Elihu also continued, and said,
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Elihu also continued, and said,
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Elihu also proceeded, and said,
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Elihu also proceeded, and said:
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 36:1 Elihu also proceeded, and said,
Job 36:1 Elihu also proceeded, and said,
Ver. 1. Elihu also proceeded and said] Heb. And Elihu added, viz. this his fourth oration, not unlike the former, made in behalf and for defence of God’s justice, which he here further asserteth against Job (who had seemed to cast some slur upon it) by arguments drawn from his wondrous works, the meteors especially; and all to prevail with Job to submit to God’s justice and to implore his mercy, Ex abundanti quae sequuntur adiecit.
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 Once more Elihu begs the patience of the auditory,…
Once more Elihu begs the patience of the auditory, and Job's particularly, for he has not said all that he has to say, but he will not detain them long. Stand about me a little (so some read it), Job 36:2. "Let me have your attendance, your attention, awhile longer, and I will speak but this once, as plainly and as much to the purpose as I can." To gain this he pleads, 1. That he had a good cause, and a noble and very fruitful subject: I have yet to speak on God's behalf. He spoke as an advocate for God, and therefore might justly expect the ear of the court. Some indeed pretend to speak on God's behalf who really speak for themselves; but those who sincerely appear in the cause of God, and speak in behalf of his honour, his truths, his ways, his people, shall be sure neither to want instructions (it shall be given them in that same hour what they shall speak) nor to lose their cause or their fee. Nor need they fear lest they should exhaust their subject. Those that have spoken ever so much may yet find more to be spoken on God's behalf. 2. That he had something to offer that was uncommon, and out of the road of vulgar observation: I will fetch my knowledge from afar (Job 36:3), that is, "we will have recourse to our first principles and the highest notions we can make use of to serve any purpose." It is worth while to go far for this knowledge of God, to dig for it, to travel for it; it will recompense our pains, and, though far-fetched, is not dear-bought. 3. That his design was undeniably honest; for all he aimed at was to ascribe righteousness to his Maker, to maintain and clear this truth, that God is righteous in all his ways. In speaking of God, and speaking for him, it is good to remember that he is our Maker, to call him so, and therefore to be ready to do him and the interests of his kingdom the best service we can. If he be our Maker, we have our all from him, must use our all for him, and be very jealous for his honour. That his management should be very just and fair (Job 36:4): "My words shall not be false, neither disagreeable to the thing itself nor to my own thoughts and apprehensions. It is truth that I am contending for, and that for truth's sake, with all possible sincerity and plainness." He will make use of plain and solid arguments and not the subtleties and niceties of the schools. "He who is perfect or upright in knowledge is now reasoning with thee; and therefore let him not only have a fair hearing, but let what he says be taken in good part, as meant well." The perfection of our knowledge in this world is to be honest and sincere in searching out truth, in applying it to ourselves, and in making use of what we know for the good of others.
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 Elihu also proceeded, and said. Or "added" (f) what…
Elihu also proceeded, and said. Or "added" (f) what follows to his former discourses; pausing a while to see whether Job would make any reply to what he had already said; but perceiving he had no inclination to do it, and having more upon his mind to deliver, went on with his discourse.
(f) "et addidit", Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Mercerus, Michaelis.
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 Elihu desires a farther hearing, ver. 1-4. Describes the…
Elihu desires a farther hearing, ver. 1-4. Describes the methods of providence, ver. 5-15. Warns and counsels Job, ver. 16-21. Shews God's sovereignty and omnipotence, ver. 22-33.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Elihu vindicates God's justice, and his providential and
CHAPTER XXXVI
Elihu vindicates God's justice, and his providential and
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gracious dealings with men, 1-9.
Promises of God to the obedient, and threatenings to the
disobedient; also promises to the poor and afflicted, 10-16.
Sundry proofs of God's merely, with suitable exhortations and
cautions, 17-33.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXVI
Verse 1. Elihu also proceeded] Mr. Heath gives a good summary of this chapter. Elihu goes on to lay before Job the impropriety of his behaviour towards God, and desires him to consider how vain it will prove. That God Almighty will never yield the point; that he will administer impartial justice to all men, Job 36:2-6. That the general course of his providence is to favour the righteous: and that though he may sometimes correct them in love, yet if they submit patiently to his fatherly corrections, they shall enjoy all manner of prosperity; but if they be stubborn, and will not submit, they will only draw down greater proofs of his displeasure, Job 36:7-16. He tells him that, had he followed the former course, he had probably, before now, been restored to his former condition; whereas, by persisting in the latter course, he was in a fair way of becoming a signal example of Divine justice, Job 36:17; Job 36:18. He therefore warns him to use the present opportunity, lest God should cut him off while he was in a state of rebellion against him; for with God neither wealth, power, nor any other argument that he could use, would be of any avail, Job 36:18-26. That God was infinitely powerful; there was no resisting him: and infinitely wise, as sufficiently appeared by his works; there was, therefore, no escaping out of his hands. That his purity was so great that the sun, in his presence, was more dim than the smallest ray of light when compared to that grand luminary; that his holiness was manifest by his aversion to iniquity; and his goodness, in supplying the wants of his creatures.
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 36:1. Elihu also proceeded — Having reprehended some…
Job 36:1. Elihu also proceeded — Having reprehended some of the unwarrantable expressions in Job’s discourses, Elihu comes closer to the business, and speaks to the very cause itself, showing, from the nature of God, and the methods of his providence, that he will administer impartial justice to all men. That the general course of his providence is to favour the righteous; that though he may sometimes correct them in love, yet, if they submit patiently to his fatherly correction, and amend their ways, they shall enjoy all manner of prosperity; but, if they are stubborn, and will not submit, they only draw down greater degrees of his vengeance on themselves. That, if Job had, instead of disputing, submitted himself humbly to God’s corrections, he would have delivered him, (it being as easy for him to lift up as to cast down.) And that his not discerning the reason of his corrections (which Job had made a great cause of his grief, Job 19:7) ought not to have hindered his humble submission; because we are not able to comprehend any of the works of God, which we see every day, and acknowledge to be most excellently contrived. He therefore warns him to make use of the present opportunity, lest God should cut him off while in a state of rebellion. That God was infinitely powerful; that there was therefore no resisting him; infinitely wise, as sufficiently appeared by his works; there was therefore no escaping out of his hand; that his purity was so great, that the sun in his presence was more dim than the smallest ray when compared to that bright luminary; that his holiness was manifest from his aversion to iniquity, and his goodness in supplying the wants of his creatures. That man was utterly incapable of accounting for the least of his works; how then dared he to attempt to penetrate the secrets of his providence, and to call him to an account for his dealings with men? This could proceed only from an unjustifiable self-conceit; a crime which the Almighty would not fail severely to punish. Upon the whole, the difference between the argument of Elihu and that of the three friends seems to be this; they suppose Job to be guilty of great crimes, which had drawn down the divine vengeance on him, and infer his guilt merely from his sufferings; on the contrary, Elihu takes it for granted his plea of innocence was true, nevertheless, thinks him exceedingly blameworthy for his behaviour under his afflictions: that he did not sufficiently consider the infinite distance between a weak, frail, sinful creature, and an all-powerful, wise, just, and good Creator; that, instead of submitting himself, as was his duty, and owning the justice of God’s providence toward him, he acted the part of the hardened sinner, and flew in the face of the Almighty; accusing him of injustice and severe treatment; rudely challenging him to answer for his conduct, and pretending to erect himself into a judge of his actions. He tells him, as long as he continued in those dispositions, there was no hope of an abatement of the correction he was under; but he might rather expect an increase of affliction, if not an utter destruction. Job himself is so sensible of the truth of what Elihu had said, that he doth not so much as attempt to answer; and, though he doth not absolutely give up the point — for it was God must convince him, and not man — yet it undoubtedly laid the foundation of that disposition, which ended in an entire submission to God’s will, and a thorough conviction of his own vileness.
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 Elihu also proceeded - Hebrew added - ויסף vayâsaph.…
Elihu also proceeded - Hebrew added - ויסף vayâsaph. Vulgate “addens;” Septuagint, Ηροσθεὶς Eerostheis - “adding, or proceeding.” The Hebrew commentators remark that this word is used because this speech is “added” to the number which it might be supposed he would make. There had been “three” series of speeches, by Job and his friends, and in each one of them Job had spoken three times. Each one of the three friends had also spoken thrice, except Zophar, who failed to reply when it came to his turn. Elihu had also now made three speeches, and here he would naturally have closed, but it is remarked that he “added” this to the usual number.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain A vivid exhibition of the activity of God, which…
FOURTH DISCOURSE
A vivid exhibition of the activity of God, which is seen to be benevolent, as well as mighty and just, both in the destinies of men, and in the natural world outside of man
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Job 36-37
Introduction: announcing that further important contributions are about to be made to the vindication of God
Job_34:1-4
1 Elihu also proceeded and said:
2 Suffer me a little, and I will show thee
that I have yet to speak on God’s behalf.
3 I will fetch my knowledge from afar,
and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
4 For truly my words shall not be false;
he that is perfect in knowledge is with thee.
a. Vindication of the divine justice, manifesting itself in the destinies of men as a power benevolently chastening and purifying them: Job_34:5-21
α. In general: Job_34:5-15
5 Behold God is mighty, and despiseth not any;
He is mighty in strength and wisdom.
6 He preserveth not the life of the wicked;
but giveth right to the poor.
7 He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous;
but with kings are they on the throne;
yea, He doth establish them forever, and they are exalted.
8 And if they be bound in fetters,
and be holden in cords of affliction;
9 then He sheweth them their work,
and their transgressions that they have exceeded.
10 He openeth also their ear to discipline,
and commandeth that they return from iniquity.
11 If they obey and serve Him,
they shall spend their days in prosperity,
and their years in pleasures.
12 But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword,
and they shall die without knowledge.
13 But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath;
they cry not when He bindeth them.
14 They die in youth,
and their life is among the unclean.
15 He delivereth the poor in his affliction
and openeth their ears in oppression.
β. In Job’s change of fortune in particular: Job_34:16-21
16 Even so he would have removed thee out of the strait
into a broad place, where there is no straitness;
and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness.
17 But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked;
judgment and justice take hold on thee.
18 Because there is wrath, beware lest He take thee away with His stroke;
then a great ransom cannot deliver thee.
19 Will He esteem thy riches? no, not gold,
nor all the forces of strength.
20 Desire not the night,
when people are cut off in their place.
21 Take heed, regard not iniquity:
for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction.
b. Vindication of the divine justice, revealing itself in nature as supreme power and wisdom;
Job_36:22 to Job_37:24
α. The wonders of nature, as revelations of divine wisdom and power:
Job_36:22– Job_37:13
22 Behold, God exalteth by His power;
who teacheth like Him?
23 who hath enjoined Him His way?
or who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity?
24 Remember that thou magnify His work,
which men behold.
25 Every man may see it;
man may behold it afar off.
(1) Rain, clouds, and thunder: Job_36:26— Job_37:5
26 Behold, God is great, and we know Him not,
neither can the number of His years be searched out.
27 For He maketh small the drops of water;
they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof;
28 which the clouds do drop,
and distil upon man abundantly.
29 Also can any understand the spreading of the clouds,
or the noise of His tabernacle?
30 Behold, He spreadeth His light upon it,
and covereth the bottom of the sea.
31 For by them judgeth He the people;
He giveth meat in abundance.
32 With clouds He covereth the light;
and commandeth it not to shine by the clouds that cometh betwixt.
33 The noise thereof showeth concerning it,
the cattle also concerning the vapour.
Job 37
1 At this also my heart trembleth,
and is moved out of his place.
2 Hear attentively the noise of His voice,
and the sound that goeth out of His mouth,
3 He directeth it under the whole heaven,
and His lightning unto the ends of the earth.
4 After it a voice roareth:
He thundereth with the voice of His excellency;
and He will not stay them when His voice is heard.
5 God thundereth marvellously with His voice;
great things doeth He, which we cannot comprehend.
(2) The forces of winter, such as snow, rain, the north-wind, frost, etc.: Job_37:6-13.
6 For He saith to the snow: Be thou on the earth;
likewise to the small rain,
and to the great rain of His strength.
7 He sealeth up the hand of every man;
that all men may know His work.
8 Then the beasts go into dens,
and remain in their places.
9 Out of the south cometh the whirlwind;
and cold out of the north.
10 By the breath of God frost is given;
and the breadth of the waters is straitened.
11 Also by watering He wearieth the thick cloud;
He scattereth His bright cloud;
12 and it is turned round about by His counsels;
that they may do whatsoever He commandeth them
upon the face of the world in the earth.
13 He causeth it to come, whether for correction,
or for His land, or for mercy.
β. Final admonitory inferences from what precedes for Job_38:14-24
14 Hearken unto this, O Job; stand still,
and consider the wondrous works of God.
15 Dost thou know when God disposed them,
and caused the light of His cloud to shine?
16 Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds,
the wondrous works of Him which is perfect in knowledge?
17 How thy garments are warm,
when He quieteth the earth by the south wind?
18 Hast thou with Him spread out the sky,
which is strong, and as a molten looking-glass?
19 Teach us what we shall say unto Him;
for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness.
20 Shall it be told Him that I speak?
if a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up.
21 And now men see not the bright light
which is in the clouds:
but the wind passeth, and cleanseth them.
22 Fair weather cometh out of the north:
with God is terrible majesty.
23 Touching the Almighty, we cannot find Him out.
He is excellent in power and in judgment,
And in plenty of justice; He will not afflict.
24 Men do therefore fear Him:
He respecteth not any that are wise of heart.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Instead of the predominantly anthropological and ethical doctrine of the three preceding discourses, Elihu puts forth, in this his closing discourse, reflections which are pre-eminently theological. God, the infinitely mighty and wise Being, who is at the same time just, and possessed of fatherly love, stands in the foreground of his descriptions, alike in the first and shorter division (Job_36:5-21), which describes His righteous interposition in determining the lots of mankind, and gives further expression to the favorite thought of the speaker touching the hand of God chastising men with severity indeed, and yet ever with a merciful purpose, and in the and yet ever with a merciful purpose, and in the Job_36:22 to Job_37:24), which treats of the majestic manifestation of God’s activity in the wonders of His creation, first in the way of description (Job_36:22 to Job_37:13) then in the way of application, closing with admonitory inferences from the themes of his description for the benefit of Job. It is in this last half especially that this fourth discourse of Elihu exhibits itself as the immediate preparation for the concluding act of the whole poem, providing the transition to the interposition of God. This magnificent physico-theological section is vividly introduced by the threefold הֵן at the head of each of the three strophes—ch. Job_36:22 seq.; 26 seq.; 30 seq.; and this threefold successive הֵן compels us to find the beginning of this section in Job_36:22, and not (with Ewald, Vaihinger, Dillm., etc.) in Job_36:26 (see below on Job_36:22). Add to this the predominance throughout the description of the references to the majestic phenomena of lightning, thunder, storm and rain, and the conjecture formerly adopted by Cocceius, J. H. Michaelis, Reimarus, Starke, Lange, and latterly by Rosenmüller, Umbreit, v. Gerlach, V. Andreä, Schlottmann, Böttcher [Scott, Noyes, Barnes, Bernard, Carey] becomes probable, that the poet conceived that thunder-storm out of which he represents God as speaking to Job, Job_38:1 sq. as already beginning during this last discourse of Elihu, and furnishing him in many particulars with the occasion and material for his descriptions. This is a hypothesis, which, as we shall see, serves to give essential help in understanding not a few of the details of the splendid description—granting that the absence of definite historical data in the text of our book, or in the most ancient exegetical tradition makes it impossible that it should be regarded as more than a probability.
2. The Introduction: Job_36:1-4 : An announcement that further, and yet more important instruction is about to be communicated respecting the nature and operations of God (comp. 1Co_12:31).—And Elihu continued and spoke.—This new introductory formula, compared with Job_34:1 and Job_35:1, is intended to intimate that a long silence on the part of Job did not this time precede. [ויסף not ויען, as hitherto, because in Job 35. Job was not summoned to speak. Dillmann. “Elihu had spoken three times, i. e., as many times as any of the other friends, but Job does not reply, and he proceeds. The silence of Job, who had replied to every speech of the three friends, is a proof that Job was conscious that Elihu had reason on his side, and is an answer to those who disparage Elihu.” Wordsworth].
Job_36:2. Wait for me a little, and I will teach thee;i. e., hear my instructions only a little while longer (not: “let me first collect my thoughts a little;” Hirzel). מְעַט = זְעֶיר, used also in Isa_28:10; Isa_28:13. כִּתֵּר, Aramaic, equivalent to the Hebr. הוֹחִיל, expectare.—For there are yet words (to be said) for Eloah:i. e., for I know of something still further, and yet better to say in justification of Eloah (לאלוה, Dat. commodi) than what has been said hitherto.
Job_36:3. I will fetch my knowledge (comp. Job_37:16) from afar.—לְמֵרָחוֹק, as in Job_39:29, and Isa_37:26, “from afar,” altius repetendo (Merc.) [“out of the wide realm of history and nature.” Del.]. Elihu has already in mind the wonders of the Divine government in nature and in history, in view of which he will praise God’s righteousness (lit. “give [= ascribe] right to his Maker”) [פֹּעֵל so used only here]. Hence these expressions, which involve no empty self-praise, but have their basis in the inspiring greatness of the object to be described.
Job_36:4. For one faultless in knowledge, [lit. knowledges] stands before thee;i. e., one who has studied and learned to know God’s greatness in His works, one who is penetrated with the sense of the Divine exaltation, and who for that reason is raised above the danger of going astray, or speaking falsehood. תְּמִים דֵּעוֹת here cannot signify “an honest thinker” (Hirzel, and many of the older commentators) for in Job_37:16 it [תְּמִים דֵּעִים] is used of the perfect knowledge of God. [“As Elihu there attributes absolute perfection of knowledge in every direction to God, so here, in reference to the theodicy which he opposes to Job, he claims faultlessness and clearness of perception.” Del.] The Vulg. renders correctly as to the meaning: et perfecta scientia probabitur tibi.
3. First Division: Proof of God’s righteous dealings in allotting the destinies of men: a. In general: Job_36:5-15 (three short strophes: Job_36:5-7; Job 8-12; Job 13-15).
Job_36:5. Behold God is mighty, yet He disdaineth nothing.—וְלֹא יִמְאָם, objectless, as in Job_42:6; comp. Job_8:20. The meaning is, although He is exalted in power (כַּבִּיר as in Job_34:17), He nevertheless does not disdain to interest Himself even in the smallest of His creatures, and to maintain its right inviolate (comp. Job_36:6-7).—Mighty is He in strength of understanding (lit. “of heart,” לֵב as in Job_34:34), i. e., in the possession of an all-embracing intellectual energy, by virtue of which He sees through right and wrong everywhere, and orders everything in the highest wisdom; comp. Job_12:13.
Job_36:6. He preserveth not the ungodly in life.—Comp. Job_34:19 seq., as also Job’s presumptuous assertion of the contrary in Job_24:22 seq., against which Elihu here declares himself. [But He will grant the right of the afflicted].
Job_36:7 continues the affirmation of Job_36:6 b.—And (even) with kings on the throne (comp. Psa_9:5 [4] He makes them (i. e., the righteous, or “the afflicted” of Job_36:6 b, for both conceptions here flow together into one) to sit down forever, so that they are exalted.—Comp. the parallel passages as to thought—ch. Job_5:11; 1Sa_2:8; Psa_113:7, etc. Inasmuch as the particular point respecting which we should look for something to be said here is how widely God’s care for His people extends, how high He can exalt them, the rendering of the Vulg. and of Luther—“who makes kings to sit on the throne”—is unsuitable, as also that of Ewald, which suffers besides from too great artificiality: “Kings for the throne, i. e., who merit the throne, He makes to sit down, etc.”
Job_36:8-12 constitute a single period, which develops the thought, that if God subjects to suffering His righteous ones (who continue to be the logical subject here, not “the ungodly,” as Hahn thinks), He does this with a view to their chastisement and purification—But if they i are bound with chains (זִקִּים to be understood figuratively; comp. Job_36:13), holden in cords of distress; comp. Job_13:27; Isa_28:22; Psa_107:10 seq.
Job_36:9-10 are with Tremellius, Cocceius, Schultens, Ewald, Dillmann, etc., to be construed as still belonging to the protasis; the apodosis begins with יְכַלּוּ, in Job_36:11 b, the first verb in the whole long series which stands without וְconsecut., and is by that very fact marked as introducing the apodosis. [Most commentators, (and so E. V.), introduce the apodosis with the beginning of Job_36:9. But in addition to the argument from the use of the Vav. consec., it would seem to be more in harmony with Elihu’s conception, which unites the discipline with the suffering, to take the entire process described in Job_36:8-10 as one hypothesis, finding its consequent in Job_36:11 b.—E.]—And He declareth to them their doing.—פֹּעַל, maleficium, evil-doing, like מַעֲשֶׂה, Job_33:17.—And their transgressions, that (כִּי, quod objective) they act proudly (יִתְגַּבָּֽרוּ, lit. to show themselves strong, i. e. in opposing God): “exceeded,” E. V. is ambiguous, the intransitive use of it being rare.—E.]. In respect to “the opening of the ear for instruction” (Job_36:10 a), comp. Job_33:16, where the rarer form מֹסָר is used instead of the usual form מוּסָר found here. [Lit. “to the instruction,” that which forms the design of the chastisement.]—And commandeth them to turn (lit. “saith to them, that they turn”) from vanity.—אָוֶן, emptiness, nothingness, referring to the manifold sins of infirmity into which man easily falls, even when the essential spirit of his heart is holy, the taints proceeding from daily contact with the vain world (comp. Joh_13:10 seq.; 1Jn_1:9 seq.; 1Jn_2:16), by reason of which the purifying discipline of God becomes necessary.
Job_36:11-12, double apodosis to the antecedent propositions contained in Job_36:8-10, expressed by means of two subordinate antecedent conditional clauses, introduced by אִם, together with the consequents corresponding to each. This construction, which partially reminds us of Job_8:5 seq., was necessary, because, where disciplinary suffering is divinely appointed, the result in every case involves a two-fold possibility—either that the one who is chastised should humble himself, and be made better, or that he should continue presumptuously to resist.—In respect to עבד, “to humble himself, to submit, to betake himself to obedience,” comp. 1Ki_12:7; Mal_3:18; Psa_2:11.—In respect to נְעִימִים, amœna, pleasantness, comfort, see Psa_16:6. Respecting עָבַר בְּשֶׁלַח, “to perish by the dart” (or “in the dart”), gee Job_33:18.—On בִּבְלִי דָֽעַת, “in ignorance,” or “through ignorance,” see Job_35:16; also Job_4:21.
