Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,
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Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,
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Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
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Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:
Cross-references (12)
Passages linked to Job 38:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Job 40:6 Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,
- Exodus 19:16-19 On the third day, when it was morning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet; and all the people who were in the camp trembled. Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the lower part of the mountain. All of Mount Sinai smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.
- 1 Kings 19:11 He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before Yahweh.” Behold, Yahweh passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before Yahweh; but Yahweh was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake; but Yahweh was not in the earthquake.
- 2 Kings 2:11 As they continued on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated them, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
- Job 37:1-2 “Yes, at this my heart trembles, and is moved out of its place. Hear, oh, hear the noise of his voice, the sound that goes out of his mouth.
- Deuteronomy 4:11-12 You came near and stood under the mountain. The mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. Yahweh spoke to you out of the middle of the fire: you heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; you only heard a voice.
- 2 Kings 2:1 When Yahweh was about to take Elijah up by a whirlwind into heaven, Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.
- Job 37:9 Out of its room comes the storm, and cold out of the north.
- Ezekiel 1:4 I looked, and behold, a stormy wind came out of the north: a great cloud, with flashing lightning, and a brightness around it, and out of the middle of it as it were glowing metal, out of the middle of the fire.
- Nahum 1:3 Yahweh is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Yahweh has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
- Deuteronomy 5:22-24 Yahweh spoke these words to all your assembly on the mountain out of the middle of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice. He added no more. He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me. When you heard the voice out of the middle of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders; and you said, “Behold, Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the middle of the fire. We have seen today that God does speak with man, and he lives.
- Job 37:14 “Listen to this, Job. Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That his words might have greater majesty, and that…
That his words might have greater majesty, and that Job might know with whom he had to do.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of…
Job 38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Ver. 1. Then the Lord answered Job] God himself, taking the word out of Elihu’s mouth (who bad spoken well, but lacked majesty to set it forth), became his own patron, et huius disputationis sequester, and decider of this long controversy, vindicating his own authority, and teaching that truth in the four following chapters, which St Paul briefly compriseth in these words, Rom 11:33-34, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?" Why then should any one require an account of his proceedings, or question his justice? Job had often desired that God would take knowledge of his cause. His friends also had desired the same, Job 11:5. Here therefore he appeareth in person, not as out of an engine devised for that purpose, after the manner of some partial tragedy, for the whole narration testifieth that this is a true story of things done indeed, and afterwards faithfully recorded (Beza). Which history is highly to be esteemed as an incomparable treasure, if it were for nothing else, yet for the right knowledge of natural philosophy here laid open, in these four following chapters, together with the chief and principal end thereof, which is, that in these visible creatures we may behold the invisible things of God.
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Out of the whirlwind] That is, out of a cloud whence issued a whirlwind or a storm, as a testimony of his heavenly majesty, and to procure attention. See the like Deu 4:12 1Ki 19:11 Eze 1:4 Nah 1:9 Heb 12:18. God loves to be acquainted with men in the walks of their obedience, yet he takes state upon him in his ordinances, and will be trembled at in his word and judgments.
And said] With much more mildness and moderation than Elihu or any of them had used in reprehending Job, and yet with such plenty and efficacy of words and arguments, Ut facillime omnes omnium orationes superet, that no such oration can anywhere else be read. Well might Lavater say, Hoc postremum colloquium est admodum suave et utile, This conference of God with Job is very sweet and profitable; for it teacheth us, among other things, how gently God dealeth with his offending servants, and how hardly the best are brought to confess their sins, and truly to repent of them.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Answered Job, i.e. began to debate the matter with…
Answered Job, i.e. began to debate the matter with him, as Job had desired.
Out of the whirlwind, i.e. out of a dark and thick cloud, from which he sent a terrible and tempestuous wind, as the harbinger of his presence. In this manner God appears and speaks to him, partly, because this was his usual method in those times, as we see, Exo 19:18; Num 9:15,16; see also 1Ki 19:11; Eze 1:4; partly, to awaken Job and his friends to the more serious and reverent attention to his words; partly, to testify his displeasure, both against Job, and against his three friends; and partly, that all of them night be more deeply and thoroughly humbled and abused within themselves, and prepared the better to receive, and longer to retain, the instructions which God was about to give them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Let us observe here, 1. Who speaks - The…
Let us observe here, 1. Who speaks - The Lord, Jehovah, not a created angel, but the eternal Word himself, the second person in the blessed Trinity, for it is he by whom the worlds were made, and that was no other than the Son of God. The same speaks here that afterwards spoke from Mount Sinai. Here he begins with the creation of the world, there with the redemption of Israel out of Egypt, and from both is inferred the necessity of our subjection to him. Elihu had said, God speaks to men and they do not perceive it (Job 33:14); but this they could not but perceive, and yet we have a more sure word of prophecy, Pe2 1:19. 2. When he spoke - Then. When they had all had their saying, and yet had not gained their point, then it was time for God to interpose, whose judgment is according to truth. When we know not who is in the right, and perhaps are doubtful whether we ourselves are, this may satisfy us, That God will determine shortly in the valley of decision, Joe 3:14. Job had silenced his three friends, and yet could not convince them of his integrity in the main. Elihu had silenced Job, and yet could not bring him to acknowledge his mismanagement of this dispute. But now God comes, and does both, convinces Job first of his unadvised speaking and makes him cry, Peccavi - I have done wrong; and, having humbled him, he puts honour upon him, by convincing his three friends that they had done him wrong. These two things God will, sooner or later, do for his people: he will show them their faults, that they may be themselves ashamed of them, and he will show others their righteousness, and bring it forth as the light, that they may be ashamed of their unjust censures of them. 3. How he spoke - Out of the whirlwind, the rolling and involving cloud, which Elihu took notice of, Job 37:1, Job 37:2, Job 37:9. A whirlwind prefaced Ezekiel's vision (Eze 1:4), and Elijah's, Kg1 19:11. God is said to have his way in the whirlwind (Nah 1:3), and, to show that even the stormy wind fulfils his word, here it was made the vehicle of it. This shows what a mighty voice God's is, that is was not lost, but perfectly audible, even in the noise of a whirlwind. Thus God designed to startled Job, and to command his attention. Sometimes God answers his own people in terrible corrections, as out of the whirlwind, but always in righteousness. 4. To whom he spoke: He answered Job, directed his speech to him, to convince him of what was amiss, before he cleared him from the unjust aspersions cast upon him. It is God only that can effectually convince of sin, and those shall so be humbled whom he designs to exalt. Those that desire to hear from God, as Job did, shall certainly hear from him at length. 5. What he said. We may conjecture that Elihu, or some other of the auditory, wrote down verbatim what was delivered out of the whirlwind, for we find (Rev 10:4) that, when the thunders uttered their voices, John was prepared to write. Or, if it was not written then, yet, the penman of the book being inspired by the Holy Ghost, we are sure that we have here a very true and exact report of what was said. The Spirit (says Christ) shall bring to your remembrance, as he did here, what I have said to you. The preface is very searching. (1.) God charges him with ignorance and presumption in what he had said (Job 38:2): "Who is this that talks at this rate? Is it Job? What! a man? That weak, foolish, despicable, creature - shall he pretend to prescribe to me what I must do or to quarrel with me for what I have done? Is it Job? What! my servant Job, a perfect and an upright man? Can he so far forget himself, and act unlike himself? Who, where, is he that darkens counsel thus by words without knowledge? Let him show his face if he dare, and stand to what he has said." Note, Darkening the counsels of God's wisdom with our folly is a great affront and provocation to God. Concerning God's counsels we must own that we are without knowledge. They are a deep which we cannot fathom; we are quite out of our element, out of our aim, when we pretend to account for them. Yet we are too apt to talk of them as if we understood them, with a great deal of niceness and boldness; but, alas! we do but darken them, instead of explaining them. We confound and perplex ourselves and one another when we dispute of the order of God's decrees, and the designs, and reasons, and methods, of his operations of providence and grace. A humble faith and sincere obedience shall see further and better into the secret of the Lord than all the philosophy of the schools, and the searches of science, so called. This first word which God spoke is the more observable because Job, in his repentance, fastens upon it as that which silenced and humbled him, Job 42:3. This he repeated and echoed as the arrow that stuck fast in him: "I am the fool that has darkened counsel." There was some colour to have turned it upon Elihu, as if God meant him, for he spoke last, and was speaking when the whirlwind began; but Job applied it to himself, as it becomes us to do when faithful reproofs are given, and not (as most do) to billet them upon other people. (2.) He challenges him to give such proofs of his knowledge as would serve to justify his enquiries into the divine counsels (Job 38:3): "Gird up now thy loins like a stout man; prepare thyself for the encounter; I will demand of thee, will put some questions to thee, and answer me if thou canst, before I answer thine." Those that go about to call God to an account must expect to be catechised and called to an account themselves, that they may be made sensible of their ignorance and arrogance. God here puts Job in mind of what he had said, Job 13:22. Call thou, and I will answer. "Now make thy words good."
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 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind,....…
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind,.... As soon as Elihu had done speaking, who saw the tempest rising, and gave hints of it, Job 37:2; and hastened to finish his discourse. This was raised to give notice of the Lord being about to appear, and to display his majesty, and to command reverence and attention. The Targum calls it the whirlwind of distress, as it might be to Job; and a representation of the distressed and disturbed state and condition in which he was. The person that spoke out of it is Jehovah the Son of God, the eternal Word, who very probably appeared in an human form; there was an object seen, Job 42:5; and spoke with an articulate voice to Job;
and said; in answer to his frequent wishes and desires that the Lord would appear and take his cause in hand.
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 God begins with an awakening challenge, ver. 1-3. Proceeds…
God begins with an awakening challenge, ver. 1-3. Proceeds to several proofs of Job's inability to contend with him, because of his ignorance and weakness: for he knew nothing of the founding of the earth, ver. 4-7. The limiting of the sea, ver. 8- 11. Of the morning light, ver. 12-15. The recesses of the sea and earth, ver. 16-21. Of the treasures in the clouds, ver. 22-27. He could do nothing toward the making of his own soul, the producing of rain, frost, lightning, or the directing of the stars and their influences, ver. 28-38. He could not provide for the lions or the ravens, ver. 39-41. How then should he direct God's secret counsels? Here God takes up the argument, begun by Elihu, and prosecutes it in inimitable words, exceeding his, and all other mens in the loftiness of the style, as much as thunder does a whisper.
Lord - The eternal word, Jehovah, the same who spake from Mount Sinai. Answered - Out of a dark and thick cloud, from which he sent a tempestuous wind, as the harbinger of his presence. In this manner God appears and speaks to awaken Job and his friends, to the more serious attention to his words; and to testify his displeasure both against Job, and them, that all of them might be more deeply humbled and prepared to receive, and retain the instructions which God was about to give them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The Lord answers Job out of a whirlwind, and…
CHAPTER XXXVIII
The Lord answers Job out of a whirlwind, and challenges him to
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answer, 1-3.
He convinces him of ignorance and weakness, by an enumeration
of some of his mighty works; particularly of the creation of
the earth, 4-7.
The sea and the deeps, 8-18.
The light, 19-21.
Snow, hail, thunder, lightning, rain, dew, ice, and hoar-frost,
22-30.
Different constellations, and the ordinances of heaven
influencing the earth, 31-33.
Shows his own power and wisdom in the atmosphere, particularly
in the thunder, lightnings, and rain, 34-38.
His providence in reference to the brute creation, 39-41.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXVIII
Verse 1. The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind] It is not סופה suphah, as in the preceding chapter, Job 37:9; but סורה searah, which signifies something turbulent, tumultuous, or violently agitated; and here may signify what we call a tempest, and was intended to fill Job's mind with solemnity, and an awful sense of the majesty of God. The Chaldee has, a whirlwind of grief, making the whole rather allegorical than real; impressing the scene on Job's imagination.
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 38:1. Then the Lord answered Job — No…
Job 38:1. Then the Lord answered Job — No sooner had Elihu uttered the words last mentioned, but there was a sensible token of the presence of that dreadful majesty of God among them, spoken of Job 38:22, and Jehovah began to debate the matter with Job, as he had desired; out of the whirlwind — Out of a dark and thick cloud, from which he sent a terrible and tempestuous wind, as the harbinger of his presence. The LXX. render the clause, δια λαιλαπος και νεφων, perturbinem et nubes, by a tempest and clouds. It is true, the Chaldee paraphrast, by the addition of a word, has given a very different exposition of this text, thus: Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind of grief; taking the word סערה, segnarah, rendered whirlwind, not in a literal, but in a metaphorical sense: as if the meaning were only this: that amidst the tumult of Job’s sorrows, God suggested to him the following thoughts, to bring him to a sense of his condition. The matter is viewed in nearly the same light by a late writer in a periodical work, styled The Classical Journal, who contends that this Hebrew word properly means trouble, and may be rendered whirlwind only when it is applied to the elements, denoting the troubled state of the atmosphere; but when it has reference to man, it can have no such signification. In answer to this it must be observed, that many passages occur in the Old Testament, in which the word evidently means, and is rightly translated, whirlwind, or tempest, as that writer himself acknowledges; but probably not one can be found, at least he has not produced one, in which, as a noun, it means merely trouble, nor can it with propriety be so translated here, on account of the preposition מן, min, which properly means a, ab, de, e, ex, from, or out of, and not because of, as he proposes rendering it: for surely it would be improper to read the passage, “The Lord answered Job out of his trouble, &c.” Accordingly the generality of expositors agree to understand it of a sensible and miraculous interposition of the Deity appearing in a cloud, the symbol of his presence, not to dispute, but absolutely to decide the controversy. God appeared and spoke to him in this manner, says Poole, 1st. Because this was his usual method of manifesting himself in those times, and declaring his will, as we see Exo 19:13; Num 9:15; 1Ki 19:11; Eze 1:4; Ezekiel 2 d, To awaken Job and his friends to a more serious and reverent attention to his words; 3d, To testify his displeasure both against Job and them; and, lastly, that all of them might be more deeply and thoroughly humbled, and prepared to receive and retain the instructions which God was about to give them. “There arose,” says Bishop Patrick, “an unusual cloud, after the manner of God’s appearing in those days, and a voice came out of it, as loud as a tempest, which called to Job.” “Nothing can be conceived more awful than this appearance of Jehovah; nothing more sublime than the manner in which this speech is introduced. Thunders, lightnings, and a whirlwind announce his approach: all creation trembles at his presence: at the blaze of his all-piercing eye every disguise falls off; the stateliness of human pride, the vanity of human knowledge, sink into their original nothing. The man of understanding, the men of age and experience; he who desired nothing more than to argue the point with God; he that would maintain his ways to his face; confounded and struck dumb at his presence, is ready to drop into dissolution, and repents in dust and ashes.” See Heath.
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 Then the Lord answered Job - This speech is…
Then the Lord answered Job - This speech is addressed particularly to Job, not only because he is the principal personage referred to in the book, but particularly because he had indulged in language of murmuring and complaint. God designed to bring him to a proper state of mind before he appeared openly for his vindication. It is the purpose of God, in his dealings with his people, “to bring them to a proper state of mind” before he appears as their vindicator and friend, and hence, their trials are often prolonged, and when he appears, he seems at first to come only to rebuke them. Job had indulged in very improper feelings, and it was needful that those feelings should be subdued before God would manifest himself as his friend, and address him in words of consolation.
Out of the whirlwind - The tempest; the storm - probably that which Elihu had seen approaching, Job 37:21-24. God is often represented as speaking to people in this manner. He spake amidst lightnings and tempests on Mount Sinai Exo 19:16-19, and he is frequently represented as appearing amidst the thunders and lightnings of a tempest, as a symbol of his majesty; compare Psa 18:9-13; Hab 3:3-6. The word here rendered “whirlwind” means rather “a storm, a tempest.” The Septuagint renders this verse, “After Elihu had ceased speaking, the Lord spake to Job from a tempest and clouds.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Then. Septuagint, "After Eliu had ceased to speak." (Haydock)…
Then. Septuagint, "After Eliu had ceased to speak." (Haydock) --- Lord. That is, an angel speaking in the name of the Lord. (Challoner) --- The name Jehova (Haydock) here occurs, though it never does in the speeches; whence many have inferred that the Lord spoke in person; which argument, however, is not conclusive; and that this work was written after the apparition in the burning bush. (Calmet) --- The Hebrew edition would at least be given after that event. --- Whirlwind, designed to strike the senses, (Haydock) and to represent the distressed condition of Job. (Pineda) --- This awful appearance imposed silence upon all. (Haydock) --- Some think that a time was allowed for reflection and repentance, before God passed sentence; but the Septuagint, &c., seem to suppose that the cause was decided as soon as Eliu had ended his discourse. (Calmet) --- God discusses the controversy, and gives sentence in favour of Job. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain The Third Stage of the Disentanglement
The Third Stage of the Disentanglement
Job_38:1 to Job_42:6
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JEHOVAH’S DISCOURSE.—The aim of which is to prove that the Almighty and Only Wise God, with whom no mortal man should dispute, might also ordain suffering simply to prove and test the righteous: (Second Half of the positive solution of the problem.)
Job_38:1 to Job_40:5
First Discourse of Jehovah (together with Job’s answer): With God, the Almighty and Only Wise, no man may dispute. Job_38:1 to Job_40:5
1. Introduction: The appearance of God; His demand that Job should answer Him
Job_38:1-3
1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:
2 2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel
by words without knowledge?
3 Gird up now thy loins like a man;
for I will demand of thee, and answer thou Me!
2. God’s questions touching His power revealed in the wonders of creation
Job_38:4 -Job_39:30
a. Questions respecting the process of creation:
Job_38:4-15.
4 Where wast thou, when I laid the foundations of the earth?
declare, if thou hast understanding.
