Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
What is the earth set upon?Job 26:7 says God 'hangeth the earth upon nothing.' 1 Samuel 2:8 and Job 9:6 say the earth rests on pillars that God himself can shake.
Job 9:8(v7)He alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea.
Psalms 104:2-5(v7)He covers himself with light as with a garment. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain. He lays the beams of his rooms in the waters.…
Isaiah 40:22(v7)It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,…
Isaiah 42:5(v7)God Yahweh, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it, he who gives…
Isaiah 51:15(v12)For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. Yahweh of Armies is his name.
Show all 71 cross-references
Isaiah 27:1(v13)In that day, Yahweh with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent;…
Genesis 1:1-2(v7)In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and…
Job 37:11-16(v8)Yes, he loads the thick cloud with moisture. He spreads abroad the cloud of his lightning. It is turned around by his guidance, that they…
Psalms 24:2(v7)For he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the floods.
Proverbs 8:23-27(v7)I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth existed. When there were no depths, I was born, when there were no…
Proverbs 8:29(v10)when he gave to the sea its boundary, that the waters should not violate his commandment, when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
Proverbs 30:4(v8)Who has ascended up into heaven, and descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has bound the waters in his garment? Who has…
Job 38:8-11(v10)“Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke out of the womb, when I made clouds its garment, and wrapped it in thick darkness, marked…
Isaiah 40:26(v7)Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. by the greatness…
Jeremiah 31:35(v12)Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea,…
Isaiah 40:26-29(v14)Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. by the greatness…
Job 9:13(v12)“God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.
Job 11:7-9(v14)“Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper…
Job 12:13(v12)“With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.
Psalms 89:9-10(v12)You rule the pride of the sea. When its waves rise up, you calm them. You have broken Rahab in pieces, like one of the slain. You have…
Psalms 139:6(v14)This knowledge is beyond me. It’s lofty. I can’t attain it.
Psalms 145:3(v14)Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised! His greatness is unsearchable.
Isaiah 51:9(v12)Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh! Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in…
Jeremiah 10:13(v8)When he utters his voice, the waters in the heavens roar, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes…
Romans 11:33(v14)Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
Job 36:29(vv8, 14)Yes, can any understand the spreading of the clouds, and the thunderings of his pavilion?
1 Samuel 2:8(v11)He raises up the poor out of the dust. He lifts up the needy from the dunghill to make them sit with princes and inherit the throne of…
1 Samuel 2:10(v14)Those who strive with Yahweh shall be broken to pieces. He will thunder against them in the sky. “Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth.…
Job 4:12(v14)“Now a thing was secretly brought to me. My ear received a whisper of it.
Job 40:9(v14)Or do you have an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like him?
Psalms 29:3(v14)Yahweh’s voice is on the waters. The God of glory thunders, even Yahweh on many waters.
Psalms 74:13(v12)You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
Psalms 93:3-4(v12)The floods have lifted up, Yahweh, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves. Above the voices of many waters,…
Psalms 97:2(v9)Clouds and darkness are around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Psalms 104:30(v13)You send out your Spirit and they are created. You renew the face of the ground.
Isaiah 5:6(v8)I will lay it a wasteland. It won’t be pruned or hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no…
Jeremiah 5:22(v10)Don’t you fear me?’ says Yahweh ‘Won’t you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual…
1 Corinthians 13:9-12(v14)For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.…
Exodus 14:21-31(v12)Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land,…
Job 22:14(v9)Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see. He walks on the vault of the sky.’
Job 38:9(v8)when I made clouds its garment, and wrapped it in thick darkness,
Job 38:37(v8)Who can count the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the containers of the sky,
Psalms 18:10-11(v8)He rode on a cherub, and flew. Yes, he soared on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his hiding place, his pavilion around him,…
Psalms 33:7(v10)He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deeps in storehouses.
Psalms 74:13-14(v13)You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters. You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces.…
Psalms 135:7(v8)He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings with the rain. He brings the wind out of his treasuries.
Genesis 1:2(v13)The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.
Genesis 1:6-7(v8)God said, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” God made the expanse, and…
Genesis 8:22(v10)While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”
Exodus 20:21(v9)The people stayed at a distance, and Moses came near to the thick darkness where God was.
Exodus 33:20-23(v9)He said, “You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live.” Yahweh also said, “Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand…
Exodus 34:3(v9)No one shall come up with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Do not let the flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.”
1 Kings 8:12(v9)Then Solomon said, “Yahweh has said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.
Job 15:15(v11)Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
Job 40:11-12(v12)Pour out the fury of your anger. Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him low. Look at everyone who is proud, and humble him. Crush the…
Psalms 18:7(v11)Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations also of the mountains quaked and were shaken, because he was angry.
Psalms 29:10(v12)Yahweh sat enthroned at the Flood. Yes, Yahweh sits as King forever.
Psalms 33:6-7(v13)By Yahweh’s word, the heavens were made: all their army by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. He…
Psalms 104:6-9(v10)You covered it with the deep as with a cloak. The waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they fled. At the voice of your thunder…
Psalms 114:2-7(v12)Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, the…
Isaiah 2:12(v12)For there will be a day of Yahweh of Armies for all that is proud and arrogant, and for all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low:
Isaiah 54:9-10(v10)“For this is like the waters of Noah to me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah will no more go over the earth, so I have sworn…
Daniel 4:37(v12)Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven; for all his works are truth, and his ways justice; and those who walk…
Habakkuk 3:3-5(v9)God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens, and his praise filled the earth. His splendor is like…
Haggai 2:21(v11)“Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, ‘I will shake the heavens and the earth.
James 4:6(v12)But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
1 Timothy 6:16(v9)He alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and eternal power. Amen.
Hebrews 12:26-27(v11)whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.”…
Revelation 12:9(v13)The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown…
2 Peter 3:10(v11)But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be…
Revelation 20:11(v11)I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.
71 distinct cross-references across this passage (72 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (17 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv7, 10, 11, 13, 14He causeth the whole heaven to turn about the…
He causeth the whole heaven to turn about the North pole.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv7–14Job 26:7 He stretcheth out the north over the…
Job 26:7 He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, [and] hangeth the earth upon nothing.
Ver. 7. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place] Heb. Over Tohu. Aristotle saith, that beyond the movable heavens there is neither body, nor time, nor place, nor vacuum. But on this side of the heaven there are bodies, time, place, and, as it may seem to some, an empty place; for so the air is here called, over which, and not over any solid matter, for a foundation, God hath spread and stretched forth the heavens which are here called the north, because they are moved about the north pole; and besides, the north is held the upper part of the world, according to that of Virgil,
Read full note →
Mundus ut ad Scythiam Riphaeasque arduus arces
Cousurgit; premitur Libyae devexus ad austros.
Hence it is here put for the whole heaven which, held up by the word of God’s power, without any other props, leaneth upon the liquid air, the air upon the earth, and the earth upon nothing.
And hangeth the earth upon nothing]
Terra pilae similis, nullo fulcimine nixa,
Aero sublato tam grave pendet onus (Ovid. 6, Fasti).