Job_36:13-15 continue yet further in a peculiar way the thought of the last two verses, the precedence being given here to the lot of the wicked, which in the previous verses was spoken of in the second place; so that an inverted order of thought ensues
Job_36:13-14 corresponding to the contents of Job_36:12, Job_36:15 to that of Job_36:11.—And the impure in heart cherish wrath.—יָשִׂימוּ אַף, scil. בְּלִבָּם (comp. Job_22:22; Psa_13:3 [2]; Pro_26:24), or possibly—“they set up wrath,” in a warlike manner, against God as their enemy. The meaning, however, can scarcely be: “they lay up with God a store of wrath,” as though אַף here signified not men’s own discontent, but the divine wrath, and the θησαυρίζειν ὀργήν of Rom_2:6 were a parallel expression (Aben-Ezra, Rosenm. [E. V. app’y, Con., Words., Carey], etc. [Considered by itself, the expression שִׂים אַף would seem to be most simply rendered by “lay up wrath.” But the second member of the verse, which speaks of the conduct of the wicked when God afflicts them, favors rather the explanation of the commentary.—Instead of showing submission to God, they treasure up rebellious wrath within. This rendering of שִׂים is justified by the reff. given above; and of אף by Job_18:4 (comp. also חמה, Job_36:18); and the analogy of כַּעַשׂ and קִנְאָה in Job_5:4—E.]—They pray not (lit. “cry not,” שִׁוֵּעַ, according to Job_30:20; Job_38:41) when He hath chained them (comp. Job_36:8), so that they must perish, etc.תָּמֹת jussive, expressing the necessary consequence of the presumption of the dissolute. Respecting בַּנֹּעַר, “in youth, in he fresh vigor of youth,” comp. Job_33:25.—And their life is among the polluted, i. e. like that of the polluted (comp. Job_34:36). The Vulg. correctly: inter effeminates. For the word קְדֵשִׁים refers to the Syrian Canaanitish temple-prostitutes of the male sex, and the verse describes the effect of their incontinence in enervating, debilitating their manhood, and causing them to decay in the flower of their age [comp. Deu_23:18; 1Ki_14:24; 1Ki_15:12; 1Ki_22:47 [46]). The reference is not to the violation of women or maidens, in a military invasion (as described in Genesis 34; Judges 19, etc.). The point of comparison lies not in the violence, but in the prematureness (and shamefulness) of the death.
Job_36:15. But He delivereth the sufferer by his affliction; i. e. He rescues at last out of his misery the man who quietly and willingly endures, just by virtue of his constant endurance; He makes his suffering serve as a means of deliverance and a ransom to him (comp. Job_36:18 b). There seems to be a play upon words intended between יְחַלֵּץ and בַּלַחַץ in b, which may be approximately rendered [in German] by translating with Delitzsch: Doch den Duldenden entrückt Er durch sein Dulden, und öffnet durch Bedrückung ihr Ohr.
4. Proof of the divine righteousness, β. specially from Job’s experiences: Job_36:16-21.—And even thee he lures out of the jaws of distress.—So correctly most of the moderns since Ṡchultens. הֵסית with מִן signifies, as in 2Ch_18:31, “to lure away from anything, out of anything” (not “to draw out,” as the Pesh., Targ., Rabbis explain, nor “to rescue,” as the Vulg. renders it). [Wordsworth: “He is instigating and impelling thee by means of thy affliction into a state of greater glory and happiness.”] וְאַף הֲסִיתְךָ is used, inasmuch as אף must occupy its usual place at the beginning of the sentence, for וְהֵסִית אַף אֹתְךָ [אַף serving to connect emphatically the particular case of Job with the general proposition expressed in the preceding verse. Schlottm.], and expresses not a future, but a present sense [the pret. being used either because Elihu has in mind God’s purpose in decreeing the present suffering of Job (Del.), or because that friendly process of alluring is conceived of as having begun in the past, and being continued in the present (Schl.). The expression מִפִּי־צָר figuratively describes the distress as a monster, with open jaws, threatening or attempting to swallow him.—E.].—Into a wide place under which there is no narrowness; i. e. into a wide place (רַחַב femin. accus. of the place aimed at), the foundation of which exhibits no narrowness, hence signifying “without narrowness in its foundation; or, which is better, a wide space, in place of which (תחת as in Job_34:26) is no narrowness, a wide place broken by no straits.” As to the figure comp. Psa_4:2 [1]; Job_18:20 [19], etc. [The same figure is implied in all three terms, רַחַב ,צָר, and מוצק, the last from צוק, to be strait.]—And the setting of [=that which is set on] thy table (He makes, or becomes) fulness of fatness; the same fig. to describe a state of flourishing prosperity as in Psa_23:5 (comp. Pro_9:2; Psa_22:27 [Psa_22:26]; Psa_107:9, etc.) נַחַת from נוּחַ, “to settle down,” referring to that which is set down on a table, or served for it, the food set on it. Fat food is used as a sign of feasts which are particularly expensive and abundant in Isa_25:6; Isa_55:2; Gen_27:28; Gen_27:39. Ewald, Vaih. and Dillm. take רַחַב in the second member, as also נַחַת in the third (the latter in the sense of “peace”) as subj. of the whole proposition, and thus obtain the meaning: “Verily, the wide place without straits, the peace of thy table full of fat, has misled thee more than sharp distress” (Dillmann: “away from the mouth of distress” [i. e. away from obeying the teachings of adversity]). But this thought, involving as it does a serious charge against Job, is poorly connected with what goes before, and is rendered impossible by the clause מִפִּי־צָר, which in connection with הסית cannot well signify anything else than “out of the mouth (jaws) of adversity.”
Job_36:17. But if thou art filled with the judgment of the wicked, then (truly) will judgment and punishment take firm hold, viz., on thee, will not depart from thee (not—“will take hold upon each other, follow each other by turns [as Carey, e. g., explains, “the act of judgment and the delivery of the sentence are very closely connected;” or according to others (e. g., Barnes) such opinions (those of the wicked) would be rapidly followed by judgment]—which reciprocal meaning of תמךְ would have been expressed rather by the Niph. יִתָּֽמְכוּ. The first member is in any case, as respects the thought, a hypothetical antecedent; in order to be a strict grammatical antecedent the Pret. מָלֵאתָ must of course have stood at the beginning. דִּין stands in a in the sense of guilt (Rosenmüller, Stickel, Hahn), or of a “murmuring judgment, presumptuous decision” respecting God (Umbreit, Hirzel, Schlottmann, Delitzsch, etc.); only in b does it denote the divine sentence of punishment. In no case does it express in both instances precisely the same meaning, as Ewald, Arnh., Dillmann, etc., suppose. [“He, whom thou dost presume to judge with words, will judge thee in deed.” Schlottm. The rendering of E. V., Good, Lee, Carey, Renan, etc.—“Thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked,” implying that Job had realized in his own experience the full measure of crime or of punishment belonging to the wicked, is certainly too harsh for the connection. The tone of the passage is strongly admonitory no doubt, but such a sentiment as that just referred to would carry Elihu too far into the camp of the opposition, represented by the friends.—E.].
Job_36:18 suitably introduces a warning to follow the threat just uttered. Here again Elihu has in mind the chief fault of Job,—his presumptuous complaining against God, and his doubt of God’s justice.—For the heat (of thy afflictions) should not mislead thee by its greatness;i. e., should not cause thee to err in respect to God’s goodness and justice, or to judge God after the manner of the wicked (comp. Job_36:17 a). [There seems to be a contrast intended between הסיתך in Job_36:16, and יסיתן, here. God would by His discipline lure, or urge him out of a narrow into a broad place: the חמה of this ver. would urge him against God.—E.] Hahn correctly thinks the heat (חֵמָה) spoken of to be the heat of his sufferings. The passage, as appears clearly enough from b, is a parallel to 1Pe_4:12 (Jam_1:2 seq.). It is less natural to understand חֵמָה of the heat of his passion (Delitzsch) or of his anger [against God] (Stickel, Welte, Schlottm. [Conant, Wordsworth], etc.), or of the Divine anger (Rosenm., Umbreit, Dillmann) [E. V., Good, Ber., Barnes, Noyes, Rodwell, etc.],—although these renderings cannot be called unsuitable. On the contrary the attempt of Ewald, Hirzel, Vaih., Heiligst., to identify חֵמָה with חֶמְאָה, “cream” (Job_29:6), and that in the sense of riches (“may thy riches not betray thee”), is alike insipid and destructive of the sense. It may remain doubtful whether בְּשָׂפֶק (Pausal form for בְּשֶׂפֶק), signifies “into scorn, to mock and deride” (Stickel, Umbreit, Hahn, Schlottmann, Delitzsch, etc.) or “through superfluity, through abundance” (Ewald, Heil., Dillmann) [Fürst]. The latter rendering, which regards שֶׂפֶק as a dialectic alternate form of סֶפֶק (Job_20:22) seems to be favored both by the preposition בְּ (not לְ), and the parallel רָב־כֹּפֶר in the second member. [To the above should be added the signification “stroke,” which may fairly be vindicated for שׂפק from the use of the alternate form ספק just referred to in Commy. (comp. Job_27:23 with Job_34:26; Job_34:37). Thus defined it may be taken here (with Kimchi, Schult., etc.), in the sense of the clapping of hands, with the idea of expulsion, or in the sense of “stroke, chastisement,” (E. V., Merc, Rosenm., Gesenius, Carey, Ber., Good, Noyes, Barnes, Rod., Elzas, etc.). The latter would be the simpler. In that case חֵמָה may refer to the divine wrath, which is the view taken by most of those who thus explain ,שפק בְּ being explained as instrumental (E. V. “with His stroke”). It is better however to explain it of the anger or passionate discontent of man against God (comp. אַף above in Job_36:13) for the reason that elsewhere הֵסִית בְּ means uniformly to excite against. Thus Conant: “For beware, lest anger stir thee up against chastisement.” The thought thus obtained would be moreover altogether suitable to the connection. Elihu’s great anxiety is that Job should through submission profit by his chastisement, and that on the other hand he should not by a rebellious spirit resist, and so frustrate the object of the Divine discipline.—E.].—And let the abundance of the ransom not ensnare thee; i. e., let not the fact that thou must reckon up so large a ransom for the expiation of thy guilt, that thou must make such a severe expiation of the same, lead thee into error touching the goodness of God. כֹּפֶּר here accordingly in a somewhat different sense from Job_33:24. The supposition that the reference is to Job’s “vast wealth” in earthly possessions, with which he might erroneously imagine that he could purchase his release from God (Ewald, Hirz., Vaih. [Renan], etc.), is decidedly untenable, and would impute to Job a reliance on earthly treasures, the like of which the three friends even had not once ventured to charge upon him, much less the far more considerate and just Elihu. [Schl., with better reason, assumes that the reliance, or ransom intended here is Job’s piety. “He might think in some measure that he did not need to be very exact in what he should say concerning God’s dealings, because he could put all his piety, the beneficent use which he had made of all his treasures, in the other scale of the balance.” The idea of Zöckler on the contrary seems to be that God requires a great ransom in the sense of expiation, before the sinner can be delivered. Let not the greatness of that ransom, says Elihu, lead thee into error, i. e., the error of doubting the goodness of God. The rendering of E. V., “then a great ransom cannot deliver thee,’ is not an unsuitable thought in the connection. The principal objection to it lies in the verb נטה, which cannot well be rendered “deliver.” Gesenius, in order to obtain this meaning explains thus: “a great ransom cannot turn thee away, scil. from the Divine punishment, so as to avoid it.” But this is not altogether natural, and such a form of expression occurs nowhere else. This rendering, still further, seems to hang on the view that אַף means the Divine anger, and that הֵסִית בְּ means “to take away with,” against which see above. The negative אַל moreover does not favor it; for although it might have been used indeed in dependence on פֶּן, still such a construction would have been less natural and forcible than that with לֹא. It must be confessed that no interpretation of the verse which has been suggested is free from difficulties, and Dillmann’s conjecture of a corruption of the text is not altogether without reason.—E.].
Job_36:19 seq. continue the warning against impatient and discontented conduct in distress.—Shall thy crying put thee out of distress?—שׁוּעַ, “crying,” as in Job_30:24 (comp. Job_35:9, and above Job_36:13 b); עָרַךְ, a more choice word to express the idea of שִׂים or שִׂית, “to place,” (comp. Job_37:19): the object of הֲיַעֲרֹךְ is easily supplied by “thee,” or “any one.” The meaning of the question accordingly can be only: “will thy crying, thy lamentation, thy discontented raging, put thee in non-distress (לֹא בְּצָר, equivalent to בְּלֹא צָר), take thee out of distress?” So correctly Stickel, Hahn, Del. All other renderings depart more or less from the meaning required by the context: as e. g. that of Hirz.: “Will thy riches suffice? O, not gold (בֶּצֶר=בְּצָר, Job_22:24 seq.), nor all treasures,” etc. [Good: “Will then thy magnificence avail? Not gold, nor,” etc.]; of Schlottmann: “Will thy treasures suffice? O not in distress,” etc.; of Ewald: “Will thy riches equip thee—without distress—with all the means of power?” of Rosenmüller, Umbreit, Ebrard [E. V.: Gesenius, Fürst, under בצר, though differently under ערךְ, Renan, Noyes, Rodwell, Conant: “Will He value thy riches without stint, and all the might of wealth?”]: “Will He value thy riches?” etc.; of Dillmann: “Will He set in order thy cry (of supplication)?” And all the efforts of strength (i. e., of thy strength)?—To שׁוּעֲךָ, which is made sufficiently determinate by the subject, the notion of “efforts of strength” is here suitably appended as an additional subject. מַאֲמָץ from אָמֵץ, “to be strong, firm,” in connection with כֹּחַ, can signify only a physical application of strength, not “wealth in treasures;” comp. אַמִּיץ כֹּחַ, Job_9:4; Job_9:19.
Job_36:20. Pant not after the night, when (entire) peoples go up (i. e., fly up like chaff before the tempest, Isa_5:24; Psa_1:4) in their place—i. e., do not long, as thou hast foolishly done (comp. Job_13:18 sq.; Job_23:3 sq.; Job_24:1; Job_24:12), for the night of the divine judgment, with its terrors, sweeping away entire populations. In respect to שָׂאַף, anhelare, to long urgently for any thing, comp. Job_7:2; for the representation of the divine judgment by a night of terror, see Job_34:20; Job_34:25; Job_35:10. In respect to תַּחְתָּם, “in their place,” here as regards the meaning=“from their place,” see above, Job_5:16. It is impossible, with De Wette, to take תַּחְתָּם as standing for תַּחַת עַמִּים, “to raise up people in the place of people.” The rendering of Stickel and Hahn is harsh, and much too artificial: “when people come uppermost, with that which is under them.” The rendering of Delitzsch, however, is unnecessary, which takes לַעֲלוֹת as Inf. Hiph.=לְהַעֲלוֹת: “which will remove peoples from their place.” [The rendering “in their place” does not do entire justice to the expression תַּחְתָּם, which is exactly rendered by our phrase, “on the spot.” So again in Job_40:12; comp. Hab_3:16; 2Sa_2:23 (“and he died on the spot”); Job_7:10. The rendering of Conant and Carey: “when [Con.: “where”] people are carried off below” (to the world below), involves a very harsh incongruity between the verb (“go up”) and the preposition (“below”). Conant argues that Elihu “is not speaking of any sudden calamity that sweeps whole races of men to the grave. This would be out of place here, for Job had desired no such thing. It was the repose of the grave for which he longed; for that night of death where successive generations sink down to the world beneath them.” Such, it is true, was Job’s conception of the night of death. But Elihu here reminds him that the night of death would be at the same time the night of divine judgment, and that so terrible is that judgment that it can sweep off whole peoples on the spot; how much less then could he, single-handed and alone, hope to face it without perishing. Let him rather repent, etc., Job_36:21.—E.]
Job_36:21 concludes these warnings against foolish murmuring and presumptuous complaining (which is here called אָוֶן, “vanity, wickedness,” comp. Job_5:10) in an emphatic way, by expressing the thought found in Gen_8:21, and founded on the universal experience of the race, that the heart is naturally inclined to disobedience and to rebellion against God: for to this thou hast desire more than to affliction.—מִן, comparative, as in Job_7:15, not causal, as though מֵעֹנִי meant “on account of suffering, in view of affliction” (Vulg., Luther, Stickel, etc.), nor again instrumental (Ewald: “therefore thou wast proved by suffering.” בָּחַר עַל here (other wise than in 2Sa_19:39 [38]) essentially the same with בָּחַר בְּ, to extend one’s choice to any thing, i. e., to be inclined towards any thing, to have a desire for it.
5. Second Division. Proof of the divine righteousness from the wonders of nature, from the power and wisdom revealed in the physical world.
a. Descriptive part: chs. Job_36:22 to Job_37:13. Introduction or transition: Job_36:22-25 (the first of three eight-lined strophes, Job_36:22 sq., 26 sq., 30 sq., each of which begins with הֵן, and which by the exact equality and similarity of their structure give evidence of being one coherent whole—a structure which has been correctly recognized by Stickel and Delitzsch [also by Schlottmann, Noyes, Wordsworth, Carey, Rodwell], but ignored by Köst., Ewald, Dillmann, etc.). Behold, God worketh loftily in His strength [E. V.: Behold, God exalteth by His power; but less suitably to the connection, this strophe being, as has just been shown, introductory to the description of God’s power in the physical world, rather than in the world of humanity.—E.].—As the meditation on truths lying in the realm of historical or ethical theology, which constitutes the preceding section, began with a הֵן, “behold” (Job_36:5), vividly pointing out the theme of discourse, so also the meditation which is here introduced on truths in the realm of physical theology. The conjecture is in itself sufficiently probable, that some phenomenon of external nature, perhaps a thunder-storm, which already in Job_36:5 was approaching, but which had now burst forth, with lightning, thunder, and heavy rain, furnished the occasion to this sudden and vivid transition to the description of the natural world. This conjecture receives a strong support from the emphatic double recurrence of the הֵן, first in Job_36:26, at the beginning of the description of the rain, and then in Job_36:30, in the transition to the description of lightning and thunder. The probability is still further increased by passages like Job_36:33, and especially by Job_37:2 sq. And finally it receives the strongest support from the article before סְעָרָה in Job_38:1, which can scarcely be explained without the supposition here referred to (comp. on the passage). Who is a ruler like to him?—The usage of the language would justify, and indeed would even favor rather the rendering adopted by the Targ., Peshito, Luther, Schlottmann, Delitzsch [E. V., Lee, Noyes, Conant, Bernard, Renan, Rodwell, Barnes], etc.: “Who is a teacher like Him?” But the context, and especially the הִשְׂגִּיב in a, seems rather to favor the rendering supported by the LXX., which takes =מוִרֶה Chald. מָרֵא (Dan_2:47), hence to mean “lord, ruler.” The Vulg. attempts to give an explanation intermediate between the δυνάστης of the LXX. and the “teacher” of the other ancient versions by its use of legislator: quis ei similis in legislatoribus? [So Wordsworth combines “Master and Teacher;” Carey: “Master,” as expressing the ambiguity of the original. Some (e. g.. Good): “And who, like Him, can cast down?” which would be a suitable antithesis to the E. V.’-s rendering of a: “God exalteth by His power,” but is open to the same objection; see above. In favor of the sense “teacher,” Delitzsch argues: “(1) מוֹרֶה from הוֹרָה, Psa_25:8; Psa_25:12; Psa_32:8) has no etymological connection with מר; (2) it is, moreover, peculiar to Elihu to represent God as a teacher both by dreams and dispensations of affliction, Job_33:14 seq.; Job_34:32; and by His creatures, Job_35:11; and (3) the designation of God as an incomparable teacher is also not inappropriate here, after His rule is described in Job_36:22 a as transcendently exalted, which on that very account commands to human research a reverence which esteems itself lightly.” These considerations at least show that the educational disciplinary functions of the Divine Ruler are prominently intended here; and this is in harmony with the general tone of this strophe.—E.]
Job_36:23. Who hath appointed to Him His way?—פקד על, “to charge one with any thing, to prescribe anything to any one,” as in Job_34:13. It would be possible also to render it: “Who hath inspected for Him His way?” (LXX., Vulg., Seb. Schmidt, Ewald, [Good], etc.). The second member permits both renderings.
Job_36:24. Remember that thou exalt (הִשְׂגִּיא, in a different sense from Job_12:23) His doing, which men have greatly sung. שֹׁרֵר an intensive form of שׁוּר, denoting singing often repeated, or various in its character. The exhortation to the praise and glorification of the exalted activity of God stands in significant antithesis to the previous warnings against sitting in judgment on the same. [Here again, as in Job_33:27 E. V. takes the verb שׁוּר in the sense of “behold,” which would be a useless and feeble tautology before the חזה and הביט of Job_36:25.—E.].
Job_36:25. All people gaze thereon with delight (בּוֹ referring back to פָּעָלֹו, Job_36:24 a;חזה ב as elsewhere רבה ב); mortals behold It from afar;—i. e., not—“they can behold it only from a great distance” (so Dillmann, who would compare Job_26:14), but—they dare not contemplate it anear, from reverential fear before the unapproachableness of His operations.
6. Continuation. Description of the storm, together with the mighty phenomena accompanying it, such as rain, clouds, lightning, thunder, etc.: Job_36:26—Job_37:5 (three strophes, the first two consisting of 4 verses each, the third of 5).
Job_36:25-29. Behold, God is exalted (שַׂגִּיא as in Job_37:23, elsewhere only in the Aramaic portions of the O. T.), we know not (i. e., how very exalted He is); the number of His years is unsearchable (lit. “as for the number of his years—so [וְ] there is no searching;” respecting the וְ introducing the apodosis, comp. Job_4:6; Job_15:17). The eternity of God is here introduced as the explanatory ground (not as a mere co-ordinate “moment,” as Dillmann supposes) of the divine greatness and wisdom. As the Eternal One, God has the power to effect all the glorious wonders in the realm of His creation which are enumerated in the passage following; comp. Job_12:12 seq. [“The Omnipotence and wisdom of God, which are everywhere apparent in the universe, furnish a testimony to God’s righteousness. All attributes of the Divine Nature are rays proceeding from one centre; where one is, (here also of necessity must the others be. How can the Being who everywhere shows Himself in creation to be most perfect, be defective in this one point? Every witness therefore in Nature to God’s greatness as a Creator, rises against an arraignment of God’s righteousness. Whoso will bring a charge against God’s justice, must measure himself with the Divine Omnipotence.—At first sight it may seem surprising that the mind of the righteous sufferer is directed by Elihu and by Jehovah himself, to the wondrous formation of the clouds, to Thunder, Lightning and Snow, and to the War-horse, the Hawk, and the Eagle. But when we examine the matter more carefully, we see that such a course of reasoning is excellently fitted its purpose. An Almighty and All-wise God, who is not at the same time righteous, is in truth an inconceivable impossibility. For this reason, they who impeach God’s righteousness, are always on the high road to doubt His existence. Pelagianism leads not merely to the destruction of the true idea of God, but to blank Atheism (Hengstenberg). It must also be borne in mind that God rises from an appeal to the signs of His power and goodness in the visible world, and refers Job to His working in the invisible world, in the domain of spirits, and challenges Job to a comparison of human power with that of God in the defense and deliverance of mankind, even of Job himself, from his spiritual enemies. See below, Job_40:6-15.” Wordsworth.].