5 Who hath laid the measure thereof, if thou knowest?
or who hath stretched the line upon it?
6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened?
or who laid the corner-stone thereof:
7 when the morning-stars sang together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 Or who shut up the sea with doors,
when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof,
and thick darkness a swaddling-band for it;
10 and brake up for it my decreed place,
and set bars and doors,
11 and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further;
and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?
12 Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days;
and caused the day spring to know his place;
13 that it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
that the wicked might be shaken out of it?
14 It is turned as clay to the seal;
and they stand as a garment.
15 And from the wicked their light is withholden,
and the high arm shall be broken.
b. Respecting the inaccessible depths and heights below and above the earth, and the forces proceeding from them
Job_38:16-27
16 Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea?
or hast thou walked in the search of the depth?
17 Have the gates of death been opened unto thee?
or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?
18 Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth?
declare if thou knowest it all.
19 Where is the way where light dwelleth?
and as for darkness, where is the place thereof,
20 that thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof,
and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof?
21 Knowest thou it because thou wast then born?
or because the number of thy days is great?
22 Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?
or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail,
23 which I have reserved against the time of trouble,
against the day of battle and war?
24 By what way is the light parted,
which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?
25 Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters,
or a way for the lightning of thunder;
26 to cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is;
on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;
27 to satisfy the desolate and waste ground;
and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?
c. Respecting the phenomena of the atmosphere, and the wonders of the starry heavens
Job_38:28-38
28 Hath the rain a father?
or who hath begotten the drops of dew?
29 Out of whose womb came the ice?
and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?
30 The waters are hid as with a stone,
and the face of the deep is frozen.
31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades,
or loose the bands of Orion?
32 Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season?
or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
33 Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven?
canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth.
34 Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds,
that abundance of waters may cover thee?
35 Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go,
and say unto thee, Here we are?
36 Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts?
or who hath given understanding to the heart?
37 Who can number the clouds in wisdom?
or who can stay the bottles of heaven,
38 when the dust groweth into hardness,
and the clods cleave fast together?
d. Respecting the preservation and propagation of wild animals, especially of the lion, raven, wild goat, oryx, ostrich, war-horse, hawk, and eagle
Job_38:39 to Job_39:30
39 Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion?
or fill the appetite of the young lions,
40 when they couch in their dens,
and abide in the covert to lie in wait?
41 who provideth for the raven his food?
when his young ones cry unto God,
they wander for lack of meat.
Chap. 39
1 Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth?
or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?
2 Canst thou number the months that they fulfil?
or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?
3 They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones,
they cast out their sorrows.
4 Their young ones are in good liking, they grow up with corn;
they go forth, and return not unto them.
5 Who hath sent out the wild ass free?
or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?
6 Whose house I have made the wilderness,
and the barren land his dwellings.
7 He scorneth the multitude of the city,
neither regardeth he the crying of the driver.
8 The range of the mountains is his pasture,
and he searcheth after every green thing.
9 Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee,
or abide by thy crib?
10 Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow?
or will he harrow the valleys after thee?
11 Wilt thou trust him because his strength is great?
or wilt thou leave thy labor to him?
12 Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed,
and gather it into thy barn?
13 Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks?
or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?
14 Which leaveth her eggs in the earth,
and warmeth them in the dust,
15 and forgetteth that the foot may crush them,
or that the wild beast may break them.
16 She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers:
her labor is in vain without fear;
17 because God hath deprived her of wisdom,
neither hath He imparted unto her understanding.
18 What time she lifteth up herself on high,
she scorneth the horse and his rider.
19 Hast thou given the horse strength?
hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?
20 Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper?
the glory of his nostrils is terrible.
21 He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength:
he goeth on to meet the armed men.
22 He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted;
neither turneth he back from the sword.
23 The quiver rattleth against him,
the glittering spear and the shield.
24 He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage;
neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet.
25 He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha!
and he smelleth the battle afar off,
the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
26 Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom,
and stretch her wings toward the south?
27 Doth the eagle mount up at thy command,
and make her nest on high?
28 She dwelleth and abideth on the rock,
upon the crag of the rock and the strong place.
29 From thence she seeketh the prey,
and her eyes behold afar off.
30 Her young ones also suck up blood;
and where the slain are, there is she.
3. Conclusion of the discourse, together with Job’s answer, announcing his humble submission
Job_40:1-5
Chap. 40.
1 And Jehovah answered Job, and said,
2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct Him?
he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
3 Then Job answered the Lord, and said,
4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee?
I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
5 Once have I spoken, but I will not answer:
yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The appearance of God, which Job had again and again expressly wished for, a wish which recurs in Job_23:3 seq., and especially towards the end of his last discourse (Job_31:35), and for which Elihu’s preaching of doctrine and of repentance had prepared the way—this appearance now takes place during that storm, of fearful beauty, which had supplied the last of Elihu’s discourses with the material for its impressive descriptions of the greatness of God in His works. This Divine manifestation, which is not to be understood as taking place corporeally in a human form; see on Job_38:1—corresponds moreover to the preparatory representations proceeding from Elihu in this respect, that like those representations it bears testimony at the same time in behalf of Job and against him. It testifies for Job in that it brings about the actual realization of the ardent longing which he had so often uttered, and in that it is not accompanied by that terrifying and crushing effect on the bold challenger which he himself had several times dreaded as possible (Job_9:34; Job_13:21; Job_23:6), and had on that account deprecated. It testifies against him by means of the deep humiliation which the majesty of the Almighty occasions to him, by means of the consciousness wrought within him of his own insignificance and limitation in contrast with this fulness of power and wisdom, and by means of the principle which in this very way is brought forth into full expression, and which is expressly acknowledged by him at the close of this first address of Jehovah—the principle, namely, that from henceforth he must lay aside entirely all condemnation of God’s ways, and be willing to submit himself in absolute humility to His decree.—Again the rich illustration, elaborated in the most elevated style of poetic discourse, which in this first address God gives of His all-transcending majesty in contrast with man’s insignificance (chs. Job_38:4 to Job_39:30) is also such as testifies at once for and against Job, and thus continues with increased emphasis the strain already begun by Elihu (especially in his fourth discourse). On the one side it serves to confirm the previous descriptions given by Job himself of God’s greatness, wonderful power, and plenitude of wisdom; on the other side it transcends the same in the incomparably more elevated and impressive power of its representation, under the influence of which the last remainder of insolent pride still adhering to Job must of necessity dissolve and disappear. The discourse forms one well-conceived, harmoniously constructed whole, consisting of two principal divisions of almost equal length, of which the first (Job_38:4-38) refers to the creation and to inanimate nature, the second (chs. Job_38:39; Job_39:30) to the animal kingdom, as sources of evidence proving the divine majesty. It is not necessary to resolve these two divisions into two separate discourses, as is done by Köster and Schlottmann, the former of whom even deems it necessary to resort to the violent operation of transposing the conclusion in Job_40:1-5, and putting it after Job_38:36.—Each of these divisions may be subdivided into three strophegroups, or long strophes, consisting of 11–12 verses each, which may again be subdivided, according to the subjects described, into subordinate strophes or paragraphs, now longer and now shorter. Of these simple, short strophes the three long strophes of the first principal division (a, b and c) contain respectively three to four, whereas the last two long strophes, at least of the second chief division, which dwell on themes derived from the animal world, consist of but two short strophes respectively.
2. The Introduction: Job_38:1-3.—Then Jehovah answered Job out of the storm.—The “answering” or “replying” refers back to Job’s repeated challenges, and especially to the last, found in Job_31:35 : “Let the Almighty answer me!”—מִנְהַסְּעָרָה (here, as also in Job_40:6 with medial נ; comp. Ewald, § 9, 11, c [Green, § 4, a]; which the K’ri in both cases sets aside) “out of the storm (thunderstorm);” not (as Luther translates) “out of a storm.” It is beyond question an unsatisfactory explanation of the definite article to say that as applied to סערה it means that storm, which “always, or as a rule, is wont to announce and to accompany the appearance of God, whenever He draws nigh to the earth in majesty and in the character of a judge” (Dillmann). In view of the way in which the most ancient Old Testament sources describe the theophanies of the patriarchal age in general, this generic rendering of the article is not at all suitable (comp. also 1Ki_19:11 : “the Lord was not in the wind”). The only explanation of the הסערה here, as well as in Job_40:6, which is linguistically and historically satisfactory, is that which finds in it a reference to Elihu’s description of a violent thunder-storm in his last discourse (Job 36:37)—a reference which at the same time confirms not only our interpretation of this discourse given above, but also its genuineness, and the authenticity of Elihu’s discourses in general. Placing ourselves (along with the commentators cited above on Job 36.) on this, the only correct point of view, we see at once the impossibility of viewing “God’s speaking out of the storm” as taking place through a corporeal appearance of Jehovah in human form. On the contrary, precisely in the same way that Elihu’s description pre-supposed only an invisible approach and manifestation of God in the storm-clouds, in their thunder and lightning, so also here a similar presence and self-manifestation of the Highest is intended, taking place under the veil of those mighty phenomena of nature; hence only a symbolical, not a corporeal appearance of God. For this reason we may with some propriety describe the solution of the whole problem of our poem which is introduced by this divine appearance as “a solution in the consciousness” (Delitzsch). In any case the theophany which effects it is to be conceived of as one in which God “drew near to the earth veiled, perceptible indeed to the ear, and in His shining veil visible to the eye, but nevertheless veiled, and not presenting a bodily appearance” (Ewald). [In accordance with the explanation given above of Job_37:21-22, the סערה out of which Jehovah speaks is not to be limited to the storm while raging, but refers rather to “the dark materials of the storm now pacified,” the mountainous cloud-masses in the north, which having spent their thunder, were now looming up in “terrible majesty,” while their open rifts disclosed the golden irradiation of the sunlight, a scene we may suppose not unlike that described by Wordsworth near the close of the Second Book of the Excursion. Such a scene, just preceded as it had been by the awe-inspiring phenomena of the storm at its height would fitly usher in the Divine Presence, from which the words which are to end the controversy are about to proceed.—E.]
Job_38:2. Who is this that darkens counsel: lit. “who is this, who is here (מִי זֶה, comp. Gesenius, § 122 [§ 120], 2) darkening counsel?” עֵצָה without the article (instead of הָעֵצָה, or instead of עֲצָתִי) is used intentionally in order to describe that which is darkened by Job qualitatively, as something “which is a counsel (or a plan),” as opposed to a whim, or a cruel caprice, such as Job had represented God’s dealings with him as being. [“Two things are implied in what is here said to Job: that his suffering is founded on a plan of God’s, and that he by his perverse speeches is guilty of distorting and mistaking this plan (in representing it as caprice without a plan).” Dillm. Job’s ignorant words had “darkened” God’s plan by obscuring or keeping out of sight its intelligent benevolent features]. The participle מַחֲשִׁיךְ is used rather than the Perf., because down to the very end of his speaking Job had misunderstood God’s counsel, and even during Elihu’s discourses he had recalled nothing of what he had said in this particular. For to the instruction and reproofs of this last speaker he had made no other response than persistent profound silence. He actually appeared accordingly at the moment when Jehovah himself began to speak as still a “darkener of counsel,” however true it might be that his conversion to a better frame of mind had already begun inwardly to take place under the influence of the addresses of his predecessor. This participle מַחֲשִׁיךְ accordingly furnishes no argument against the genuineness of chap. 32-37. (against Ewald, Delitzsch, Dillmann, etc.): and all the less seeing that a direct interruption of Job at the moment when he had last spoken contentiously and censoriously in respect to God’s plan (Job_31:35 seq.) by the appearance of God cannot be intended even if these chapters were in fact not genuine (comp. remarks on that passage). And especially would the assumption that the interpolator of the Elihu discourses had been prompted by this expression, מַחֲשִׁיךְ, purposely to avoid introducing Job within the limits of that section as making any confession whatever of his penitence, presuppose on the part of the interpolator a degree of artistic deliberation, nay more, of crafty cunning absolutely without a parallel in the entire Bible literature.
Job_38:3. Gird up now thy loins like a man—i.e., in preparation for the contest with me (comp. Job_12:21). According to b this contest is to consist in a series of questions to be addressed by God to Job and to be answered by the latter; hence formally or apparently in the very thing which Job himself had in Job_13:22 wished for; in reality however God so overwhelms him by the humiliating contents of these questions that the absolute inequality of the contending parties and Job’s guilt become apparent at once.
3. The argument: a. God’s questions respecting the process of creation: Job_38:4-15. [This division consists of three minor strophes of four verses each, the fourth verse in each forming, as Schlottmann observes, a climax in the thought].
a. Questions touching the foundation of the earth: Job_38:4-7.
Job_38:4. Where wast thou when I founded the earth? (A question similar to that of Eliphaz above: Job_15:7 seq.). Declare it if thou hast understanding—to wit, of the way in which this process was carried on. This same How of the process of founding the earth is also the unexpressed object of הַגֵּד “declare!” In respect יָדַע בִּינָה, “to have an understanding of anything,” comp. Isa_29:24; Pro_4:1; 2Ch_2:12.
Job_38:5. Who hath fixed its measure that thou shouldest know it?—כִּי תֵדַע, not: “for thou surely knowest it” (Schlottmann) [Good, Lee, Barnes, Carey, Renan, Elzas], but “so that thou shouldest know it” (כִי as in Job_3:12). [Dillmann objects to the rendering, “for thou knowest,” that the verb should be in that case יָדַעְתָּ; an objection which may also be urged against the rendering of E. V., Sept., Vulg., Umbreit, Rosenmüller, Bernard, “if thou knowest.” Compare אִם יָדַעְתָּ in Job_38:4 b.]. “The מִי inquires not after the person of the Architect, the same being sufficiently known, but rather after His character, and that of His activity:—what kind of a being must He be who could fix the earth’s measure like that of a building?” (Dillmann).
Job_38:6. Whereon were its pillars sunken—i.e., on what kind of a foundation? אֲדָנִים lit. “pedestals,” comp. Exo_26:19 seq.; Son_5:15. The meaning of the question is of course that already indicated in Job_9:6; Job_26:7, according to which passages the earth hangs free in space. The question in b refers to the same thing: “or who laid down her corner-stone?” where the “laying down” (יָרָה, jacere) of the corner-stone points to the wonderful ease with which the entire work was accomplished.
Job_38:7. When the morning-stars sang out together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.—The Infinitive רֹן is continued in b by the finite verb, as in Job_38:13, and often. The whole description determines the time of the fact of the founding of the earth (καταβολὴ κόσμου) spoken of in Job_38:6. The founding is here set forth as a festal celebration (comp. Ezr_3:10; Zec_4:7) attended by all the heavenly hosts, which are here mentioned by the double designation “sons of God” (comp. Job_1:6; Job_2:1) and “morning stars, i.e., creatures of such glory, that they surpass all other creatures of God in the same way that the brightness of the morning-star (=כּוֹכַב בֹּקֶר הֵילֵל, Isa_14:12, Lucifer) eclipses all the other stars. As another example of this generic generalized form of expression here found in the word “morning-stars,” compare the כִּסִילִים of Isa_13:10, i.e., the Orion-like constellations. The expression “morning-stars” moreover is scarcely to be understood as a tropical designation of that which is literally designated by the expression “sons of God,” that is to say, the angels (Hirzel, Dillmann [Carey, Wemyss, Barnes] etc.). Rather are the angels and stars mentioned together here in precisely the same way that in Job_15:15 “heaven” and “the holy ones” of God are mentioned together, this being in accordance with the mysterious connection which the Holy Scriptures generally set forth as existing between the starry and angelic worlds (comp. also on Job_25:6). Such a representation of the brightly shining and joyously “jubilating” stars (comp. Psa_19:2; Psa_148:3) as present when the earth was founded by God by no means contradicts the Mosaic account of creation in Genesis 1. where verse 14 (according to which the sun, moon and stars were not made until the fourth day) is assuredly to be interpreted phenomenally, not as descriptive of the literal fact.
β. Questions respecting the shutting up of the sea within bounds: Job_38:8-11.
Job_38:8. And (who) shut up the sea with doors?—וַיָּסֵךְ, which is attached to מִי יָרָה in Job_38:6, is used with reference to the waters of the sea in the newly-created earth, which at first wildly swelling and raging had in consequence to be enclosed, penned up, as it were, behind the doors (comp. Job_3:23) of a prison (comp. Gen_1:2; Gen_1:9 seq.). The second member introduces a clause determining the time of the first which continues to the end of Job_38:11.—When it burst forth, came out from the womb—i.e., out of the interior of the earth (comp. Job_38:16). The verb גִּיחַ, which is used in Psa_22:10 [9] of the bursting forth of the fœtus out of the womb, is explained by the less bold word יֵצֵא (which follows the Infinitive in the same way as the finite verb above in Job_38:7). The representation of the earth as the womb, out of which the waters of the sea burst forth, seems to contradict the modern geological theory, which on the contrary makes the earth to emerge out of the primitive sea, which enveloped and covered everything. But the science of geology recognizes not only elevations, but depressions by sinking of land or mountain masses (comp. Friedr. Pfaff, Das Wasser, Munich, 1870, p. 250 seq.). Especially do the recent “Deep Sea Explorations,” as they are called, seem to be altogether favorable to the essential correctness of the biblical view presented here and also in Gen_7:11; Gen_8:2, which regards the interior of the earth as originally occupied by water (comp. Pfaff, p. 90 seq.; Hermann Gropp, Untersuchungen und Erfahrungen über das Verhalten des Grundwassers und der Quellen, Lippstadt, 1868).