The earth hangs in the midst of heaven, like Architas’ or Archimedes’ pigeon, equally poised with his own weight. Of this great wonder the philosophers, after much study, can give no good reason, because ignorant of this, that God hath appointed it so to be, even from the first creation, Psa 104:5 Heb 1:2. The poets fable that Atlas beareth up heaven with his shoulders; but we confess the true Atlas, viz. the Lord our God, who by his word alone beareth up heaven and earth (This is the very finger of God, Aristotle himself admireth it, De Cael. 1. 2, c. 13); and it is here fitly alleged as an argument of his Almightiness. The greatness of this work of God appeareth hereby, saith Merlin, that men cannot spread aloft the thinnest curtain, absque fulcris, without some solid thing to uphold it.
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 Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv7–14The north, i.e. the northern pole, or part of…
The north, i.e. the northern pole, or part of the heavens, which he particularly mentions, and puts for the whole visible heaven, because Job and his friends lived in a northern climate, and were acquainted only with that part of the heavens, the southern pole and parts near it being wholly unknown to them. The heavens are oft and fitly said to be spread or stretched out like a curtain or tent, to which they are resembled.
The empty place, to wit, the air, so called, not philosophically, as if it were wholly empty; but popularly, because it seems to be so, and is generally void of solid and visible bodies.
Read full note →
Upon nothing; upon its own centre, which is but an imaginary thing, and in truth nothing; or upon no props or pillars, but his own power and providence; which is justly celebrated as a wonderful work of God, both in Scripture and in heathen authors.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv7–14He stretcheth out the north over the empty place,....…
He stretcheth out the north over the empty place,.... The northern hemisphere, which is the chief and best known, at least it was in the time of Job, when the southern hemisphere might not be known at all; though, if our version of Job 9:9 is right, Job seems to have had knowledge of it. Scheuchzer (u) thinks the thick air farthest north is meant, which expands itself everywhere, and is of great use to the whole earth. But if the northern hemisphere is meant, as a learned man (w) expresses it, it
"was not only principal as to Job's respect, and the position of Arabia, but because this hemisphere is absolutely so indeed, it is principal to the whole; for as the heavens and the earth are divided by the middle line, the northern half hath a strange share of excellency; we have more earth, more men, more stars, more day (the same also Sephorno, a Jewish commentator on the place, observes); and, which is more than all this, the north pole is more magnetic than the south:''
Read full note →
though the whole celestial sphere may be intended, the principal being put for the whole; even that whole expansion, or firmament of heaven, which has its name from being stretched out like a curtain, or canopy, over the earth; which was done when the earth was "tohu", empty of inhabitants, both men and beasts, and was without form and void, and had no beauty in it, or anything growing on it; see Gen 1:2;
and hangeth the earth upon nothing; as a ball in the air (x), poised with its own weight (y), or kept in this form and manner by the centre of gravity, and so some Jewish writers (z) interpret "nothing" of the centre of the earth, and which is nothing but "ens rationis", a figment and imagination of the mind; or rather the earth is held together, and in the position it is, by its own magnetic virtue, it being a loadstone itself; and as the above learned writer observes,
"the globe consisteth by a magnetic dependency, from which the parts cannot possibly start aside; but which, howsoever thus strongly seated on its centre and poles, is yet said to hang upon nothing; because the Creator in the beginning thus placed it within the "tohu", as it now also hangeth in the air; which itself also is nothing as to any regard of base or sustentation.''
In short, what the foundations are on which it is laid, or the pillars by which it is sustained, cannot be said, except the mighty power and providence of God. The word used seems to come from a root, which in the Syriac and Chaldee languages signifies to "bind and restrain"; and may design the expanse or atmosphere, so called from its binding and compressing nature, "in" or "within" which the earth is hung; see Psa 32:9.
(u) Physic. Sacr. vol. 4. p. 724. (w) Gregory's Notes and Observations, &c. c. 12. p. 55. (x) "Terra pilae similis nullo fulcimine nixa", Ovid. Fast. 6. (y) "Circumfuso pendebat in aere tellus, ponderibus librata suis----", Ovid. Metamorph. l. 1. Fab. 1. (z) Ben Gersom & Bar Tzemach in loc.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv7, 9, 11, 14North - The northern part of the heavens, which…
North - The northern part of the heavens, which is put for the whole visible heaven, because Job and his friends lived in a northern climate. Nothing - Upon no props or pillars, but his own power and providence.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv7–14Verse 7. He stretcheth out the north over the…
Verse 7. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place] על תהו al tohu, to the hollow waste. The same word as is used, Ge 1:2, The earth was without form, תהו tohu. The north must here mean the north pole, or northern hemisphere; and perhaps what is here stated may refer to the opinion that the earth was a vast extended plain, and the heavens poised upon it, resting on this plain all round the horizon. Of the south the inhabitants of Idumea knew nothing; nor could they have any notion of inhabitants in that hemisphere.
Hangeth the earth upon nothing.] The Chaldee says: "He lays the earth upon the waters, nothing sustaining it."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv7–14Job 26:7. He stretcheth out the north — The…
Job 26:7. He stretcheth out the north — The northern part of the heavens, which he particularly mentions, and puts for the whole visible heavens, because Job and his friends lived in a northern climate; over the empty space — Hebrew, על תהו, gnal tohu, over the vacuity, or emptiness; the same word which Moses uses, Gen 1:2, which does not prove that the author of this book lived after Moses wrote the book of Genesis, and had seen that book, but only that Moses’s account of the creation is the ancient and true account, well known in the days of Job and his friends, and therefore alluded to here. And hangeth the earth upon nothing — Upon its own centre, which is but an imaginary thing, and, in truth, nothing; or, he means, upon no props, or pillars, but his own power and providence. Bishop Patrick’s paraphrase is, “By his wonderful power and wisdom he stretches out the whole world from the one pole to the other, which he alone sustains; as he doth this globe of earth hanging in the air, without any thing to support it.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv7–14He stretcheth out the north - This whole passage…
He stretcheth out the north - This whole passage is particularly interesting as giving a view of the cosmology which prevailed in those early times. Indeed, as has been already remarked, this poem, apart from every other consideration, is of great value for disclosing to us the prevailing views on the subject of astronomy, geography, and many of the arts, at a much earlier period than we have an account of them elsewhere. The word north here denotes the heavens as they appear to revolve around the pole, and which seem to be stretched out as a curtain. The heavens are often represented as a veil, an expanse, a curtain, or a tent; see Isa 34:4, note; Isa 40:22, note.
Over the empty place - על־תהוּ ‛al-tôhû, “Upon emptiness, or nothing.” That is, without anything to support it. The word used here (תהוּ tôhû) is one of those employed Gen 1:2, “And the earth was wlthout form and void.” But it seems here to mean emptiness, nothing. The north is stretched out and sustained by the mere power of God.
Read full note →
And hangeth the earth upon nothing. - It has nothing to support it. So Milton:
“And earth self-balaneed from her center hung.”