Job_36:27. For He draweth up the water drops, to wit, from the earth. This is the only rendering of יְגָרַע, which corresponds to the second member; not that of the LXX., Pesh., etc.; “He numbers off;” and just as little that of Stickel and Delitzsch: “He draws off [=lets fall] the drops,” i. e., out of the upper mass of waters [to which add the rendering of E. V., Mercier, etc. “He maketh small the drops of water.” The reference seems clear to the first step in the process of forming the rain, by which the drops are attracted (upward of necessity, although that does not lie essentially in the verb, for which reason the objection of Delitzsch that it means attrahere or detrahere, but not attrahere in sublime falls to the ground), attracted, that is, towards Him who is the Divine cause.—E.]. So that they ooze (זקק, lit. “to filter, refine,” comp. Job_28:1) the rain with His mist, i. e., the mist which He spreads out [i. e., since a mist produced by it (Gen_2:6) fills the expanse (רָקִיעַ), the downfall of which is just this rain.” Delitzsch]. In respect to אֵד, comp. Gen_2:6; in respect to לְ, “with,” (or also “on account of, by means of”) comp. Job_37:1 a. [E. V. “they pour down rain according to the vapor thereof.” “Pour down” for זקק is neither sufficiently accurate nor expressive, destroying as it docs the image of “filtering” which lies in the verb. “According to” may be accepted for לְ, which is obscure. According to Gesenius, it indicates the vapor as the origin of the rain—quæ orta est ex vapore ejus: and so Conant. According to others it denotes the state into which rain-drops pass in falling. According to Ewald it is a sign of the accusative, אֵד being in opposition with מָטָר. Is it not natural to find in Job_36:27-28 a description of the successive steps in the formation of the rain—first (27a) the ascent of the water-drops in evaporation—then (27b) the filtering of the mist whereby rain is produced, then (Job_36:28) the fall of the rain (a) in general, (b) in copious abundance? If this view be correct, the best explanation of לְ would seem to be that it denotes possession, or origin. The suffix in אֵדוֹ moreover is better referred to God than to the rain, especially according to the explanation here suggested.—E.]
Job_36:28. Which the high clouds drop down.—שְׁחָקִים here somewhat differently from Job_35:5) denoting such clouds indeed as are high, but not dry, or rainless; comp. Pro_3:20. Respecting the construction (אֲשֶׁר, accus. of material to יִזְּלוּ) comp. Ewald, § 281, b. In respect to b [And distil upon the multitude of men], comp. Job_37:12 seq.—[רָֽב may (with E. V.) be taken adverbially=“abundantly;” although it seems better with most moderns to take it as an adjective describing אָדָם “many men.” In this case as well as the other the predominant thought seems to be the copiousness of the rain.—E.].
Job_36:29. Yea (אף intensive, as elsewhere בִּי אַף, comp. Job_35:14) can one understand the spreadings of the clouds? their expansion, outspreading over the vault of heaven (comp. Eze_27:7; Psa_105:39; not “their burstings,” which מִפְרְשֵׂי could signify only if we were at liberty to derive it (with Hirzel and Stickel [Conant, Renan] from a verb = פרשׂ פָּרַם, frangere.—The loud crashing of His pavilion?—The thick, deep black thunderclouds are here conceived of as the “tabernacle” behind which God veils Himself, precisely as in Psa_18:12. It should be noted that the “tents” סֻכּות) of the orientals have the appearance of being predominantly black (comp. on Son_1:5; Son_4:1). תְּשֻאוֹת; used of the loud crashing of the thunder (referred to the thunder-clouds, pictured as a tabernacle), hence somewhat differently from below, Job_39:7. [The magnificent terseness and power of the line תְּשֻׁאוֹת מֻבָּתוֹ should be noted.—E.].
Job_36:30 seq. Special description of the phenomena of thunder and lightning in the storm, as already announced in Job_36:29 b.—Behold, He spreadeth His light around Himself;i. e. that eternal, heavenly veil of light, in which God dwells continually (Psa_104:2, etc.), and out of which the lightning-flashes issue, like rays, gleaming through the clouds, and dividing them; comp. Job_36:32; Job_37:3. [עָלָיו, as here explained—around or over Himself—the suffix referring to God, not the “tabernacle,”—“upon it.” E. V.]—And with the roots of the sea He covereth Himself (כִּסָּה with accus.—“to take anything as a covering,” as in Jon_3:6). The “roots of the sea” are the masses of water drawn upwards out of the sea, into the heavens in the form of black clouds, and here serving God as a veil (so correctly Umbreit, Ewald, Vaihinger, Dillmann) [Conant, Noyes, who renders: “And He clotheth Himself with the depths of the sea”]. The expression is poetically bold, but still unmistakable (comp. שֹׁרֶשׁ in Job_13:27; Job_28:9. By הַיָּם we are to understand neither the waters of the heavens above (Hirzel, Schlottm.), nor the sea of clouds (Hahn) [Renan]. The expression denotes, as always, the ocean, regarded as the source of the atmospheric moistures which mount up from it. The language does not refer to a “covering of the foundations of the sea with the light of the lightning” (Stuhlm., Delitzsch) [Good, Wordsworth]; in order to express this thought, another אוֹר or בָּאוֹר would scarcely have been omitted with כִּסָּה. [Delitzsch explains his view as follows: “The lightning in a thunder-storm, especially when occurring at night, descends into the depths of the sea, like snares that are cast down (פַּחִים, Psa_11:6), and the water is momentarily changed, as it were, into a sea of flame.” But this explanation does not adequately account for the use of שׁרשׁ. According to another explanation, God is represented as covering the depths of the sea, either with waters (Barnes), or with darkness, contrasting with the lightning which covers the sky (Lee, Rodwell). But neither of these explanations falls in naturally with the description of the storm. Renan: “Now He covers Himself with His lightnings as with a curtain; now He seems to hide Himself in the depths of the sea;” his explanation being: “He treats here of the alternations of light and darkness which take place in storms. The clouds are compared to a dark and deep sea.” There is nothing, however, to indicate such a contrast between light and darkness. The “light” here is more especially that of the storm-lightning, in which God wraps Himself as a robe; the “ocean-roots” are the storm-clouds, conceived of as the waters lying in the depths of the sea, which God has lifted up, and gathered around Himself.—E.]
Job_36:31. For therewith—with lightnings and clouds (Job_36:30)—He judgeth the people, giveth food in abundance.—לְמַכְבִּיר only here,=the expression לָרֹב, usually found elsewhere. The whole verse—which has somewhat of a parenthetic character, as an ethical and theological reflection in the midst of a passage which otherwise is purely descriptive—which, however, is not (with Olshausen) to be placed between Job_36:28-29—reminds us of Schiller:
Aus der Wolke quillt der Segen,
Strömt der Regen;
Aus der Wolke, ohne Wahl,
Zuckt der Strahl.1
Job_36:32. Both hands He covereth over with light and sendeth it forth against the adversary.—This is a more specific description of what God does in judging the people (Job_36:31 a), and the use He makes therein of the lightning. [“God is represented under a military figure as a slinger of lightnings: He covers light over both hands, i. e. arms both completely with light, and directs it.” Delitzsch.] Who the adversary is (מַפְגְּיעָ, LXX., Theod.: ἀπαντῶν) against whom He sends forth the light (lit. “commands it, enacts concerning it,” צִוָּה with עַל, as often) remains undetermined, and needs not to be inquired into. It signifies at any rate any hostile powers, against which God sends forth His lightnings; comp. Psa_18:14 seq.; Job_11:6; Wis_19:12, etc. The signification of מַפְגִּיעַ elsewhere (= intercessor, Isa_59:16) does not suit here. The change of the word into מִפְגַּע, “point of attack” (Job_7:20), proposed by Olshausen, is however untenable. The same may be said of Hahn’s explanation of the word in this sense. Delitzsch renders it peculiarly: “and commissioneth it as one who hitteth the mark” (בִּ as בְּessentiæ, and הפגיע after Isa_53:6). [Delitzsch connects it with God, as “a sure aimer.”—Wordsworth a little differently with the lightning: “He giveth it a command as an assailant, or an avenger.”—Lee: “He layeth His commands upon it to destroy.”—Rosenmüller, Stickel, Elzas: “He commandeth it where to strike.” Barnes, Carey: “He commandeth it in striking.” The rendering of E. V.: “With clouds (כַּפַיִם for clouds from their fancied resemblance to hands) He covereth the light, and commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt,” pre-supposes too much. The rendering of the Commentary: “against the enemy,” is that which is best supported by the etymology, grammatical form, and connection.—E.]
Job_36:33. His thunder-cry announces Him; lit. “His alarm-cry makes announcement (1Sa_27:11) concerning Him.” רֵעוֹ in accordance with Exo_32:17; Mic_4:9; not=רֵעֵהוּ [His friend, companion], as indeed almost all the ancient versions take it [LXX.: “The Lord will declare concerning this to His friend”]; also among the moderns Umbreit and Schlottmann. [“He makes known to it (scil. the light, or lightning) His friend.” So Barnes.] Just as little does it mean: “His thought, decree” (Cocceius, Böttcher, Welte) [Elzas: “By it He announceth His will.”—E. V., Rosenm., etc.: “The noise thereof showeth concerning it,” taking the suffix to refer to the storm, not to God; which is altogether too insipid].—The cattle even (announce) that He is on the march; or: “concerning Him who is coming upward.” This is beyond a doubt the most satisfactory explanation of the difficult closing member מִקְנֶה אַף עַל־עוֹלֶה—an explanation which becomes still more obvious if—instead of assuming, as is commonly done (so Rosenm., Stick., Ew., Vaih., Heil., Delitsch, etc.), merely a general reference to the uneasy movements of animals at the first approach of a thunder-storm, and comparing with it passages like Virgil, Georg. I., 373 seq.; Pliny, H. N. XVIII., 35, etc.,—we suppose that the storm thus far described had occasioned under the eyes of the assembly, before which Elihu speaks, a certain bewilderment or destruction in- a particular herd of cattle;—if, accordingly, we assume an actual occasion to have been given for this description—an occasion which is not to be more particularly defined, and so derive again out of the passage before us a confirmation of the supposition advanced above on Job_36:22. In that case we need have recourse to none of the artificial and violent make-shifts, into the adoption of which expositors have fallen here, as e. g. the rendering of מִקְנֶה in the absolutely unheard of signification of “jealousy, fury of wrath” (Hahn: “a raging of wrath announces Him who is uprising;” and comp. Schlottmann); the changing of the word into מַקְנֶה (Hitzig), or מְקַנֶּה (Böttcher, Dillmann, who at the same time read עַוְלָה instead of עוֹלֶה: “causing His anger to rage against iniquity”), etc. [Schlottmann’s rendering, referred to above—“and the fury of wrath against iniquity (or against transgressors)” is the one adopted by Fürst, Good, Lee, Bernard, Carey, Elzas.—The possible varieties of interpretation of the verse are endless. See the more important set forth in Schultens, Schlottmann, and Conant. The simplicity, life-likeness, and appositeness of the rendering adopted in the Commy. (and by Ewald, Delitz., Gesenius, Renan, Wordsworth, Rodwell, and Conant—who however takes מִקְנֶה as object, rather than subject—“to the herds”.) will commend it to most.—E.].
Job_37:1-5. Further description of the terror-working power of the thunder and lightning.
Job_27:1. Yea, because of this (לְזֹאת, comp. Job_36:27), my heart trembleth, and quaketh out of its place; lit., “springs, or starts up,” comp. Job_6:9. Why this should be regarded as “an exaggerated, hardly an elegant expression” (Dillmann), is not apparent.
Job_27:2. Hear, O hear, the roar of His voice.—שִׁמְעוּ שָׁמוֹעַ, a summons to hear closely and attentively, comp. Job_13:17; Job_21:2. The phenomena of the thunder and lightning seem, at this particular moment of the description, so very near to the speaker and his hearers, that some commentators, as Böttcher, Schlottmann, Delitzsch, have found here at least an indication of the probability that the poet presupposes a storm as advancing during the colloquy. It is, however, evidently not an approaching thunderstorm to which the description refers, but one which had been for some time already present, and which might be heard now loudly roaring (see a), and now lowly murmuring or rumbling (see b) [and the rumbling (הֶגֶה, E. V.: too general—“sound”) that goeth forth out of His mouth]. Comp. what Delitzsch himself strikingly says: “The five-fold repetition of קוֹל—a word of sombre sound, for which our Stimme [Voice] is a miserable substitute—calls to mind the seven קוֹלוֹת in Psalms 29.” Against Dillmann’s assertion, that if the poet had purposed to represent the thunder-storm mentioned in Job_38:1 as here already advancing, he would not have begun his series of physico-theological reflections with the storm, but would have reserved it for the conclusion, it may be argued that at the close of his discourse, and after his digression in respect to the cold, rain season, etc. (Job_27:6-13), Elihu does in fact again repeatedly take up the phenomena of storms and atmospheric changes; comp. on Job_38:1.
Job_27:3. Under the whole heaven He leadeth it forth—or: “He sends it forth, looses it” (יִשְׁרֵהוּ, Imperf. Kal. of the Aram, שׁרה), i. e., the roaring and the rumbling. [The definition of the verb here adopted is preferred by Ewald, Fürst, Del., Dillm., Hirz., Lee, Carey, Wordsw., etc., on the ground that it is more appropriate as applied to the thunder (let loose through the immeasurable vault of heaven), and particularly to the zig-zag course of the lightning, than the signification “to direct” (from ישׁר, which rests on the fundamental idea of straightness).—E.]. And His lightning (lit. “His light”) unto the borders of the earth.—In respect to בַּנְפוֹת חָאָרֶץ, see on Job_38:13. As to the thought, comp. Luk_17:24 and parallel passages.
Job_27:4. After it roareth the sound of the thunder: He thundereth with the voice of His majesty—lit. “He will thunder” (יַרְעֵם), voluntative, as also יִשָּׁמַע in c).—And restraineth them not (i. e., the lightnings, the particular rays of the אוֹר mentioned in Job_27:3), when His voice resounds [lit. is heard].—עִקִּב, not “to track out, to follow up” (Symmachus, Vulg., Ewald [who renders interrogatively: “and will He not find them out when His voice is heard?” i. e., track them in their hiding-places with His thunder and lightning], but in accordance with the Targ., עִכֵּב, to hold back, refrenare, cohibere [the idea being that the roar of the thunder and the flash of the lightning follow in quick succession].
Job_27:5. God thundereth marvellously with His voice.—נִפְלָאוֹת here used adverbially = mirabiliter, as in Dan_8:24; Psa_65:6; Psa_139:14. In respect to b, comp. Job_5:9; Job_9:10; Job_36:26. The verse ends for the time the description, so far as it relates to the storm, and by a general observation respecting God’s greatness leads the way to the following examples of the same.
7. Continuation. The phenomena of winter, such as snow, rain, the north wind, frost, etc.: Job_37:6-13.
Job_27:6. For to the snow He saith—Fall to the earth.—הֱוֵה erroneously rendered “Be” by the LXX., Targ, Pesh. [E. V.] (on the contrary, correctly by Jerome—ut descendat), is Imperat. of הוה, “to fall” (lit. “to gape, to yawn”), a root obtaining elsewhere only in Arabic as a verb; hence another of the Arabisms of this Elihu section, as in Job_34:36; Job_35:15, etc. In the two following members the לְ of לַשֶּׁלֶג extends its influence: (also) to the rain-shower (גֶּשֶׁמ, a heavy, pouring rain; a stronger term than מָטָר), and the rain-showers of His strength—i. e., His mighty, pouring rain-showers (the plural structure similar to קוִל בֹּכִים in Job_30:31; comp. Ewald, § 270, c). The rain, being by far the most common form in which the moisture of the atmosphere is precipitated during the Syro-Arabian winter, where it comes down particularly in the late autumn (as the early rain), and in the early spring (as the latter rain), is by the double designation more strongly emphasized than the snow. Comp. still further, as a parallel in thought, Isa_55:10.
Job_27:7-8 describe the effects of the cold of winter on men and beasts. [“The wonders of nature during the rough season (מְתָיו ,חֹרֶף, Son_2:11), between the autumnal and vernal equinoxes, are meant; the rains after the autumnal equinox (the early rain), which begin the season, and the rains before the vernal equinox (the late rain, Zec_10:11), which close it, with the falls of snow between, which frequently produce great desolation, especially the proper winter, with its frosty winds and heavy showers, when the business of the husbandman, as of the nomads, is brought to a stand-still, and every one retreats to his house or seeks a sheltering corner.” Del.]
Job_27:7. The hand of every man He puts under a seal—so that it is disabled from carrying on field-work (comp. Homer, Iliad, XVII. 549 seq.: ὅς ῤά τε ἐ̔ργων ἀνθρώπους ἀνώπαυσεν ἐπὶχθονί). Respecting חתם ב, comp. Job_33:16. The object of this sealing influence of the winter frost on the hands of men is: that all men of His work may come to knowledge—i. e., that all men created by God may learn how mighty He is, and how entirely dependent on Him they are. “Men of His work” is a somewhat singular collocation of words, which does not occur elsewhere, which, however, has its parallel in the expression, “sheep of His hand,” Psa_95:7, and for that reason is not of necessity to be set aside in the way of conjecture. At the same time, the rendering of the Vulg.: ut noverint singuli opera sua, furnishes a witness not altogether to be slighted in behalf of the emendation of Olshausen, favored also by Delitzsch—לַדַּעַת בָּל־אֲנָשִׁים מַעֲשֵׂהוּ.
In regard to Job_27:8 [Then creeps the beast into his covert, and in his lairs doth he remain] comp. Psa_104:22, where, it is true, that which is spoken of is not exactly the influence of winter in causing beasts to seek out places of shelter.
Job_27:9. Out of the secret chamber cometh the storm.—חֶדֶר “chamber” (penetrale claustrum) denotes the enclosure out of which the storm-wind rushes forth, as in Job_38:22 (comp. Psa_135:7) mention is made of the “storehouses” of the snow. Comp. Job_9:9—“chambers of the south,” with which expression the one before us is not to be identified without further qualification. For instead of storms from the south or south-east (Rosenmüller, Umbreit Vaihinger, Welte, Delitzsch) [E. V.], the language here refers rather to storms from the north or north-east, as certainly as that below in Job_27:17 the sultry and heating quality of the south wind is intended. And cold from the cloud-scatterers.—מְזָרִים, probably Partic. Piel. plnr. from זָרָה, “to sweep away, to scatter,” hence dispergentes (scil. venti), the cloud-sweepers, a designation of violent cold storms (as in Arab, darijat, they which blow away; Kor. Sur. 51, 1), which indeed are also to be regarded as coming from the north or east; comp. Job_1:19. The ancient versions seem not to have understood the word which occurs only here. Thus the LXX.: ἀπὸ τῶν ἀκρωτηρίων (a corruption perchance of ἀρκτῴων?); Vulg.: ab arcturo; Aq., Theod.: ἀπὸ Μαζούρ (similarly the Targ.) [Fürst and Lee: the Northern constellations; Mercier: Septentriones; Good: the Arctic chambers; Renan: the north winds, etc.].
Job_27:10. From the breath of God there isיִתֵּן (impersonal as also Pro_13:10) [“there cometh, there is given”] ice—viz., when a cold blast, proceeding from God, sweeps over the face of the water, by means of which, according to b, “the breadth of the waters (is brought) into a strait” (comp. Job_36:16), i. e., is solidified, and so fettered as it were, is arrested in its free, flowing movement. Precisely thus the Arabic poet, Montenebbi: “the flood is chained by bands of ice.” In respect to the apparent contradiction between this representation and the physical fact of the expansion of freezing water, see below on Job_38:30.
Job_27:11-13 return to the description of the phenomena of clouds and rain, occasioned by a new phase of the storm just taking place, consisting in the outpouring of rain in extraordinary abundance. Schlottmann correctly: “The storm in its magnificent approach drifts victoriously before all the senses of Elihu, so that from all other images brought forward as they are with a certain haste, he ever recurs to that of the storm” (comp. Del.).
Job_27:11. Also he loadeth with moisture the clouds—comp. Job_26:8.—רִי, from רוה, signifies “moisture, wet,” and הִטְרִיחַ, related to טֹרַח, “burden,” is “to load, to make heavy.” All explanations which take בְּרִי as one word from the root ברר (or ברה) are against the connection, e. g., “serenity [brightness] dispels the clouds” (Targ., Rosenm., Umbreit [Bernard, Barnes, Elzas], etc.); frumentum (בַּר) desiderat nubes (Vulg., Symmach.); ἐκλεκτὸν κὰταπλήσσεινεφέλη (LXX, and similarly Theod., Pesh.). [Gesenius, Noyes: “In rain He casts down the thick cloud.” Carey: “By (its) watering the thick cloud falleth headlong.” But the vers. which follow, and particularly Job_27:12 a, are scarcely consistent with the idea that the cloud has cast down its contents. E. V. also seems to take רִי actively—“by watering He wearieth the thick cloud;” the meaning being apparently that by showering down its contents the cloud is wearied or worn away; against which the objection just noted holds.—E.]. He spreadeth far and wide the clouds of His light—i. e., the thunder-clouds, pregnant with lightning, through which the lightning flashes; comp. Job_36:29; and in respect to הֵפִיץ, “to scatter, to spread abroad,” comp. Job_38:24.
Job_27:12. And these—round about they turn themselves.—וְהוּא cannot refer to God (Rosenmüller, Schlottmann) [Lee; also Good and Elzas, who, however, both render מְסִבּוֹת “seasons” (courses)]. It can be referred only to עָגָן, or עָב “clouds,” Job_27:11. [The most natural way of accounting for its use here is to understand it as descriptive, Elihu pointing out the cloud at the time—וְהוּא—“And there it is! turning round about, hither and thither,” etc. Thus understood, it would be better to adhere to the singular rendering of “cloud” in Job_27:11, as being more individual and vivid.—E.]. מְסִבּוֹת, “round about,” as elsewhere סָבִיב, or סְבִיבוֹת.—Piloted by Him (lit. “by His pilotings,” the clouds being thought of as God’s ships, or coursers; comp. Psa_18:11 [10] seq.) according to their doings—i. e., according to the actions of men, God having established a strict economic relation between those actions and the agency of His clouds in heaven, now yielding a blessing and now working destruction. This reference of the suffix in לְפָֽעֳלָם to men (Ewald, Hirzel, Heil., Dillm.) is favored by Job_27:13, as also by the Masoretic accentuation, which forbids the connection of לפעלם with what follows, according to the view which finds favor with the majority of modern commentators—“that they may do whatever he commandeth them on the face,” etc. [To which add the use of the strongly individualizing and descriptive חוּא at the beginning of the verse, after which it is altogether unlikely that the plural suffix would be used, especially seeing that again in Job_27:13 b the sing. suffix is used, יַמְצִאֵהוּ.—E.] The third member expresses the object of the verb פעל—Whatsoever He commands to them upon the globe. The pleonastic expression תְּבֵל אֶרֶץ [lit. “the habitable land (of) the earth”] occurs again in Proverbs 8. Respecting the form אַרְצָה, comp. already Job_34:13.