Job_38:9. When I made the cloud its garment, etc. A striking poetic description of that which in Gen_2:6 seq. is narrated in historic prose. In respect to חֲתֻלָּה, “wrapping, swaddling-cloth,” comp. the corresponding verb in Eze_16:4. [By this expression the ocean is obviously compared to a babe. “God thus in grand language expresses how manageable was the ocean to Him.” Carey].
Job_38:10. And brake for it (lit. “over it”) my bound, etc. The verb שָׁבַר which is not here equivalent to גּזר, “to appoint,” as Arnheim, Wette, Hahn [Lee, Bernard, Noyes, Conant, Wemyss, Barnes, Renan] think, [or according to Rosenmüller, Umbreit, Carey, “to span,” after the Arabic] vividly portrays the abrupt fissures of the sea-coast, which is often so high and steep. Comp. the Homeric ἐπὶ ῥηγμῖνι θαλασσης. On חֹק, “bound,” comp. Job_26:10; Pro_8:29; Jer_5:22. On b comp. Job_38:8 a.
Job_38:11. Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further (וְלֹא תֹסִיף scil. לָבוֹא); here let one set against the pride of thy waves, scil. “a dam, a bound.” The verb יָשִׁית, “let one place” is used passively [and impersonally] for “let there be placed” (comp. Gesen. § 137 [§ 134]). It is not necessary, with the Vulg. and Pesh. to read תָּשִׁית, “here shalt thou stay the pride of thy waves,” or, with Codurcus, Ewald, and others to make פא the subj. (in the sense of “this place”). On the pride of the waves”=“proud waves,” comp. Psa_89:10 [9].
γ. Questions respecting the regular advance of the light of morning upon the earth: Job_38:12-15. [“The transition from the sea to the morning is not so abrupt as it appears. For the ancients supposed that the sun sets in the ocean, and at his rising comes out of it again.” Noyes. “Here with genuine poetry the dawn sending forth its rays upon the earth immediately after creation is represented in its regular recurrence and in its moral significance. This member accordingly forms the transition to the following strophe; it is however first of all the logical conclusion of the first.” Schlottmann].
Job_38:12. Hast thou since thy birth (lit. “from thy days”) commanded the morning (i.e., to arise at its time), made known to the dawn its place, (lit. “made the dawn to know its place”). Instead of the K’thibh, יִדַּעְתָּה שַׁחַר it is certainly admissible to read with the K’ri יִדַּעְתָּ הַשַּׁחַר; the anarthrous בֹּקֶר of the first member by no means requires us to remove the definite article from the dawn, which is always only one. [“The mention of its ‘place’ here seems to be an allusion to the fact that it does not always occupy the same position. At one season of the year it appears on the equator, at another north, at another south of it, and is constantly varying its position. Yet it always knows its place. It never fails to appear where by the long-observed laws it ought to appear.” Barnes].
Job_38:13. That it may take hold on the borders (or “fringes”) of the earth. The surface of the earth is conceived of as an outspread carpet, of the ends of which the dawn as it were takes hold all together as it rises suddenly and spreads itself rapidly (comp. Job_37:3; Psa_139:9), and this with the view of shaking out of it “the wicked, the evil-doers who, dreading the light, ply their business upon it by night;” i.e., of removing them from it at once. The passage contains an unmistakable allusion to Job’s own previous description in Job_24:13 seq. God, anticipating herein in a certain measure the contents of His second discourse, would give Job to understand “how through the original order of creation as established by Himself human wrong is ever annulled again”) Ewald. Comp. also Job_5:15).
Job_38:14. That it may change like signet-clay—i.e., the earth (γῆ σημανρίς, Herod. II. 38), which during the night is, as it were, a shapeless mass, like unsealed wax, but which, in the bright light of the morning, reveals the entire beauty of its changing forms, of its heights and depths, etc. The subj. of יִתְיַצְּבוֹ is to be sought neither in the “morning” and “day-spring” of Job_38:12 (Schultens, Rosenmüller), which is altogether too far removed from this clause, nor in the “borders” of Job_38:13 (Ewald), but in the particular things found on the earth’s surface. The effect of the morning on them is that “they set themselves forth (or, all sets itself forth) like a garment,” i.e., in all the manifold variegated forms and colors of gay apparel.
Job_38:15. From the wicked their light is withheld—i.e., the darkness of the night with which they are so familiar [and which is to them what light is to others], comp. Job_24:16 seq. (Delitz.: “the light to which they are partial” [ihr Lieblingslicht]). And the uplifted arm (is) broken—i.e., figuratively, in the sense that the light of the day compels it to desist from the violence, to fulfil which it had raised itself (comp. Job_22:8).
4. Continuation: b. Questions respecting the heights and depths above and below the earth, and the natural forces proceeding from them: Job_38:16-27.
a. The depths under the earth: Job_38:16-18.
Job_38:16. Hast thou come to the well-springs of the sea?—i.e., to those “fountains of the deep” of which the Mosaic account of the Flood makes mention; Gen_7:11; Gen_8:2 (comp. above on Job_38:8). The phrase נִבְכֵי־יָם, found only here, is not, with Olshausen and Hitzig, to be changed into נִבְלֵי־יָם, for the root נבךְ is evidently only a harsher variation of נבע, and so beyond a doubt expresses the notion of “welling, springing.” Thus correctly the LXX: πηγὴ θαλάσσης. [Jarchi, followed by Bernard, Lee, (and see Ewald and Schlottmann) defines נבכים to mean “entanglements, mazes” (comp. בוךְ); but this meaning is less probable than the one more commonly received after the Sept.].—In respect to חֵקֶר in b, comp. above, Job_8:8; Job_11:7.
Job_38:17. Have the gates of death opened themselves to thee, etc.—Comp. Job_26:6, where the mention of the realm of the dead follows that of the sea precisely as here. On “death,” as meaning the realm of the dead, comp. Job_28:22; and on צלמות in the same sense, see Job_10:21 seq.
Job_38:18. Hast thou made an examination unto the breadths of the earth.—התבונן עד signifies, as also in Job_32:12, “to attend to anything strictly, to take a close observation of anything,” the עד indicating that this observation is complete, that it penetrates through to the extreme limit. The interrogative הֲis omitted before הִתְבֹּנַנְתָּ, in order to avoid the concurrence of the two aspirates (Ewald, § 324, b). On b comp. Job_38:4, כֻּלָהּ refers not to the earth, but in the neuter sense, to the things spoken of in the questions just asked. [“To see the force of this (question), we must remember that the early conception of the earth was that it was a vast plain, and that in the time of Job its limits were unknown.” Barnes. “Too much stress is commonly laid on the fact that when the poet wrote this, only a small part of the earth was known. Unquestionably the consciousness of the limitation of man’s vision was in some respects strengthened by that, fact; but that which is properly the main point here, to wit, the inability of man, at one glance to compass the whole earth and all its hidden depths retains all its ancient stress in connection with the widest geographical acquaintance with the surface of the earth.” Schlottmann].
β. The heights of light above the earth: Job_38:19-21.
Job_38:19. What is the way (thither, where) the light dwells.—On the relative clause יִשְּׁכּוֹן אוֹר comp. Ges. § 123 [§ 121], 3, c. On b, comp. Job_28:1-12. The meaning of the whole verse is as follows: Both light and darkness have a first starting point or a final outlet, which is unapproachable to man, and unattainable to his researches. [“As in Genesis 1., the light is here regarded as a self-subsistent, natural force, independent of the heavenly luminaries by which it is transmitted: and herein modern investigation agrees with the direct observations of antiquity.” Schlottm.]
Job_38:20. That Thou mightest bring them (light and darkness) to their bound [lit. “it to its bound,” the subjects just named considered separately]. כִּי as above in Job_38:5. לקח lit. “to bring, to fetch;” comp. Gen_27:13; Gen_42:16; Gen_48:9.—And that thou shouldest know the paths of their house, i.e. “to their home, their abiding place” (comp. Job_28:23). It is possible that by this “knowing about the paths of their house” is meant taking back [escorting home] the light and darkness, just as in the first member mention is made of fetching, bringing them away; for the repetition of כִּי seems to indicate that the meaning of the two halves of the verse is not identical (Dillmann).
Job_38:21 is evidently intended ironically: Thou knowest, for then wast thou born, i.e. at the time when light and darkness were created, and their respective boundaries were determined. The meaning is essentially the same as in Job_15:7. On the Imperf. with אָז comp. Gesenius, § 127 [§ 125], 4, a; Ewald, § 136, b.—And the number of thy days is many.—The attraction in connection with מִסְפַּר as in Job_15:20; Job_21:21. [The interrogative rendering of this verse, as in E. V.: “Knowest thou it, because thou-wast then born?” etc., is excessively flat. It may be undesirable, as Barnes says, “to represent God as speaking in the language of irony and sarcasm, unless the rules of interpretation imperatively demand it.” But humiliating irony surely accords better with the dignity and character of the speaker, as well as with the connection, than pointless insipidity.—E.]
γ. Snow and hail, light and wind: Job_38:22-24.
Job_38:22. Hast thou come to the treasuries of the snow? Comp. on Job_37:9. The figure of the “treasuries” (אֹצָרוֹת, magazines, storehouses) vividly represents the immense quantities in which snow and hail are wont to fall on the earth; comp. Psa_135:7.
Job_38:23 gives the purpose and rule of the Divine Government of the world, which snow and hail are constrained to subserve.—Which I have reserved for the time of distress.—Such an עֵת צָר (comp. Job_15:24; Job_36:16) may be caused in the east not only by a hailstorm (Exo_9:22; Hag_2:17; Sir_39:29), but even by a fall of snow. In February, 1860, innumerable herds of sheep, goats and camels, and also many men, were destroyed in Hauran by a snow-storm, in which snow fell in enormous quantities, as described by Muhammed el-Chatib el-Bosrawi in a writing still in the possession of Consul Wetzstein (Delitzsch).—The second member refers to such cases as Jos_10:11 (comp. Isa_28:17; Isa_30:30; Eze_13:13; Psa_68:15 [14]; 1Sa_7:10; 2Sa_23:20), where violent hail or thunder-storms contributed to decide the issues of war in accordance with the divine decrees.
Job_38:24. What is the way to where the light is parted [where] the east wind spreadeth over the earth.—The construction as in Job_38:19 a. The light and the east wind (i.e. a violent wind, a storm in general, comp. Job_27:21) are here immediately joined together, because the course of both these agents defies calculation, and because they are incredibly swift in their movements [possibly also because they both proceed from the same point of the compass]. אוֹר scarcely denotes the lightning, as in Job_37:3 seq. (Schlottmann), which is first spoken of in Job_38:25, and then again in Job_38:35, and to which the verb יחלק, “divides, scatters itself,” is less suitable than to the bright day-light (comp. Job_38:13 seq.) In respect to הֵפִיץ, se diffundere, comp. Exo_5:12; 1Sa_13:8. [According to the E. V. the light is the subject of both members: “By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth.” But this construction is less probable and suitable than that given above, which recognizes the “light” as the subject of the first member, and the “east-wind” of the second.—E.]
d. The rain-storm and the lightning considered as divinely appointed phenomena which, while they inspire terror, are productive of beneficent results: Job_38:25-27.
Job_38:25. Who hath divided a watercourse for the rain-torrent, i.e., conducted the rain through the thick masses of clouds to specific portions of the thirsty earth. שֶׁטֶף, which of itself means “flood, torrent of waters” in general, is used here of a down-pouring beneficent torrent of rain [“the earthward direction assigned to the water-spouts is likened to an aqueduct coming downwards from the sky;” Delitzsch], and hence in a different sense from e.g., Psa_32:6. The second member is taken verbally from Job_28:26.
Job_38:26. That it may rain on the land where no man is; lit. “to cause it to rain,” etc. The subject of לְהַמְטִיר is of course God who has been already indicated by מִי in Job_38:25. That it should rain on a land of “no-man” (the construction as in Job_10:22), i.e., on a land destitute of men, not artificially irrigated and tilled by men, is here set forth as a wise and loving providential arrangement of God’s. [“God lays stress on this circumstance in order to humiliate man, and to show him that the earth was made neither by him, nor for him.” Renan. “Man who is so prone to put his own interests above everything else, and to judge everything from his own human point of view, is here most strikingly reminded, how much wider is the range of the Divine vision, and how God in the exercise of His loving solicitude remembers even those regions, which receive no care from man, so that even there the possibility of life and growth is secured to His creatures.” Dillmann].
Job_38:27 then states more definitely this beneficent purpose of God: to satisfy the wild and wilderness, (שֹׁאָה וּמְשׁוֹאָה as in Job_30:3) [“the desert is thus like a thirsty pilgrim; it is parched, and thirsty, and sad, and it appeals to God, and He meets its wants and satisfies it,” Barnes], and to make the green herb to sprout; lit. “to make the place (the place of going forth, מֹצָא, comp. Job_28:1) of the green herb to sprout.”
5. Continuation. c. Questions respecting the phenomena of the atmosphere and the wonders of the starry heavens: Job_38:28-38.
α. Respecting rain, dew, ice, and hoar-frost: Job_38:28-30.
Job_38:28-29. Is there a father to the rain? As this member, together with the following inquires (through the formula מִי הוֹלִיד) after a male progenitor for the atmospheric precipitations of moisture, so does Job_38:29 inquire after the mother of ice and hoar-frost, for the formula מִי ילֳדוֹ in b also refers to the agency of a mother, as well as the question in a. This variation of gender in the representation is to be explained by the fact that rain and dew come from heaven, the abode of God, while ice and hoarfrost come out of the earth, out of the secret womb of the waters (verse 8).—אֶגְלֵי טָל in Job_38:28 b are not “reservoirs of dew” (Gesenius), for which the verb הוֹלִיד would not be suitable, but drops (lit. balls, globules; LXX.: βῶλοι) of dew, whether the root אגל be associated with גללִ, volvere (which is the view commonly held), or with the Arab, agal, retinere, colligere (so Delitzsch).
Job_38:30 describes more specifically the wonderful process which takes place when water is frozen into ice. The water hardens like stone. יִתְחַבָּאוּ, lit. “they hide themselves, draw themselves together, thicken” (a related form is חָמָא, whence הֶמְאָה, curdled milk). The same representation of the process of freezing as producing contraction or compression (a representation which in the strict physical sense is not quite correct, seeing that water on the contrary always expands in freezing—comp. Pfaff, in the work cited above, pp. 103, 189 seq.), was given above by Elihu, chapter Job_37:10, not however without indicating in what sense he intended this compression, a sense which is by no means incorrect; see on the passage. A similar intimation is conveyed here by the second member: and the face of the deep cleaves together, and thus constitutes a firm solid mass (continuum), instead of fluctuating to and fro, as in the fluid state. הִתְלַכֵּד as in Job_41:8 [17]; comp. the Greek ἔχεσθαι.
β. Respecting the control of the stars, and of their influence upon earth: Job_38:31-33.
Job_38:31. Canst thou bind the bands of the Pleiades?—מַעֲדַנּוֹת here not = amœnitates, as in 1Sa_15:32, [E. V., “sweet influences,” referring to the softening and gladdening influences of spring-time, when that constellation makes its appearance] but vincula (LXX.: δεσμόν; Targ. שֵׁירֵי=σειράς) as appears from קשר “to bind,” and the parallel מוֹשְׁכוֹת in b, and not less from the testimony of all the ancient versions, of Talmudic usage, and of the Masora. It is to be derived accordingly by transposition from ענד, “to bind” (comp. Job_31:36) not from עדן. The arranging of the stars of the Pleiades (כִּימָה as in Job_9:9) in a dense group is with poetic boldness described here as the binding of a fillet, or of a cluster of diamonds. (See a similar conception copied out of Persian poets in Ideler, Sternennamen, p. 147).—Or loose the bands of Orion, so that this brilliant constellation would fall apart, or fall down from heaven, to which the presumptuous giant is chained (comp. on Job_9:9). The explanation preferred by Dillmann is admissible, and even perhaps, in view of the etymon of מוֹשְׁכוֹת, to be preferred to the one more commonly adopted: “Or canst thou loose the lines [German—Zugseile, draw-lines, traces, the cords by which he is drawn up to his place, suggested by סשׁךְ] of Orion (the giant suspended in heaven), and thus canst thou now raise, and now lower him in the firmament?” The reference of the passage to the Star Suhêl = Canopus (Saad., Gekat., Abulwalid, comp. also Delitzsch) is uncertain, and conflicts with the well-known signification of כְּסִיל, which is also firmly established by Job_9:9.
Job_38:32. Canst thou bring forth the bright stars in their time (בְּעִתּוֹ as in Job_5:26; Psa_104:27; Psa_145:15). The word מַזָּרוֹת, to which such a variety of interpretations have been given, which already the LXX. did not understand, and accordingly rendered by μασουρώθ [followed herein by E. V., “Mazzaroth”], seems to be most simply explained (with Dillmann) as a contracted form of מַזְהָרוֹת, from זהר, splendere, and to mean accordingly “the brightly shining, brilliant stars,” in which case we may assume the planets to be intended, particularly such as are pre-eminently brilliant, as Venus, Jupiter, Mars, (comp. Vulg., “Luciferum”) [Fürst: Jupiter, the supreme god of good fortune]. The “being brought forth in their time” seems to suit better these wandering stars than e.g., “the two crowns,” the Northern and Southern (Cocceius, Eichhorn, Michaelis, Ewald, by comparison with נזר) [these constellations being, as Dillmann objects, too obscure and too little known], or the twelve signs of the Zodiac (so the majority of moderns, on the basis of the very precarious identification of מַזָּרוֹת with מַזָּלוֹת, 2Ki_23:5), or the twenty-eight stations (Arab. menâzil) of the moon (so A. Weber, in his Abhandlung über die vedischen Nachrichten von den naxatra, oder Mondstationen, 1860), or, finally, any prophetic stars whatever, astra, præsaga, præmonentia (Gesenius, who refers the word to נזר in the Arabic signification).—And guide the Bear (lit., “the she-bear,” עַיִשׁ, comp. Job_9:9) together with his [lit., her] young?i.e., the constellation of the Bear with the three stars forming its tail, which are regarded as its children (בָּנִים, in Arab. בָּנוֹת); see on Job_9:9. The evening star (vesperus, Vulg.) is far from being intended, and equally so the comparatively unimportant constellation Capella (Eichhorn, Bibliothek, Vol. VII., p. 429).