There is no certain evidence here that Job was acquainted with the globular form of the earth, and with its diurnal and annual revolutions. But it is clear that he regarded it as not resting on any foundation or support; as lying on the vacant air, and kept there by the power of God. The Chaldee paraphrasist, in order to explain this, as that Paraphrase often does, adds the word waters. “He hangeth the earth מיא עלוי upon the waters, with no one to sustain it.” The sentiment here expressed by Job was probably the common opinion of his time. It occurs also in Lucretius:
Terraque ut in media mundi regionne quieseat
Evallescere paullatim, et decrescere, pondus
Convenit; atque aliam naturam subter habere,
Et ineunte aevo conjunctam atque uniter aptam
Partibus aeriis mundi, quibus insita vivit
Propterea, non est oneri, neque deprimit auras;
Ut sua quoique homini nullo sunt pondere membra,
Nec caput est oneri collo, nec denique totum
Corporus in pedibus pondus sentimus inesse.
v. 535.
In this passage the sense is, that the earth is self-sustained; that it is no burden, or that no one part is burdensome to another - as in man the limbs are not burdensome, the head is not heavy, nor the whole frame burdensome to the feet. So, again, Lucretius says, ii. 602:
Hanc, veteres Grajum docti cecinere poetae,
Aeris in spatio magnam pendere -
Tellurem, neque posse in terra sistere terram.
- “In ether poised she hangs,
Unpropt by earth beneath.”
So Ovid says:
Ponderibus librata suis.
Self-poised and self balanced.
And again, Fastor, vi. 269:
Terra pilae similis, nullo fulcimine nixa,
Aere subjecto tam grave pendet onus.
From passages like this occurring occasionally in the Classical writers, it is evident that the true figure of the earth had early engaged the attention of people, and that occasionally the truth on this subject was before their minds, though it was neither worked into a system nor sustained then by suffient evidence to make it an article of established belief The description here given is appropriate now; and had Job understood all that is now known of astronomy, his language would have been appropriate to express just conceptions of the greatness and majesty of God. It is proof of amazing power and greatness that he has thus “hung” the earth, the planets, the vast sun himself, upon nothing, and that by his own power he sustains and governs all.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv7–14North pole, which alone was visible in Idumea, and…
North pole, which alone was visible in Idumea, and continued unmoved, while all the stars performed their revolutions. (Calmet) --- Nothing. Terra, pilæ similis, nullo fulcimine nixa. (Ovid, Fast, vi.) (Calmet) --- All tends to the centre, (Menochius) by the laws of attraction. (Newton, &c.) (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv7–14Hint of the true theory of the earth. Its…
Hint of the true theory of the earth. Its suspension in empty space is stated in the second clause. The north in particular is specified in the first, being believed to be the highest part of the earth (Isa 14:13). The northern hemisphere or vault of heaven is included; often compared to a stretched-out canopy (Psa 104:2). The chambers of the south are mentioned (Job 9:9), that is, the southern hemisphere, consistently with the earth's globular form.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv7–147. The north — Delitzsch shows satisfactorily that we…
7. The north — Delitzsch shows satisfactorily that we are not to understand by this the northern portion of the earth, as is held by Dillmann, etc., but the northern sky, which, with the ancients, was of more consideration than the southern. In the northern hemisphere were the great constellations mentioned by Job — the Bear, the Serpent, Orion, etc. Among the ancient poets the north pole was used synonymously for the heavens, and in this sense the north may be employed here. The arctic desolation disclosed by modern exploration singularly corresponds to the tohu, “desolateness,” over which Job in figure spreads out “the north.”
Empty place — Hebrew, tohu. Same word as in Gen_1:2. That the sky should overarch the immeasurable void without visible supports was always a marvel to the Oriental mind. Hence the poetical invention of pillars. See Job_9:6. Thus the Koran, Sur. xiii, “It is Allah who has built the heavens on high, without the support of visible pillars.” Nothing — The Hebrew word is a compound, בלימה, literally, not what, that is, nothing, (no-thing,) and is found in the Scriptures only here. This disclosure, which for so many ages preceded its scientific confirmation, stands out in yet more bold relief when compared with the mythologies of other ancient nations. The father of modern science, Lord Bacon, incidentally speaks of this among other passages: “The book of Job, likewise, will be found, if examined with care, pregnant with the secrets of natural philosophy. For example, when it says, ‘he stretcheth out the north,’ etc., the suspension of the earth and the convexity of the heavens are manifestly alluded to.… So in another place, ‘who maketh Arcturus,’ etc., Job_9:9; he again refers to the depression of the south pole in the expression, ‘interiora austri,’ ‘chambers of the south,’ because the southern stars are not seen in our hemisphere.” — Advancement of Learning, book 1. Kepler, the great astronomer, treating of the yet unsolved problems of science, thus reverently speaks of the disclosures made in the book of Job: “These, and other similar things, lie hidden in the pandects of coming times, and are not to be understood until God, the arbiter of the ages, shall have unfolded this book (Job) to mortals.” — Cited by Delitzsch. The Jerusalem Gemara says, that Alexander the Great is sometimes represented as holding a ball in his hand, because he had ascertained that the earth, which he had traversed to conquer, had the figure of a sphere. (Avoda Sara, chap. 3.) For a brief sketch of the conflicting opinions of the ancients upon this subject the reader is referred to Etheridge’s “Hebrew Literature,” p. 272.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv7–147. It may be doubtful whether “the north” refers…
7. It may be doubtful whether “the north” refers to the northern part of the earth or to the northern heavens. In favour of the latter reference is the fact that the expression “stretch out,” often said in regard to the heavens (e.g. ch. Job_9:8), is not elsewhere used with reference to the earth, and it is scarcely probable that “the earth” would be used as a parallel to “the north,” a part of the earth. The northern region of the heavens also, with its brilliant constellations clustering round the pole, would naturally attract the eye, and seem to the beholder, who looked up to it through the transparent atmosphere, to be stretched out over the “empty place,” that is, the vast void between earth and heaven. That a different mode of representation is found elsewhere, the arch of the heavens being spoken of as reposing on the earth (Isa_40:22), is of little consequence. Where religious wonder and poetical feeling, not scientific thought, dictate the language in which nature and its phenomena are described, uniformity of conception or expression is not to be looked for. And the words seem to refer to the appearance of the heavens by night, when the horizon is not so visible, and the dark “void” between earth and heaven more impressive. Others think of the northern region of the earth, the region where lofty mountains rise, and whose stability without support seems most wonderful. It is difficult in this case, however, to conjecture what the void is over which the “north” is stretched; the opinion of Ewald that it is the abyss of Sheol is too adventurous.
hangeth the earth upon nothing] To hang “upon” is to hang from; the representation, therefore, is that the earth is suspended, attached to nothing above it which sustains its weight, not that it hangs with no support under it. The representation obviously is the other side of that in reference to “the north” in the first clause. The eye was impressed by the great void between earth and the starry heavens. The latter were stretched over this abyss, upheld by nothing under them, a striking instance of the power of God; while the broad face of the earth lay firm below this void though hung from no support that upheld it. The idea of modern astronomy that the earth is a ball, poised free on all sides in space, is of course not found here.