Job_27:13. More specific statement of the object for which God steers the clouds in accordance with the conduct of men: be it for a scourge, when it is (necessary) for His earth, or for a blessing, He causeth it to come.—אִם־לְאַרְצוֹ is not co-ordinate with the two other conditional clauses (Rosenm., Umbreit, Del. [E. V., Noyes, Words., Carey, Rod.]; “now for a scourge, now for the benefit of His earth, now for mercy,” etc.), but subordinate [as is proved (1) by the decided contrast between “whether for a scourge” and “or for mercy,” each at the beginning of its half-verse; a contrast and a proportion of parts which would be destroyed by introducing another co-ordinate אִם; (2) by the tautology which ensues from making the second clause with אִם co-ordinate, there being really no material difference between “for the benefit of His land” (or earth), and “for mercy.”—E.] The earth is called “His earth,” because it is God’s possession (comp. Job_34:13), and the לְ before אַרְצוֹ differs from the לְ before the other two nouns, in that it introduces a Dat. commodi. In respect to שֵׁבֶט=“chastisement,” comp. Job_21:9.
8. Conclusion. b. Application: Job_37:14-24. Instead of censuring God, or quarreling with Him, Job should draw from His wonderful operations in the natural world the right conclusion in regard to the mystery of his suffering. The appeals and questions addressed to Job to the end of the discourse, are seriously intended. An unprejudiced consideration of the passage will find in it no trace of “a lofty irony” (Schlottmann, Ewald, Dillmann).
Job_27:14. Hearken unto this, O Job, stand still, etc. Both “this” (זֹאת), and the “wonders of God” in b, point not to what follows, but to the contents of the preceding descriptions.
Job_27:15. Dost thou know how God commandeth them?—שׂוּם עַל, as in Exo_5:8, and often, of imposing commands upon, not, as in Job_34:23, of “setting one’s thoughts on anything” (Rosenmüller, Hirzel, Delitzsch [Conant, Rodwell, Gesenius; i. e., when God planned (E. V., “disposed”) them]). בְּשׂוּם is not (according to the authorities just mentioned) a determination of time when, but a specification of the object of הֲתֵדַע, this specification being further enlarged by the Perf. consec. וְהוֹפִיע. [According to this explanation בְּ is used partitively after ידע, like the Greek genit. after verbs of knowing, “to have knowledge of,” hence of partial knowledge. See Ewald, § 217, 3, 2, γ]. The suffix in עֲלֵיהֶם refers back either to the “wonders of God,” Job_27:14 b, or to the “clouds,” Job_27:11 sq. “Causing the light of the clouds to shine,” in b (comp. Job_3:4; Job_10:3, etc.) is a circumlocution for the simple idea of lightning; comp. Job_27:11 b.
Job_27:16. Dost thou understand the balancings of the clouds?—מִפְלְשֵׂי from שׂלַפָּ=סלפ, to weigh (Psa_58:3 [2]), to poise, a similar structure to that of מִפְרְשֵׂי, Job_36:29, but not for that reason to be regarded as an interchangeable form of that word (against Ewald). Respecting תְּמִים דֵּעִים in b, comp. on Job_36:4. The form מִפְלְאוֹת instead of נִפְ׳ found only here.
Job_27:17-18 introduce a new, and at the same time the last digression from the phenomena of storms, which otherwise constitute throughout the principal theme of the description. Here it is to the phenomena which accompany the full blaze of the summer sun beaming in a perfectly serene and clear sky, that the speaker digresses. The אֲשֶׁר of Job_27:17 is not a conjunction = כִּי (Rosenm, Umbreit, Hirzel) [Good, Lee, Noyes, Renan, Rodwell, Barnes, etc., and E. V.] or = אִם (Schlottmann), but a pronoun referring to Job, the person addressed, and introducing a relative clause, precedent to the interrogative sentence in Job_27:18—Thou, whose clothes (become) hot, when the earth becomes sultry (lit. “becomes calm, still”) from the South;i. e., not merely by the south-wind, which דָּרוּם could not signify, but by the united influence of the solar heat and the torrid winds. So correctly Bolducius, Ewald, Stickel, Hahn, Delitz., Dillmann [Carey, and, though less decidedly, Wordsworth], except that some of these commentators (Ewald, Dillmann), inappropriately find an ironical meaning in the words [conveyed to some extent also by Carey’s paraphrase—“You, Job, can readily enough feel the changes of the weather, but you cannot give any explanation of them.” The rendering, “How (i. e., dost thou know how) thy garments are warm, when, etc.”, is certainly insipid enough. In favor of the rendering adopted above see further on Job_27:18. The rendering of b with E. V., “when He quieteth (Conant, ‘lulls’) the earth by the south-wind,” is admissible, although on account of the absence of the suffix after הַשְׁקִט the subject is more probably ארץ, with the verb in the intransitive sense—to be tranquil, or rather in Hiph. to enjoy tranquillity, to find rest. The appropriateness of the language of this verse as descriptive of summer heat will appear from the following extract from Thomson’s Land and the Book (Vol. II., p. 312): “The sirocco to-day is of the quiet kind, and they are often more over-powering than the others. I encountered one a year ago on my way from Lydd to Jerusalem. Just such clouds covered the sky, collecting, as these are doing, into darker groups about the tops of the mountains, and a stranger to the country would have expected rain. Pale lightnings played through the air like forked tongues of burnished steel, but there was no thunder and no wind. The heat however became intolerable, and I escaped from the burning highway into a dark-vaulted room at the lower Bethhoron. I then fully understood what Isaiah (Job_25:5), meant when he said, Thou shalt bring down the noise of the strangers as the heat in a dry place, as the heat with the shadow of a cloud—that is, as such heat brings down the noise, and makes the earth quiet—a figure used by Job (Job_37:17) when he says, Thy garments are warm when he quieteth the earth by the south wind. We can testify that the garments are not only warm, but hot. This sensation of dry hot clothes is only experienced during the siroccos, and on such a day, too, one understands the other effects mentioned by the prophet, bringing down the noise, and quieting the earth. There is no living thing abroad to make a noise. The birds hide in thickest shades, the fowls pant under the walls with open mouth and drooping wings, the flocks and herds take shelter in caves and under great rocks, the laborers retire from the fields, and close the windows and doors of their houses, and travelers hasten, as I did, to take shelter in the first cool place they can find. No one has energy enough to make a noise, and the very air is too weak and languid to stir the pendent leaves even of the tall poplars.”—E.]
Job_27:18. Dost thou with him arch over the sky?i. e., dost thou with Him give its vaulting or out-spanning (Gen_1:7 sq.) to the firmament of clouds (שְׁחָקִים here essentially as in Job_35:5), which is firm as a molten mirror?רְאִי “mirror,” the same as מַרְאָה in Exo_38:8. מוּצָק, Partic. Hoph. from יצק (Job_11:15), indicating the preparation of the mirror from molten and polished metal. With this representation of the heavenly firmament (רָקִיעַ, στερέωμα), as constituting a smooth, shining, and solid mirror, may be compared, as most nearly resembling it, the representation of it as transparent sapphire (Exo_24:10), or, more remotely, as a curtain (Psa_104:2) or gauze (Isa_40:22) or a veil (Psa_102:27 [26]). [It should be observed that the description here given of the skies is especially appropriate to the dazzling brilliancy of the oriental sky in summer, whence the well-known comparison of the sky in a season of heat and drought to “brass.” It will thus be seen that those two verses, (17 and 18) are in logical connection. Thou who art subject to the influences of the seasons, whose garments are hot in summer, when the earth becomes still from the South, canst thou claim to be associated with Him who spread on high yon blazing canopy, solid and burnished as a molten mirror? the comparison being with the molten metal used as mirrors.—E.]
Job_27:19. Teach us what we shall say to Him, the mighty Author and Preserver of this magnificent world-structure?—what we shall say to Him, that is, when we would argue with Him. We can set forth nothing (lit. “we cannot—לֹא—set forth,” scil. מִלִּים) by reason of darkness, i. e., because of the darkness of our understanding; comp. Ecc_2:14; Isa_60:2. In respect to מִפְּנֵי, præ, propter, comp. Job_23:17.
Job_27:20. Shall it be told Him (יְסֻפַּר, optative) that I would speak?—[“Greatly increased vividness is imparted to the discourse by this sudden transition from the first person plural to the first singular, as though Elihu would realize on the instant, in his own person, all that was fearful in that which he assumes.” Schlottmann].—Or did ever a man wish to be destroyed? lit., “did he say, that he would be (might become) destroyed?” (comp. Job_34:31). This question has for its basis something like the well-known Old Testament idea that “no man could see God and, live.” See Exo_19:21; Exo_33:20; comp. Gen_32:30; Jdg_6:22 seq.; Job_13:22.
Job_27:21 seq. refers again to the storm which during the whole discourse is visible in the heavens, not however with the purpose merely to point it out or describe it, but to use the spectacle which the storm at the moment presents as a symbol of Job’s condition and relation to God at the time.
Job_27:21. And now indeed one sees not the light, which is gleaming brightly (בָּהִיר only here) in the clouds;i. e., which notwithstanding the clouds that veil it, or, which behind the clouds shines with its customary brilliancy. But a wind passeth by and cleareth them away (dispels these clouds, so that it becomes quite clear again). The meaning of the passage can be only this—that “the God who is hidden only for a time, respecting whom one runs the risk of being in perplexity, can suddenly unveil Himself to our surprise and confusion, and that therefore it becomes us to how humbly and quietly to His present mysterious visitation” (Delitzsch). To reject this thought, which is so clear, and so strikingly in harmony with the connection, and to substitute for it the other and much more artificial thought—“But now one cannot look upon the sunlight, while it shines clearly in the bright clouds, inasmuch as the wind has passed over it, and cleansed it of all obscurity” (Ros., Hirz., Ew., Dillm., [Schlottmann, Noyes, Conant, Lee, Carey, Wordsworth, Rodwell, Elzas] etc.),—is not to assist but to obscure the comprehension of the passage. [The explanation of Delitzsch, adopted by our Commy. does not seem quite as clear as Zöckler represents it. שְׁחָקִים is used by Elihu in two senses: (1) in Job_36:28 of the rain-clouds; (2) in Job_37:18 of the sky, or firmament. Delitzsch takes it more in the latter sense here, translating: “the sunlight that is bright in the etherial heights.” This interpretation however is forbidden by the ותטהרם of c. It cannot be said that the wind clears the etherial heights. The suffix evidently shows that the “skies” here spoken of include the lower region of clouds. Moreover the explanation itself requires that somewhere in the verse mention should be made of the lower clouds, which for a time hide the light. But if שְׁחָקִים must include these clouds, which are blown away by the wind, Del.’s explanation becomes inconsistent with the preposition בְּ, which certainly cannot mean, according to Zöckler’s suggestion, “behind the clouds,” or above them. Moreover, as Dillmann justly objects, the aspect in which God is about to be presented is not that of One who, having been hidden for a time suddenly reveals Himself, but rather that of One whose majesty is too terrible for contemplation, and whose greatness is unsearchable. To which add that this is also the prominent thought in the verse just preceding (Job_27:20);—God is so great that to approach Him is to risk annihilation. With this thought the other rendering stands in better connection, so that the whole train of thought from Job_27:20 on may be freely rendered as follows:—Shall it be announced to Him, the Eternal King, awful in glory, that I would speak to Him? Shall I utter the desire to be ushered unto His presence, whom to see is to perish? Even now men cannot look on the light—the symbol of His glory—as it blazes there in the skies, over which the wind has passed, clearing them up; … much less can they gaze on His terrible majesty! Elihu seems to speak with a presentiment of the approaching presence of God.—E.].
Job_27:22 continues the description in ver 21c of that which follows the obscuration of the sun by thunder-clouds: From the north comes forth the golden brightness;—around Eloah (hovers) the sublimest splendor.—These words are referred by most modern commentators (following the Vulg.: ab aquilone aurum venit) to the metal gold, which comes out of the lands lying to the north (in favor of which they appeal to Herodotus, III., 116; Pliny, Hist. Nat., VI., 11; XXXIII., 4), and which accordingly, even if hard to obtain, is nevertheless at all times accessible to men, whereas God’s majesty remains forever unapproachable to them. But whether in this view we find the tertium comparationis to be the remoteness of the northern lands (Ewald, Hirzel, Vaihinger, Welte) [Schlottmann, Lee, Conant, Dillmann], or the mysterious obscurity which veils them (Stickel, Hahn, Delitzsch), the comparison would after all have something frigid about it, would be but ill suited to the present passage, and would agree but poorly with the other intimations of the Old Testament touching commercial geography, which locate the principal mines of gold towards the south rather; comp. Job_22:24; Job_28:1; Job_28:6; Job_28:16. The correct rendering has already been indicated by the LXX., who translate זָהָב by νέφη χρυσαυγοῦντα, following which Luther in a marginal gloss explained the term to mean “fair weather like pure gold” [and so E. V.]; and similarly Brentius, Cocceius, Starke, Rosenmüller, Umbreit, Arnheim, and Böttcher (Aehrenl., p. 76), [Noyes, Bernard, Barnes, Good, Wemyss, Carey, Rodwell, Elzas, Renan], but with the subordinate variation among themselves, that some of them explain the זָחָב of the clear sunlight breaking forth (Cocceius, etc., Umbreit), others of the golden-shining clouds, as the covering of Jehovah appearing in the storm. The latter modification of this meteorological application of the word, in favor of which may be cited that other figurative rendering of the word “gold” which we find in Zec_4:12, where gold is used for “pure oil “—must in any case be preferred, because the sun itself could not be described as coming מִצָּפוֹן, and because the explanation of this מִצָּפוֹן as meaning “by means of the north-wind,” is altogether too precarious, and equally at variance with usage as Umbreit’s translation—“from heaven.” The parallel passages produced by Schultens out of Arabic poets, in favor of the comparison of the sunlight with gold, as likewise the Latin expressions aurea lux, aureus sol, are however none the less pertinent for illustration (comp. “the golden sunlight” with us), for it still remains true that the sun is the source of the golden splendor, with which a portion of the thunder-clouds is wont to shine forth, when the storm breaks up, and the clouds begin to retire (comp. Brentius below in the Homiletic Remarks on the passage). Moreover according to this explanation the first member of the verse stands to the second in the relation of comparison and preparation. From the north, when the winds scatter the storm (in the direction of the south) there burst forth clouds of light shining with the brilliancy of gold, an emblem of the incomparable majesty and splendor (נוֹרָא הוֹד comp. Psa_104:1) of the light in which God is clothed. There is no reference to the ancient mythological conception of God’s dwelling-place being in the north (such as Böttcher attributes to the passage), nor to Ezekiel’s description of the chariot of cherubim as coming from the north. There may possibly have been certain meteorological causes of a local character, to ascertain which with certainty is beyond our power, which determined the poet to the choice of the expression מִצָּפוֹן, which in any case has about it something singular, susceptible only of imperfect explanation, whether זהב be understood in a mineralogical, or a meteorological sense.
Job 27:23, 24 conclude the entire meditation on God’s incomprehensibly great and wonderful operations.
Job_27:23. The Almighty—we find Him not.—He ever remains for us One who is beyond our reach, both as regards the perception of our senses and of our minds (comp. ch, Job_23:3), one φῶς οἰκῶν ἀπρόσιτον) 1Ti_6:17). [Who is great in power], but right and the fulness of justice (רָב־צְדָקָה, as in Job_33:19) He perverts not—i. e., with all His incomprehensibleness He still continues ever righteous in His dealings—a proposition which brings the discourse back to its starting-point (Job_36:5). The phrase עִנַּה משפט וצד׳ instead of הִטָּה ונו׳, which is usual elsewhere, belongs to the Aramaizing idioms of the discourses of Elihu (comp. the Talmudic עִנָּה דִּין; its nonoccurrence elsewhere however does not necessitate that, in disregard of the Masoretic accents, we should connect ומשפט ורב־צדקה with שׂגיא in b, in which case the objectless clause לֹא יְעַנֶּה will have to be rendered either—“He does not exercise oppression” (Umbreit, Schlottmann, Kamphausen) [E. V. (“He will not afflict”), Noyes, Conant, Barnes, Bernard, Elzas, Wordsworth, Good—who makes ורב־צ׳ subj.], or as a relative clause—“which He doth not oppress” (Stickel), or after the reading לֹאיַעֲנֶה, “He answereth not, giveth no account of Himself” (LXX., Peshito, Rosenmüller, Hirzel, Vaihinger) [Lee, Carey, Renan, Rodwell]. The explanation of Hahn would seem more natural—“As regards right and the fulness of justice He doth therein no wrong.”
Job 27:24. Therefore do men fear Him—i. e., men of the right sort, men as they should be, who live in accordance with the precepts of true wisdom (Job_28:28). The optative rendering of the Perf. (Umbr., Vaihinger, Stickel, Heiligstedt [Good, Lee, Noyes, Carey, Renan, Rodwell], etc.) is as unnecessary as the Imperative—“fear Him” is inadmissible, which would have been written יִרְאוּהוּ instead יְרֵאוּהוּ (against Arnheim, Hahn). On the contrary the Perf. is used here as in Job_36:24-25, to denote a public, universally recognized fact of experience. He doth not look on those who are wise in their own conceit.—כָּל־הַכְמֵי־לֵב lit. “all the wise of heart,” i. e., those who on the ground of their own heart (instead of on the ground of the fear of God) hold themselves to be wise, omnes qui sibi videntur esse sapientes (Vulg.). The censorious element of the expression does not lie strictly in לֵב (comp. Job_9:4; Pro_11:29; Pro_16:21), but only in the contrast to the notion of the fear of God expressed in a. “Not to look on” any one is, according to Job_35:13 b, to deem him worthy of no notice; of no gracious well-wishing in his behalf.. The subject of this verb can be only God; if the conceited were subj., and God the object (Vulg., Rosenmüller, Stickel) [Bernard, Carey] instead of יִרְאֶה the text would read rather ירְאֶנּוּ. An. uncalled-for “disparagement of Job” (Dillmn), by no means lies in this closing sentence of Elihu’s discourses, but simply a final admonition dissuading him from those presumptuous judgments respecting God, and those presumptuous speeches against God, against which the polemic edge of these discourses had been principally turned, and that with entire justice. [“This is the sum of all that Elihu had to say—that God was original and independent; that He did not ask counsel of men in His dealings; that He was great and glorious, and inscrutable in His plans; and that men therefore should bow before Him with profound submission and adoration. … Having illustrated and enforced this sentiment, Elihu, overwhelmed with the awful symbols of the approaching Deity is silent, and God is introduced to close the controversy.” Barnes].
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
The prejudice of modern critics against the contents and significance of Elihu’s discourses in general has in many instances betrayed them into judgments immoderately harsh even in respect to this, the last and most glorious of the series. Dillmann, e. g., gives it as his opinion that “if the first part of this long discourse groups together the principal thoughts of Elihu, the second travels a path which the friends have already attempted (e. g., in Job 5., 11., 25.); and in the remainder of it is evidently based on passages of the discourses of God in chap. 38, seq., the individual beauties of which in their contents and application are thereby in part anticipated. Forasmuch as Dillmann, as appears from his previous discussions, recognizes at the same time in these “principal thoughts of Elihu grouped together in the first part,” little or nothing that is original, this opinion of his is as disparaging, not to say contemptuous, as it can well be. Elihu is thereby even in respect to the contents of this his final discourse, reduced to the position of a mere compiler, destitute of independence, who borrows the ideas and beauties of others, and without remarkable skill seeks to elaborate them for his own purpose. We believe that the detailed exegesis which we have given above, and particularly of this same fourth discourse, in which the point under consideration has claimed thorough examination and treatment from us, makes it unnecessary for us now to undertake a special refutation of this and similar objections. We believe that we have shown in respect to the reflections, predominantly ethical and theological, contained in the first part (Job_36:5-21), that they repeatedly set forth indeed the fundamental thought of these discourses, to wit, the idea of a remedial purifying and chastening influence of divinely ordained suffering on the pious; that they do this however in a way more impressive and soul-thrilling than any previous portion of the whole book; and that in particular the closing verses of this division (Job_36:16-21) contain statements in respect to God’s loving treatment in “alluring out of the jaws of distress,” in respect to the danger of allowing oneself to be led away from God by the “heat” of suffering, and the greatness of the “ransom” to be paid by means of it, in respect to the insufficiency of our own strivings and conflicts and prayers for procuring salvation, in respect to the natural tendency of the heart to do and to utter vanity rather than to suffer patiently, such as occur in the like combination nowhere in the Old Testament, and such as belong in truth to the profoundest utterances which the revealed literature of the Old Testament has produced in the attempt to solve the mystery of affliction before the coming of Christ.
In respect to the Second Part, however, we believe that we have shown:
(1) That the reflections in the sphere of physical theology therein contained, so far from deserving the reproach of lacking originality, form on the contrary a glorification of the majesty of God revealed in nature, which is most harmoniously adjusted in all its parts from beginning to end, poetically lofty and unique of its kind.
(2) That in particular the description of the terrors and beauties of the storm, exhibiting as it does in masterly combination beauties of its own, deserves to be placed beside the most elevated passages of the sort which the Old Testament literature has produced (e. g., Psalms 18. Psalms 29. etc.), or even surpasses them.
(3) That the independence of the description, as compared with the contents—similar in part—of Jehovah’s discourse in Job 38. seq., is vindicated by the fact that its character is almost exclusively meteorological, being limited to the atmospheric phenomena of heat and moisture, and that its objects accordingly coincide only to a limited extent with those of the discourses which follow.
(4) That the supposition—which forces itself upon us with a necessity from which there is no escape—that the magnificent description here given is continued throughout by the sight of an actual storm in the heavens, accompanied by an abundance of the phenomena of thunder and lightning, furnishes a still further and a weighty contribution to the evidence in favor of the originality of the section in relation to what follows.