Job_38:33. Knowest thou the laws of heaven?i.e., the laws which rule the course of the stars, the succession of seasons and periods, annual and diurnal, etc., (comp. Gen_1:14 seq.; Job_8:22).—Or dost thou establish its dominion over the earth?i.e., dost thou ordain and confirm its influence (that of heaven, here personified as a king; comp. Ewald, § 318 a) on earthly destinies. מִשְׁטָר, “dominion,” is construed [with בְּ] after the analogy of the verbs משׁל בְּ ,רדה בְ.
γ. Respecting the Divine control of clouds and lightnings: Job_38:34; Job_38:36. On Job_38:34 b, comp. Job_22:11 b (which is here verbally repeated). On Job_38:35 comp. Psa_104:3; Psa_33:9.
δ. Additional questions relating to the clouds, and their agencies: Job_38:36-38.
Job_38:36. Who put wisdom in the dark clouds, who gave understanding to that which appears in the sky [Germ. “Luftgebilde” atmospheric phenomena]; i.e., who has given to them an intelligent arrangement and significance, טֻחוֹת, from טוּחַ, signifies here as in Psa_51:8, dark, hidden places,” meaning here, as the connection shows, “dark clouds, black cloud-layers” (Eichhorn, Umbr., Hirz., Stickel, Hahn, Dillmann, etc., by comparison with the Arabic טחא, and its derivative nouns. In that caseשֶׂכְוִי, from the Hebr. and Aram, שׂכה, “to see,” (comp. שְׂכִיּוּת and מַשְׂכִּית), signifies “appearance, phenomenon, form,” here according to the parallelism of the first member, “a form, phenomenon of the atmosphere, or the clouds.” It can scarcely mean (the rainbow being certainly called קֶשֶׁט, Gen_9:13) “an appearance of light, fiery meteor” (Ewald, Hahn), or “the full moon,” (so Dillmann, at least tentatively, assuming at the same time that טֻחוֹת refers to the dark phases of the moon). At all events the explanation which refers both parallel expressions to phenomena of the cloud-heavens is the only one suited to the context (as was the case with the meteorological sense of “gold” in Job_37:22; whereas on the contrary the interpretation long ago adopted by the Vulg., the 2d Targ., and many Rabbis [and E. V.] and recently by Delitzsch [Gesenius, Noyes, Conant, Barnes, Wordsworth, Schlottmann, Renan], according to which טֻחוֹת means “the reins,” or “entrails,” (comp. Psa_51:8 [6]), and שֶׂכְוִי the “cock” [as “the weather-prophet κατ̓ ἐξοχήν among animals,” Delitzsch: while Gesenius, Schlottmann, Noyes, Conant, Wordsworth, Renan, as also E. V., render by “heart, intelligence”] yields a meaning that is singular enough, and which is made no better when the cock is regarded as speculator et præco auroræ, as ales diei nuntius (Prudentius), or as a weather-prophet (after Cicero, de divin. II., 26), and the reins are supposed to be mentioned because of their power of foretelling the weather and presaging the future. Still more singular and opposed to the context is the rendering of the LXX.: Τίς ἔδωκεν γυναικὶ ὐφάσματος σοφίαν καὶ ποικιλτικὴν ἐπιστήμην [And who has given to woman skill in weaving, or knowledge of embroidery]? They seem to have read in the first member טֹווֹת, in the second שָׂכוֹת, “embroidering women,” or שַׂכּוֹת “to embroider.”
Job_38:37. Who numbers the clouds in Wisdom.—סִפֵּר as elsewhere the Kal: “to number” (Job_28:27). And the bottles of the heavens—who inclines them—i.e., who causes them to be emptied, to pour out their fluid contents. The comparison of the clouds, laden with rain, to bottles, or pitchers occurs frequently also in Arabic poets (see Schultens on the passage). [E. V. “Who can stay the bottles of heaven?” which is less suitable to השׁכיב, and to the context. Jerome, taking, נבלי to mean “harps,” renders uniquely: et concentrum cœlorum quis dormire faciet?]
Job_38:38. When the dust flows together into a molten mass. מוּצָק, “fused, solid metal,” a word which is to be explained in accordance with Job_37:18 (not in accordance with Job_22:16). צֶקֶת here, as in 1Ki_22:35, to be rendered intransitively: “When the dust pours itself,” i.e., when it flows, runs, as it were, together. In respect to רְגָבים, “clods,” comp. Job_21:33.
6. Continuation and conclusion, d. Questions respecting the propagation and preservation of wild beasts as objects of the creative power and wise providence of God. chap. 38–39:30. a. The lion, the raven, the wild goat, the stag, and the wild ass: Job_38:39 to Job_39:8.
Job_38:39. Dost thou hunt the prey for the lioness, and dost thou appease the craving of the young lions?—Respecting the lion’s names, לָבִיא and כְּפִיר, comp. on Job_4:11. “To appease (lit. to fill) the craving” (מִלֵּא חַיָּה), means the same as “to fill the soul” (מ׳ נֶפֶשׁ), Pro_6:30.
Job_38:40. When they crouch in the dens. On יָשֹׁחוּ comp. Psa_10:10. On מְעוֹנוֹתlustra, comp. Psa_104:22. In respect to סֻכָּה in b, comp. סֹךְ, used elsewhere in the sense of “thicket,” Psa_10:9; Jer_25:38. On לְמוֹ־אָֽרֶב, which gives the object of the “crouching” and “sitting” [or “dwelling”], comp. Job_31:9 b.
Job_38:41. Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry unto God, [wander without food?—The interrogation properly extends over the whole verse, not, as in E. V., over the first member only, which makes the remainder of the verse meaningless.—E.]. הֵכִין, “to prepare, to provide,” as in Job_27:16 seq. כִּי “when,” as in Job_38:40 a. The ravens are introduced here, as in the parallel passages, Psa_147:9; Luk_12:24, as objects of God’s fatherly care, rather than any other description of birds, because they are specially noticeable among birds in search of food, by reason of their hoarse cries. Observe moreover the contrast, which is surely intentional between the mighty monarch of the beasts, which in Job_38:39 seq. is put at the head of beasts in search of food, and the contemptibly small, insignificant, and uncomely raven. [“Jewish and Arabian writers tell strange stories of this bird, and its cruelty to its young; hence, say some, the Lord’s express care for the young ravens, after they had been driven out of the nests by the parent birds; but this belief in the ravens’ want of affection to its young is entirely without foundation. To the fact of the raven being a common bird in Palestine, and to its habit of flying restlessly about in constant search for food to satisfy its voracious appetite, may perhaps be traced the reason for its being selected by our Lord and the inspired writers as the especial object of God’s providing care.” Smith’s Bib. Dict. Art. “Raven.”]
Job_39:1-4 : Propagation and increase of the wild goats (rock-goats, ibices) and stags.
Job_39:1. Knowest thou the time when the wild goats bear? observest thou the travail of the hinds?—חוֹלֵל Inf. Pilel of חול, “to be in labor,” ὠδίνειν (comp. the Pulal in Job_15:7), here the object of תִּשְׁמֹר, to which verb the influence of the הֲ before יָדַעְתָּ in the first member extends.
Job_39:2. Dost thou number the months which they (must) fulfil;i.e., until they bring forth, hence their period of gestation. [The point of the question can scarcely be that Job could have no knowledge whatever of the matters here referred to, but that he could have no such knowledge as would qualify him to stand toward these creatures at such a time in the place of God; or, as Carey expresses it: “Can you keep an exact register of all this, and exercise such providential care over these creatures, the mountain goats and hinds, as to preserve them from dangers during the time of gestation, and then deliver them at the proper period?”—E.]. In the second member לִדְתָּנָה, with full-toned suffix, is used for לִדְתָּן; comp. Rth_1:19, and Gesenius, § 91 [§ 89], 1, Rem. 2. [Green, § 104, g].
Job_39:3. They bow themselves (comp. 1Sa_4:19), they let their young ones break through (lit. “cleave;” comp. Job_16:13), they cast away their pains;i.e., the fruit of their pains, their fœtus, for this is what חֶבֶל here signifies, not the after-pains, as Hirzel and Schlottmann think. Comp. ῥίψαι ὠδῖνα = edere fœtum, in Euripides, Ion 45; also examples of the same phraseology from the Arabic in Schultens on the passage. It will be seen further that תפלחנה (instead of which Olshausen needlessly conjectures תפלטנה after Job_21:10) forms a paronomasia with תשלחנה.
Job_39:4. Their young ones become strong (חלם, lit. “to grow fat,” pinguescere), grow up in the desert.—בַּחוּץ=בַּבָּר, or בַּשָּדֶה, as often in the Targ. [a meaning more suitable to the context than that of E. V. “with corn “]. They go away, and return not to them;i.e., to the parents, לָמוֹ however might also be explained after Job_6:19; Job_24:16 as Dat. commodi: sibi=sui juris esse volentes (Schultens, Delitzsch).
Vers 5–8. The wild ass, introduced as an example of many beasts, the life of which is characterized by unrestricted liberty, defying and mocking all human control and nurture.
Job_39:5. Who hath sent out the wild ass free, and who hath loosed the bands of the fugitive?—The words פֶּרֶא (Arab, ferâ; comp. above Job_6:5; Job_11:12; Job_24:5) and עָרּוֹד denote one and the same animal, the wild ass or onager (the ὄνος ἄγριος of the LXX., the “Kulan” of the eastern Asiatics of to-day), which is characterized by the first name as the “swift runner,” by the latter (which in Aramaic, and particularly in the Targum is the common name), as the “shy, fleeing one.” As to the predicate accusative חָפְּשִׁי, “free, set loose,” comp. Deu_15:12; Jer_34:14. As to the second member, comp. Job_38:31.
Job_39:6. Whose home [lit. “house”] I have made the desert, and his abode the salt-steppe.—The word “salt-steppe” (מְלֵחָה) which is here used as parallel to “waste, desert” (ערבה, Job_24:5 b), stands in Psa_107:34 as the opposite of אֶרֶץ פְּרִי (comp. Jdg_9:45, where mention is made of sowing a destroyed city with salt). On the preference of the wild ass for saline plants, and on his disposition to take up his abode in salt marshes, comp. Oken, Allg. Naturgesch. Vol. VII., p. 1230.
Job_39:7. [He laughs at the tumult (E. V. “multitude,” but the parallelism favors “tumult”) of the city], the driver’s shouts he hears not;i.e., he flees from the control of the drivers, to which the tamed ass is subjected. On תְּשֻׁאוֹת, comp. Job_36:29.
Job_39:8. He ranges through the mountains as his pasture.—So according to the reading יָתוּר (Imperf. of תּוּר, investigare), which is attested by almost all the ancient versions, by the LXX, Vulg., Targum. The Masoretic reading יְתוּר is either (with the Pesh. Le Clerc, etc.) to be taken as a variant of תּוּר, abundantia, or as a derivative of תּוּר with the meaning, “that which is searched out” (investigatum, investigabile). But the statement that “the abundance of the mountains is the pasture of the wild ass” would be at variance with the fact in respect to the life of these animals, which inhabit the bare mountain-steppes (comp. Oken in the work cited above). On the other hand we should expect the normal form יְתוּר, following the analogy of such words as יָקוּם to have an active rather than a passive signification. יְתוּר however can scarcely mean “circle, compass,” [E. V. “range”] here (Hahn).
β. The oryx and ostrich: Job_39:9-18.
Job_39:9. Will the oryx be pleased to serve thee?—רֵים, contracted from רְאֵם (comp. the full written form רִאֵים, Psa_92:11), assuredly denotes not the rhinoceros (Aq., Vulgate) [Good, Barnes], because the animal intended must be one that was common in Western Asia, and especially in the regions of Syria and Palestine. Comp. the reference to it in Psa_22:22 [21]; Job_29:6; Deu_33:17; Isa_34:7. It would be more natural, with Schultens, Gesenius, De Wette, Umbreit, Hirzel [Robinson, Noyes, Carey, Wordsworth, Renan, Rodwell, Conant, Fürst, Smith’sBib. Dict. Art. “Unicorn”], etc., to understand the buffalo or wild ox [bos bubalus) to be intended, seeing that this animal is still quite common in Palestine, and that here a contrast seems to be intended between this wild ox and the tame species (see Job_39:10). But this particular buffalo of Palestine is an animal which is not particularly strong, or characterized by untamable wildness, as is shown by the fact that it is frequently used in tilling the land (Russell, Naturgesch. von Aleppo, II. 7) [Thomson’sLand and the Book, I. 386, 387]. The μονοκέρως of the LXX. [E. V.: “unicorn”] (of which the Talmudic קרש is a mutilated form, and the ῥινοκἑρως of Aquila and Jerome is a misunderstanding) points to an animal which is, if not always, yet often, represented as having one horn, i.e., as being armed with one horn on the forehead, consisting of two which have grown together. Such an animal seems in ancient times to have been somewhat common in Egypt and South-western Asia, the same being a species nearly related to the oryx—antelope (Antil. loucoryx) of to-day. It is represented on Egyptian monuments, now with two horns, and now with one. It is described by Aristotle and Pliny as a one-horned, cloven hoof (Aristotle, Hist. Anim. II. 1; De Partib. Anim. III. 2; Pliny, Hist. Nat. XI. 106); and in all probability it has been again discovered recently in the Tschiru, or the Antil. Hodgsonii of Southern Thibet (Hue and Gabet, Journeyings through Mongolia and Thibet, Germ. Edit., p. 323; see the passage quoted in Delitzsch, II., p. 334, n. 2). The name רים in the passage before us is all the more suitably applied to such an animal of the oryx species, in view of the fact that the corresponding Arabic word still signifies a species of antelope among the Syro-Arabians of to-day, and that this same oryx-family embraces sub-species which are particularly wild, largely and powerfully built, and almost bovine in their characteristics. Accordingly, Luther’s translation of the word by “unicorn,” in this passage, and probably in every other where ראם occurs in the Old Testament, supported as it is by the LXX., might be justified without our being compelled to understand by this “unicorn” a fabulous animal like that of the Perso-Assyrian monuments, or of the English royal coat-of-arms. Comp. on the subject S. Bochart, Hierozoicon, II. 335 seq.; Rosenmüller, Bibl. Alterth. IV. 2, 288 seq.; Lichtenstein, Die Antilopen, 1824; Lewysohn, Zoologie des Talmud, 1858, § 146, 174; Sundewall, Die Thierarten des Aristoteles, Stockholm, 1863, p. 64 seq.; also Koner’s Zeitschr. für allgem. Erdkunde, 1862, II., H. 3, p. 227, where interesting information is given respecting the researches of the Englishman, W. B. Bailie, touching the existence of a one horned animal still to be found in the regions of Central Africa, south of the Sea of Tsad, differing both from the rhinoceros and from the unicorn of the British coat-of-arms, which is probably, therefore, an African variety of the oryx—antelope, and possibly the very same variety as that represented on the old Egyptian monuments. [See Robinson’s Researches in Palestine, III, 306, 563; Wilson, Lands of the Bible, II., p. 167 seq.; and the remarks of Dr. Mason, of the Assam Mission, in the Christian Review, January, 1856, quoted by Conant in this verse.] Will he lodge [lit. “pass the night,” יָלִיןat thy crib?—lit. “over thy crib” [hence אֵבוּם cannot be, as defined by Gesenius, “stall, stable”], for the crib being very low, the cattle of the ancients in the East reached over it with the head while lying beside it. Comp. Isa_1:3 and Hitzig on the passage.
Job_39:10. Dost thou bind the oryx to the furrow of his cord?—i.e., to the furrow (comp. Job_31:38) which he raises by means of the ploughshare, as he is led along by the cord. Or will he harrow the valleys (Ps. 65:14) after thee (אַחֲרֶיךָ), i.e., while following thee, when thou seekest to lead him in the act of ploughing [rather, as in the text, harrowing, שִׂדֵּד, to level].
Job_39:11. Wilt thou trust him because his strength is great?—i.e., will the great strength which he possesses awake thy confidence, and not rather thy mistrust? On יְגִיעַ, “labor” [“wilt thou commit to him thy labor”], in the sense of the fruit of labor, the product of tilling, comp. Psa_78:46; Psa_128:2. The verse following is decisive in favor of this interpretation of the verse before us; otherwise the word might, in accordance with Gen_31:42, denote the labor or the toil itself.
Job_39:12. Wilt thou trust to him that he bring home thy sowing?—Respecting כִּי as exponent of the object, see Ewald, § 336, b.יָשׁוּב, if we adhere to it, with the K’thibh, is used in the transitive sense, as in Job_42:10; Psa_85:5. The K’ri, however, substitutes for it the Hiphil, which, in this sense, is the form more commonly used. And that he gather (into) thy threshing-floor.—גָּרְנְךָ is probably locative (בַּגָּרְנְךָ=). It may possibly, however, be taken as accusative of the object per synecdochen continentis pro contento (threshing-floor=fruits of the threshing-floor, yield of the harvest), as in Rth_3:2; Mat_3:12.