Read full note →
7–13. God’s power and greatness in heaven and earth.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv7–14(7) He stretcheth out the north over the empty…
(7) He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.—If these words mean what they seem to do—and it is hard to see how they can mean anything else—then they furnish a very remarkable instance of anticipation of the discoveries of science. Here we find Job, more than three thousand years ago, describing in language of scientific accuracy the condition of our globe, and holding it forth as a proof of Divine power. Some have attempted to explain the latter clause of the destitution caused by famine; but that is precluded by the terms of the first clause.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv7–14He streteheth out the north over the empty place.…
He streteheth out the north over the empty place. Over what was "empty space" or "chaos" (WhT) God stretches out "the north a portion of his orderly creation perhaps the northern portion of the heavens, where are the grandest constellations visible to the inhabitants of the world"s northern half. And hangeth the earth upon nothing. "Takes," i.e., " the huge ball of the earth, and suspends it in vacancy, with nothing to support it but his own fixed will, his own firm laws." This is an idea scarcely reached by astronomers in general, at any rate till the time of Hippar-chus; and it has, not without reason, been regarded as "a very remarkable instance of anticipation of the discoveries of science" (Stanley Loathes).
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 Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv7, 8, 9, 14And hangeth the earth upon nothing.
Job_26:7
And hangeth the earth upon nothing.
Read full note →
The basis of the great realities
That is the startling and sublime conception of the sacred poet, that the earth is sustained by impalpable and spiritual energies. But if you go to the mythology of the Hindoo, you find that the earth rests on the back of an elephant, and that the elephant stands on a tortoise! Now these two ways of looking upon the stability of the earth penetrate the whole world of thought. One great school of men finds that the basis of all things is spiritual; another school finds that the basis of all things is material. Says one, the life of the universe is supernatural; says the other, we can only trust a tangible and material foundation. There in nature, as Job says, He hangeth the earth upon nothing. He says that the basis of the world is invisible and metaphysical; in a word we say in this place that the ultimate factor in nature is spiritual; that out of the spiritual arose the visible; that the spiritual holds the visible together; that the spiritual governs the visible and directs it to some intelligent and noble goal. We say, not the sensational, not the material, but the visible universe, hangs on nothing--on the unseen power of the spiritual God. You go to some sceptical men today and ask them, What holds this earth up? Why the imponderables, the ethers, the electricities, the galvanisms, the gravitations--the elephant and tortoise! Go and ask them where all the flowers came from. There was a time when there was not a single plant on the planet. Where did they all come from? Well, they say, if you go back far enough, you go back to a meteor stone which brought from other planets the germs of vegetable life and beauty. If you go far enough back! Only you see, it is not far enough back, it is the tortoise again! You go to the physiologist and ask him where physical life, animal life comes from? He says, if you want to explain animal life you must go back to--what? Odic forces, nervous energy! Oh no, no, no, it is not far enough back; it is stopping once more at the elephant and tortoise. And that is exactly what we in the Church refuse to do. We wont stay here, but we will go with the sublime philosophy of the text, to the living God. And we believe that at last the things that are seen rest upon the wise and eternal will of God, over all blessed forever. When these men say that everything is to be explained by natural laws, natural causes, natural sequences, we believe in natural laws, natural causes, natural sequences. But before all changes, all states, all stages, we must find the Prime Mover, and, as to all the rest, all the secondary causes, the will of God works through them all, to His high and wonderful purpose. Go to the sceptical biologist today, and he says, if you want to explain organisation you must go back, and you will find that the organisation of today is based upon simple organisation in the primitive epoch. In other words, you are to go back and to find the microscopical tortoise in the primitive mud. You go to a sceptical astronomer and ask what keeps the universe up. Oh, he says, one star hangs upon another. Very good. And they all hang upon the topmost star. Everything is dependent upon the central sun. In other words, your central sun is the transfigured tortoise. Go to the sceptical geologist and say, What do things rest upon? He says, The earth you walk upon rests upon the carboniferous epoch. Yes, and what does that rest upon? That rests upon the Devonian. Very good; and what does that rest on? He says, That rests on the Silurian. And what does that rest on? That rests on the cosmical dust. A lively tortoise! We hold the tortoise and the elephant are very good as far as they go; but they do not go far enough. And you have never gone far enough, whilst you keep to secondary causes, whilst you keep to intermediary forces. You can never find rest for the intelligent soul, until at the back of the physical universe, with its interdependencies and its evolutions, you find the God who made and ruled it, and is bringing it through the ages to some wise and magnificent consummation. I say, let us, in these days of materialism, keep well this before the world--In the beginning God, the first cause, God in whom all things are held together; God who directs everything to a noble and adequate consummation. You know, where I live, the speculative builder has turned up, and he has built a row of houses opposite to my modest cottage. I had a grand time when I went to live there. I had the sky, and the sunrise, and the sunset, and the procession of the clouds, and the colours of the spring, and the glory of the summer. I never dared to speak of it, lest my landlord should put up my rent! If he had made me pay for all that, he would have wanted a fine fee. But in comes the speculative builder, and puts up this row of horrid bricks and mortar. And now the only glimpse I get of the violet sky is in a puddle in the street. I never see the splendour of the sunset, except a stray gleam in a window pane. As for the growths of the summer, the only relics I how see are two smutty, smutty growths in a little plot that they poetically call my garden! They call it London Pride that grows there. But if London is proud of it, it shows the humility of the metropolis! Now what I want yon to see is this: that just as the bricks and mortar have shut out nature, so nature herself may become so much dead brick and mortar to shut out the greater world that is back of it. Men stop with the visible, and they forget the unseen and eternal universe, of which this world is but a theatre of images and shadows. Now find another illustration of the text in society. If God is the ultimate factor in nature, God is once more the ultimate factor in society. He hangeth the earth upon nothing. He hangeth civilisation upon nothing. Now there, again, you find the objector comes in. He says, Oh, you believe everything rests in society upon a spiritual basis. Yes. Well, I dont; I believe that society is built upon instincts, upon utilities, upon governments. The elephant and tortoise again! What are the three great words in the world today touching civilisation? Liberty, equality, fraternity? Let us drop that legend and take up these which come nearer co the point--sympathy, righteousness, hope. Society is held together, it advances by the power of these three words. If you come to look at them, they are all metaphysical. Sympathy--What a power sympathy is in civilisation! The home, society are held together by it. Go to the materialist, and he says, Society is held together by hooks of steel. What are they? The policemans handcuffs, that is it. How is society held together? By the hangmans noose. Coercion, penalties, punishments--society rests there! Society does not rest there. One of the great factors is that wonderful thing you call love that has been working obscurely in the world from the beginning to this hour. Forbearance, unselfishness, disinterestedness, gratitude, love. Oh, says the utilitarian, hang the earth upon the thick cart rope of coercion. He hangeth civilisation upon the fine silken thread we call love. And today in society, love plays the same part that gravitation plays in the physical universe. Righteousness. What is righteousness? Oh, says the utilitarian, righteousness is a coarse fibre,--self-interest. That is the sustaining force of righteousness. What is the force which sustains righteousness? It is spiritual. God hangs the heavens upon the finest wires, say the ancients; and morality depends upon faith and love. If you want a guarantee for morality, what is the great guarantee which the New Testament gives? That the love you feel to the worlds Saviour will prompt your obedience to the worlds Lawgiver. Hope. There is another great word that