(5) That, finally, the suggestive conclusion of the whole, where the natural phenomena immediately contemplated are symbolically referred—and that no less naturally than impressively—to God’s mysterious operations in respect to Job, prepares the way for the final decisive solution of the whole problem (see especially Job_37:21 seq.). The way in which this result is secured banishes the last remnant of doubt touching the genuineness of this section, while at the same time it serves to corroborate the view of this whole Elihu-episode as an essential part of the poet’s own artistic plan, and as having a close organic connection with Job 38. seq. In short we believe that we have shown that the descriptions of nature in the discourse before us may be ranked with the best and most original portions of Holy Scripture of that class. We believe that such a man as Alexander von Humboldt showed neither poor taste nor defective judgment in æsthetic criticism, when in the Second Part of his Cosmos (Vol. II., p. 414, Bohn’s Scientific Library) he writes with reference to this very passage: “Similar views of the Cosmos occur repeatedly in the Psalms (Psa_65:7 seq.; Psa_74:15 seq.), and most fully perhaps in the 37th chapter of the ancient, if not ante-Mosaic Book of Job. The meteorological processes which take place in the atmosphere, the formation and solution of vapor, according to the changing direction of the wind, the play of its colors, the generation of hail and of the rolling thunder are described with individualizing accuracy; and many questions are propounded which we in the present state of our physical knowledge may indeed be able to express under more scientific definitions, but scarcely to answer satisfactorily. The book of Job is generally regarded as the most perfect specimen of the poetry of the Hebrews,” etc.
2. We are constrained to make an observation in opposition to Delitzsch respecting the anthropological, ethical, and soteriological representations of the First Part (and indeed of the whole discourse, for the same representations appear also in the Second Part towards the end; see Job_37:12 seq., Job_37:19 seq.). When this commentator, who is so highly esteemed on account of his exegesis of this book, maintains (II., p. 307 seq.) that Elihu, as in his discourses generally, so in this final discourse particularly, “takes up a position apart from the rest of the book, in so far as he makes Job’s sin the cause of his affliction; while in the idea of the rest of the book Job’s affliction has nothing whatever to do with Job’s sin, except in so far as he allows himself to be drawn into sinful language concerning God by the conflict of temptation into which the affliction plunges him”—we believe that we must reject as a one-sided representation this way of characterizing the distinction between the solution of the great mystery of suffering given by Elihu and that given by God, or taught by the whole poem. We must also charge with one-sidedness the statement which follows in immediate connection with this, that it is only the assumed “older poet” (i. e., the author of the poem as a whole omitting Elihu’s discourses), and not Elihu, who discusses as his theme the mystery of affliction, because it is the former only who exhibits Job as suffering wholly without guilt, or even ἐ̓̔νεκεν ἑικαιοσύνης, whereas Elihu “leaves sin and suffering together as inseparable, and opposes the false doctrine of retribution by the distinction between disciplinary chastisement and judicial retribution. We must be permitted to doubt whether on Old Testament grounds a suffering purely on account of righteousness (which under the New Testament would be suffering purely on account of Christ, the genuine suffering of martyrdom) could have been anywhere conceived of, much less set forth with poetic elaboration. For the “evil thought and imagination of man’s heart from his youth,” together with the “secret faults” without number, and the “errors which cannot be understood”—all this was rooted too firmly and deeply in the consciousness of every thinker within the circle of the Old Testament revelation to admit of the possibility of separating oneself in any measure from this all-embracing sinfulness and guilt which attaches to all who belong to our race. Moreover the actual issue of the action of the poem in Job 42. shows clearly enough that the idea that “Job’s suffering had nothing whatever to do with Job’s sin,” was not that of the poet. That for which Job is there obliged to repent in dust and ashes is not simply his sinful speaking against God, but beyond question the root, which lay still deeper, of these individual sinful outbreaks—the remainder of un-expiated sin, of inward impurity, not yet wholly removed by purification, from which he suffered, and the presence of which he had repeatedly acknowledged. The mission of Elihu, as appears with pre-eminent clearness from this last discourse of his, is none other than to prove the inseparable connection between those criminal utterances of the sorely-tried sufferer and their deeper ground in the moral nature, and at the same time to prove the unavoidable necessity of suffering for purification, even for the man who is comparatively righteous. In other words Elihu sets forth the educational and remedial value of the afflictions ordained by God for every one who is visited by them, even for him who appears to be most innocent. The course of his discussion also rests on the doctrine of affliction, only that he affirms more urgently and emphasizes more strongly the necessity of suffering for all grounded in the sinfulness of all that is done by the discourses of Jehovah. These rather lay the chief emphasis on the unfathomableness of the divine purpose in decreeing suffering, as also, in close connection with this, on the object of suffering, which is to cultivate and to confirm the obedience, humility and truth of the pious. In short, that which Elihu seeks to demonstrate is that the significance of Job’s suffering is predominantly that of chastisement and purification; that to which the conclusion of the whole poem points on the contrary is that its significance is predominantly that of probation. There is no absolute contrast, but essentially only a difference of degree between the solution of this problem which Elihu propounds, and the final decision of Jehovah. The former contemplates the affliction laid by God on the pious more with reference to its final and supreme purpose of salvation, or which is the same thing—the former undertakes the solution of the problem from a soteriological stand-point which is in part as yet that of the law, the latter from one that decisively approximates that of the New Testament. Comp. above, Introd. § 10, ad 8.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
In a homiletic respect both divisions of the discourse, the anthropological-ethical and the physico-theological, present, much that is instructive and stimulating. It will be one chief aim of the practical expositor to exhibit vividly and with proper care the reciprocal influence of both elements in treating of such passages as Job_36:5; Job_36:16; Job_36:22 seq.; Job_37:5; Job_37:12 seq., Job_37:19 seq., Job_37:22 seq.
Particular Passages
Job_36:5 seq. Zeltner: Although God is the Most Mighty One, His wisdom and goodness do not permit that He should reject and condemn any one without cause, by virtue of a bare unconditional decree. His righteousness vindicates itself alike with the evil and the pious. And although in the case of the pious appearances indicate that He has forsaken them, the hour never fails to come at last when He brings forth their cause, and establishes their right, so that they behold with pleasure His grace.—v. Gerlach: Whereas Elihu has previously set forth the retribution of God’s righteousness, which without fail overtakes the wicked, so now he here sets forth His gracious fatherly guidance of His servants. He does not cast them off at once on account of their missteps, for He is also “mighty in strength of heart,” i. e., His wisdom penetrates all things; He knows therefore how by wondrous ways to lead them to the right goal.
Job_36:8 seq. Brentius: If kings or princes, whether in liberty or in captivity and chains, will not despise the instruction of the Lord, but will rather submit to Him when He admonishes them of those things which are right, and chastises them by affliction, and repent of their wickedness, then shall they find the Lord favorable to them, and ready to forgive whatever iniquities they had before committed. … Of this you have an example in Manasseh.—V. Andreae: If in the present condition of things in the world the pious must at times languish in misery, this is in order that they may persistently endure in the right way, which conducts them to that blessed goal. He who rebels against these divine methods of treatment, will thereby only forfeit the blessing which is ever consequent upon such suffering.
Job_36:22. Oecolampadius: The invisible things of God indeed are known from those things which are seen, but all the knowledge which is attainable to us now is imperfect. We see afar off, and in darkness, and through a glass, having a better knowledge of what God is not than of what He is. We are not able to search out His judgments, but we know Him to be the Most High, and the Incomprehensible One. However much accordingly philosophers may dispute about the way in which snow, rain, lightning, thunderbolts are produced, they are nevertheless wholly ignorant by what decree of God they are brought into being. It is otherwise however that our theologian [Elihu] discourses concerning the secrets of nature. He does it in order that in them the righteousness of God may be observed, showing kindness to some, afflicting others. But by God’s appointment all things are ordered for good to those who are good, at the same time that all creatures work evil to those who are evil. Andreae: The same storm which on the one side is sent upon the lands for punishment and destruction is at the same time appointed on the other side to bless them abundantly, and to make them fruitful. Thus even the severest judgments of God are ever to be regarded as at the same time a source out of which divine grace distils forth.
Job_37:1 seq. Cramer: Thunder, lightning, and storms, are to be our open-air preachers, and preachers of repentance.—They are God’s regalia, and emblems of His divine majesty.—Starke: When God thunders, He, as it were, speaks to us in wrath (Exo_20:19). God would have us recognize Him even out of the storm, and all the more at such a time pray to Him and fear Him as the true God. … In a heavy thunder-storm every one should humble himself before God, and cry to Him, beseeching Him to take us and ours into His gracious protection..—Wohlfarth: Although we ho longer, like the ancients, find a sign of the personal and visible nearness of God in the fearfully beautiful natural phenomenon of a storm, but would fain explain this (completely?) by the laws of nature, it declares to us nevertheless the God of power, wisdom, and goodness, and disposes us to the worship of Him, who gave to nature her laws. … If by its terrors the storm first of all declares to us God’s majesty, and with earnest warning points us to the day of judgment, when mighty princes will tremble like the least of their subjects, it at the same time declares to us the wisdom and goodness of the Most High.2
Job_37:16 seq. Weim. Bibel: God’s works and wonders, which lie in nature and which come to pass daily, are rightly perceived and learned only by believers, for it is they who by the contemplation of such works are aroused to give praise to God.—Cocceius: If in other matters, which happen every day, man is not summoned by God to act as His umpire and counsellor, and if no one can demand that this should be done, nor presume to murmur against such an arrangement, it is just that man should not require of God that the reason of the divine administration in this world should in like manner be made known to him, but that he should acquiesce in it whether he understands it or not, that he should trust God’s word, and in patience await His blessing.
Job_37:21 seq. Brentius: The true light, which is God, cannot be seen, neither does it present itself to eyes of flesh. We see indeed a certain splendor of the clouds, we see the light of the sun, when the clouds are scattered by the winds, we see also gold coming from the North; i. e., we see the clouds, resplendent as with gold, and bright serenity, proceeding from the North. All these are spectacles from which the pious mind rises to the praise of the great and terrible God; and as the heavens declare the glory of God, so men from the divine works may recognize and glorify the true God.—Umbreit: The comparison here given is incomplete, but may easily be understood, and may be more particularly set forth thus: As the sunlight, when it suddenly bursts forth from behind a thick veil of clouds, dazzles and blinds men’s eyes, so also Would the hidden majesty of God, if once it were revealed in all its glory to mortal man, veil his vision with darkness.
Footnotes:
[1]
From the cloud the blessing springeth,
Rain it bringeth;
From the cloud unasked the beam
Doth quivering gleam.
[2]There is much on these points of practical utility accompanied indeed by much which scientifically considered is untenable, absurd, and curious, in the older works on Natural Theology, by Scheuchzer (Physica Sacra, I., c, 12), Schmidt (Bibl. Physicus, p. 112 seq.), J. A. Fabricius (Pyrotheologie, oder anweisung zur Erkuntniss Gottes aus Betrachtung des Feuers, as an Appendix to will. Derham’s Astrotheologie, etc., Hamburg, 1765); P. P. Ahlwardt, (Brontotheologia; Betrachtungen über Blitz und Donner, Gresswald, 1745), etc.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain ELIHU’S FOURTH AND LAST DISCOURSE, chapters 36, 37.
ELIHU’S FOURTH AND LAST DISCOURSE, chapters 36, 37.
1. Elihu also proceeded — Elihu has thus far made the same number of addresses as each of the three friends, with the exception of Zophar. Jewish commentators have remarked that he might properly have stopped here, but the penitent silence of Job encourages him to proceed. Thus far his object has been to correct several errors and misapprehensions into which Job had fallen; he now proposes to take a more specific view of the object of divine chastisement. God’s infinite nature, his almightiness, he says, manifests itself in caring more particularly for the righteous. Because of their like moral nature, he subjects all human beings to discipline, that the precious may be separated from the vile. Suffering develops character: the good it makes better, the bad, worse: until, at last, the latter die prematurely the death of the most abandoned. Thus it appears that the general course of God’s providence declares for righteousness. Therefore, if Job heed not the divine visitation, he has reason to deprecate the divine wrath, whose angry mutterings he may already hear in the distant cloud, (Job_36:18.) This leads Elihu to speak of the power of God in nature, whose beneficence, no less displayed than his justice, declares him not only a righteous, but a gracious governor of the world. A peculiarity of this and of the other speeches of Elihu, Delitzsch notices, namely, that “they demand of Job penitential submission, not by accusing him of coarse, common sins, as the three have done, but because even the best of men suffer for hidden moral defects, which must be perceived by them, lest they perish on their account. Elihu here does for Job just what, in Bunyan, the man in the interpreter’s house does when he sweeps the room, so that Christian had been almost choked with the dust that flew about.”
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THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IS INDEED INCOMPREHENSIBLE, EVEN AS JOB HAD URGED; BUT ITS GENERAL TENDENCIES ARE UNMISTAKABLY DISCLOSED IN THE PRESENT, THOUGH PARTIAL, MUNDANE SCHEME, 36, 37.
“There is a point within man on which suffering rests its base, sin; there is a point within God, indicated by all his works, from which it comes as source, goodness; the two together sufficiently explain it [suffering] and general Providence for man’s life here below.” — A.B. Davidson.
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 1–4. Introductory: Elihu desires Job to hear him still…
1–4. Introductory: Elihu desires Job to hear him still further. He has still more to say in God’s behalf; and it is not trivial or commonplace, either in its object—for he will ascribe right to his Maker; nor in itself, for he is one perfect in knowledge.
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 (1) Elihu also proceeded.—It is not easy to acquit…
XXXVI.
(1) Elihu also proceeded.—It is not easy to acquit Elihu of some of the “arrogance” he was so ready to ascribe to Job. He professes very great zeal for God, but it is hard to see that some of his great professions are warranted. For instance, he says—
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 Vers. 1-33. The two chapters, ch. 36 and 37,…
Vers. 1-33. The two chapters, ch. 36 and 37, form a single discourse, and ought not to have been separated; or, at any rate, not so unskillfully as they are, in the middle of a description of a thunderstorm. They constitute a final appeal to Job, who is exhorted to submission, resignation, and patience, in consideration of God"s inscrutability, and of his perfect justice, wisdom, and strength. Ch. 36 begins with a short preface (vers. 1-4), in which Elihu seeks to prove his right to offer counsel to Job, after which God"s justice is demonstrated (vers. 5-16), and Job warned that his petulance may lead to his complete destruction (vers. 17-25). Finally, in illustration of God"s might and unsearchableness" the description of a thunderstorm is commenced (vers. 26-33), which is carried on into the next chapter.
Vers. 1, 2. Elihu also proceeded, and said, Suffer me a little, and I will show thee that I have yet to speak on God"s behalf; literally, that there are yet words for God. The controversy, i.e., is not exhausted; there is yet much that may be urged on God"s behalf, in respect of the charges thou hast made against him.
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Vers. 1-21. Elihu to Job: 3. A sermon on the Divine administration.
I THE PREACHER INTRODUCES HIMSELF.
1. As having something further to say. A man who has nothing to communicate should not emerge from the safe regions of obscurity which Providence designs he should adorn. But alas! of preachers, orators, lecturers, talkers, who babble on without contributing anything to elucidate their themes or enlighten their hearers, however much to gratify themselves, the number is legion. The first requirement in one who aspires to be a teacher of men, whether from the pulpit or from the platform, is that he have something to impart. When in Zechariah"s vision the angel was directed to "run," and "speak to the young man" with the measuring-line, he was at the same time entrusted with a message. (Zec_2:4) The preacher who habitually delivers sermons of the vacuous and windy order affords perfectly sufficient evidence of having mistaken his calling. Neither God nor Christ ever commissioned an ambassador without giving him a message.
2. As proposing to speak in God"s behalf. Of the controversy which Job carried on with Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, Elihu disposed by a simple expression of indignation. (Job_32:3, Job_32:12) The full strength of his ability was directed to maintain the cause of God against Job, and to ascribe righteousness to One whom Job had charged with want of equity. So the mission of the Christian pulpit is not to plunge into the labyrinthine intricacies of theological discussion, in the hope of definitely pronouncing upon long-standing, world-famous controversies like those which engaged the attention of Milton"s erudite devils ("Paradise Lost," bk. 2:559), but to speak with men on God"s behalf on the one hand, to ascribe right to God, i.e. to vindicate the Divine character, the Divine administration, the Divine redemption as being in perfect accord with right and truth; and on the other hand, to bring sinful men to a right state of mind and heart towards God. It is a profanation of the sacred office of the ministry when it is employed to diffuse philosophy, to propagate science, to advance politics, to promote what is called culture as distinguished from religion in short, to do anything that does not directly contribute to either the vindication of God or the salvation of man.
3. As offering a wide and comprehensive view of his subject. The chief fault of controversialists, and one requiring to be guarded against even by the wisest and fairest, is that of one-sided presentation, commonly resulting in exaggerated statement, rash generalization, unwarranted deduction. Such a fault usually proceeds from incapacity to perceive that truth is many-sided, or inability to grasp more sides than one; from unwillingness to admit that aspects of truth may be presented to one which are denied to another, or from overweening self-conceit which supposes nothing can be accurate which self does not see. Job and the three friends are good illustrations of men who look at the same object (e.g. the Divine administration) from different standpoints, and pronounce each other wrong. Elihu undertook to present views derived from an extensive induction of particulars, from a many-sided contemplation of truth, from long and deep reflection. So should preachers aim at setting forth only such expositions of Divine truth as have been gathered by patient industry and diligent research, of the widest and minutest sort, in the volume of the Scriptures, in the books of nature and history, in the records of experience; and even these only after they have been subjected to careful inspection and personally absorbed by deep meditation.
4. As speaking with the utmost sincerity. Elihu promised that his words should not be false as to matter, disingenuous as to aim, or beguiling as to form (ver. 4); and neither should the utterances of a preacher in any one of these respects deviate from the straight path of rectitude. What he offers to the acceptance of his audience should be the unmixed truth of God, (1Co_2:2, 7 2Co_4:2 1Th_2:2) presented not "with enticing words of man"s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power", (1Co_2:4, 1Co_2:13) and exhibited with no ulterior motive of personal aggrandizement, but with honest endeavour to advance God"s glory in man"s salvation. (2Co_4:2) Soundness of doctrine, simplicity of speech, singleness of aim, are qualifications indispensable for an efficient ministry.
5. As possessed of an adequate acquaintance with his theme. In claiming to be "perfect in knowledge" (ver. 4), Elihu may be only asserting his honesty of purpose (Umbreit, Carey, Cook), but the application of the same phrase to God (Job_37:16) makes it probable that he here alludes to the "faultlessness and clearness of perception" (Delitzsch) with which he apprehends "the theodicy which he opposes to Job," and the intensity of that inward conviction which he holds as to its truth (Cook). So again should God"s prophets and Christ"s preachers, by prayerful study of the Divine Word, by prolonged cogitation on the themes they design to discuss, and in particular by humble dependence on that Spirit who instructed Elihu, labour to arrive at the veritable truth of God, and to have as complete an understanding thereof as possible, that so, in all their utterances, they may be able to say, like Christ, "We speak that we do know"; (Joh_3:11) like David, "I believed: therefore have I spoken"; (Psa_116:10) and like St Paul, "We also believe, and therefore speak". (2Co_4:13)
II THE PREACHER ANNOUNCES HIS THEME.
1. The character of the Divine Being. Introduced by a "Behold!" to mark its worthiness of Job"s attention and admiration.
(1) Mighty. Meaning exalted in station, lofty in rank or quality of being, and resistless in power a point frequently descanted on by Job himself, (e.g. Job_9:4 Job_12:13) as well as by the friends.
(2) Condescending. Despising not any, acting not scornfully, as Job insinuated God did in turning a deaf ear to his entreaties, and regarding his misery without concern. (Job_10:3 Job_19:7 Job_23:13) But the Supreme Governor of the universe, according to Elihu, is too exalted a Being to act unjustly, or even unkindly, towards any, even the meanest, of his creatures. On the contrary, his very greatness is the best guarantee for his absolute impartiality and condescending kindness. That God despises nothing he has made, neither man nor beast, but watches with loving care over the least as well as the greatest of his works, was asserted by Christ, (Mat_10:29) and experienced by David, (Psa_40:17) and may be confirmed by a reference to nature itself, in which the smallest objects (e.g. flowers and insects) have lavished on them the largest amount of skill in their construction, decoration, and preservation. This combination of strength and beauty, of power and gentleness, of dignity and condescension, which Elihu proclaims to be characteristic of God, was eminently exemplified in Christ, and lies at the foundation of all moral greatness into an.
(3) Wise. "Mighty in strength of heart" (ver. 5), the Divine Being can penetrate through all disguises, discovering right and wrong everywhere, at all times, and altogether. Besides being of infinite power and of great kindness, he is also of omniscient understanding.
2. The character of the Divine administration.
(1) Punitive, or destructive towards the ungodly: "He preserveth not the life of the wicked the doctrine of the friends, (Job_5:2 Job_8:12, 13 11:20) but here advanced with greater fairness of statement (vide infra); and
(2) gracious, or preservative towards the pious: "He giveth right to the poor," or afflicted, i.e. he allotteth to them what is just, what is in moral and spiritual harmony with their condition, viz. deliverance and salvation also a tenet of the friends, (Job_5:17-27 Job_8:5-7 Job_11:13-19) though here again set forth with more precision and moderation than by them.
III THE PREACHER DEVELOPS HIS ARGUMENT.
1. The Divine treatment of the righteous.
(1) Watching over them while doing right. "He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous a frequently stated doctrine of Scripture; (2Ch_16:9 Psa_1:6 Psa_34:15 Pro_10:3 Isa_26:7 Isa_27:3) illustrated by the cases of Noah, (Gen_7:1) the Israelites, (Exo_3:7) David, (Psa_139:1) and even Job himself; (Job_23:10) and here declared to be of universal application, whether the objects of his observation are kings on the throne, like David, Solomon, Hezekiah, and Josiah, or prisoners in affliction, like Joseph in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, or St. Paul in Philippi.
(2) Rewarding them for their piety, "With kings are they i.e. the righteous on the throne; yea, he doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted" Sooner or later, the righteous are advanced to a state of regal prosperity; sometimes literally, as with Joseph, David, Daniel; but always spiritually, like the chosen people, who were made "a kingdom of priests", (Exo_19:6) and like Christians, who are constituted "kings and priests unto God" (Rev_1:6 Rev_5:10 1Pe_2:9) and appointed to reign for over and ever.
(3) Instructing them when afflicted. Assuming that the cords and fetters which hold them have been imposed as an act of mercy by God, (Job_5:17 Psa_94:12 Pro_3:11 Rev_3:12) Elihu directs attention to a richer benefaction than the affliction, viz. the special education they receive from God during its continuance an education in its character
(a) gracious, being imparted by God, chiefly through his Word and Spirit;
(b) convincing, unfolding to them the sin of which they have been guilty;
(c) humbling, pointing out the foolish pride and vainglory from which it has proceeded;
(d) admonitory, warning them of the danger in which they continue while impenitent;
(e) authoritative, enabling their awakened consciences to feel the urgent duty of departing from evil; and
(f) efficacious, leading m the case of every genuine child of God to a hearty return to God s ways.