Job_39:13-18. The ostrich (lit. the female ostrich) introduced as an example of untamable wildness from among the birds. The wing of the (female) ostrich waves joyously.—רְנָנִים, lit. “wailings, shrill cries of mourning” plur. abstr.) is a poetic designation of the ostrich here, or of the female ostrich, noted for its piercing cries. So correctly the Vulg., Bochart, and almost all the moderns. The Targ. arbitrarily understands the bird designated to be the “mountain-cock,” Kimchi and Luther the “peacock” [and so E. V.: “Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the pea-cocks?”] As to נֵעֱלָם, “to move itself joyously,” comp. Job_20:18; also the Homeric expression, ἀγάλλεσθαι πτερύγεσσιν. Is it a pious pinion and plumage?—i.e., is the wing of this bird, the waving of which is so powerful and wonderfully rapid, a pious one, productive of mild and tender qualities, like that of the stork? For it is to that bird—which in its build resembles the ostrich, but which is more mild in disposition, and is, in particular, more affectionate and careful in the treatment of its offspring—that the predicate חֲסִידָה, pia with its double meaning, refers (which Delitzsch accordingly translates storchfromm [stork-pious], pia instar circoniæ). This is evident from the description which follows.
Job_39:14. Nay, she abandons her eggs to the earth.—כִּי here “nay, rather,” as in Job_22:2. The subj. of תעזב is the רננים of Job_39:13, construed here as Fem. Sing. The same construction obtains in the following verbs (Ew. §318 a).
Job_39:15. And forgets that the foot can crush them.—וַתִּשְׁכַּח, simply consecutive, and hence present; comp. Job_3:21. On the sing, suffix in תְּזוּרֶהָ, referring to the eggs, see Gesenius, § 146 [§ 143], 3. The fact here described, to wit, that the mother ostrich easily forgets her eggs, at least while she is not yet through with laying them, as well as in the beginning of the period of incubation, and that she leaves them unprotected, especially on the approach of hunters, is true of this animal only in its wild condition. In that state it shares these and similar habits, proceeding from excessive wildness and fear of man, with many other birds, as, e. g., the partridge. In its tamed condition, the ostrich watches over its young very diligently indeed,—and, moreover, shows nothing of that stupidity popularly ascribed to it, and which has become proverbial (to which Job_39:17 alludes). Comp. the Essay entitled: Die Zuchtung des Straussen als europäisches Hausthier, in the Ausland, 1869, No. 13, p. 30.6. The opinion moreover, partially circulated among the ancients, that the ostrich does not at all incubate its eggs, belongs to that class of scientific fables which, as in the case of those strange animals the basilisk, the dragon, the unicorn, etc., have been incorrectly imputed to the Old Testament. The verse before us furnishes no support whatever to that opinion. [See Smith’s Bib. Dict., Art, “Ostrich.” “The habit of the ostrich leaving its eggs to be matured by the sun’s heat is usually appealed to in order to confirm the Scriptural account, ‘she leaveth her eggs to the earth;’ but this is probably the case only with the tropical birds; the ostriches with which the Jews were acquainted were, it is likely, birds of Syria,. Egypt and North Africa; but even if they were acquainted with the habits of the tropical ostriches, how can it be said that ‘she forgetteth that the foot may crush.’ the eggs, when they are covered a foot deep or more in sand? We believe the true explanation of this passage is to be found in the fact that the ostrich deposits some of her eggs not in the nest, but around it; these lie about on the surface of the sand, to all appearance forsaken; they are however designed for the nourishment of the young birds, according to Levaillant and Bonjainville (Cuvier, An. King. by Griffiths and others, Job 8:432),” and see below on Job_39:16].
Job_39:16. She deals hardly with her young, as though they were not hers; lit. “for not to her” (i.e., belonging to her) הִקְשִׁיחַ, lit. “he deals hardly;’ which, bearing in mind [the suffix in בָּנֶיהָ, and] the clause לְלֹא־ לָהּ, which immediately follows, gives a change of gender which is intolerably harsh, which we may perhaps obviate (with Ewald, etc.) by pointing הַקְשֵׁיחַ (Inf. Absol., comp Ewald, § 280, a). The correction תַּקְשִׁיחַ (Hirzel, Dillmann) [Merx] is less plausible. In vain is her labor without her being distressed; lit. “without fear” (בְּלִי־פחד), i.e., her labor in laying her eggs is in vain (inasmuch as many of her eggs are abandoned by her to destruction), without her giving herself any trouble or anxiety on that account. This unconcern and carelessness of the female ostrich touching the fate of her young, which stands in glaring contrast with the tender anxiety of the stork-mother (Job_39:13 b), is carried to such a length, that she herself often stamps to pieces her eggs (the shells of which moreover are quite hard), when she observes that men or beasts have been about; and even uses the eggs which are left to lie unhatched in feeding the young ones as they creep forth. Comp. Wetzstein, in Delitzsch II., p. 339 seq.
Job_39:17. For God made her to forget wisdom, and gave her no share in understanding.—הִשָּׁהּ Perf. Hiph. with the suffix ־ָהּ from נשׁה (comp. Job_11:6). חָלַק בַּבִּינָה, “to give a share in understanding” (comp. Job_7:13; Job_21:25). For parallel expressions as to the thought, to wit, Arabic proverbs about the stupidity of the ostrich, see Schultens and Umbreit on the passage. The only other passage in the Old Testament where the cruelty of the ostrich is set forth in proverbial form is Lam_4:3.
Job_39:18. At the time when she lashes herself aloft, she laughs at the horse and his rider.—כָּעֵת, here not “at this time, just now” (Gesen., Schlott,), but=כָעֵת אֲשֶׁר, and hence with an elliptical relative clause following. Respecting מרא, which both in Kal. and Hiphil can signify “to lash, to beat,” and which in Hebrew is found in this signification only here, see Gesenius in the Lexicon. The whole verse describes in a way which combines simplicity and terseness with vividness, the lightning-like swiftness of an ostrich, or a herd of such birds, fleeing before hunters on horseback, the running movement of the bird being aided by the vibration of the wings. At the same time the mention of “the horse and his rider” prepares the transition to the description which follows, the only one in this series which refers to a tamed animal.
Job_39:19-25. The war-horse—a favorite subject of description also on the part of Arabian and other oriental poets; comp. the “Praise of the Horse” in 5. Hammer—Purgstall’s Duftkörner: Amrul-Keis, Moallakat, 39:50, 64, and other parallels to this passage cited by Umbreit. Of all these poetic descriptions which have come down from antiquity (to which also may be added Virgil, Georg. III, 75 seq.)., the present one is the oldest and most beautiful. [“In connection with this description of the war-horse, which among many similar ones is the most splendid, it has been justly observed that to a Hebrew the horse as a theme of description must seem all the more noble in that he was known not as a beast of draught, but only as a war-horse.” Schlottmann].
Job_39:19. Dost thou give strength (גְּבוּרָה used specially of warlike strength, fortitudo; comp. Jdg_8:21; 2Ki_18:20) dost thou clothe his neck with fluttering hair?i.e., with quivering, waving mane? It is thus that most moderns explain the word רַעְמָה, not found elsewhere, from the root רעם, “to quake” (Eze_27:35), by comparison with the Greek φόβη (related to φόβος). The signification “thunder, neighing” (Symmach., Theodot., Jerome, Luther, Schlottmann) [E. V.] would indeed be etymologically admissible, but it would not be suited to the words “neck,” and “clothe.” Umbreit and Ewald, (§ 113, d) [the latter however in his Commentary as above—“quivering mane”] explain it by “dignity;” but the identity of רעמה with רַאְמָה is questionable, and such words as גָּאוֹן, or שְׂאֵת would have been more naturally used to express that idea.
Job_39:20. Dost thou make him leap like the locust?—i.e., when he rushes along on the gallop, like a vastly enlarged bounding troop of locusts (comp. Joe_2:4). “What is intended, is a spiral motion in leaps, now to the right, now to the left, which is called the caracol, a word used in horsemanship, borrowed from the Arabic har-gala-l-farasu (comp. חַרְגֹּל), through the medium of the Moorish Spanish” (Delitzsch). [The rendering of E. V.: “canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper”—is at variance with the spirit of the description, which, in each member, sets forth some trait which commands admiration.—E.]. The glory of his snorting is a terror,—or, “since the glory of his snorting,” etc. (descriptive clause without וְ). On נחר “snorting,” comp. the Arabic nachir, “the death-rattle, snoring,” Greek, φρύαγμα, Lat., fremitus. חוד here denoting not a splendid appearance, but a majestic peal or roar.
Job_39:21. They explore in the valley, then he rejoiceth in strength.—The subject of יַחְפְּרוּ can scarcely be the hoofs of the horse (Delitzsch [“the representation of the many pawing hoofs being blended with that of the pawing horse”]), and the use throughout thus far of the singular in speaking of the horse (so also again in וְיָשִׂישׂ) makes it impossible that the plural here should refer to him. Hence the signification “pawing” preferred here by the ancient versions [and E. V.], and most of the moderns seems inadmissible, even admitting that חפר is the word commonly used for the pawing of the horse (see Schultens on the passage). We must rather with Cocceius and Ewald understand the subject to be the riders, or the warriors; “they take observations,” or “observations are taken in the valley (while it is uncertain whether the fighting should begin): then he rejoiceth in strength.” The meaning “to paw” is to be retained only in case we adopt with Dillmann [Merx] the reading יחְפֹּר, or with Böttcher יְחַפְּרֵר. He goes forth against an armed host, lit. “the armor;” נֶשֶׁק here otherwise than in Job_20:24.—On Job_39:22 comp. Job_39:7; Job_39:18.
Job_39:23. The quiver rattleth upon him;i.e. the quiver of the horseman who is seated upon him, not the hostile contents of the quiver, the whirring arrows of the enemy, as Schultens [Conant, Rodwell] explain. Besides this part of the armor, the second member mentions the “spear and the lance” [not “shield,” E. V.], or rather with poetic circumlocution, “the lightning (lit. flame) of the spear and the lance,” להב synonymous with בָּרָק, Job_20:25; comp. להט, Gen_3:24; also Jdg_3:22; 1Sa_17:7; Nah_3:3.
Job_39:24. With rushing and raging he swallows the ground;i.e. in sweeping over the ground at full gallop, he swallows it up as it were; a figure which is current also among Arabic poets (see Schultens and Delitzsch on the passage). The assonance of רגז־רעש may be represented by “rushing and raging.”—And he does not stand still when the trumpet sounds.—Lit. “he does not show himself fixed, does not stay fixed, does not contain himself:” יַאֲמִין accordingly in its primitive sensuous meaning; not “he believes not” (Kimchi, Aben Ezra) [E. V. i.e. for joy; it is too good to be true]. As to קוֹל comp. Ewald, § 286, f [adverbial use of קול here=when the trumpet is loud]. As parallel in thought comp. beyond all other passages that of Virgil referred to above (Georg. III. 83 seq.):
… . Turn, si qua sonum procul arma dedere,
Stare loco nescit, micat auribus et tremit artus
Collectumque fremens volvit sub naribus ignem.
Job_39:25. As often as the trumpet (sounds), he says, Aha! i. e., he neighs, full of a joyous eagerness for the battle. On בְּרֵיquotiescunque (lit. “in sufficiency”), comp. Ewald, § 337, c.—And from afar he smells the battle, the thunder (comp. Job_36:29) of the captains, and the shouting (the battle-cries of the contestants; comp. Jdg_7:18 seq.). Similarly Pliny, N. H. VIII. Job 42 : præsagiunt pugnam: and of moderns more particularly Layard (New Discoveries, p. 330): “Although docile as a lamb, and requiring no other guide than the halter, when the Arab mare hears the war-cry of the tribe, and sees the quivering spear of her rider, her eyes glitter with fire, her blood-red nostrils open wide, her neck is nobly arched, and her tail and mane are raised and spread out to the wind,” etc.
Job_39:26. The hawk, as the first example of birds of prey, distinguished by their strength, lightning-like swiftness, and lofty flight.—Doth the hawk fly upward by thy understanding?—נֵץ (the “high flyer”) is, according to the unanimous testimony of the ancient versions, the hawk, a significant bird, as is well known, in the Egyptian hieroglyphics, which is here introduced on account of its mysteriously note-worthy characteristic of taking its flight southwards at the approach of winter (Pliny, N. H. x. 8). For it is to this that the apocop. Imperf. Hiph. יַאֲבֶר (denominative from אֶבְרָה, “wing”) refers: assurgit, attollitur alis, not to the yearly moulting, which precedes the migration southward (Vulg.: plumescit; in like manner the Targ., Gregory the Great, Rosenm.). For this annual renewal of plumage (πτεροφυεῖν, see LXX., Isa_40:31) is common to all birds, and is predicated elsewhere in the Old Testament only of the eagle (Psa_103:5; Mic_1:16; Isa_40:31), not of the hawk.
Job_39:27-30. The eagle, as king of the birds, closing the series of native animals here described, in like manner as the lion, as king of the mammalia, had opened the series. נֶשֶׁר is in the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament, like ἀετός in the New Testament (comp. Mat_24:28; Luk_17:37), a. common designation of the eagle proper, and of the vulture: and the characteristic of carnivorousness which is here and often elsewhere referred to belongs in fact not only to the varieties of the vulture (such as the carrion-kite and lammergeyer), but also to the more common varieties of the eagle, such as the golden eagle and the osprey, which do not disdain to eat the carcasses of animals which have recently died. Comp. Winer’s Real-Wörter-Buch, under Adler.—Doth the eagle soar at thy command? lit. make high (יגביה, scil. עוף) his flight; comp. Job_5:7.—And build his nest on high? lit. “is it at thy command that he builds his nest on high?” Comp. Oba_1:4; Jer_49:16; Pro_30:19.
Job_39:28. With the phrase שֶׁן־סֶלַע, lit. “tooth of the rock,” comp. the names Dent du midi, Dent-blanche, Dent de Moreles, etc.
Job_39:30. And his young ones lap up blood.—[The gender throughout is masculine, not fem. as in E. V.] יְעַלְעוּ from עלע, an abbreviated secondary form of עִלְעֵל, Pilp. of עוּל, “to suck.” Possibly, however, we should read (with Gesen. and Olsh.) יְלַעְלְעוּ, from לעע לוּע=, deglutere. On the sucking of blood by the young eagles, comp. Ælian, H. anim. x. Job 14 : σαρκῶν ἤδεται βορᾶ καὶ πίνει αἶμα καὶ τὰ νεόττια ἐκτρέφει τοῖς αὐτοῖς.
7. Conclusion of the discourse, together with Job’s answer: Job_40:1-5.
Job_40:2. Will the censurer contend with the Almighty ? to wit, after all that has here been laid before him in proof of the greatness and wonderful power of God. Observe the return to Job_38:2, which this question brings about. רֹב Inf. absol. of רִיב (as in Jdg_11:25) here in the sense of a future. The adoption of this construction in preference to the finite verb gives a meaning that is particularly forcible. Comp. the well-known sentence: mene incepto desistere victim? Also Ewald, § 328, a.—He who hath reproved God, let him answer it;i.e. let him reply to all the questions asked from Job_38:2 on.
Job_40:4. Behold, I am too base;i.e. to solve the problem presented, I am not equal to it.—I lay my hand on my mouth; i.e. I impose on myself absolute silence; comp. Job_21:5; Job_29:9.