moves and sanctifies society. If it were not for hope, the nation would wither, civilisation would wither. And the hope of the world is at last the confidence of men in an unseen but a faithful God. And so, in civilisation as in science, the great forces that mould, and sustain, and inspire, and perfect, are not gross materialism and mean utilities, but they are in fine threads, noble feelings, and these threads sustain the whole fabric of civilisation. And therefore in the Church, you know, we seem really nobody. If you get a statesman, he has got an army at his back. If you get a magistrate, he has got a lot of policemen at his back. If you get a merchant, you get the Bank of England at his back--more or less! But we in the Church have no political mastery. When we lay down a law, we cannot call in the policeman. We have none of the forces of bread and gold. What have we got in the Church? Well, I say this, the Church is the master of the forces that mould society, that is all. The Church is the master of those great emotions of sympathy, of sentiment, of righteousness, of hope. Never you be troubled because you think the Church has a somewhat isolated and spiritualised and apparently uninfluential situation. It is the spiritual that governs society. I must show you how the text is illustrated in the Church. He hangeth the earth upon nothing. Religion--what is religion? Religion means a bond, a spiritual bond, between my soul and my Maker, and my salvation hangs where the earth hangeth and where salvation hangs, on the Word of God in Jesus Christ; there and only there. You are wrong again, says the objector, and he begins to call in the elephant and the tortoise. Says he, What about the Church? Your salvation rests on the Church, its services, sacraments, its spiritualities. Dont you see it is resting (and I speak with great respectfulness) our salvation upon the elephant and the tortoise, instead of going back to the spiritual God and His truth, love, and grace, and these only? My salvation depends upon my personal fellowship with my living Lord. He hangeth the earth, not upon the coarse thread of historic continuity, but upon the fine thread of the spiritual past. My salvation does not hang upon a connection with the ceremonial Church. There they fix me up with the visible, mechanical, ceremonial Church. It is like a man who believes the earth wants shoring up. Not a bit of it. I can do with certain of these things and I can do without them. I am not bound to the visible ceremonial Church. Hangs my salvation on the simple Word in Jesus Christ, and there is the vital truth for you and for me. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth, for He seeketh such to worship Him. He hangeth the earth upon nothing, and it hangs well. Fasten yourself to the same thread and you shall not find that you will be confounded. (W. L. Watkinson.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv7, 9, 11, 13He stretches out the northern skies over the empty…
He stretches out the northern skies over the empty space
The northern skies represent heaven, the place where God dwells with the beings he created to dwell there. (See: Metaphor)
Read full note →
He binds up the waters in his thick clouds
The clouds are compared to a large blanket in which God wraps the rainwater. AT: "He wraps up the water in his thick clouds"
but the clouds are not torn under them
This can be stated actively. The word "them" refers to the waters. AT: "but the weight of the waters does not tear the clouds" (See: Active or Passive)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv7, 10, 11, 12, 1326:7 The Hebrew tsapon (“north,” Gen 13:14) sometimes refers…
26:7 The Hebrew tsapon (“north,” Gen 13:14) sometimes refers to the northern mountain of the Canaanite gods (the Canaanite equivalent of Olympus); here the NLT understands it to refer to the sky, stretched out over empty space (see Gen 1:6-8; Ps 104:2-3; Isa 40:22-23).
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv7, 10, 11, 13, 14 He causeth the whole heaven to turn about the…
He causeth the whole heaven to turn about the North pole.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–14 Job 26:7 He stretcheth out the north over the…
Job 26:7 He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, [and] hangeth the earth upon nothing.
Ver. 7. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place] Heb. Over Tohu. Aristotle saith, that beyond the movable heavens there is neither body, nor time, nor place, nor vacuum. But on this side of the heaven there are bodies, time, place, and, as it may seem to some, an empty place; for so the air is here called, over which, and not over any solid matter, for a foundation, God hath spread and stretched forth the heavens which are here called the north, because they are moved about the north pole; and besides, the north is held the upper part of the world, according to that of Virgil,
Read full note →
Mundus ut ad Scythiam Riphaeasque arduus arces
Cousurgit; premitur Libyae devexus ad austros.
Hence it is here put for the whole heaven which, held up by the word of God’s power, without any other props, leaneth upon the liquid air, the air upon the earth, and the earth upon nothing.
And hangeth the earth upon nothing]
Terra pilae similis, nullo fulcimine nixa,
Aero sublato tam grave pendet onus (Ovid. 6, Fasti).
The earth hangs in the midst of heaven, like Architas’ or Archimedes’ pigeon, equally poised with his own weight. Of this great wonder the philosophers, after much study, can give no good reason, because ignorant of this, that God hath appointed it so to be, even from the first creation, Psa 104:5 Heb 1:2. The poets fable that Atlas beareth up heaven with his shoulders; but we confess the true Atlas, viz. the Lord our God, who by his word alone beareth up heaven and earth (This is the very finger of God, Aristotle himself admireth it, De Cael. 1. 2, c. 13); and it is here fitly alleged as an argument of his Almightiness. The greatness of this work of God appeareth hereby, saith Merlin, that men cannot spread aloft the thinnest curtain, absque fulcris, without some solid thing to uphold it.
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 Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv7–14 The north, i.e. the northern pole, or part of…
The north, i.e. the northern pole, or part of the heavens, which he particularly mentions, and puts for the whole visible heaven, because Job and his friends lived in a northern climate, and were acquainted only with that part of the heavens, the southern pole and parts near it being wholly unknown to them. The heavens are oft and fitly said to be spread or stretched out like a curtain or tent, to which they are resembled.
The empty place, to wit, the air, so called, not philosophically, as if it were wholly empty; but popularly, because it seems to be so, and is generally void of solid and visible bodies.
Read full note →
Upon nothing; upon its own centre, which is but an imaginary thing, and in truth nothing; or upon no props or pillars, but his own power and providence; which is justly celebrated as a wonderful work of God, both in Scripture and in heathen authors.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv7–14 He stretcheth out the north over the empty place,....…
He stretcheth out the north over the empty place,.... The northern hemisphere, which is the chief and best known, at least it was in the time of Job, when the southern hemisphere might not be known at all; though, if our version of Job 9:9 is right, Job seems to have had knowledge of it. Scheuchzer (u) thinks the thick air farthest north is meant, which expands itself everywhere, and is of great use to the whole earth. But if the northern hemisphere is meant, as a learned man (w) expresses it, it
"was not only principal as to Job's respect, and the position of Arabia, but because this hemisphere is absolutely so indeed, it is principal to the whole; for as the heavens and the earth are divided by the middle line, the northern half hath a strange share of excellency; we have more earth, more men, more stars, more day (the same also Sephorno, a Jewish commentator on the place, observes); and, which is more than all this, the north pole is more magnetic than the south:''
Read full note →
though the whole celestial sphere may be intended, the principal being put for the whole; even that whole expansion, or firmament of heaven, which has its name from being stretched out like a curtain, or canopy, over the earth; which was done when the earth was "tohu", empty of inhabitants, both men and beasts, and was without form and void, and had no beauty in it, or anything growing on it; see Gen 1:2;
and hangeth the earth upon nothing; as a ball in the air (x), poised with its own weight (y), or kept in this form and manner by the centre of gravity, and so some Jewish writers (z) interpret "nothing" of the centre of the earth, and which is nothing but "ens rationis", a figment and imagination of the mind; or rather the earth is held together, and in the position it is, by its own magnetic virtue, it being a loadstone itself; and as the above learned writer observes,
"the globe consisteth by a magnetic dependency, from which the parts cannot possibly start aside; but which, howsoever thus strongly seated on its centre and poles, is yet said to hang upon nothing; because the Creator in the beginning thus placed it within the "tohu", as it now also hangeth in the air; which itself also is nothing as to any regard of base or sustentation.''