(g) Restoring them when penitent. Defining that submission they accord to God as a hearing and serving (the essential ingredients of all true contrition), Elihu depicts them as finishing their days in the midst of "good," i.e. of every sort of pure enjoyment, and their years in the midst of pleasures, or things of loveliness and true delight.
2. The Divine treatment of the unrighteous. One principal aim of affliction is to sift the unrighteous from the righteous. As the latter are distinguished by their penitential return to God, so the former are recognized by opposite characteristics, neither hearing God"s voice (ver. 12; cf. Joh_18:37) nor submitting to God"s hand, but cherishing wrath and indignation against God"s justice in afflicting them (ver. 13), nor praying for God"s help (ver. 13) when he has bound them, but either enduring in sullen silence or howling in impatient anguish. Accordingly, God leaves them to their richly merited and naturally evolved doom, of dying
(1) suddenly: "They shall pass away by the sword," the allusion being not so much to the violent manner of their departure, as to its being the result of a judicial visitation;
(2) hopelessly: "They shall die without knowledge having attained to wisdom", (Job_4:21) having missed the true end of their existence, having failed to reach that knowledge of God in which alone lies salvation, (Joh_17:2) like the Gentiles of whom Paul writes, "Having no hope, and without God in the world"; (Eph_2:12)
(3) prematurely: "They literally "their souls, die in youth" (ver. 14), being cut down while as yet they are only standing on the threshold of life, their sun going down while it is yet noon, (Amo_8:9) like Ahaziah, (2Ki_8:26) Alexander the Great, and others;
(4) filthily: "Their life is among the unclean" i.e. having spent their days in sensuality and prematurely enervating incontinence, like the sodomites (margin), like the consecrated men who practised nameless lewdness in heathen temples, (1Ki_14:24 1Ki_15:12 1Ki_22:47) like those whom St. Paul describes as "dishonouring their own bodies between themselves", (Rom_1:24-27) they were permitted to die as they had lived, and to find a grave in the moral filthiness in which they had wallowed, thus "receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.
IV THE PREACHER APPLIES HIS DISCOURSE. Generally, to the whole body of the righteous (ver. 15), but more particularly to Job, by setting forth:
1. the blessing he had missed. If instead of murmuring and repining under God"s chastisements, he had yielded penitential submission, God would ere now have interposed for his deliverance, and rescued him from the mouth of distress, inciting him forward till he had reached a broad place where, literally, whose "beneath" (ground) would have been no straitness, and where the letting down of his table, i.e. the food set thereon, should have been full of fatness (ver. 16). So God engages to do for all who humbly trust his grace and power
(1) to deliver them in time of trouble, (2Ki_20:6 Psa_34:19 Psa_41:1 Psa_91:14 Psa_97:10) as he snatched David from the jaws of the lion and the bear; (1Sa_17:37 Psa_18:16, Psa_18:17)
(2) to establish them in ease and comfort, setting them down in large places, as he did David (Psa_18:19) and a later Hebrew bard, (Psa_118:5) as he did with Israel when he brought her out of Egypt first into the wilderness and then into Canaan, (Exo_3:8 Jud_1:18:10) and as he does with believers when he frees them from condemnation and introduces them into the liberty of the children of God; and
(3) to provide for them a table in the wilderness, as again he did for Israel (Psa_78:19) and for David, (Psa_23:5) as he has done for all the world in the gospel, (Isa_25:6 Mat_22:1) and for Christ"s people in the Holy Supper. (1Co_10:21 1Co_11:20)
1. The sin he had committed. Job had "fulfilled the judgment of the wicked" (ver. 17); i.e. like the wicked, he had pronounced a judicial sentence upon God and his dealings. Instead of humbly acquiescing in the Divine dispensations, he had, according to another rendering of the previous verse, suffered himself to be seduced from listening to the voice of affliction by his boundless prosperity and by the ease of his table, which was full of fatness (Ewald, Dillmann, Canon Cook), so that he had filled up the measure of his iniquity like a common evil-doer. It reveals a terrible declension on the part of a good man when he can behave no better under God"s chastisements, and think no better of God because of them than an ordinary sinner. Yet good men, if left to themselves, may come to this. Therefore let us not be high-minded, but fear.
2. The danger he had incurred. In consequence of Job"s insensate obstinacy and impenitent censoriousness towards God, "justice and judgment had taken hold on him;" he was now really undergoing such punishments as were due to wicked men from the even hand of justice. If good men by their ill behaviour place them. selves amongst the wicked, it need not surprise them if God should beat them, i.e. judge and punish them, as the wicked. Such judging as Job had been guilty of bordered close upon, and was commonly followed hard by, the judgment of God. The only judging that a good man can with safety perform is upon himself. (1Co_11:31, 1Co_11:32)
3. The admonitions he required.
(1) Against declining into infidel scoffing. "Because there is anger sc. in thy heart, let it not entice thee to scorning" (ver. 18). Of this he had indeed been accused by Zophar, (Job_11:3) and not entirely acquitted by Elihu, (Job_34:37) who now, however, solemnly advertises him that that would be the certain issue of it if he yielded to his passionate feelings against God. The scorner"s chair is the common terminus of such as begin by walking in the way of the ungodly.
(2) Against undervaluing the Divine wrath. "Because there is wrath" (sc. with God), beware "lest he take thee away with a stroke." "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil". (Ecc_8:11) But the wicked man has no guarantee that, the Divine indignation against sin may not flame forth suddenly against him, as it did against Cain, the antediluvians, the cities of the plain, Pharaoh, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Haman, Herod, and others.
(3) Against trusting to any self-provided ransom or atonement. "Then a great ransom cannot deliver thee" (ver. 18). Neither wealth (ver. 19) nor suffering (ver. 18) can avert the Divine wrath. Only one Ransom has sufficient merit to turn aside the sword of judgment.
(4) Against thinking that either wealth or any personal efforts can secure salvation. "Shall thy riches place thee beyond distress, and all the efforts of thy strength?" (ver. 19). No; nothing will except repentance and faith.
(5) Against longing for a speedy death. "Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place" (ver. 20). of this verse, of which a commentator (Schultens) gives fifteen different explanations, the sense clearly is that Job had better be careful of foolishly indulging in any such wish as that God should cut him off, (Job_6:9 Job_7:15) since God might take him at his word and remove him from his place below, i.e. from the earth (Delitzsch), or to a place below (Carey). Death removed whole peoples, and would have no difficulty in removing him. And Job might find his expectation disappointed. Instead of going up to an ameliorated condition, he might rather at death descend into a worse (Umbreit). No man that knows what death is will desire it sooner than God is pleased to send it.
(6) Against preferring wickedness to misery. "Take heed, regard not iniquity; for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction" (ver. 21). That is, rather than endure with meekness God"s chastening hand, Job had sinfully desired to die, independently altogether of whether or not it was God"s will. A common temptation to saints no less than to ordinary men, to choose sin rather than suffering. To elect to die rather than sin is the triumph of grace.
Learn:
1. The true dignity of a gospel minister as one who speaks for God and Christ.
2. The special business of a gospel minister, viz. to vindicate the ways of God with man.
3. The binding duty of a gospel minister, to give himself to reading and meditation.
4. The lofty aim of the gospel minister, always to speak from personal conviction.
5. The supreme glory of the Godhead, as combining infinite justice and infinite mercy, infinite greatness and infinite condescension.
6. The extreme anxiety God manifests to bring men to repentance and salvation.
7. The undoubted certainty that the impenitent and unrighteous will ultimately perish.
8. The absolute impossibility of salvation for those who despise the divinely provided ransom.
9. The great danger of indulging in wrath against either God or his dispensations.
10. The deep delusion of those who imagine death to be a blessing to any but God"s people.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Ver. Ps 8) still more must he delight in the conscious spontaneous offerings of man"s matured thought at his shrine, The great works of Christian theologians and apologists, such as Calvin"s "Institutes" or Butler"s "Analogy," are the tributes of reason to the honour of God. But they are valueless unless they have that quality which Elihu so emphatically claims, sincerity, truth. He who ventures to speak for God must speak, not with the purpose of temporary expediency, but out of the consciousness of eternity.
II THE JUSTICE OF GOD REVEALED IN THE HISTORY OF MAN. (Vers. 5-21) The course of life, argues the speaker, shows that a chastening, a purifying, but at the same time a loving, Power is at work in the world. This is supported:
1. By a general view of human life. (Vers. 6-15) God is revealed in the different courses of men"s lives as Power, but not as arbitrary Power. His greatness is not associated with contempt for the lowliness of man. It is not reckless of right and wrong. It upholds the moral order the godless sink unsupported into the ruin their own conduct has prepared for them; while those who suffer from the injustice of others are succoured and defended. God"s watchful eye is upon all just men, from the king whose throne he establishes, whose dignity he guards, to the captive in his chains, to the beggar in his misery. This, as we have so often seen, is the firm foundation-truth which runs beneath the whole of this book, and through the whole of the Bible. And the seeming exceptions to these principles of the Divine administration are now explained as merely seeming; for they come under the principle of chastisement, which is but another illustration of love. According to this view never more feelingly set forth than here-suffering may be, not the brand of guilt, but the silent token of love in the form of discipline. Without positive guilt there may be moral stagnation, in which the germs of future evil are discovered by the eye of the Divine Educator. Evil is forming in tendency or thought when it has not blossomed into deeds. Then comes the visit of God in suffering to warn, to hint of danger, to "open the ear" to instructions that were thought unnecessary in the days of perfect peace and self-complacency. And if the mind yields to this gracious leading, and bends itself to docility to this new revelation of the holy will, all shall yet be well. The season of depression and disaster will be passed through, and the sheep who have heard the Shepherd"s voice will find themselves led once more into the green pastures of content (vers. 6-11). But the God who is revealed to us in this tender and gracious aspect in the course el experience, under the condition of obedience, becomes clothed in sternness and severity to those who resist. Those who venture to war with law, to rebel against omnipotence and justice, can but meet an unhappy doom. In wondrous ways, unknown to man, God is able to bring men to their destined goal (vers. 12-14). The great lesson, then, is to betake one"s self to self-examination (the opening of the ear) and to prayer when the visitants of God"s chastening love are knocking at the door of our heart. The lesson is expressed by pointing to the sad examples of unsubmissive, prayerless lives! These, like spots where the dew falls not, cannot thrive. Hearts, like bare rocks, that will not melt in the sun, callous, impenitent, heedless, perish for want of knowledge, of faith, of God; but those whose whole nature has been broken up and laid open by suffering are prepared to receive the seed of eternal wisdom which the Divine Husbandman seeks in such times to implant (ver. 15).
2. By reference to Job"s vicissitudes. (Vers. 16-21) In these verses, which are so obscure in meaning in our version, a deduction is made from the foregoing principles in reference to the case of Job. In ver. 16 the verb should be taken in the present, "God"s leading," or "is for leading" him out of his present straitened and distressed condition; but what if the conditions of submission, penitence, and docility are wanting in Job? Assuming that there is this want, solemn warnings are given that he cannot, if in a state of sin, escape the judgment of God; that if he allows the fire of suffering to madden him into impiety instead of purifying his spirit, he will find himself in an evil plight, for no cries nor efforts can avail to extricate him from the fangs of doom. Let not Job, then, says the speaker (ver. 20), perhaps pointing to the dark warning of the sky, long after the night (of judgment); for whole peoples pass away in that terrible darkness when the wrath of God is outpoured! And to conclude the warnings, let Job beware of the turning of the heart to vanity the natural thoughtlessness of mankind in presence of the judgments of God. The application is unfair as regards Job; still, we are reminded indirectly that it is not sufficient to hold a true theory of God"s moral government in general, without applying it to the facts of our own lives. Men may harshly apply great principles to our character and condition in the world; this cannot absolve us from the duty of applying them truly and honestly for ourselves.
III THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD REVEALED IN NATURE. (Ver. 22-37:24)
1. The wisdom and power of God as seen in nature"s wonders. (Ver. 22-37:13) Introduction. (Vers. 22-25) The sublime power of God fills every observer of Nature with awe. Who is a Ruler as he? Who can improve upon Nature? She is the great mechanist, artist, designer, executor. Man may produce new varieties of plants and, to some extent, of animals by the exercise of intelligence, but "o"er that art which men call nature is another art which nature makes." Art is the highest effort of human nature; and what nature can he honour who honours not the human? If, then, you have a quarrel with God, what is this but to dispute the beauty and the good of things, which all men delight to celebrate, on which no eyes are weary of looking with wonder?
2. Look, then, at the grandeur of the phenomena of nature the rain the clouds" the storms. (Ver. 26-37:5) Read the words of the description, compare them with your own feelings. In the very vagueness and vastness of nature there is a power to impress the imagination. This array of beauty and of grandeur is not only far beyond, but totally unlike, anything that man can conceive or accomplish. No words can better set forth these profound and unutterable impressions than the words of great poets, "thrown out" as it were at a distant, illimitable object which cannot be defined. "God thunders with his voice wondrously, doth great things that we understand not:" this is the sum of all. The indefinite grandeur of images and sounds, which is so impressive in the highest poetry, represents the inarticulate but overwhelming voice of nature which tells of the Being and the goodness of God. Again, these effects point to causes; and the regularity of effects to the regularity of causes; and the whole series of effects and causes resolves itself into the conception of law, high, unerring, unbroken. Even with a very imperfect knowledge of the structure of the cosmos, there is some dim perception of these truths: how much more should consummate science impress them upon the spirit! Every phenomenon that strikes with awe the senses, or that gently excites the wonder and curiosity of the mind, hints at an Intelligence which is ever at work. The snow, the rain-torrents, which give pause to the labours of man, and compel his gaze to the sky; the crouching of the wild beast in his lair before the fury of the storm; the rushing forth of the blasts as from some hidden repository (as the Greeks fabled, the cave of Aeelus); the congelation of the waters; the clouds discharging their weight of moisture or flashing forth their lightnings; all speak of superhuman power, ill-controlling and still guiding the march of nature by a principle of right; now scourging men"s folly, and now rewarding and blessing their obedience. In the fearful and beautiful scenes of the storm and of winter we indeed no longer see signs of the personal displeasure of God. We explain them by the "laws of nature." But none the less do these phenomena tell of the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of God, and hint to us the duty and the need of prayer to him who gave to Nature her laws.
3. Inferences; exhortations. (Job_37:14-24) If this be the view Nature gives us of her God and of our Creator, instead of murmuring at him or disputing his dealings, let Job and all sufferers draw the true conclusions amidst the dark enigmas of their lives. Let the preceding impressions be laid well to heart, and in quiet contemplation let the mystery of the Divine operations be reviewed. Can man explain the secrets of nature? If not, why should he expect to explain fully that which is a part of the same system, under the same rule, controlled by the same God, namely, his own life and its mingled web of weal and woe (ver. 14, sqq.)? "We have but faith; we cannot know." "If man is not called by God to his side in other matters of his daily doing, to be as a judge and counsellor, and this can be expected by none, and none presumes to murmur against that order, it is right that man should not demand that the method of God"s government should be shown him in this world, but that he should acquiesce in it, whether he understands it or no; that he should believe his Word, and await his good in patience" (Cocceius).
CONCLUSION: find now the speaker pointing to the rising storm which has been gathering during his discourse, brings his words, in solemn iteration and summing-up, to a close (vers. 21-24). The aspect of yonder heaven is a symbol of Job"s position in relation to God. The light that flashes in its wonted splendour behind the clouds is not seen just now, but a wind rises and sweeps those clouds away; and so the God who is concealed for a time, and of whom we are in danger of entertaining wrong thoughts, may suddenly, to our surprise and shame, discover himself. Let us, then, humble ourselves in presence of the destiny that just now is full of darkness. From the gloom as of midnight there bursts forth the gleam as of gold brilliant token of the sublime power of Jehovah. And God remains inaccessible to sense, to knowledge, dwelling in the unapproachable light. But, amidst all the terror and the mystery, the voice of conscience, the moral sense in man, tells him that, though God be incomprehensible, this much concerning him may be known he is no Perverter of right and justice; he is the infallibly good and wise, just and holy One. This faith is the foundation of reverence, of piety; and as for the "self-wise," the men wise in their own conceits, God holds them in no regard. (On the dazzling light, the symbol of the majesty of God, compare the hymn of Binney, "Eternal Light! Eternal Light!") 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 Elihu also proceeded and said.
Job_36:1-4
Elihu also proceeded and said.
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The portrait of a true preacher
I. The side he has to take. I have yet to speak on Gods behalf. Sin is a controversy with God. The true preacher has to take the side of God in the discussion.
1. He has to defend the procedure of God. He has to justify the ways of heaven.
2. He has to vindicate the character of God. The true preacher has to clear his Maker of all ungodly accusations.
3. He has to enforce the claims of God. His claims to their supreme love and constant obedience.
4. He has to offer the redemption of God. To show forth the wonderful mercy of God in Christ Jesus.
II. The knowledge he has to communicate. I will fetch my knowledge from afar. Literally, the true preacher has to fetch his knowledge from afar.
1. From afar in relation to the intuitions of men. The facts of the Gospel lie far away from the inbred sentiments of the human soul.
2. From afar in relation to the philosophical deductions of men. Human reason could never discover the essential truths of the Gospel.
3. From afar in relation to the natural spirit of men.
III. The purpose he has to maintain. I will ascribe righteousness unto my Maker. Elihus purpose seemed to be, to demonstrate to Job that God was righteous in all His ways, and worthy of his confidence. With this conviction he will show--
1. That no suffering falls on any creature more than he deserves.
2. That no work is demanded of any creature more than he can render.
IV. The faithfulness he has to exhibit. Truly my words shall not be false: He that is perfect in knowledge is with thee. (Homilist.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain No reply being made to Elihu’s preceding address, he…
ELIHU’S FOURTH SPEECH
No reply being made to Elihu’s preceding address, he resumes. Job_36:1.—“Elihu also proceded and said”. His object to bring Job to a more becoming state of mind in reference to God’s dealings with him. Aims, like Job’s three friends, at showing that God is not to be charged with injustice by any of his creatures.
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I. His introduction (Job_36:2-4).
1. Bespeaks Job’s farther patience and attention. Job_36:2.—“Suffer (wait for, or bear with) me a little, and I will show thee that I have yet to speak in God’s behalf” (or, “that there are yet arguments for God”). Elihu makes good his own statement: “I am full of matter”. “The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters; and the well-spring of wisdom as a flowing brook”. “Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out” (Pro_18:4; Pro_20:5). The promise to believers in New Testament times: “Out of them shall flow rivers of living water” (Joh_7:37). On the day of Pentecost, believers, filled with the Holy Ghost, spake with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance (Act_2:4). Observe—
(1) Patient attention to spiritual teaching not always easy to the flesh.
(2) Wise in a public teacher to draw as little as possible on the patience of his hearers. Brevity, as far as consistent with faithfulness to the truth and the hearer’s interests, to be constantly aimed at. The matter spoken to be carefully arranged, and the words employed to be few and well chosen. Prolixity, digression, and repetition to be avoided.
(3) Elihu’s wisdom in making breaks in his discourse, and in pausing at times for a reply. His speeches four or five instead of one.
(4) Well to be ready to speak for God, in the presence either of friends or foes. Elihu’s task to speak as an advocate for God against Job, who had appeared to take the place of an accuser. The part of wisdom to know how to speak for God, and to give a suitable answer to men’s cavils and complaints.
2. Promises a thorough and satisfactory treatment of the subject in hand. Job_36:3.—“I will fetch my knowledge from afar” (from the widely-extended departments of God’s works; from principles long and everywhere acknowledged; from deep thought and mature consideration). Elihu’s knowledge like Solomon’s “deep waters”. Preachers to ponder and study well the subjects on which they are to speak. Dr. Guthrie commenced his preparations for the Sabbath on the preceding Monday, and thus kept his discourses ‘simmering’ in his mind all the week. Sermons to carry evidence of close thought and thorough acquaintance with the subjects treated. To be confirmed by solid arguments and commended by apt illustrations.—The subject and aim of Elihu’s discourse: “I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker”. His subject—the justice of God’s dealings in Providence; his aim—to exhibit and defend that justice. His arguments for God especially in relation to His righteousness as the Governor of the Universe. Job had apparently questioned that righteousness (ch. Job_27:2; Job_34:5-12). Wise in preachers to have a distinct subject and a clear aim in their discourses.
3. Assures Job of the sincerity as well as correctness of his sentiments. Job_36:4.—“For truly my words shall not be false (either subjectively, as spoken against my conscience to serve some by end or selfish purpose—a sin of which Job had accused his three friends; nor objectively, as being untrue in themselves in relation to the subject treated, as if vindicating God’s ways by unsound arguments). He that is perfect in knowledge (or, one sincere in his opinions and mature in his knowledge of the subject in hand—no novice or tyro, albeit young in years) is with thee”. Observe—
(1) A religious teacher to be true both in himself and in his teaching. Truth to be spoken, and to be spoken as truth, and not as fiction. The speaker to be true both in the manner and matter of his discourse. The truth to be spoken in truthfulness. What we speak to be truth, and to be believed and accepted by ourselves as such. “We speak,” said the Model Teacher, “what we do know, and testify what we have seen”.
(2) A preacher to be sound in his knowledge and in the use he makes of it. Timothy exhorted to “study to show himself a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth;” Titus, to use “sound speech that cannot be condemned” (2Ti_2:15; Tit_2:8). The means of attaining this: “Give attendance to reading; meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine” (1Ti_4:13; 1Ti_4:15-16). Teachers of others to be not babes but men of full age in understanding, whatever they may be in years (Heb_5:12-14). The Scriptures given “that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work” (2Ti_3:17).
III. Elihu’s defence of God (Job_36:5-15). “Behold,” &c. What is about to be spoken is—
(1) Worthy of all attention;
(2) Patent to everyone, and not for a moment to be questioned. Elihu grounds his defence—
1. On God’s attributes. Job_36:5.—“God is mighty, and despiseth not any; he is mighty in strength and wisdom.” Adduces—
(1) His power. “God is mighty.” Omnipotent and able to accomplish all His pleasure throughout the universe. Hence under no temptation to be unrighteous. Injustice allied to weakness. The mighty scorn to be unjust.