Job_40:5. Once have I spoken, and I will not again begin, will no more undertake to speak; see on Job_3:2. “Once—twice,” as in Psa_62:12 [11], are used only because of the poetic parallelism for “often;” comp. Gesenius, § 120 [§ 118], 5. The solemn formal retractation which Job here makes of his former presumptuous challenges of God marks the first stage of his gradual return to a more becoming position toward God. It is God’s purpose, however, to lead him forward from this first stage, consisting in true self-humiliation (in contrast to his former self-exaltation) to a still more advanced stage—even the complete melting down of his heart in sincere penitence. It is the realization of this purpose which Jehovah seeks in His second and last discourse.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. As a magnificent specimen of physico-the-ological demonstration in poetic form, the present discourse of God, the first and longest which He delivers, is incomparable. With wonderful symmetry of treatment, it makes first the inanimate, and then the animate creation the theme of profound contemplation; each of these domains being treated with about the same fulness, and with a homologous arrangement of strophes (see Exegetical Remarks, No. 1), in order thus to impress Job with the highest admiration of the divine power, wisdom and goodness, as these attributes are revealed in the entire world of nature. The First Long Strophe (Job_38:4-15) which makes the creation of the heavens, the earth, and the sea, the theme of contemplation serves to illustrate principally the divine omnipotence, together with the attributes most immediately related to it, eternity, infinity and omnipresence, or the divine being as transcending space and time. Towards the close of this strophe the attribute of justice is also drawn into the circle of contemplation, it being one chief object of the whole description to represent the Almighty God as being also just in His vast activities, always and everywhere just (see Job_40:13-15). The consideration of omnipotence is next followed by that of wisdom, together with the attribute of omniscience which stands most closely connected with it, the discussion having reference to the hidden heights and depths above and below the earth, from which the phenomena of the atmosphere and of light, proceed (Second Long Strophe, Job_38:16 seq.). Already toward the end of this description the attribute of God’s goodness emerges into view, as it is shown in the beneficent effects of the rain-showers (Job 40:25-27). Afterwards in the third Long Strophe (Job 40:28-38) this attribute retires again to the background, while the power manifested in the heavens, and the wisdom revealed in the atmosphere, occupy the foreground. All the more decidedly however in the last three Long Strophes, or in the zoological and biological description constituting the section which we have marked d (Job_38:39 to Job_39:30), is the discourse again directed to the goodness of God, or to the Creator’s fatherly care, which is most intimately united with His power and wisdom, and which in the exercise of them takes the most particular interest in the life of His earthly animate creation. For all that is advanced in this section in the way of proof of the wonderful wisdom and all-penetrative knowledge of the Most High in the sphere of animal life, and of its ordinary as well as its extraordinary phenomena is subordinated to the teleological reference to His special providence, in view of which not one of His creatures is indifferent to Him. (Comp. Bochart’s Remarks on Job_39:1-4 : The knowledge here spoken of is not passive and speculative simply, but that knowledge which belongs to God, by which He not only knows all things, but directs and governs them, etc.). That which makes this survey of the most exalted attributes of God as reflected in the wonders of His creation especially impressive is the accumulation of so many examples and illustrations from the domain of physical theology, and the wonderful art with which they are elaborated in the minutest detail, together with the striking harmony and consistency which their arrangement exhibits, notwithstanding all the flow and freedom of the poetic sweep of thought. Not one of these illustrations from the great book of creation is absolutely new. Job himself has more than once in his discourses introduced brief reflective descriptions of nature similar in kind, and scarcely inferior in beauty (Job_9:4-10; Job_12:7-10; Job_12:12-25; Job_26:5-14); even Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar have at least occasionally described, not without skill and taste, the divine power and wisdom, as they are revealed in the works of His creation; and Elihu near the close of his discourses dwelt on this theme at length, and with powerful effect. The grandeur and superiority of that which Jehovah here advances, in part confirming, in part going beyond those utterances of the former speakers, consists in the way in which, alike with artless simplicity, and with harmonious and connected order, He has accumulated such an array of the most manifold and luminous evidences of His majesty as revealed in the wonders of nature. Comp. Julius Fürst, Geschichte der biblischen Literatur, etc., II., p. Job 418: “The poet has here artistically combined the utmost polish of diction, the greatest abundance of natural pictures, the most thrilling and winning vividness in the succinct descriptions given of the wonders of creation; and the effect on Job must have been really overpowering. The reader also finds the discourse distinguished by tone and harmony, by power, acuteness, and clearness, by method, order, and plan, so that it presents itself as the most beautiful discourse in the Old Testament Scriptures. In this discourse, cast in the form of questions, Jehovah exhibits the animate and inanimate creation, the manifold channels in which the forces of nature secretly operate, its wonderful and mysterious phenomena, as they are held together in glorious order by His creative hand, as they are ruled by His nod. The eternal creative energy, which bears witness to a wisdom that is unsearchable, to a providential love, to a wise moral order of the universe, appears to the weak human spirit as an insoluble mystery, which has for its aim to put Job to shame. In this discourse, embracing six long strophes, each consisting for the most part of twelve verse-lines, the exhibition of the transcendent wonders of nature certainly imparts indescribable power to the contemplation of the greatness of the Creator. Every one must see however that these natural wonders, after we have explained them in their immediate foundations through our knowledge of natural laws, and after we have understood them from the general laws of nature, must be understood according to the effects which they produce. The next thing to be noticed is the poetic conception of the beauty of nature, the deep mental contemplation of the Cosmos, as it shows itself among all the civilized nations of antiquity; and then the poetry of nature found among the Hebrews, considered particularly as the reflex of monotheism. The characteristic marks of the Hebrew poetry of nature, as A. Von Humboldt strikingly observes in his Cosmos, are that “it always embraces the whole universe in its unity, comprising both terrestrial life and the luminous realms of space. It dwells but rarely on the individuality of phenomena, preferring the contemplation of great masses. The Hebrew poet does not depict nature as a self-dependent object, glorious in its individual beauty, but always as in relation and subjection to a higher spiritual power. The natural wonders here sung by the poet point to the invariableness, the amazing regularity of the operations of nature, i.e., to its laws, which lead us to adore supreme wisdom, power, and love, lead us in a word to religion. Finally, it is to be borne in mind that the century in which the poet lived was one of the earliest in which such questions were propounded, and sketches of nature made.”—Comp. the still more decided appreciation of the contents of our discourse as respects its natural theology and its æsthetic features in the book of Jos. L. Saalschütz, entitled Form und Geist der biblisch-hebräischen Poesie, Königsb., 1853, (Third Lecture: Biblisch-hebräische Naturanschau-ung und Natur-poesie); also Ad. Kohnt’s Alexander v. Humboldt und das Judenthum, Leipzig, 1871 (Fourth Part: Humboldt’s Stellung zur Bibel), also the striking observations of Reuss, in his Vortrag über das Buch Job towards the end), which show with peculiar beauty how that, notwithstanding the vast enlargement of our knowledge of nature in modern times, the larger number of the questions here addressed by Jehovah to Job, still remain as unanswerable as at the time when the poem was composed; the fact being that it is only the old formulas in respect to particular mysterious phenomena which have disappeared before a clearer and fuller knowledge, not the mysteries themselves, and that accordingly even to the naturalist of the present, God remains a hidden God. See further on this subject in the Doctrinal and Ethical Remarks on the following discourse of God (Job 40-41).
2. Notwithstanding all the admiration which this first discourse of Jehovah evokes in view of the evidences here presented of its beauty, and in particular of the value of its contributions to natural theology, we might still continue in doubt respecting its congruity to the plan and connection of the poem as a whole. It might seem singular and incongruous: (1) That the discourse from beginning to end runs through a series of questions from God to Job, calculated to shame and humiliate the latter, when he has already (Job_9:3) declared his shrinking from such a rigid inquisition, and his inability to answer even one in a thousand of such questions as the Most High might ask of him. (2) Fault might be found moreover with the contents of these questions, as exhibiting too little that is new, that has not already been touched upon, as being in too close agreement with what has been advanced by Job himself in respect to the greatness and wisdom revealed in the Cosmos, as being therefore too exclusively physical, i.e. as being too little adapted to produce a direct impression on the inward perversity and blindness of him who is addressed (an objection which has in fact been to some extent urged by some expositors and critics, as e. g. by de Wette, Knobel, Arnheim, etc.). The first of these objections, however, is directed against what is simply a misconception; for that declaration of Job in respect to his inability to answer God is made only incidentally, and in no wise conditions the final issue of the action of the poem. On the contrary Job had in the course of his discourses wished often enough that God might enter into a controversy with him. And, most of all, the questions which God puts to him, and of which he cannot answer one, are significantly related in the way of contrast to the last of the presumptuous challenges which Job had put forth. Whereas in Job_31:35 he had exclaimed: “Let the Almighty answer me!” God now fulfils this wish, although in quite another way than that which he had expected. He speaks to him out of the storm, not however by way of reply or self-vindication, but throughout asking questions, and so overwhelming the presumptuous fault-finder with a series of unanswerable queries, permanently silencing him, and compelling him at last to acknowledge his submission. At the same time the tendency of these divine questions is by no means to stun, to crush, to annihilate. Here and there it is true their tone borders on irony (see especially Job_38:21; Job_38:28; Job_39:1 seq.). It never, however, becomes harsh or haughty; on the contrary it is throughout affectionately condescending, lifting up at the same time that it humbles, gently administering instruction and consolation.—And as with this interrogative form of the discourse, so also is its natural theology thoroughly suited to the divine purpose in regard to Job. That self-humiliation, that silent submission to the divine will as being always and in every case wise, just and good, which was to be wrought in Job, how could it have been more suitably promoted than by pointing him to the visible creation, which already in and of itself is full, nay which overflows with facts adapted to vanquish all human pride and presumption? And especially may we ask in respect to that, presumptuous argument, on which Job had continually planted himself in opposition to God: “I have not transgressed; therefore my grievous suffering is absolutely inexplicable—may more, is unreasonable and unjust,”—how could the error and folly of that position have been more effectually demonstrated to him than by a reference to the numberless inexplicable and incomprehensible subjects which continually present themselves to us in the realms of nature, in its life, processes and events? how could the doubt respecting the logical and ethical grounds of the apparently harsh treatment to which God had subjected him, be more effectually disposed of than by bringing forward various phenomena of physical life on earth and elsewhere, each one of which stands before us as an amazing wonder, and as an eloquent witness of the unsearchableness of God’s ways, who in what He does is ever wise, and whose purpose is ever one of love? Comp. Delitzsch (II., p. 354): “From the marvellous in nature, he divines that which is marvellous in his affliction. His humiliation under the mysteries of nature is at the same time humiliation under the mystery of his affliction.” And a little before (p. 352): “Contrary to expectation, God begins to speak with Job about totally different matters from His justice or injustice in reference to his affliction. Therein already lies a deep humiliation for Job. But a still deeper one is God’s turning, as it were, to the abecedarium naturæ, and putting the censurer of His doings to the blush. That God is the almighty and all-wise Creator and Ruler of the world, that the natural world is exalted above human knowledge and power, and is full of marvellous divine creations and arrangements, full of things mysterious and incomprehensible to ignorant and feeble man, Job knows even before God speaks, and yet he must now hear it, because he does not know it rightly; for the nature with which he is acquainted as the herald of the creative and governing power of God, is also the preacher of humility; and exalted as God the Creator and Ruler of the natural world is above Job’s censure, so is He also as the author of His affliction. That which is new therefore in the speech of Jehovah is not the proof of God’s exaltation in itself, but the relation to the mystery of his affliction, and to his conduct towards God in this his affliction, in which Job is necessitated to place perceptions not in themselves strange to him. He who cannot answer a single one of those questions taken from the natural kingdom, but, on the contrary, must everywhere admire and adore the power and wisdom of God—he must appear as an insignificant fool, if he applies them to his limited judgment concerning the Author of his affliction.”
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
In the homiletic treatment of this first discourse of Jehovah’s, it will be necessary of course to explain its position in the structure of the poem as a whole, and the significance of its contents for the solution of the problem of the book. All that pertains to this, however, will evidently possess only a subordinate practical value. For the practical treatment, on the contrary, it is of the highest importance suitably to set forth the value of the contents of the discourse for modern doubters, or those who after Job’s fashion find fault with divine providence; to show accordingly that the questions contained in it touching natural theology are still in a certain sense unanswerable, and that the mysteries to which allusion is made ever remain real mysteries, even to the greatest intellects in the world of science. In this connection use might be made, in the way of illustration and exemplification, of the many confessions which have been made by the greatest investigators of nature touching the incompleteness and limitation of all earthly knowledge and of all the discoveries which have hitherto been achieved in the department of natural science (especially the confessions of astronomers like Newton, Herschel, A. V. Humboldt, Laplace, and recently by Proctor [Other worlds than ours, Preface], and also by chemists and biologists, such as J. V. Liebig, Darwin, Laugel, etc.) The phenomena described in the first half of the discourse (Job_38:4-38), derived from the consideration of the heavens and of atmospheric meteorology, being pre-eminently rich in convincing examples of the mystery and unsearchableness which characterize the divine procedure in the economy of nature, also admit evidently of being considered with particular thoroughness (as e.g., a point which obviously suggests itself—by calling attention in connection with such passages as Job_38:22 seq., Job_38:29 seq. to the fruitlessness, and indeed the hopelessness of the attempts hitherto made to reach the North Pole). The zoological and biological phenomena, on the other hand, which form the subject of the second half of the divine description, it will be better to present together in brief outline, in so far at least as the purpose of illustrating the incomprehensibility of the divine agency in creating and governing the universe is concerned. This second series of natural facts on the contrary are all the better suited to the basis of meditations on the fatherly love of God which remembers and cares for all His creatures, whether brutes or men.
Particular Passages
Job_38:4 seq. Brentius: The aim of this discourse is to show that no one has the right to accuse the Lord of injustice. The proof of this point is that the Lord alone is the Creator of all things, which with a certain amplification is illustrated from various classes of creatures. … From the history of these creatures God proves that it is permitted to no one to accuse Divine sovereignty of injustice, or to resist it; for of all creatures not one was the Lord’s counsellor, or rendered Him any aid in the creation of the world. He can without any injustice therefore dispose of all creatures according to His own will, and create one vessel to honor, another to dishonor, as it may please Him.—Oecolampadius: No other reason can be given than His own good pleasure why God did not make the earth ten times larger. He had the power to enlarge it, no less than to confine it within such narrow limits; He would have been able to make valleys, where there are mountains, and conversely, etc. But He is Lord, and it pleased Him to assign to things the length and depth and breadth which they now have.—Cramer: That God, who has from eternity dwelt in inaccessible light, has revealed Himself through the work of creation, receives its explanation out of the depth of His great goodness and mercy. When therefore we treat of God, of His works and mysteries, we must do it with beseeming modesty and reverence. … If even the book of nature transcends our ability to decipher it fully, how much more incomprehensible and mysterious will the book of Holy Scripture be for us.—von Gerlach: The fundamental thought of these representations which God here puts forth is that only He who can create and govern all things, who superintends everything and adjusts all things in their relation to each other, can also comprehend the connection of human destinies. Inasmuch however as feeble short-sighted man cannot understand and fathom the created things which are daily surrounding him, how can he assume to himself any part of God’s agency in administering the universe?
Job_38:16 seq. von Gerlach: Of the particular subject here referred to [scientific discoveries in the natural world], it is true that the later researches of mankind have accomplished much, only however to reveal new depths of this immeasurable creation. In seeking to penetrate into the meaning of these words, we are not to dwell on the literal features of each separate statement. It is a poetic and splendid description of the greatness and unsearchableness of God in creation, from the point of view which men then occupied, a description which retains its lofty internal truth, although the letter of it, regarded from the stand-point of our present knowledge of nature no longer seems as striking to us as the ancients. Indeed it may be said that this more thorough investigation of natural laws has itself vastly increased the number and greatness of such wonders as are set forth in this description for him who enters into the spirit of it.
Job_38:39 seq.; Job_40:1 seq. Cramer: The volume of natural history [das Thierbuch] which God here writes out for us, should be a genuine text-book to all the virtues.—Starke: If animals, whether strong or despicable, great or small, are embraced in God’s merciful providential care, we can regard their need as a silent appeal to the goodness of the Lord, and in this sense even the ravens cry to God when they cry out from hunger.
Job_39:27 seq. Vict. Andrea: From that which is here intimated (to wit, that other animals must sacrifice their life, in order to satisfy the blood-thirsty brood of an eagle) do we not see that the suffering of a simple creature might in God’s plan be designed to benefit other creatures of God?—So the death of a man may, through the terrifying effect which it has on others, often be a blessing to them. And how often is severe sickness, wholly irrespective of the end which the suffering may have for the patient himself, a most effective school of sympathy, yea, of the most self-sacrificing love for all who surround the sufferer. Very often such a sufferer, if he diligently strives to exhibit in his own person a pattern of resignation and praise to God, has been a rich source of light and blessing for those who are round about him! How short-sighted it is therefore for the sick to complain that their life is wholly without use, that they are only a burden to those who are about them, etc. In short the majesty of God has only to question man, in order to bring into the dearest consciousness his narrow limitations.
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 1. The Lord — Jehovah. See note, Job_1:21. This…
1. The Lord — Jehovah. See note, Job_1:21. This name of tenderness, mercy and hope reappears as the solution of the mystery draws nigh.
Answered Job — Bishop Wordsworth remarks, that the mention of the fact that the Lord answered Job is tantamount to an intimation that some one else had spoken just before the Lord’s answer. This was Elihu.
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Out of the whirlwind — מנ הסערה; more properly, out of the storm. Canon Cook (Speaker’s Com.) justly observes, that the article refers to the last part of Elihu’s address. It is an attestation to the genuineness of that discourse, nor has any satisfactory explanation been suggested by those who reject it. Nothing could be more abrupt than the transition from Job’s last words to this statement.
And said — The natural inference is, that the communication was an articulate utterance, and not, as Canon Cook intimates, a mere mental impression upon the understanding. The closing description of Elihu shows that the storm was abating. There is, therefore, no intrinsic difficulty in supposing an audible voice of God.
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. out of the whirlwind] Rather, out of the…
1. out of the whirlwind] Rather, out of the storm. Jehovah, even when condescending to speak with men, must veil Himself in the storm cloud, in which He descends and approaches the earth. Even when He is nearest us, clouds and darkness are round about Him. His revelation of Himself to Job, at least, was partly to rebuke him, for he had sinned against His majesty. and He veils Himself in terrors. The storm is not necessarily that which Elihu describes; the Art. is rather generic, the meaning being that thus Jehovah spoke, namely, out of storm.
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) Then the Lord answered Job.—This chapter brings the…
XXXVIII.
(1) Then the Lord answered Job.—This chapter brings the grand climax and catastrophe of the poem. Unless all was to remain hopelessly uncertain and dark, there could be no solution of the questions so fiercely and obstinately debated but by the intervention of Him whose government was the matter in dispute. And so the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, or tempest: that is to say, the tempest which had been long gathering, and which had been the subject of Elihu’s remarks. The one argument which is developed in the remaining chapters is drawn from man’s ignorance. There is so much in nature that man knows not and cannot understand, that it is absurd for him to suppose that he can judge aright in matters touching God’s moral government of the world. Though Job is afterwards (Job_42:8) justified by God, yet the tone of all that God says to him is more or less mingled with reproach.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The discourse, by which the Almighty answers Job and…
The discourse, by which the Almighty answers Job and rebukes his "friends," occupies four chapters (ch. 38-41). It is broken into two parts by the interposition of a-short confession on Job"s part. (Job_40:3-5) Ch. 38 and 39 are closely connected, and form a single appeal a sort of argumentum ad verecundiam to Job"s profound ignorance of God"s natural government, which incapacitates him from passing judgment upon what is far more incomprehensible and mysterious, God"s moral government. The points adduced, in which Job is challenged to claim that be has knowledge, or confess that he is ignorant, are:
(1) The creation of the material world. (Job_38:4-7)
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(2) The control and government of the sea (vers. 8-11).
(3) The bringing forth of the dawn (vers. 12-15).