In short, what the foundations are on which it is laid, or the pillars by which it is sustained, cannot be said, except the mighty power and providence of God. The word used seems to come from a root, which in the Syriac and Chaldee languages signifies to "bind and restrain"; and may design the expanse or atmosphere, so called from its binding and compressing nature, "in" or "within" which the earth is hung; see Psa 32:9.
(u) Physic. Sacr. vol. 4. p. 724. (w) Gregory's Notes and Observations, &c. c. 12. p. 55. (x) "Terra pilae similis nullo fulcimine nixa", Ovid. Fast. 6. (y) "Circumfuso pendebat in aere tellus, ponderibus librata suis----", Ovid. Metamorph. l. 1. Fab. 1. (z) Ben Gersom & Bar Tzemach in loc.
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 On vv7, 9, 11, 14 North - The northern part of the heavens, which…
North - The northern part of the heavens, which is put for the whole visible heaven, because Job and his friends lived in a northern climate. Nothing - Upon no props or pillars, but his own power and providence.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv7–14 Verse 7. He stretcheth out the north over the…
Verse 7. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place] על תהו al tohu, to the hollow waste. The same word as is used, Ge 1:2, The earth was without form, תהו tohu. The north must here mean the north pole, or northern hemisphere; and perhaps what is here stated may refer to the opinion that the earth was a vast extended plain, and the heavens poised upon it, resting on this plain all round the horizon. Of the south the inhabitants of Idumea knew nothing; nor could they have any notion of inhabitants in that hemisphere.
Hangeth the earth upon nothing.] The Chaldee says: "He lays the earth upon the waters, nothing sustaining it."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv7–14 Job 26:7. He stretcheth out the north — The…
Job 26:7. He stretcheth out the north — The northern part of the heavens, which he particularly mentions, and puts for the whole visible heavens, because Job and his friends lived in a northern climate; over the empty space — Hebrew, על תהו, gnal tohu, over the vacuity, or emptiness; the same word which Moses uses, Gen 1:2, which does not prove that the author of this book lived after Moses wrote the book of Genesis, and had seen that book, but only that Moses’s account of the creation is the ancient and true account, well known in the days of Job and his friends, and therefore alluded to here. And hangeth the earth upon nothing — Upon its own centre, which is but an imaginary thing, and, in truth, nothing; or, he means, upon no props, or pillars, but his own power and providence. Bishop Patrick’s paraphrase is, “By his wonderful power and wisdom he stretches out the whole world from the one pole to the other, which he alone sustains; as he doth this globe of earth hanging in the air, without any thing to support it.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv7–14 He stretcheth out the north - This whole passage…
He stretcheth out the north - This whole passage is particularly interesting as giving a view of the cosmology which prevailed in those early times. Indeed, as has been already remarked, this poem, apart from every other consideration, is of great value for disclosing to us the prevailing views on the subject of astronomy, geography, and many of the arts, at a much earlier period than we have an account of them elsewhere. The word north here denotes the heavens as they appear to revolve around the pole, and which seem to be stretched out as a curtain. The heavens are often represented as a veil, an expanse, a curtain, or a tent; see Isa 34:4, note; Isa 40:22, note.
Over the empty place - על־תהוּ ‛al-tôhû, “Upon emptiness, or nothing.” That is, without anything to support it. The word used here (תהוּ tôhû) is one of those employed Gen 1:2, “And the earth was wlthout form and void.” But it seems here to mean emptiness, nothing. The north is stretched out and sustained by the mere power of God.
Read full note →
And hangeth the earth upon nothing. - It has nothing to support it. So Milton:
“And earth self-balaneed from her center hung.”
There is no certain evidence here that Job was acquainted with the globular form of the earth, and with its diurnal and annual revolutions. But it is clear that he regarded it as not resting on any foundation or support; as lying on the vacant air, and kept there by the power of God. The Chaldee paraphrasist, in order to explain this, as that Paraphrase often does, adds the word waters. “He hangeth the earth מיא עלוי upon the waters, with no one to sustain it.” The sentiment here expressed by Job was probably the common opinion of his time. It occurs also in Lucretius:
Terraque ut in media mundi regionne quieseat
Evallescere paullatim, et decrescere, pondus
Convenit; atque aliam naturam subter habere,
Et ineunte aevo conjunctam atque uniter aptam
Partibus aeriis mundi, quibus insita vivit
Propterea, non est oneri, neque deprimit auras;
Ut sua quoique homini nullo sunt pondere membra,
Nec caput est oneri collo, nec denique totum
Corporus in pedibus pondus sentimus inesse.
v. 535.
In this passage the sense is, that the earth is self-sustained; that it is no burden, or that no one part is burdensome to another - as in man the limbs are not burdensome, the head is not heavy, nor the whole frame burdensome to the feet. So, again, Lucretius says, ii. 602:
Hanc, veteres Grajum docti cecinere poetae,
Aeris in spatio magnam pendere -
Tellurem, neque posse in terra sistere terram.
- “In ether poised she hangs,
Unpropt by earth beneath.”
So Ovid says:
Ponderibus librata suis.
Self-poised and self balanced.
And again, Fastor, vi. 269:
Terra pilae similis, nullo fulcimine nixa,
Aere subjecto tam grave pendet onus.
From passages like this occurring occasionally in the Classical writers, it is evident that the true figure of the earth had early engaged the attention of people, and that occasionally the truth on this subject was before their minds, though it was neither worked into a system nor sustained then by suffient evidence to make it an article of established belief The description here given is appropriate now; and had Job understood all that is now known of astronomy, his language would have been appropriate to express just conceptions of the greatness and majesty of God. It is proof of amazing power and greatness that he has thus “hung” the earth, the planets, the vast sun himself, upon nothing, and that by his own power he sustains and governs all.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv7–14 North pole, which alone was visible in Idumea, and…
North pole, which alone was visible in Idumea, and continued unmoved, while all the stars performed their revolutions. (Calmet) --- Nothing. Terra, pilæ similis, nullo fulcimine nixa. (Ovid, Fast, vi.) (Calmet) --- All tends to the centre, (Menochius) by the laws of attraction. (Newton, &c.) (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv7–14 Hint of the true theory of the earth. Its…
Hint of the true theory of the earth. Its suspension in empty space is stated in the second clause. The north in particular is specified in the first, being believed to be the highest part of the earth (Isa 14:13). The northern hemisphere or vault of heaven is included; often compared to a stretched-out canopy (Psa 104:2). The chambers of the south are mentioned (Job 9:9), that is, the southern hemisphere, consistently with the earth's globular form.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv7–14 7. The north — Delitzsch shows satisfactorily that we…
7. The north — Delitzsch shows satisfactorily that we are not to understand by this the northern portion of the earth, as is held by Dillmann, etc., but the northern sky, which, with the ancients, was of more consideration than the southern. In the northern hemisphere were the great constellations mentioned by Job — the Bear, the Serpent, Orion, etc. Among the ancient poets the north pole was used synonymously for the heavens, and in this sense the north may be employed here. The arctic desolation disclosed by modern exploration singularly corresponds to the tohu, “desolateness,” over which Job in figure spreads out “the north.”