(2) His kindness. “He despiseth not any.” In opposition to Job’s insinuation (chap. Job_10:3; Job_19:7; Job_23:13). Though mighty, He scorns not the meanest. Though high, He hath respect to the lowly. Slights no creature’s cause or interests. The contrast of earth’s mighty ones. No creature too minute or insignificant in God’s eyes for His care and attention. A sparrow not forgotten before Him. His power no impediment to His providence. His greatness enables Him to pay attention to the tiniest insect as well as to the mightiest angel. To Omnipotence and Omniscience an atom an object of attention as well as a sun. God the universal Parent. All creatures, great and small, His own. All created by Him and for Him. All dependent on Him for life and all things. The universe a proof that He is mighty, yet “despiseth not any.” The animalcule, invisible to the naked eye, a testimony to His condescension and care, as well as to His power and wisdom. The animating reflection of Mungo Park from the appearance of a small moss in the solitary African desert: “Can that Being, thought I, who planted, watered, and brought to perfection in this obscure part of the world, a thing which appears of so small importance, look with unconcern upon the situation and sufferings of creatures formed after His own image? Surely not.” The attribute in the text appropriated by Jesus in reference to sinners applying to Him for salvation. “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise east out” (Joh_6:37). His own incarnation and death on man’s behalf the most illustrious confirmation of the text (Psa_8:4; Heb_2:6, &c.).
(3) His wisdom. “He is mighty in strength and wisdom” (Heb., “in strength of heart,” perhaps including generosity and kindness, as parallel to the preceding clause). God’s omniscience as real as His omnipotence. His wisdom equal to His power. In God infinite power directed by infinite wisdom and employed by infinite goodness. Scripture reveals God’s heart as well as His arm. Hence God a Father and a Friend, instead of a tyrant and a terror to His creatures. The object of love and trust as well as of reverence and fear. The tiniest creature the monument of His skill. All nature a testimony to His heart as well as to His hand.
2. On God’s dealings in Providence (Job_36:6). His dealings—
(1) In respect to the ungodly. “He preserveth not the life of the wicked,” i.e., always. Suffers, or causes them, if continuing wicked, sooner or later, to perish. Usually, however, not till after long patience. Examples:—Pharaoh; Sodom and Gomorrha; the antediluvian world. The ungodly preserved for a time by God—(i.) For His own purposes (Rom_9:17.); (ii). To afford space for repentance (Rom_2:4; 2Pe_3:9-15).
(2) In respect to the poor: “But giveth right to the poor,”—the oppressed and afflicted; not without respect to their spirit as well as their circumstances. Maintains their cause against oppressors, and sooner or later, in one way or other, delivers them. Example: Israelites in Egypt. Same truth in similar language (Psa_140:12, and elsewhere in the Psalms). Applied by Jesus to His suffering Church (Luk_18:8). Maintained by Elihu against Job’s complaints and frequent appearances. Might often suffered to take the place of right. Yet “there is a God that judgeth in the earth.” The language of Elihu both a rebuke and an encouragement to Job. If poor, he should sooner or later have right given him, notwithstanding his complaint (chap. Job_27:2). Observe—God’s people “poor” in this world, both in respect to their spirit and their position. Their posture one of patience and hope. Their cause, however, maintained by God. “A righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven” (2Th_1:6-7). Then, if not sooner, right given to the poor.
(3) In respect to the righteous. First, in exercising continual care over them. Job_36:7.—“He with draweth not His eyes from the righteous,” however they may seem at times to be overlooked and forsaken by Him. The case of Noah already a well-known example. Joseph in Egypt an example of a later period. Righteous Abel died indeed by his brother’s hand, but his blood not forgotten by Jehovah (Gen_4:10). The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous (Psa_34:15). The comfort of God’s people in all circumstances. At times almost forgotten and questioned by the afflicted and tempted patriarch. “Thou God seest me,” a well of refreshment for tried believers.—Second; in exalting them. “But with kings are they on the throne; yea, he doth establish them (or, “yea, kings on the throne, He doth even make them sit”) for ever, and they are exalted”. Even on earth the righteous often exalted, out of great affliction, to dignity and honour. Joseph and David examples. So far from neglecting the godly, God sooner or later exalts them,—sometimes to an earthly throne, always to a heavenly one (1Sa_2:3; Psa_113:8). “Out of prison he cometh to reign” (Ecc_4:14). Every believer made a king as well as a priest (1Pe_2:9; Rev_1:6; Rev_5:10). Their kingdom an everlasting one (Dan_7:18). God’s providence and care extended over godly rulers. His eyes not withdrawn from kings on the throne. Earthly rulers from God Himself. “He putteth down one and setteth up another”. “By Me kings reign” (Pro_8:15-16; Rom_13:1; Psa_75:7). Human rule an evidence and consequence of the Divine. Perhaps a direct allusion in the text to Job himself.—Third; In correcting them. Job_36:8-12—“And if they be bound in fetters, and be holden in cords of affliction, then He sheweth them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded (or, ‘wherein they have acted proudly’). He openeth also their ear to discipline (or, ‘correction’—so as to hear the lesson which that discipline is intended to teach them), and commandeth that they return from iniquity. If they obey [the voice of the rod] and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasures (or ‘delights’). But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword [of Divine judgment]. They shall die without knowledge” (in their folly, or “before they are aware,” i.e., suddenly). Observe from the whole passage, in regard to
Divine Chastisements,
1. Even the righteous may require correction. True both in Old and New Testament times (1Co_11:30; Rev_3:19). In Elihu’s judgment, Job’s case at present. Though the godly may not live in sin, they may fall into it, and for a time continue in it. Examples: Noah; Abraham; David; Peter. Every sin has its root in a believer’s heart. “Foolishness bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction driveth it out” (Pro_22:15).
2. The righteous not left to remain in their sin. Correction employed to raise them out of it (Pro_22:15). “As many as I love I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore and repent” (Rev_3:12). “For this cause (viz., sin in reference to the Lord’s Supper) many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep”—are dead (1Co_11:30). “When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” (Job_36:32). In Elihu’s view, Job not proved to be a wicked man by his suffering, but a righteous one who has sinned, and whom God in His love is chastening.
3. The object of chastisement to bring sin to our remembrance in order to repentance. “He sheweth them their work and their transgressions”. God’s rod a speaking one (Mic_6:9). “Art thou come to call my sin to remembrance?”—the question of the widow of Zarephath to Elijah on the death of her son.
4. Chastening, when improved, followed by a life of enjoyment God’s rod, like Jonathan’s, brings honey on the point of it. A rich blessing attendant on sanctified affliction (Psa_94:10). Believers allured into the wilderness, that the Lord “may speak comfortably” to them (Heb., “to their heart”). Their vineyards given them from thence, and the valley of Achor made a door of hope (Hos_2:14-15).
5. Chastisements, not improved, followed by still severer ones. “If they obey not, they shall perish by the sword”. Divine chastening neither to be despised nor fainted under (Heb_12:5).
III. Elihu administers reproof to Job (Job_36:13-17).
1. By adducing the case of the ungodly. Job_36:13.—“But the hypocrite (or ungodly) in heart (whatever they may appear in their outward life or in the eyes of their fellow-men,) heap up wrath (increasing the Divine displeasure against them by their continuance in sin, and their impenitent stubborness under affliction—another solemn word for Job); they cry not (to God, as sinners for pardoning mercy) when He bindeth them (with the cords of affliction). They die in youth (that is, prematurely), and their life is (or ‘becomes extinct’) among the unclean” (Margin, “Sodomites,”—persons who by prostituting their bodies abridge their lives; with possible allusion to the men of Sodom, or more likely, to those who prostituted themselves in heathen temples in the service of their abomiuable deities). Observe—
(1) A fearful case when a man is “a hypocrite in heart.” Christ’s most solemn woes pronounced on hypocrites. Sad to be an open sinner; still more to be a secret one. Necessary to look to our outward life; still more to look to our heart (Psa_139:23-24).
(2) The wrath of God the reward of sin, whether open or secret. God angry with the wicked every day (Psa_7:11). The wrath of God revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (Rom_1:18).
(3) That wrath capable of being removed by repentance and faith, or increased by impenitennce and unbelief. “He that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him” (Joh_3:36). Wrath treasured up to themselves by the impenitent against the day of wrath (Rom_2:5).
(4) The mark of a hard and impenitent heart when prayer is not made to God in affliction.
(5) Sin the cause of an unhappy life, and often of a premature death (Psa_55:23; 1Co_11:30).
(6) Awful to live among sinners; still more awful to die among them.
2. By showing God’s conduct towards the humble and afflicted. Job_36:15.—“He delivereth the poor in His affliction, and openeth their ears in oppression,” to receive instruction. A reminder to Job of what had been his duty and what might have been his experience. Observe—
(1) Affliction of various kinds, whether from men or otherwise, allowed by God for wise purposes.
(2) One of these purposes is to receive instruction. Divine chastening connected with Divine teaching (Psa_94:10). “Hear ye the rod” (Mic_6:2).
(3) Accepted chastisement usually followed by imparted deliverance (Lev_26:41-42). Deliverance may be either—(i.) By removing the affliction; (ii.) By removing the afflicted to a better world; or (iii.) By filling his soul with comfort and raising him above his affliction.
3. By applying the whole to Job’s own case. Job_36:16-17.—“Even so would He have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place where there is no straitness (or, ‘out of the wide mouth of distress which has no bottom’); and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness. But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked (approving their way, imitating their example, and incurring their punishment): judgment and justice take hold on thee” (or, “will hold their place,”—causing thee still to suffer in consequence of thy rebellious speeches, instead of being delivered, as thou wouldst have been, hadst thou meekly submitted to the Divine chastening and justified God in thy affliction.) Job’s sin, in Elihu’s judgment, that like Israel, instead of meekly accepting the Divine chastisement, he chafed and kicked against it “like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke” (Jer_31:18). Observe—
(1) The way to have chastisement removed is weekly and patiently to submit to it, and to seek its improvement (Lam_3:25-32; Lam_3:39-41; Mic_7:9).
(2) An easy thing with God to remove us out of the deepest distress and to bring us into enlargement and comfort. The experience of the Israelites a common one with God’s children (Psa_66:10-12).
(3) A well-supplied table a gift of God’s providence to His obedient children. God able to give richly all things to enjoy. Promises that our bread shall be given us, and our water shall be sure. Teaches his children both how to abound and how to suffer need. Prepares a table for them in the presence of their enemies, and makes their cup to run over (Psa_23:5).
(4) If God’s people sin with the ungodly, they must expect to suffer with them. God’s dealings characterized by “judgment and justice,” as well with saints as with sinners. Sin shown to be abominable and malignant wherever it is found. Sons not exempt from stripes (Psa_89:32).
IV. Elihu’s warning. Job_36:18-21.—“Because (or since) there is wrath [on the part of God], beware lest He take thee away with His stroke (or chastisement): then a great ransom cannot deliver thee. Will He esteem thy riches? No, not gold, nor all the forces (or exertions) of strength”. Observe—
(1) Appearance of wrath on the part of God not necessarily wrath. Job’s afflictions not the effect of wrath. Elihu, in this respect, almost as much in the dark as Job’s three friends. Love and hatred on the part of God not known by present treatment (Ecc_9:1). Yet
(2) Suffering often an indication of displeasure. “For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him.” “In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment” (Isa_54:8; Isa_57:17).
(3) Believers and others, under chastening, to beware of further provoking God’s displeasure by obstinacy and rebellion.
(4) Chastisement, not improved, may end in death (1Co_11:30):
(5) No human power or worldly riches able to divert the Divine displeasure. All Herod’s wealth unable to save him from the worms that ate him up (Act_12:23).
(6) The language of Elihu to be taken as in general a
Warning to Sinners
1. Their DANGER. “There is wrath”. God angry with the wicked every day. The wrath of God revealed from heaven against all sin. Must exist till sin is atoned for, repented of, and forgiven. Sin draws to itself the lightning of Divine wrath. That wrath displayed in the expulsion of the angels from heaven, of man from paradise, and of the Jews from their own land. Exhibited in the destruction of the Old World by water, and of the Cities of the Plain by fire. Most of all seen in the suffering and death of the Son of God standing as the sinner’s Surety. God’s wrath must consume either the sinner himself or his substitute. The meaning of sacrifices. Christ the thunder-rod that drew down that wrath on Himself in order to draw it off from man. God’s wrath is—
(1) Righteous—the just reward of sin;
(2) Holy—infinitely removed from sinful passion;
(3) Intolerable—as the wrath of man’s Creator and Judge;
(4) Unabatable and unremovable by creature power. That wrath all the more dreadful to the impenitent and unbelieving as the “Wrath of the Lamb” (Rev_6:16).
2. Their DUTY. “Beware, lest He take thee away with His stroke”. Implies—
(1) An awaking to consciousness and consideration of one’s peril. “Stop, poor sinner, stop and think!”
(2) A halting in one’s present course. Illustrations: The prodigal at the swine-trough; the penitent thief.
(3) Earnest inquiry as to the way of deliverance. Illustrations: The converted murderers of Jesus on the day of Pentecost—Men and brethren, what must we do? Saul of Tarsus—Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? The Philippian jailer—Sirs, what must I do to be saved? No safety but in the Lord’s own way. Any other ends only in death.
(4) Immediate obedience to Divine direction. That direction—Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Behold the Lamb of God. Come unto Me and I will give you rest. No safety for a sinner but at the cross where the wrath alighted and was extinguished. Dangerous to delay in obeying the direction. Lot not to tarry in all the plain. No safety till inside of Zoar. An hour after God shut Noah and his family in the ark, too late for refuge. A step outside the City of Refuge, and the manslayer might perish. The three thousand at Pentecost gladly received the Word and were baptized. The jailer believed and was saved before daybreak. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” “To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart.”
3. Their DOOM, if neglecting it: “Then a great ransom cannot deliver thee”. No chance of deliverance after death to the unsaved sinner. A “great ransom” already provided. Nothing less than the blood of God’s own Son made flesh. Able to satisfy Divine justice for the sins of a world. Delivers every sinner who trusts in it. Delivered the thief upon the cross, Saul the persecutor, and Christ’s own murderers. A cloud of witnesses, both in heaven and on earth, to the value of the ransom. Available, however, only on this side of death. After death the judgment. An impassable gulf fixed between heaven and hell. Purgatory a priestly fiction. Rejectors of Christ’s proffer here, punished with everlasting destruction from His presence hereafter. The hand that shut Noah in the ark shut all the world out. The blood of Jesus pleads for pardon to all who trust in it,—punishment on all who trample on it (Heb_9:13-14; Heb_10:26-29). A day when even the blood of God’s Son cannot save a soul. Much less anything else. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
V. Elihu’s admonition. Job_36:20-21.—“Desire not the night (of death,—probable allusion to Job’s wish, chap. Job_7:15), when people are cut off in their place (or, go up [as chaff in a whirlwind] ‘to their place’). Take heed, regard not iniquity; for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction” (or, “meek submission;” or, “in consequence of affliction”). Job’s temptation twofold:
(1) To desire death rather than continuance in his present affliction;
(2) To sin or cast off religion in consequence of it. The latter especially Satan’s aim. Observe—
1. No sin to which a believer may not be tempted. “Scarcely a temptation except that of covetousness, which Luther did not experience”.—Spurgeon. The Head tempted to the grossest of all sins,—the worship of the devil for worldly gain and worldly glory; no marvel if the members should be so too. No attainment in grace sufficient to exempt a believer from temptation. Christ taken to the Holy City to be tempted, and there placed on a pinnacle of the temple. Temple-pinnacles, places for the most terrible temptations. The measure of grace shown not in being free from temptations, but in overcoming them. Gold, not pinchbeck, submitted to the crucible.
2. Temptations only sinful when succumbed to. Job sorely tempted to curse God, yet only blessed Him. Tempted to renounce religion, yet only clung to is the closer. Not temptation, but sinning in it, hurts the soul.
3. Common to be tempted to sin in order to escape suffering. Christ tempted to distrust God and work a miracle, to escape the pangs of hunger. Daniel tempted to abstain from prayer, to escape the lion’s den. The three captive youths tempted to worship the golden image, to escape the fiery furnace. Peter tempted to deny his Master, to escape his fate. Cranmer tempted to recant, to escape the fires of martyrdom. Believers tempted to choose sin rather than suffering, yet, through grace, prefer suffering to sinning. Peter repented of his sin, and met a martyr’s death. Cranmer recanted his recantation, and embraced the flames.
VI. Elihu directs attention to the Divine perfections (Job_36:22-23). “Behold,” &c. With a view to bring Job to submission, he exhibits—
1. The power of God. Job_36:22.—“God exalteth (i.e., men; or simply, ‘is exalted’) by His power”. God exalted in Himself, and exalts the lowly. None so reduced but Divine power can restore him. Exalted Joseph from a dungeon to the throne of Egypt. God’s power employed as well in exalting the humble as in abasing the proud.
2. His condescension. “Who teacheth like him?” (or, who is like Him as a teacher, ruler, or master?) God’s power makes Him a ruler; His condescension, a teacher of His creatures (Psa_94:10). Observe in reference to—
Divine Teaching;
1. Its excellence. As a Teacher, God is—
(1) Perfectly acquainted with the subjects which He teaches, and which we require to be taught.
(2) Understands the capacity and capabilities of the taught.
(3) Knows the best and most effectual way of teaching them.
(4) Able by His power to give effect to His instructions. Instructs with a strong hand (Isa_8:11).
(5) Has patience with the dulness of His scholars.
(6) Carries them to the highest degree of knowledge. Makes them ultimately to know even as they are known (1Co_13:12).
(7) Exalts them by His teaching to His own moral excellence. Conformity to His own image the end of His teaching. The effect of human teaching often to make men proud. Knowledge puffeth up. God’s teaching humbles while it exalts. Human teaching often leaves men depraved and immoral. Attainments in knowledge not always attainments in virtue. Divine teaching purifies the heart, while it enlightens the mind. God teaches men in order to save them.—
2. The necessity of Divine teaching. As fallen men, need Divine teaching to restore them. “Alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them” (Eph_4:18). Men need teaching that gives life as well as light. One of Christ’s offices as Redeemer, that of Prophet or Teacher. Is made “wisdom” to us as well as “righteousness,” &c.—
3. The means of Divine teaching: God teaches
(1) By His Word;
(2) By His works;
(3) By His Providential dealings;
(4) By His Spirit. His teaching connected with His chastening (Psa_94:10).—
4. The subjects of Divine teaching God teaches us to know—
(1) Ourselves, both as creatures and as sinners. The celebrated maxim: “Know thyself,” only truly learned under Divine teaching.
(2) Our duty, both to God, our neighbour, and ourselves.
(3) Our happiness—wherein it consists, and how it is secured.
(1) Virtue or holiness—its nature, excellence, and means of attainment.
(5) Sin—its nature, malignity, and consequences,
(6) Salvation, or the way of deliverance from sin and its effects.
(7) God Himself, in His being, His perfections, and the relations He sustains to mankind.
(8) Jesus Christ, in His person, His offices, and His work as our Redeemer (Joh_17:2-3).
3. His supremacy and independence. Job_36:23.—“Who hath enjoined Him His way?” (has charged Him how He is to act, and may call Him to account for His conduct). Deity admits of no superior or director. From the Creator’s tribunal no appeal to a higher court.
4. His justice and holiness. “Who can (will or dare to) say to him, Thou hast wrought iniquity?” Connected with preceding clause.
(1) There is none to charge God with a dereliction of duty.
(2) There can be no ground for such a charge. Iniquity possibly found in human rulers; none in the Supreme. The creature’s interests safe in the hands of the Creator. Iniquity in God the ruin of the universe. The blasphemous presumption supposed in the text, implied in all quarrelling with God’s providence. The sin to which Job had been chiefly tempted. The temptation to which men under severe trials are especially exposed.
VII. Job’s duty in reference to the Creator and His works. Job_36:24.—“Remember that thou magnify his work (both his actual working and the products of it), which men behold (or ‘praise’). Every man may see it; men may behold it afar off” (so glorious and conspicuous is it). Observe—
(1) Trouble apt to shut out God and His work from our thoughts. The tendency of suffering and trial to draw our attention more to ourselves than our Maker. In dwelling on our own griefs, we are apt to forget His glory.
(2) Our duty, as intelligent creatures, to observe and magnify God’s work. God’s works made to be remembered (Psa_111:4).
(3) Man’s distinction, as a creature, that he is capable of admiring and praising God’s work. Other creatures only capable of rendering unconscious praise. The lower animals made to rejoice in the effects of God’s work; man to praise and magnify the work itself. Man alone of terrestrial creatures capable of perceiving the wisdom, power, and goodness in the Creator’s work. Hence (i) his greater capacity for happiness; (ii) his responsibility.
(4) God’s work such as to demand the praise and admiration of intelligent creatures. His work honourable and glorious (Psa_111:3). His works the reflection of Himself and the exponents of His perfections. The heavens declare His glory. All His works praise Him. Infinite wisdom, power, and goodness impressed on the work of His hands. His attributes displayed as well in His work of Providence as of creation.
(5) God’s work admired and praised by men, especially the good, in all ages. “The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein” (Psa_111:2). Some of the earliest poetry hymns in praise of God’s work.
(6) God’s work everywhere visible and conspicuous. “Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off”. God never without a witness to Himself from His works, giving rain from heaven and fruitful seasons (Act_14:17). His work threefold—
1. Creation. In creation, God calls into existence and gives shape and character to what thus exists. Creation itself a fact of reason and revelation. Everything must have a cause, and marks of design prove a designer. The process of creation briefly indicated in the beginning of the Book of Genesis. The Scriptures “by far the most ancient and the only thoroughly trustworthy record” of the work of creation. Other accounts preserved in various heathen countries, doubtless, in their origin related to the Hebrew one. Nearly all commence, like that of Genesis, with a primitive chaos of matter, empty and dark, on which the Creator acted. Science able to say nothing as to the one first cause. Its instruments inadequate to discern the spiritual cause, asserted by the Bible to be behind all natural phenomena. Knows, and can know of itself, nothing of the origin of the world, either in regard to the matter composing it or the forces operating in it. The language in Genesis that of accommodation. Every creation-act accomplished by a word of command, as the fullest representation of the kind of power exerted. The work, both as to matter and form, simply a will on the part of the Creator. Materials for later stages in creation ready at hand in the results of the earlier. At each stage a special fiat, consistent with a gradual development, and new Divine impulse. A perfect universe not created at once, but slowly built up step by step.—Warrington’s Week of Creation. What appears at first as the results of one period of creation, actually that of many. The rocks disclose a series of creations previous to that of man, separated from each other by thousands of years. The rocks themselves, to a large extent, the result of those previous creations. Limestone rocks almost entirely composed of the remains of shell fish. The products and proof of God’s creation-work everywhere before us. Embrace both the visible and the invisible, the material and the spiritual. Man both spiritual and material—a microcosm or universe in himself. God’s works of creation claim our admiration both for their magnitude and minuteness; their multiplicity and variety; their perfection and beauty; their complexity and order; their extent and mutual adaptation.