(4) The formation of Sheol, of light and darkness, Of snow, hail, floods, rain, lightning, thunder, ice, dew, hoarfrost (vers. 17-30).
(5) The government of the stars and of the clouds (vers. 31-38).
(6) The creation, endowment with instincts, and general direction of the animal world wild goats, hinds, wild asses, wild cattle, ostriches, horses, hawks, eagles (Job_39:1-30) The tone of the appeal is sustained at a high pitch, and the entire passage is one of extraordinary force and eloquence.
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind. It is remarked, with reason, that the special mention of Job as the person answered "implies that another speaker had intervened" (Wordsworth); while the attachment of the article to the word "whirlwind" implies some previous mention of that phenomenon, which is only to be found in the discourse of Elihu. (Job_37:9) Both points have an important bearing on the genuineness of the disputed section, ch. 32- 37. And said. The question whether there was an objective utterance of human words out of the whirlwind, or only a subjective impression of the thoughts recorded on the minds of those present, is unimportant. In any case, there was a revelation direct from God, which furnished an authoritative solution of the questions debated to all who had been engaged in the debate.
Vers. 1-3. Jehovah to Job: the first answer the theophany.
I THE LORD"S APPEARANCE TO JOB.
1. The time of this appearance. At the close of Elihu"s address. Not too soon, when neither had Elihu finished his expositions nor had Job"s heart been suitably prepared for such an interview as he was on the eve of obtaining, but precisely at the moment when the purpose of his coming was most likely to be effected. God never mistimes any of his visits to his people, whether he comes for judgment or for mercy. In this case the preaching of Elihu had begun to tell upon the turbulent spirit of the patriarch. The thunderstorm had helped to solemnize his mind, and lay him prostrate before the majesty of that Worker who had hitherto remained invisible. Then, amid the crashing of the thunder and the lurid gleams of the lightning, while the fierce whirlwind swept up from the southern desert then was the moment God selected for making his presence known to his afflicted servant.
2. The mode of this appearance. Whether there was a visible form presented to the patriarch"s eye it is impossible to say. Probably there was only a voice, like that which spoke to Adam in the garden, (Gen_3:9, Gen_3:10) to Abraham on Moriah, (Gen_22:11) to Israel at Sinai, (Exo_19:19 Exo_20:1 Deu_4:12) and to Elijah at Horeb; (1Ki_19:12) like that which spoke to Christ at the Jordan, (Mat_3:17) on the Mount of Transfiguration, (Mat_17:5) and in the city of Jerusalem; (Joh_12:30) like that which arrested Saul, (Act_9:4) and afterwards St. John. (Rev_1:10) That this voice should have issued from the midst of a whirlwind (by the way, an indirect confirmation of the authenticity of the Elihu section) was doubtless designed
(1) to arrest Job"s attention,
(2) to convey some impression of the majesty of God, and
(3) to indicate the weighty character of the truth about to be communicated.
3. The reality of this appearance. It has been suggested that there was no objective appearance presented to any of Job"s senses except what was afforded by the phenomena of the thunderstorm; that the voice was purely subjective the inner voice of Job"s own spirit, as it were, rising up within him to proclaim the overpowering sense of the Divine majesty under which it lay. "As the storm passes away with a vehement wind, clearing the heavens and presenting a lively symbol of the terrible majesty of God, Job feels the near presence of his Maker; the word rings through his heart, it brings back all that he had ever learned of his works; creation arises before him to witness for its Maker, the Spirit of God moulds his thoughts and completes his knowledge," and leads him to pour forth the sentiments here recorded in that "methodical and artistic form which pertains to the highest order of Hebrew poetry" (Canon Cook). To such an interpretation of the dramatist"s language there is no very serious objection; but, on the other hand, it is permissible to hold that the entire phenomenon was objective.
4. The object of this appearance.
(1) To meet Job"s desires. Repeatedly and earnestly had the patriarch expressed a wish, at first dubiously, but afterwards with something like defiance, that God would admit him to an interview, that he might have an opportunity of stating his case and pleading his cause. (Job_9:34, 35 13:3, 22 23:3 31:37) Well, in amazing condescension to this almost impious demand, Jehovah, "who giveth not an account of his matters", (Job_33:13) chines down from the serene altitudes of his eternal palace, riding on a whirlwind, thundering with his voice, sending forth his lightnings, causing the solid globe to tremble beneath the tread of his glowing feet. (Psa_18:9-14)
(2) To complete Job"s instruction. Elihu had been sent to begin the work of educating God"s ill-informed servant. That work had been performed with some considerable measure of success. Accordingly, to deepen the impressions made upon the mind of Job, Jehovah takes up the line of argument pursued by his ambassador, thus in a manner confirming all that had been by him advanced, and opening up before the mind of Job the full import of that teaching in a way that was impossible to Elihu.
(3) To humble Job"s pride. Although the Lord had expressly come to afford Job an opportunity to vindicate himself, if he could, he begins by aiming at the reduction of Job"s self-righteous vanity. With a creature filled as Job was at the moment with such intolerable haughtiness and presumption, it was impossible that God could treat. The first thing to be attempted was to bring Job down from the lofty pedestal of self-complacent dignity on which he had established himself; and this was aimed at partly by the sublime character of the Divine manifestation, and partly (perhaps chiefly) by the elevated tenor of the Divine teaching.
(4) To effect Job"s restoration. That in the terrible ordeal through which Job had passed his integrity had not been to some extent shaken, no candid reader will affirm. Satan at the outset alleged that it would wholly fail. Jehovah maintained that it would stand. When the last trial (the preaching of the friends) had ended, Job was far from being in a state of stable equilibrium as to his integrity. Accordingly, Elihu, in perfect harmony with the original conditions of the problem, was sent to his assistance; and now, when all things had been prepared for his coming, God himself arrives upon the scene. "Who can teach like him?" said Elihu; and so discerning the approach of the great King, the faithful ambassador withdraws, leaving Job to get his last lesson from him who alone teacheth to profit. (Isa_48:17) If after this Job still continues unhumbled, then Satan will have proved victorious; but if God shall be able to restore his servant to a proper frame of mind, then the final verdict will go with him, and not only the devil, but the intelligent universe, be forced to own that "A good man, in the darkness and dismay Of powers that fail, and purposes o"erthrown, May still be conscious of the proper way; (Goethe"s "Faust," Prologue.) that a man through the grace of God may become possessor of a piety against which even the gates of hell shall not prevail.
II THE LORD"S REPROOF OF JOB.
1. Sin charged. Jehovah begins the interview by distinctly specifying Job"s offence. He had "darkened counsel" (ver. 2); that is, he had obscured and misrepresented the prearranged plan and underlying principles of the Divine administration. The language reminds us:
(1) That there is a well-defined plan in accordance with which everything on earth comes to pass. As the primordial atoms of matter did not fortuitously fashion themselves into that brilliant host of suns and systems which we name the universe, or even into this wondrous globe which in comparison with the whole is but as a drop in the ocean, so neither do the events of time which compose human history occur by chance, but each one falls into the place prepared for it in the universal scheme.
(2) That this plan, or creation-programme, has been arranged in accordance with the highest wisdom. It is not a random plan that God has selected for his universe, or even for the earth, as an architect might build a house agreeable to the first idea or sketch that came into his mind; it is the best possible plan that omniscient wisdom could devise.
(3) That this creation-programme or world-plan in all its details has been constructed in accordance with the fundamental principles of truth and equity. Otherwise it could not have been the production of the highest wisdom. Hence it is deducible that the existence neither of sin nor of suffering is incompatible with eternal right.
(4) That the harmonious accordance of this Divine plan with law and justice shines forth in God"s administration with sufficient clearness to convince every one who studies that administration with fairness and impartiality.
(5) That if in any case the luminous radiance of God"s counsel is obscured, it must be owing to the shadow cast thereon by the intellectual and moral darkness of those by whom it is beheld.
2. Ignorance affirmed. Exactly this was the case with Job, for the challenge is not addressed to the friends, and still less to Elihu. Job had asserted more than once that the Divine government of the world was not in accordance (at any rate, not in visible accordance) with the eternal principles of equity, adducing instances, as he supposed, which no amount of ingenuity could harmonize with absolutely impartial justice. "But God pronounces that these words were "without knowledge." The instances that Job had appealed to as being obvious to the sight of all men of God"s giving prosperity to the wicked, and causing the innocent to suffer wrongfully, and without redress, are pronounced to be untrue" (Fry).
3. Astonishment expressed. "Who is this?" The words carry in them
(1) "a rebuke or reprehension," "as if God, pointing at Job, had said, Is it you? I could not have believed that my servant Job would have so much forgotten himself;" and
(2) "a slight or diminution," as though Job, otherwise a man of an excellent spirit, "had been too bold with God, and therefore no wonder if God spake contemningly to him" (Caryl).
III THE LORD"S DEMAND FROM JOB.
1. To display the courage he had previously vaunted. "Gird up thy loins now like a man," i.e. like a valiant hero (a geber)" as you frequently affected to be. Job had formerly professed to be ready for an interview with God; (Job_13:18, Job_13:22) had complained that God acted towards him like an invisible assailant, (Job_19:7) whom he knew not how to meet or where to find; (Job_23:3, Job_23:8, Job_23:9) nay, had declared that nothing would rejoice him more than to hear that his unseen adversary had opened a tribunal for the hearing of his case and prepared an indictment for the exposition of his guilt that such an indictment he would wind around his brow like a regal crown, and march into God"s presence with the stately steps of a prince. (Job_31:35-37) Brave words, O Job! But most men, like Falstaff, are valiant in the absence of the foe. Jehovah had now come to ask Job to evince the sincerity of his boast. So will God one day come, upon the clouds of heaven, with great power and glory, to afford all the presumptuous ungodly an opportunity of showing whether they can meet without fear him whom they now despise without shame.
2. To recite the answers he had formerly professed to have prepared. Job had declared his perfect indifference as to whether the Almighty when he came should assume the position of assailant or defendant. If he preferred that Job should open the case, Job was ready; if he elected to assume the initiative, Job had his defences at hand. "Well," exclaims Jehovah, "as you gave me the choice, I decide upon the latter. I am ready to begin the hearing of your cause. Therefore stand forth. I will demand of thee, and answer thou me" "I will come shortly," wrote Paul to the Corinthians, (1Co_4:19) "if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power" In the like spirit had Jehovah come to Job, to see whether the reality corresponded in any degree with the loud-sounding profession he had made.
Learn:
1. That God keeps the times and seasons of all things connected with his kingdom in his own hand.
2. That nature with all its phenomena is under service to God.
3. That God"s voice in nature, much more in the Word, and most of all in the conscience, is full of majesty.
4. That for God to answer any of his creatures, much more sinful dust and ashes, is an act of amazing condescension.
5. That God will not hide the faults of any of his people when he enters into judgment with them.
6. That ignorance lies at the root of much, if not all, of man"s misunderstanding of, and murmuring against, God"s ways.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSONThe discourses of Jehovah.
At length, in answer to the repeated appeals of Job, the Almighty appears, not to crush and overwhelm, as fear had often suggested, but to reason with his servant; to appeal to his spiritual intelligence, rather than to smite him into lower prostration by some thunderbolt of rebuke. "Come now, and let us reason together," is the gracious invitation of him who is Eternal Reason, amidst the wild clamours of our passion and despondency. At the same time, this revelation of the majesty of God humiliates and purifies the recipient of it, teaching him his own littleness and limitation in presence of this fulness of might and of wisdom. God, as the Almighty and only Wise, with whom no mortal may contend in judgment, may appoint the sufferings of the righteous for their probation and purification. And thus the great problem of the book, the enigma of life, receives from the highest Source its long-delayed solution. J.
Ver. Job_39:30) These questions all appeal to man"s wonder and curiosity, which impel him to seek the causes of things, and are therefore indirect reminders of his ignorance which can find no last answer to the questions he cannot but ask.
1. Questions on the mode of creation. (Vers. 4-15)
(1) How was the earth founded? Who prescribed its limits? How shall the solid pillars, on which in the fancy of the ancient world it was conceived as resting, be themselves conceived as supported? Where is the corner-stone of this world-building, and who laid it? How can that great epoch of creation be realized in imagination when all the celestial beings held jubilee over the new-born world? We conceive of the existence of the earth in space under different notions than these; but is the wonder of a world rolling in space, and bound by the principle of gravitation to other bodies, a less wondrous conception, or one more easy to explain?
(2) So with the great sea. Who gave it its limits, who shut in as with gates the vast flood of waters? Breaking forth, as it seemed, from the womb of earth with impetuous force, yet governed and kept within bounds, so that its proud waves cannot transcend the limits fixed by Omnipotence, clothed with the raiment of clouds, the great ocean awakes in all minds the sense of sublimity, the emotion of awe. "Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty"s form Glasses itself in tempests; in all time, Calm or convulsed, in breeze, or gale, or storm, Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime Dark-heaving boundless, endless, and sublime, The image of eternity, the throne Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime The monsters of the deep are made; each zone Obeys thee: thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone
(3) Or look again at the dawn in its splendid beauty, which men worshipped as Eos, Ushas, Aurora; consider the regularity of its appearance, gladdening the hearts of all creatures. Who bade the dawn arise and gild the summits of the mountain, causing the earth to flash with all her brilliant variety of colours? Who bade the sun clothe the torrent with rainbows? Nay, who made yonder sun a symbol of righteousness, instinctively perceived by the human conscience, so that ill-doers flee before its revealing beams, for their stronghold of darkness is broken open and their power is overthrown?
2. Question continued: earth"s depths and heights, and the forces that thence proceed. (Vers. 16-27)
(1) The depths under the earth. (Vers. 16-18) God calls man to reflect upon the immeasurable, the inaccessible; to cause his thought to plunge into the abysses of the sea, to pass in imagination those gloomy portals where the sun goes down, and which lead to Hades, the realm of shadows and of darkness; or with extensive view to survey the broad earth in all its vastness from east to west. "Cabin"d, cribb"d, confin"d" to one spot by the conditions of the bodily life, our mind has spiritual capacities and organs by which we may have notions of the Infinite, and these fill us with the sense of the unsearchableness of God.
(2) Again, from the depths let fancy sear to the bright heights above (vers. 19-21), let it seek to explore the unapproachable fount of light, or the seat of darkness. Still our ignorance blushes and hides her face before the Divine secrets of existence. With what keen irony does Jehovah rebuke the sciolists of every age in ver. 21? Shall short-lived man presume to know the beginning and source of anything? What though we may have cleared up some childlike confusions of thought, have introduced some method and system into our conceptions of the universe, have reduced heat and light to modes of motion, traced the correlation of forces, and perhaps are on our way to the conception of a oneness of force in all its various manifestations: what then? Whence force? Whence and what is motion? Approach as indefinitely near as we may to the last generalization, to the ultimate germ-principle of the genesis of the universe, there will still remain the unknown and the unknowable; there will be need and room still for wonder, worship, reverence, religion.
(3) Or turn to the wonders of the atmosphere: snow and hail, light and wind (vers. 22-27). The questions here asked again are those of childlike wonder and ignorance. We do not put them in the same way. Science restates these questions for us; but only to give our wonder a new direction, a wider scope, a more intelligent quality.
3. The wonders of the air and starry heavens. (Vers. 28-38)
(1) Here a number of natural phenomena and processes are mentioned, and the explanation of them in like manner demanded. The generation of rain, of dew, of ice, of frost, science mediately explains these, i.e. traces them to their secondary causes, and brings these causes under certain general laws. But thus the interest deepens in the phenomena; the wonder is not less, but more.
(2) The guidance of the stars, and their influence upon the earth (vers. 32, 33). The Pleiades, or seven stars, appear as if threaded upon a skein, as a necklace of jewels. Who formed that wondrous thread? Or who can loose the fetters of Orion, so that that splendid figure of the heavens should fall to pieces or descend from the sky? Can man lead forth the splendid stars (Mazzaroth) in their season? Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and the Bear along with its little ones? Knowest thou the laws of the heaven, by which the course of the planets, the changes of the day and of the year, are brought about? Or canst thou determine its influence upon the earth? Modern science has answered these ancient questions with a clearness and fulness inconceivable in the days of the patriarch. But the field of contemplation and of wonder it thus opens to us is infinitely vaster (see Proctors "Other Worlds than Ours"). And the sentence holds good, "An undevout astronomer is mad." Perhaps there is no science which more assists the mind to the sense of the sublimity of God than astronomy. And besides the revelation of the infinitely great above our heads, microscopic science has brought to light the infinitely small beneath our feet. The longer Job stands gazing, musing, the more do the Divine questions thicken upon him. From every star, from every cloud amidst the innumerable host spread out in the welkin, from every flash of lightning and from every drop of rain, the same voice speaks, the same challenge comes. Man cannot create by all his science the least of these things, and how shall he presume to penetrate the mysteries of the counsel of the Almighty, or question the wisdom and the rightness of his doings?
4. The animal world. (Ver. 39-39:30) A rich field of study is opened here in the evidences of natural history to the creative power and the loving providence of God for all his creatures. We cannot turn our sermons into lectures on natural history; to descend into details would be to lose sight of those grand elementary truths of which nature"s every page furnishes such abundant illustrations. For purposes of teaching, religion and science must to some extent be kept apart in their consideration. That is, we must not burden religious teaching with natural details, however interesting; nor interrupt at every step a scientific lesson, in order to pronounce a homily, or thrust forward a moral application. But viewed in a general way for the purpose of stimulating intelligent religious feeling, the animal world presents:
(1) Variety, rich and boundless, of form, of structure, of mode, and existence. How different the powers of the animals here enumerated the lion, the raven, the goat, the wild ass, the horse! The limbs that spring and bound, that climb or fly, provided with that muscular apparatus which no human art can rival; the internal organs fitting the creature for its particular food and scene of existence; these and all the variety of facts that come to light under this head bespeak a power and skill that can adapt the instrument to every set of circumstances, can be daunted by no difficulty, can find means for all necessary ends (see the illustrations in McCosh and Dickie"s "Typical Forms and Special Ends"). Whatever may be the scientific theory in fashion, whether teleological or evolutionary, in so far as it is a true theory, i.e. correctly represents the facts of observation, it can and must lend itself to natural piety, to the confirmation of the great truths of religion. Separate the wild guesses of some scientific men from the sober theories of an accurate science, the latter must ever remain, side by side with the Bible, a witness for God.