Empty place — Hebrew, tohu. Same word as in Gen_1:2. That the sky should overarch the immeasurable void without visible supports was always a marvel to the Oriental mind. Hence the poetical invention of pillars. See Job_9:6. Thus the Koran, Sur. xiii, “It is Allah who has built the heavens on high, without the support of visible pillars.” Nothing — The Hebrew word is a compound, בלימה, literally, not what, that is, nothing, (no-thing,) and is found in the Scriptures only here. This disclosure, which for so many ages preceded its scientific confirmation, stands out in yet more bold relief when compared with the mythologies of other ancient nations. The father of modern science, Lord Bacon, incidentally speaks of this among other passages: “The book of Job, likewise, will be found, if examined with care, pregnant with the secrets of natural philosophy. For example, when it says, ‘he stretcheth out the north,’ etc., the suspension of the earth and the convexity of the heavens are manifestly alluded to.… So in another place, ‘who maketh Arcturus,’ etc., Job_9:9; he again refers to the depression of the south pole in the expression, ‘interiora austri,’ ‘chambers of the south,’ because the southern stars are not seen in our hemisphere.” — Advancement of Learning, book 1. Kepler, the great astronomer, treating of the yet unsolved problems of science, thus reverently speaks of the disclosures made in the book of Job: “These, and other similar things, lie hidden in the pandects of coming times, and are not to be understood until God, the arbiter of the ages, shall have unfolded this book (Job) to mortals.” — Cited by Delitzsch. The Jerusalem Gemara says, that Alexander the Great is sometimes represented as holding a ball in his hand, because he had ascertained that the earth, which he had traversed to conquer, had the figure of a sphere. (Avoda Sara, chap. 3.) For a brief sketch of the conflicting opinions of the ancients upon this subject the reader is referred to Etheridge’s “Hebrew Literature,” p. 272.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–14 7. It may be doubtful whether “the north” refers…
7. It may be doubtful whether “the north” refers to the northern part of the earth or to the northern heavens. In favour of the latter reference is the fact that the expression “stretch out,” often said in regard to the heavens (e.g. ch. Job_9:8), is not elsewhere used with reference to the earth, and it is scarcely probable that “the earth” would be used as a parallel to “the north,” a part of the earth. The northern region of the heavens also, with its brilliant constellations clustering round the pole, would naturally attract the eye, and seem to the beholder, who looked up to it through the transparent atmosphere, to be stretched out over the “empty place,” that is, the vast void between earth and heaven. That a different mode of representation is found elsewhere, the arch of the heavens being spoken of as reposing on the earth (Isa_40:22), is of little consequence. Where religious wonder and poetical feeling, not scientific thought, dictate the language in which nature and its phenomena are described, uniformity of conception or expression is not to be looked for. And the words seem to refer to the appearance of the heavens by night, when the horizon is not so visible, and the dark “void” between earth and heaven more impressive. Others think of the northern region of the earth, the region where lofty mountains rise, and whose stability without support seems most wonderful. It is difficult in this case, however, to conjecture what the void is over which the “north” is stretched; the opinion of Ewald that it is the abyss of Sheol is too adventurous.
hangeth the earth upon nothing] To hang “upon” is to hang from; the representation, therefore, is that the earth is suspended, attached to nothing above it which sustains its weight, not that it hangs with no support under it. The representation obviously is the other side of that in reference to “the north” in the first clause. The eye was impressed by the great void between earth and the starry heavens. The latter were stretched over this abyss, upheld by nothing under them, a striking instance of the power of God; while the broad face of the earth lay firm below this void though hung from no support that upheld it. The idea of modern astronomy that the earth is a ball, poised free on all sides in space, is of course not found here.
Read full note →
7–13. God’s power and greatness in heaven and earth.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–14 (7) He stretcheth out the north over the empty…
(7) He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.—If these words mean what they seem to do—and it is hard to see how they can mean anything else—then they furnish a very remarkable instance of anticipation of the discoveries of science. Here we find Job, more than three thousand years ago, describing in language of scientific accuracy the condition of our globe, and holding it forth as a proof of Divine power. Some have attempted to explain the latter clause of the destitution caused by famine; but that is precluded by the terms of the first clause.
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 On vv7–14 He streteheth out the north over the empty place.…
He streteheth out the north over the empty place. Over what was "empty space" or "chaos" (WhT) God stretches out "the north a portion of his orderly creation perhaps the northern portion of the heavens, where are the grandest constellations visible to the inhabitants of the world"s northern half. And hangeth the earth upon nothing. "Takes," i.e., " the huge ball of the earth, and suspends it in vacancy, with nothing to support it but his own fixed will, his own firm laws." This is an idea scarcely reached by astronomers in general, at any rate till the time of Hippar-chus; and it has, not without reason, been regarded as "a very remarkable instance of anticipation of the discoveries of science" (Stanley Loathes).
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 On vv7, 8, 9, 14 And hangeth the earth upon nothing.
Job_26:7
And hangeth the earth upon nothing.