2. Providence. Consists in the preserving and governing the creatures made, and conducting them to the end for which they were created. The creatures dependent on God for their preservation as well as their creation. In Him we live and move, as well as have our being. The end of creation the Creator’s own glory. His work of Providence the steps by which that end is secured. Its operation discovered in what at first sight appears to have been the work of creation. The creatures whose remains lie imbedded in the rocks, and to a considerable extent compose them, the ancient objects of God’s providence. The formation of the rocks themselves due to the same providence, acting for millions of years previous to man’s appearance on the earth. Provision made by God’s providence, in those distant ages, for man’s future residence and comfort, as well in the coal-beds prepared for his fuel by the growth of primeval forests, as in the rocks which should furnish the soil he was to cultivate, and the material with which he was to build his dwelling. God’s work of providence extends to the lowest as well as the highest of His creatures. The fall of a sparrow under His direction as well as the revolution of a world. The animalcule, invisible to the naked eye, cared for by it as well as the sun with its diameter of a million miles. That work embraces the rise and fall of empires, the progress and decay of states, and the affairs of the humblest individuals that compose them. All history but the exponent of Divine providence. Its operations continually before our eyes, and often such as to arrest the attention even of the thoughtless. Visible in the miseries and calamities, as well as in the blessings and deliverances experienced among men. Under Divine providence, virtue in general, and in the end, rewarded, though frequently permitted, for a time, to be tried and purified by suffering—the case exhibited in this book. Vice in general, and in the end, punished, though often allowed, for a time, to prosper and triumph. Many things in God’s work of providence, as in that of creation, mysterious to us in our present imperfect condition. Among these the permission of evil. His providence seen, not only in permitting it, but in overruling it for His own glory—“from seeming evil still educing good.”
3. Redemption.—Properly a special part of God’s work of providence. Its most glorious part, and that to which both creation and providence are subservient. Redemption the deliverance and restoration of fallen men by the incarnation and life, the suffering and death, the resurrection and ascension of the Son of God, as well as by the mission and operation of the Holy Ghost. The work in which God has chosen, most of all, to exhibit His perfections. “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be made known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God” (Eph_3:10-11). God’s work of Redemption established upon man’s fall, which it includes as its foundation. Embraces the call of Abraham, and the selection of a part of his posterity to be, for a time, the special field of its development, preparatory to the extension of its blessings to all the nations of the earth. Included, as a farther preparation, the union of the nations in successive universal empires, culminating in the Roman, in which the work was to receive its principal development. Embraced the mission of the Apostles for the proclamation of the Redemption among all nations, and the establishment of the New Testament for its experience and further exhibition. Included the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews, thus terminating a religion of symbols after it had served its purpose, and affording a standing evidence to the truth of the Scriptures which announce and unfold the Redemption. Comprehends the spread of the Gospel and the conversion of the nations to Christianity, with all the events, movements, and arrangements of Divine providence conducing to it; as—the general diffusion of the Greek language as the channel for the early promulgation of the Gospel; the free communication among the nations, through the extension of the Roman empire and its universal net-work of roads; the breaking up of the Roman Empire, and the settlement of the Northern nations in the provinces of Southern Europe; the persecutions of the Church, and the dispersion of its members and teachers; the preservation of a faithful remnant in the midst of corruption and apostasy in the Church itself; the Reformation, and the various steps conducting to it, as the revival of learning, the invention of printing, and the general aspiration after liberty; the discovery of America, and the planting, in its northern portion, of a nation of Protestants who should occupy it with the Gospel, and disseminate it in its purity and power in other lands; the increasing power and influence of Protestant nations, as England and Prussia, and the decay of Popish ones, as Spain and Portugal; the discovery of the maritime passage to India, and the subsequent transfer of its numerous millions from the sway of a Popish to that of a Protestant nation; the defeated attempts of Mahommedanism to overspread Europe, and of Popery to crush Protestantism in England and the Netherlands; the French Revolution, which aroused both the Church and the world, preparing the one to communicate and the other to receive the Gospel; the almost simultaneous formation of societies for the spread of the Gospel in foreign lands, as the Bible, Tract, and Missionary Societies of Great Britain; the overthrow of the Pope’s temporal sway by the Italian people, and the crippling of the power of France which had been its chief support. The work of redemption the sum of all God’s dealings in providence. All past history but the unravelling of God’s eternal plan concerning our race, and the working out of that redemption provided for it. Redemption both the key and the keystone of history. Runs through its entire course, like the scarlet cord said to run through all the cables of the Royal Navy. Finds its realization in the conversion of every believer’s soul.
VIII. Returns to the perfections of God as exhibited in the operations of nature, especially in the production of rain and the phenomena of a thunderstorm. Job_36:26-33.—“Behold, God is great, and we know Him not (or, ‘and we know not’—how great He is), neither can the number of His years be searched out (is from everlasting, and therefore incomprehensible to us). For he maketh small the drops of rain (or, ‘draweth up [by evaporation] the watery particles’ from land and sea to be formed into rain): they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof (or, ‘according to His vapour’—the quantity of vapour thus collected by Him; or, ‘they fine [or filter] the rain from His vapour; or, ‘instead of His mist,’ alluding to Gen_2:5-6), which the clouds do drop and distil (instead of pouring them down in destructive and overwhelming floods) upon man abundantly. Also, can any understand (or, does any consider) the spreadings of the clouds (either as to mode or measure), or the noise of His tabernacle (the thunder-crash that proceeds from the clouds, which form His pavilion, Psa_18:11)? Behold, He spreadeth His light (or lightning) upon it (or, ‘over Himself,’ Psa_104:2), and covereth the bottom (Marg., ‘the roots’) of the sea (namely, with the light or lightning which penetrates the ocean’s depths, or with the dense cloud spread over its surface; or, ‘he covereth Himself with the bottom of the sea, i.e., with the waters exhaled from it, and formed into clouds). For by them (the clouds, or these operations in the atmosphere) judgeth He the people (either in the bestowment of benefits or the infliction of chastisement); He giveth meat in abundance (by imparting fertility to the earth). With clouds He covereth the light (or the sun, the great reservoir and source of light to the earth, its opaque body being surrounded with a luminous atmosphere; or, ‘He covereth both His hands with lightning’); and commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt (or, ‘commandeth concerning it—the lightning—in its striking,’ or as to where it shall strike). The noise thereof sheweth concerning it (or, ‘His thunder declares concerning Him,—His presence, power, and majesty), the cattle also concerning the vapour” (or concerning Him as He ascends [in the storm]; or, “a magazine of wrath against iniquity”).
The whole paragraph sublime, but, on that account, obscure and difficult.—Contains a highly poetical description of a gathering thunder-storm, probably the storm-cloud out of which the Almighty was about to speak, and which was already making its appearance and giving forth its pealing thunder. From the whole, observe—
1. God in Himself infinitely above our comprehension, but discernable in His works of creation and providence.
2. Elihu’s first illustration of God’s power and wisdom drawn from meteorology. God seen in objects and operations the most minute as well as the most majestic. The phenomenon of rain one of the most interesting evidences of His being and perfections. The atmosphere the Divine laboratory for the irrigation and fructifying of the earth. To fill the cloudy reservoirs with water exhaled from the land and sea, and then to form the contents into rain, and send it down in refreshing and fertilizing showers,—a process as interesting and wonderful as it is beneficial and little regarded. The whole operation carried on by the Divine Ruler according to laws of His own establishment. The process no less His own, and no less requiring His hand and direction, that it is carried on according to established laws.
3. The formation and descent of rain generally understood by the scientific, though much of the process still remains a mystery. “Can any understand [fully] the spreadings of the clouds?” The operation intended, like all other works of God in nature, to engage the attention and employ the study of His intelligent creatures. Engaged the thoughts of devout men in Job’s day, when natural processes were much less understood than at present. Not considered, because so common. “Doth any consider the spreading of the clouds?”
4. All nature a magazine of means prepared by the Almighty, to be employed by Him, either in judgment or in, mercy. His goodness exhibited in the copious or softly falling shower; his terrible majesty and awful displeasure against sin, in the forked lightning and crashing thunder. Even the irrational creatures gladdened by the one, but alarmed and terrified by the other. All the elements of nature under the Almighty’s control. The lightning-flash or thunderbolt has its commission from the Creator. “He commandeth concerning it where it shall strike”. Alexis, the friend of Luther, is struck dead by a flash of lightning, while Luther himself, close by his side, remains unhurt.
5. The voice of Nature as well as of Revelation, that the Almighty is present in the thunder-storm. “The noise thereof showeth concerning him”. God no less in the thunder because its reverberation is according to natural and tolerably understood laws. The report of a musket no less dependent on the hand that draws the trigger, that it is produced by the same laws. Every reason why the thunder-cloud should be designed and employed by its Divine Author, among other purposes, as his celestial artillery against His impenitent and rebellious adversaries (ch. Job_28:22-23).
6. Unspeakably blessed to have the Almighty for our Father and friend; terrible beyond conception, to have Him for our foe.
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 Job 36:1-3
Job 36:1-3
The sinner’s excuses answered.
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I. One excuse is that the Bible cannot be true because it represents God as unjust. It represents God as creating men and then condemning them for another’s sin. To this the answer is: (1) The Bible always represents the sinner condemned as really sinning himself, and as condemned for his own sin. (2) Children are never punished punitively for their parents’ sins. The evil that befalls them through their connection with their parents is always disciplinary, never punitive. (3) Everywhere in the Bible men are condemned only for their voluntary sins, and are required to repent of these sins, and of these only. Indeed, there can possibly be no other sins than these.
II. Again, it is objected that God is unmerciful, vindictive, implacable. He would not forgive sin until He had first taken measures to kill His own Son. The answer to this is plain. It was not an implacable disposition in God which led Him to require the death of Christ as the ground of forgiveness. It was simply His benevolent regard for the safety and blessedness of His kingdom. The giving up of Jesus Christ was only a voluntary offering on God’s part to sustain law, so that He could forgive without peril to His government.
III. Another difficulty is this: the Bible always assumes that sinners cannot do right and please God with a wicked heart. Can we make ourselves a new heart? Yes; you would have done so long ago if you had not resisted God in His efforts to move you to repentance. The Holy Ghost is necessary, but only to overcome your voluntary opposition.
C. G. Finney, Sermons on Gospel Themes, p. 103.
Job 36:2
I. The wisdom put into the mouth of Elihu when the three friends had failed reminds us of what we are taught elsewhere in the Bible: that there are times when traditional authority must give way to truth, when he who is young may instruct those who are aged, when out of the mouths of babes and sucklings God has ordained that very strength which the world most needs. Each generation must learn not only from that which has gone before, but from that which is coming after, it.
II. The book of Job impresses upon us that there are problems beyond the power of man to exhaust, and that in the certainty of that uncertainty it is our privilege to rest. The human mind, it may be well said, may repose as calmly before a confessed and incontrovertible difficulty as before a confessed and discovered truth.
III. The third lesson is found in Job’s words "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." He was called from dwelling on himself and his own virtue to feel that he was in the presence of One to whom all earthly intelligence and wisdom seem insignificant. Calamities bring us into the presence of Him before whom we must feel a sense of sin and infirmity. The self-abasement of Job is a necessary element of that perfect and upright character of which he is the type.
IV. This sense of the vastness of the universe, of the imperfection of our own knowledge, may help us to understand, not indeed the origin of evil and suffering, but something of its possible uses and purposes. Distrust of ourselves, self-abasement before the Judge of all mankind, charity for others—these are the gifts which often are the best results of distress, of doubt, and of difficulty.
A. P. Stanley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 289 (see also Addresses and Sermons in America, p. 133).
References: Job 36:2.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1403. Job 36:5.—Ibid., vol. xxiii., No. 1380; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 12.
Job 36:10
Discipline is the art or system of learning generally any little things. It is very much the same as instruction or education. But because teaching or education is often a very hard thing, and accompanied with severity, discipline has come to be taken in a severe sense, for we generally associate it with pain and hardship. This discipline or training is among the things which God promises to the righteous. Consider the discipline of joy.
I. The beauty of nature is one of the truest joys of life; and it will give a grandeur and a holy and happy solemnity to our delight in a lovely prospect and our enjoyment of a river, or a sea, or a mountain, or a garden, or a flower if we recognise that delight as preparatory to our possession of Paradise and our right habit and use of a fairer and lovelier world.
II. We may take the same view of society. Perhaps the greatest end for which society is given us is that by the social graces we may learn the social glories. Our social meetings are the rehearsals and the beginnings of the amenities and the comforts of the saints.
III. Look at the discipline of joy in your own experience. Have you never found that it was the affliction that hardened you, but that it was the joy that softened you? Did you never walk proudly through a trial to be humbled by a mercy? And is not that joy discipline? You will be a wiser and happier man when you have learnt to let your joys be your schoolmasters for Christ and heaven.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 14th series, p. 21.
References: Job 36:10.—J. Vaughan, Sermons, 14th series, p. 29. Job 36:26.—Parker, Fountain, April 29th, 1880. Job 36-37—S. Cox, Expositor, 1st series, vol. xi., p. 264; Ibid., Commentary on Job, p. 463. Job 37:6.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvii., p. 6. Job 37:14.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. xiv., p. 221.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain The Speeches of Elihu (continued)
The Speeches of Elihu (continued)
1-15. Elihu maintains the wisdom and impartial justice of the rule of God. His purpose is to discipline and improve men, even by their afflictions.
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3. From afar] from a review of the whole universe.
4. He] RV 'one'; i.e. Elihu.
7b. RV 'But with kings upon the throne he setteth them for ever.'
9. Their work] i.e. their faults. Exceeded] RV 'behaved themselves proudly.'
12. Without knowledge] without learning God's lessons.
13. Hypocrites] RV 'godless.' Heap up wrath] RV 'lay up anger'; they cherish rebellious feelings. They cry not] in submission. The way the godless take God's chastening is contrasted with that of the righteous, Job_36:7.
14. Is among] render, 'perisheth like.'
15. RM 'He delivereth the afflicted by their afflictions, and openeth their ears by adversity.' Such are the effects of God's discipline when taken in the right spirit.
16-21. Elihu applies these remarks to Job, urging him to humble himself instead of remaining rebellious.
17. Hast fulfilled] RV 'art full of.' Job acts like the wicked under affliction: cp. Job_36:13.
18. Render, 'For beware lest wrath lead thee away into mockery: neither let the greatness of the ransom (Job's sufferings) turn thee aside,' i.e. into rebellion.
19. Nothing but affliction can save him.
20. The night] probably, of judgment.
People] rather, 'nations.'
21. Iniquity] i.e. rebelliousness.
22- Job_37:24. The wonders of the heavens testify to the majesty and unsearchableness of God. Let Job refrain from judging Him.
22. Exalteth by] RV 'doeth loftily in.' Who teacheth like him] This is Elihu's great point, that afflictions are intended to teach, to discipline, and to purify even the good.
23. Iniquity] RV 'unrighteousness.'
26-37:13. Elihu illustrates the marvellous workings of God by a vivid description of a rising storm.
27. The formation of rain. RV 'He draweth up the drops of water which distil in rain from his vapour.'
29b. RV 'The thunderings of his pavilion'; i.e. of the clouds.
30. Render, 'Behold, He spreadeth His light around Him, and covereth it with the deeps' (lit. 'roots') 'of the sea': see on Job_26:5 and cp. Psa_104:2, Psa_104:3. Modern scholars generally correct the text; some read with Duhm, 'Behold, He spreadeth His mist about Him, And He covereth the tops of the mountains.'
31. The people] rather, 'the peoples.' The purpose of storms may be either punishment or a bountiful provision.
32. RV 'He covereth his hands with the lightning' (to conceal them): 'and giveth it a charge that it strike the mark.'
33. The present text is difficult. The vowel-points should probably be somewhat altered, and the v. should run, 'The noise thereof telleth concerning Him as one that kindles His wrath against wickedness.'
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 1. God’s care over the godly (Job 36:1-7)
CHAPTER 36:1-21
1. God’s care over the godly (Job 36:1-7)
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2. The purposes of affliction (Job 36:8-18)
3. Job to consider this (Job 36:19-21)
Job 36:1-7. Elihu had told Job in the last verse of the preceding chapter that he had opened his mouth in vanity and had multiplied words without knowledge. That should have explained to Job the reason why God did not answer. There could be no reply from Job and so Elihu continues. He is not through yet with speaking in behalf of God. Sublimely he stands up for God. “I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.” He tells Job, “One that is perfect in knowledge is with thee.” How could he say this? Because Elihu knew in speaking for God His Spirit would speak through him to Job. All Job had said was wrong. Though God is mighty, yet does He not despise any. He does not preserve the life of the wicked, nor does He withdraw His eyes from the righteous. But the day is coming when God will reward the righteous.
He seateth them with kings upon the throne
He makes them sit in glory; raised on high.
Beautiful truth! It is a glimpse of the gospel again, as expressed also in Hannah’s song of praise (1Sa 2:1-36).
Job 36:8-18. But what about the afflictions of the righteous? Here Elihu speaking in God’s behalf lifts the veil. He permits them to be bound in fetters and in sorrow’s bonds, so that He, the righteous God, may show to them their deeds, to uncover their transgressions which have for its source that which God hates, pride (the crime of the Devil; 1Ti 3:6). It is love and kindness, not his wrath and displeasure, which are revealed in the afflictions of the righteous. He wants to instruct them by suffering. And if they hearken and learn the lesson, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and end their earthly existence in peace and pleasantness. It was a call to Job to acknowledge this, it is a prophecy that ere long he would find it out, when God has accomplished His purpose with him, and his end would be peace and prosperity. The wicked do not heed this and therefore perish. Let any man refuse to hear Him and harden his heart against Him, they shall perish among the unclean. He would have led out Job in a broad place, but if Job continues in the argument of the wicked, reasoning and pleading as they do, charging God falsely, then let him beware. “Because there is wrath, beware lest He take thee away with His stroke, then a great ransom cannot deliver thee.” We dare not meddle with this verse as others have done. Let it stand as it is, this solemn truth! There is wrath and if man does not hearken to God His wrath in judgment will be displayed and the great ransom, not even the great ransom, can deliver.
Job 36:19-21. These verses contain wholesome words of exhortation addressed to Job to take heed and not to regard iniquity.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Benevolent Purposes of Divine Justice
The Benevolent Purposes of Divine Justice
v. 1. Elihu also proceeded, since Job continued to hold his peace, and said,
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v. 2. Suffer me a little, hearing his instructions only a little while longer, and I will show thee that I have yet to speak on God’s behalf, there was still something to say on the Lord’s side of the question, something that had greater weight even than the arguments advanced up till now.
v. 3. I will fetch my knowledge from afar, not in far-fetched arguments, but from the wide expanse of history and the realm of nature, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker, his topic being so great and wonderful that it inspired Elihu with an impressive array of arguments, especially in setting forth the unchanging justice of God, Psa 51:4.
v. 4. For truly my words shall not be false, not even tinged with falsehood and deceit; he that is perfect in knowledge is with thee, Elihu, as one faultless in the knowledge of God’s attributes and works, stood before Job, in order to instruct him in the truth, defending, first of all, His justice in fixing the destinies of men.
v. 5. Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any, in spite of His greatness and exaltation He does not disdain to take the proper interest in even the lowliest of His creatures; He is mighty in strength and wisdom, in the vigor of His understanding, which enables Him to find the motives of all men’s hearts and causes Him to rule everything with the highest wisdom.
v. 6. He preserveth not the life of the wicked, this statement being made in opposition to the declaration of Job 21:7-14; but giveth right to the poor, espousing the cause of the afflicted.
v. 7. He withdraweth not His eyes from the righteous, watching over them, rather, with tender solicitude; but with kings are they on the throne; yea, he doth establish them forever, and they are exalted, Luk 1:52.
v. 8. And if they be bound in fetters, held so firmly in their affliction that they cannot move, and be holden in cords of affliction, in every form of distress,
v. 9. then He showeth them their work, namely, their evildoing, and their transgressions that they have exceeded, having been presumptuous and proud in opposing God.
v. 10. He openeth also their ear to discipline, in admonishing them to lay aside their pride, and commandeth that they return from iniquity, from the vanity of the various forms of transgression into which they might have fallen.
v. 11. If they obey and serve Him, yielding to His entreaties, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasures, as the result of God’s blessings upon them.
v. 12. But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, falling into the dart or some other sharp weapon which takes away their life, and they shall die without knowledge, breathing out their soul in ignorance of the bliss of being united with God in true fellowship.
v. 13. But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath, the ungodly cherish wrath against God, they wage continual warfare against Him; they cry not when He bindeth them, they stubbornly refuse to make an outcry or to pray when He lays them in chains.
v. 14. They die in youth, they must perish in consequence of their attitude, and their life is among the unclean, among the polluted and effeminate slaves of vice, as they were found in the heathen temples of that day, the reference being to the shamefulness of their early death.
v. 15. He delivereth the poor in his affliction, in the case of such suffering God makes the endurance itself serve as a means of deliverance, He rewards such patience in misery, and openeth their ears in oppression, by means of such trials God brings blessings to them, their very afflictions standing them in good stead, Rom 8:18-28.
v. 16. Even so would He have removed thee, Elihu here making the application to the case of Job, out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness, God would have lured and coaxed him out of the very jaws of distress into a wide place, where he would no longer have felt the cramping effect of his troubles; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness, literally, "the setting of thy table fullness of fatness," signifying the highest form of rich prosperity,
v. 17. But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked, rather, thou art filled with this judgment, Job was experiencing its misery; judgment and justice take hold on thee, not departing from his person and home,
v. 18. Because there is wrath, beware lest He take thee away with His stroke, Job should not let the heat of his afflictions mislead him by its greatness and thus become guilty of presumptuous mocking; then a great ransom cannot deliver thee, that is, he should not let the size of the ransom which, by his sufferings, he seemed to be paying for his sins, ensnare him into a false idea of the goodness and justice of God.
v. 19. Will He esteem thy riches? No, not gold nor all the forces of strength, literally, "Shall thy outcry for assistance place thee outside of distress, likewise the exertions of thy strength?" All Job’s violent insisting upon his rights over against God was futile.
v. 20. Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place, the picture being that of chaff being carried away by a sudden gust of the tempest coming up at night. Job should not foolishly long for the night of the judgment; for then entire nations would be swept away, and he might share their lot.
v. 21. Take heed, regard not iniquity, not turning to vanity and wickedness in the manner shown; for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction, that is, in Elihu’s opinion Job was too much inclined to arrogant vanity, to rebellion against God, and objected to the affliction which had come upon him in a spirit which was anything but meek. True humility in suffering is the believer’s finest ornament.
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 I will show you some things
I will show you some things
Elihu speaks of explaining things to Job as if he were going to show those things to Job. AT: "I will explain some things to you" (See: Metaphor)
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I will obtain my knowledge from far off
Elihu speaks of having knowledge of many different subjects as if it were getting his knowledge from far away places. AT: "I will show you my great knowledge" (See: Metaphor)
that righteousness belongs to my Maker
Here the word "righteousness" can be translated with an adjective. AT: "that my Maker is righteous" (See: Abstract Nouns)
translationWords
God
know
acknowledge
righteous
Maker
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.