Job. And, the word "arm" represents the whole person. AT: "I am powerless and have no strength, but you act like you have helped me; but really, you have not helped me at all" (See: Irony and Synecdoche)
Read full note →
How you have advised one who has no wisdom and announced to him sound knowledge
Job is saying that Bildad has not provided him with good advice and knowledge. AT: "You act like I have no wisdom and that you have advised me, that you have given me good advice" (See: Irony)
announced to him sound knowledge
"given him good advice"
With whose help have you spoken these words? Whose spirit was it ... you?
In these questions Job continues to mock Bildad. They are both rhetorical questions and have basically the same meaning. They are used together to strengthen each other. AT: "You must have had help speaking these words. Perhaps some spirit helped you speak them!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
translationWords
Job
power
save
wise
know
word
spirit
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.