Read full note →
The basis of the great realities
That is the startling and sublime conception of the sacred poet, that the earth is sustained by impalpable and spiritual energies. But if you go to the mythology of the Hindoo, you find that the earth rests on the back of an elephant, and that the elephant stands on a tortoise! Now these two ways of looking upon the stability of the earth penetrate the whole world of thought. One great school of men finds that the basis of all things is spiritual; another school finds that the basis of all things is material. Says one, the life of the universe is supernatural; says the other, we can only trust a tangible and material foundation. There in nature, as Job says, He hangeth the earth upon nothing. He says that the basis of the world is invisible and metaphysical; in a word we say in this place that the ultimate factor in nature is spiritual; that out of the spiritual arose the visible; that the spiritual holds the visible together; that the spiritual governs the visible and directs it to some intelligent and noble goal. We say, not the sensational, not the material, but the visible universe, hangs on nothing--on the unseen power of the spiritual God. You go to some sceptical men today and ask them, What holds this earth up? Why the imponderables, the ethers, the electricities, the galvanisms, the gravitations--the elephant and tortoise! Go and ask them where all the flowers came from. There was a time when there was not a single plant on the planet. Where did they all come from? Well, they say, if you go back far enough, you go back to a meteor stone which brought from other planets the germs of vegetable life and beauty. If you go far enough back! Only you see, it is not far enough back, it is the tortoise again! You go to the physiologist and ask him where physical life, animal life comes from? He says, if you want to explain animal life you must go back to--what? Odic forces, nervous energy! Oh no, no, no, it is not far enough back; it is stopping once more at the elephant and tortoise. And that is exactly what we in the Church refuse to do. We wont stay here, but we will go with the sublime philosophy of the text, to the living God. And we believe that at last the things that are seen rest upon the wise and eternal will of God, over all blessed forever. When these men say that everything is to be explained by natural laws, natural causes, natural sequences, we believe in natural laws, natural causes, natural sequences. But before all changes, all states, all stages, we must find the Prime Mover, and, as to all the rest, all the secondary causes, the will of God works through them all, to His high and wonderful purpose. Go to the sceptical biologist today, and he says, if you want to explain organisation you must go back, and you will find that the organisation of today is based upon simple organisation in the primitive epoch. In other words, you are to go back and to find the microscopical tortoise in the primitive mud. You go to a sceptical astronomer and ask what keeps the universe up. Oh, he says, one star hangs upon another. Very good. And they all hang upon the topmost star. Everything is dependent upon the central sun. In other words, your central sun is the transfigured tortoise. Go to the sceptical geologist and say, What do things rest upon? He says, The earth you walk upon rests upon the carboniferous epoch. Yes, and what does that rest upon? That rests upon the Devonian. Very good; and what does that rest on? He says, That rests on the Silurian. And what does that rest on? That rests on the cosmical dust. A lively tortoise! We hold the tortoise and the elephant are very good as far as they go; but they do not go far enough. And you have never gone far enough, whilst you keep to secondary causes, whilst you keep to intermediary forces. You can never find rest for the intelligent soul, until at the back of the physical universe, with its interdependencies and its evolutions, you find the God who made and ruled it, and is bringing it through the ages to some wise and magnificent consummation. I say, let us, in these days of materialism, keep well this before the world--In the beginning God, the first cause, God in whom all things are held together; God who directs everything to a noble and adequate consummation. You know, where I live, the speculative builder has turned up, and he has built a row of houses opposite to my modest cottage. I had a grand time when I went to live there. I had the sky, and the sunrise, and the sunset, and the procession of the clouds, and the colours of the spring, and the glory of the summer. I never dared to speak of it, lest my landlord should put up my rent! If he had made me pay for all that, he would have wanted a fine fee. But in comes the speculative builder, and puts up this row of horrid bricks and mortar. And now the only glimpse I get of the violet sky is in a puddle in the street. I never see the splendour of the sunset, except a stray gleam in a window pane. As for the growths of the summer, the only relics I how see are two smutty, smutty growths in a little plot that they poetically call my garden! They call it London Pride that grows there. But if London is proud of it, it shows the humility of the metropolis! Now what I want yon to see is this: that just as the bricks and mortar have shut out nature, so nature herself may become so much dead brick and mortar to shut out the greater world that is back of it. Men stop with the visible, and they forget the unseen and eternal universe, of which this world is but a theatre of images and shadows. Now find another illustration of the text in society. If God is the ultimate factor in nature, God is once more the ultimate factor in society. He hangeth the earth upon nothing. He hangeth civilisation upon nothing. Now there, again, you find the objector comes in. He says, Oh, you believe everything rests in society upon a spiritual basis. Yes. Well, I dont; I believe that society is built upon instincts, upon utilities, upon governments. The elephant and tortoise again! What are the three great words in the world today touching civilisation? Liberty, equality, fraternity? Let us drop that legend and take up these which come nearer co the point--sympathy, righteousness, hope. Society is held together, it advances by the power of these three words. If you come to look at them, they are all metaphysical. Sympathy--What a power sympathy is in civilisation! The home, society are held together by it. Go to the materialist, and he says, Society is held together by hooks of steel. What are they? The policemans handcuffs, that is it. How is society held together? By the hangmans noose. Coercion, penalties, punishments--society rests there! Society does not rest there. One of the great factors is that wonderful thing you call love that has been working obscurely in the world from the beginning to this hour. Forbearance, unselfishness, disinterestedness, gratitude, love. Oh, says the utilitarian, hang the earth upon the thick cart rope of coercion. He hangeth civilisation upon the fine silken thread we call love. And today in society, love plays the same part that gravitation plays in the physical universe. Righteousness. What is righteousness? Oh, says the utilitarian, righteousness is a coarse fibre,--self-interest. That is the sustaining force of righteousness. What is the force which sustains righteousness? It is spiritual. God hangs the heavens upon the finest wires, say the ancients; and morality depends upon faith and love. If you want a guarantee for morality, what is the great guarantee which the New Testament gives? That the love you feel to the worlds Saviour will prompt your obedience to the worlds Lawgiver. Hope. There is another great word that moves and sanctifies society. If it were not for hope, the nation would wither, civilisation would wither. And the hope of the world is at last the confidence of men in an unseen but a faithful God. And so, in civilisation as in science, the great forces that mould, and sustain, and inspire, and perfect, are not gross materialism and mean utilities, but they are in fine threads, noble feelings, and these threads sustain the whole fabric of civilisation. And therefore in the Church, you know, we seem really nobody. If you get a statesman, he has got an army at his back. If you get a magistrate, he has got a lot of policemen at his back. If you get a merchant, you get the Bank of England at his back--more or less! But we in the Church have no political mastery. When we lay down a law, we cannot call in the policeman. We have none of the forces of bread and gold. What have we got in the Church? Well, I say this, the Church is the master of the forces that mould society, that is all. The Church is the master of those great emotions of sympathy, of sentiment, of righteousness, of hope. Never you be troubled because you think the Church has a somewhat isolated and spiritualised and apparently uninfluential situation. It is the spiritual that governs society. I must show you how the text is illustrated in the Church. He hangeth the earth upon nothing. Religion--what is religion? Religion means a bond, a spiritual bond, between my soul and my Maker, and my salvation hangs where the earth hangeth and where salvation hangs, on the Word of God in Jesus Christ; there and only there. You are wrong again, says the objector, and he begins to call in the elephant and the tortoise. Says he, What about the Church? Your salvation rests on the Church, its services, sacraments, its spiritualities. Dont you see it is resting (and I speak with great respectfulness) our salvation upon the elephant and the tortoise, instead of going back to the spiritual God and His truth, love, and grace, and these only? My salvation depends upon my personal fellowship with my living Lord. He hangeth the earth, not upon the coarse thread of historic continuity, but upon the fine thread of the spiritual past. My salvation does not hang upon a connection with the ceremonial Church. There they fix me up with the visible, mechanical, ceremonial Church. It is like a man who believes the earth wants shoring up. Not a bit of it. I can do with certain of these things and I can do without them. I am not bound to the visible ceremonial Church. Hangs my salvation on the simple Word in Jesus Christ, and there is the vital truth for you and for me. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth, for He seeketh such to worship Him. He hangeth the earth upon nothing, and it hangs well. Fasten yourself to the same thread and you shall not find that you will be confounded. (W. L. Watkinson.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 9, 11, 13 He stretches out the northern skies over the empty…
He stretches out the northern skies over the empty space
The northern skies represent heaven, the place where God dwells with the beings he created to dwell there. (See: Metaphor)
Read full note →
He binds up the waters in his thick clouds
The clouds are compared to a large blanket in which God wraps the rainwater. AT: "He wraps up the water in his thick clouds"
but the clouds are not torn under them
This can be stated actively. The word "them" refers to the waters. AT: "but the weight of the waters does not tear the clouds" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
earth
water
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 10, 11, 12, 13 26:7 The Hebrew tsapon (“north,” Gen 13:14) sometimes refers…
26:7 The Hebrew tsapon (“north,” Gen 13:14) sometimes refers to the northern mountain of the Canaanite gods (the Canaanite equivalent of Olympus); here the NLT understands it to refer to the sky, stretched out over empty space (see Gen 1:6-8; Ps 104:2-3; Isa 40:22-23).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.