(2) Consider again the marvellous force that we call instinct. Instinct may possibly be defined as unconscious reason. We see traces of it in plants, and more strikingly marked ones in animals. It is a power by which these lower creatures arrive at ends, execute designs of marvellous skill and beauty, penetrate immediately to natural truth. Man, plodding his way slowly by the light of reason to his ends, stands in amazement before the effects and results of this mysterious mind-force. Well he may; for what is this force, so constant, so unerring, so matchless, but a direct emanation and impartation from the Creator himself?
(3) And again our sense of the beautiful and the sublime is awakened by the study of animal life. The description of the war-horse in ch. 39, has always been reckoned among the most striking examples of the sublime. His strength, his vibrating mane and trembling neck, all quivering with emotion, his fiery spirit breathing, as it were, fire through his nostrils, pawing the ground in his impatience, rushing to the charge at the battle-signal, the whole is a living expression of Divine force, awful and beautiful to behold. The analytic habits of scientific thought may hinder, if we do not guard against it, our simple and intense appreciation of nature and nature"s individual objects as appealing to our sense of wonder, awe, and beauty. These feelings were given to lead us upward to the Fountain of all existence, to adore the beauty and the might of God. Thus "the book of animal life, that God here writes down for us, may be to us a true book of training for all virtues" (Cramer). If God cares so closely and so providently for the life of the lower animals, how much more are we, his children, his care? This wondrous life in body, soul, and mind; these capacities of moral improvement, of increasing knowledge of eternal life in communion with himself; will he not care fro them? Let the cry of the dumb creatures remind us of our need of prayer, and of him who delights to hear; let the contemplation of the beauty and order of their divinely created life fill us with disgust at the disorder of sin in our own heart and life, and let us seek, in the new redeemed mode of existence, to use and improve all our powers, and consecrate them to the service of our faithful Creator, our compassionate Father and Redeemer. J.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY Ver. 1. A theophany.
At length Job has his wish. He has been longing to meet with God and praying for God to reveal himself. The time has now come for God to hear his prayer and make his will known. This is far more important than man"s speculations.
I THE COMING OF GOD.
1. The time of his coming. God comes last. The three friends have had their say, reiterating till they weary us. Job has been free to vent his grief and his despair. Elihu, more enlightened, yet not quite attaining to the full light, has uttered his long harangue. All have said all they had to say, and throughout God has been silent. Now it is his time to appear. God will have the last word in every controversy, in every life"s story, in the great world"s history. "In the beginning God "In the end, too, there is God. Christ is the Alpha and also the Omega. We have but to wait in patience. The end is not yet; when it comes God reveals himself.
2. The manner of his coming. "Out of the whirlwind." When Elijah met God the Lord was not in the whirlwind. God uses various vehicles of revelation the "still small voice" for Elijah, the whirlwind for Job. He is not tied down to any routine. He has no rigid ceremonies. He adapts his methods to circumstances and requirements. Anything God has made may be a chariot in which he will come to visit his people. Sometimes it is best for him to come in storm and tempest, to hush our vain babble and subdue our wayward spirit. The noisy debate of men is drowned in the whirlwind of God.
II THE ACTION OF GOD. When he comes it is to answer Job.
1. For Job"s sake. Then the first thought is of the patriarch. He is the central figure in the whole drama. But we might have thought that the three friends would have been rebuked first. Yet their condemnation is postponed. It is more necessary for Job to be relieved of his perplexity and led into a right state of mind.
2. An answer. Then God had heard what preceded. He may not make his presence manifest, but yet he is a silent Auditor at all our conferences, debates, quarrels. He hears our trusty words. He perceives our foolish doubts. God"s treatment of us is not irrespective of our action. He takes account of all we do and say, and his action is adjusted accordingly. Thus God answers man. He meets the doubt, takes up the difficulty, handles the complaint, deals with the prayer, replies to the question. We may have to wait long for the answer. It may not come in this life. But as it came to Job, so at last, in God"s time, it will assuredly come to us, and when it has come no more need be said. It will certainly be full, sufficient, satisfying.
3. In words. The Lord spoke out of the whirlwind. God usually answers us on earth by deeds of providence, or by the voiceless pleading of his Spirit in our hearts. But he has given us words in the messages that prophets have brought to us and that are recorded in the Bible. For us, however, God"s great answer to every question and every prayer is the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. The gospel shows that God has not left us to work out our problems in the dark. It reveals God speaking to us, and his message in Christ is one to give light and peace. W.F.A.
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 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind,…
Job_38:1-3
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said.
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The address of the Almighty
This sublime discourse is represented as made from the midst of the tempest or whirlwind which Elihu describes as gathering. In this address the principal object of God is to assert His own greatness and majesty, and the duty of profound submission under the dispensations of His government. The general thought is, that He is Lord of heaven and earth; that all things have been made by Him, and that He has a right to control them; and that in the works of His own hands He had given so much evidence of His wisdom, power, and goodness, that men ought to have unswerving confidence in Him. He appeals to His works, and shows that, in fact, man could explain little, and that the most familiar objects were beyond his comprehension. It was therefore to be expected that in His moral government there would be much that would be above the power of man to explain. In this speech the creation of the world is first brought before the mind in language which has never been equalled. Then the Almighty refers to various things in the universe that surpass the wisdom of man to comprehend them, or his power to make them--to the laws of light; the depths of the ocean; the formation of the snow, the rain, the dew, the ice, the frost; the changes of the seasons, the clouds, the lightnings; and the instincts of animals. He then makes a particular appeal to some of the mere remarkable inhabitants of the air, the forest, and the waters, as illustrating His power. He refers to the gestation of the mountain goats; to the wild ass, to the rhinoceros, to the ostrich, and to the horse (ch. 39). The ground of the argument in this part of the address is that He had adapted every kind of animal to the mode of life which it was to lead; that He had given cunning where cunning was necessary, and where unnecessary, that He had withheld it; that He had endowed with rapidity of foot or wing where such qualities were needful; and that where power was demanded, He had conferred it. In reference to all these classes of creatures, there were peculiar laws by which they were governed; and all, in their several spheres, showed the wisdom and skill of their Creator. Job is subdued and awed by these exhibitions. To produce, however, a more overpowering impression of His greatness and majesty, and to secure a deeper prostration before Him, the Almighty proceeds to a particular description of two of the more remarkable animals which He had made--the behemoth, or hippopotamus, and the leviathan, or crocodile; and with this description, the address of the Almighty closes. The general impression designed to be secured by this whole address is that of awe, reverence, and submission. The general thought is, that God is supreme; that He has a right to rule; that there are numberless things in His government which are inexplicable by human wisdom; that it is presumptuous in man to sit in judgment on His doings; and that at all times man should bow before Him with profound adoration. It is remarkable that, in this address, the Almighty does not refer to the main point in the controversy. He does not attempt to vindicate His government from the charges brought against it of inequality, nor does He refer to the future state as a place where all these apparent irregularities will be adjusted. (Albert Barnes.)
The theophany
As Elihus eloquent discourse draws to a close, our hearts grow full of expectation and hope. The mighty tempest in which Jehovah shrouds Himself sweeps up through the darkened heaven; it draws nearer and nearer; we are blinded by the flash which He flings to the ends of the earth, our hearts throb and leap out of their place, and we say, God is about to speak, and there will be light. But God speaks, and there is no light. He does not so much as touch the intellectual problems over which we have been brooding so long, much less, as we hoped, sweep them beyond the farthest horizon of our thoughts. He simply overwhelms us with His majesty. He causes His glory to pass before us, and though, after he has seen this great sight, Jobs face shines with a reflected lustre which has to be veiled from us under the mere forms of a recovered and augmented prosperity, we are none the brighter for it. He claims to have all power in heaven and on earth, to be Lord of all the wonders of the day and of the night, of tempest, and of calm. He simply asserts, what no one has denied, that all the processes of nature, and all the changes of providence are His handiwork, that it is He who calleth forth the stars, and determines their influence upon earth, He who sendeth rain and fruitful seasons, He who provides food for bird and beast, arms them with strength, clothes them with beauty, and quickens in them the manifold wise instincts by which they are preserved and multiplied. He does not utter a single word to relieve the mysteries of His rule, to explain why the good suffer and the wicked flourish, why He permits our hearts to be so often and so cruelly torn by agonies of bereavement, of misgiving, of doubt. When the majestic voice ceases we are no nearer than before to a solution of the haunting problems of life. We can only wonder that Job should sink in utter love and self-abasement before Him; we can only ask, in unfeigned surprise--and it is well for us if some tone of contempt do not blend with our surprise,--What is there in all this to shed calm, and order, and an invincible faith into Jobs perturbed and doubting spirit? We say, This pathetic poem is a logical failure after all; it does not carry its theme to any satisfactory conclusion, nor to any conclusion; it suggests doubts to which it furnishes no reply, problems which it does not even attempt to solve; charmed with its beauty we may be, but we are none the wiser for our patient study of its argument. But that would be a sorry conclusion of our labour. And before we resign ourselves to it, let us at least ask:
1. Is it so certain as we sometimes assume it to be that this poem was intended to explain the mystery of human life? Is it even certain that a logical explanation of that mystery is either possible or desirable to creatures such as we are in such a world as this? The path of logic is not commonly the path of faith. Logic may convince the reason, but it cannot bend the will or change the heart. God teaches us,--Jehovah taught Job,--as we teach children, by the mystery of life, by its illusions and contradictions, by its intermixtures of evil with good, of sorrow with joy; by the questions we are compelled to ask even though we cannot answer them, by the problems we are compelled to study although we cannot solve them. And is not this His best way?
2. But if the answer of Jehovah disappoints us, it satisfied Job; and not only satisfied him, but swept away all his doubts and fears in a transport of gratitude and renewed love. Expecting to hear some conclusive argument, we overlook the immense force and pathos of the fact, that Jehovah spake to Job at all. What Job could not bear was that God should abandon as well as afflict him. It was not what God said, but that God did speak to him, brought comfort.
3. Still the question recurs: What was it that recovered Job to faith and peace and trust? Was there absolutely nothing in the answer of Jehovah out of the tempest to meet the inquest of his beseeching doubts? Yes, there was something, but not much. There is an argument of hints and suggestions. It meets the painful sense of mystery which oppressed Job. God simply says, we should not let that mystery distress us, because there are mysteries everywhere. Another argument is, Consider these mysteries and parables of Nature, and what they reveal of the character and purpose of Him by whom they were created and made. You can see that they all work together for good. May not the mystery of human life and pain be as beneficent? God does not argue with us, nor seek to force our trust; for no man was ever yet argued into love, or could even compel his own child to love and confide in him. Trust and love are not to be forced, but won. God may have to deal with us as we deal with our children. Not by logical arguments, which convince our reason, but by tender appeals which touch and break our hearts, our Father conquers us at last, and wins our love and trust forever. (Samuel Cox, D. D.)
The appearance of Jahve
As Job has at last exhausted all mortal powers in order to prevail upon God without defiance and without murmuring, and to behold the solution of the dark enigma, He who has so long been desired and entreated cannot longer withhold His appearance. He now appears at the right time, since an earlier appearance would either have been perilous to the man who was still insufficiently prepared for it, because it would then necessarily have been an angry and destructive response to the defiant or murmuring challenge of man, or else have been incompatible with the proper majesty of God, supposing it had been mercifully condescending and conciliatory, as if man in his ignorance could force such a gracious appearance by rebellion. But now, after the sufferer has tried every human means of prevailing upon God in the proper manner, and already, as conqueror over himself, endeavours without passionate feeling to obtain a higher revelation and final deliverance, this is granted to him at the right moment. It thus appears as if Jahve had so long delayed simply because He had from the beginning anticipated and known that such a brave sufferer as Job would not wholly lose himself, even in the utmost temptation and danger, but would triumphantly go forth from it with higher power and capacity, so as to be able to experience the awful moment of the revelation of a truth and glory such as had been previously never thought of. A revelation coming in this manner must be for Job a friendly and gracious one. (Heinrich A. Von Ewald.)
The revelation in the whirlwind
We are reminded by these words of the similar experience of Elijah when, in the midst of the grandest manifestations of nature, he was brought into direct contact with God. The Lord, we are told, was not in the mighty wind that passed before Elijah on Horeb. He did not choose the whirlwind as the symbol of Himself; because what Elijah required was not the display of Gods newer but the revelation of His love--not the stormy, but the gentle side of Gods nature. He Himself was a tempestuous spirit, an incarnate whirlwind. To such a stormy nature a lesson came to teach him the secret of his failure, and to show him that there were greater powers than those which he had employed, and a better spirit than that which he had displayed. He believed that the most effective way of freeing the land from its idolatry was by threatening and judgment. There was nothing in these judgments to appeal to Israels better nature--to convince them of their sin, and to rouse them to a sense of duty; and the Baal worship, which they were compelled by fear to renounce for a day, resumed its old spell over them when the storm subsided, and the sky became once more serene. But not thus did God reveal Himself to Job. He revealed Himself in the still, small voice to Elijah, because there was too much of the whirlwind in his own character, and in his work of reformation for Israel, and he needed to be taught the greater power of gentleness and love. He revealed Himself in the whirlwind to Job, because there was too much of the still, small voice in his own disposition and in his circumstances, and he needed to be stirred up by trials and troubles that would shake his life to the very centre. The lot of Job was at first extraordinarily prosperous. His nature became like his circumstances; his soul was at ease he lived upon the surface of his being; he was contented with himself and with the world. Jobs worship was practically a similar bargain of faith. He would offer sacrifice to God as a preventive of worldly evil, and as the safeguard of his prosperity. We know what happens in nature after a long continuance of sunshine and calm. It needs a storm to agitate the stagnant waters, and fill the foaming waves with vital air for the good of the creatures of the sea. And so the man whose prosperous life settles down upon the lees of his nature, and partakes of their sordidness, requires the storm of trial to purify the atmosphere of his soul, to rouse him from his selfishness, to brace up his energies, and to make him a blessing to others, and a grander and truer man in himself. It was for this reason that the overwhelming troubles that came upon Job were sent. The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind. That Divine speech was entirely different from the arguments of Elihu and Zophar, Bildad and Eliphaz. There were no upbraidings in it; no replies to specious sophistries and short-sighted charges it seemed to ignore altogether the questions at issue; it appealed not to the intellect, but to the heart. He grew wiser the more he suffered; and the storm that purified his soul gave him a deeper insight into the mysteries of Divine providence, so that he could rise superior to the doubts of his own heart, and vindicate the ways of God to man against all the dishonouring arguments of his false friends. As a candle within a transparency, so the fire of pain illumined the truth of God to him, and made plain what before had been dark. He had lost everything which men of the world value, but he had found what was more than a compensation. And so God deals with us still. He speaks to different persons in different ways: to one who is self-sufficient because of his prosperity, by the loud roar of the whirlwind; to another who is despondent and depressed because of failure and blighted hopes arising from wrong methods of doing good, He speaks in the still, small voice, and assures him that fury is not in Him. The Divine method is ever by the still, small voice. God would prefer to deal with us in gentle, loving, quiet ways. Judgment is His strange work. Gods continued goodness to us too often leaves us careless and godless. The still, small voice speaking to us in the blessings of life with which day after day our cup is filled, is unheeded, and God requires to send His whirlwind to speak to us in such a way that we shall be compelled to hear. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
Spiritual tempests
Numerous instances might be cited where God manifested Himself out of a cloud. But as well in the dew drop, out of the calm and silent lake, as well as from the billowy ocean. In all ways He seeks to reach and impress men with His greatness and goodness. But I believe men are more impressed when in the pathway of the cyclone, where the ordinary provisions of safety are inadequate, and men lift up their voices, and implore the mercy of the great Jehovah.
I. The first thing to consider is, how easily the most innocent things may become harmful and dangerous. A child may sleep in the morning breeze. What is softer than the dewdrop as it releases the aroma of the fields that we drink in with so much pleasure? And yet with what terrific force it sweeps on when changed into the tornado and flood! How great, therefore, the power for destruction in the simplest. In the souls of men there are forces no less terrible than those in physical nature that, held by a slight restraint, keep in check vices, which, were they loose, would carry devastation into society.
II. The second principle teaches that destructive things may become beneficial. At first we shrink from the approaching storm, property is lost, homes destroyed, and yet we learn from viewing the scene of desolation that storms may be beneficial. Do we think of the poison in the atmosphere, and how the storm has taken it up and blown it away, giving us in its place a pure atmosphere? A few lives may be given to the tornado, but you and I have been given purer air. The soldier in the same manner dies for his country. These may be great mysteries. The storm may destroy much, but it blesses us all. The cyclones in the spiritual world strike us, but give us a better vision; they purify our spiritual atmosphere, and let us see nearer the world to which we are journeying.
III. The third teaching of the tornado is how the simple things become inscrutable. Mans knowledge seems to extend to a certain point. God said to the sea: Thus far shalt thou go and no farther. But the storm may bring great blessings. We live in a little circle of light; we see but a few feet, and know not but the next step may be into infinite blackness; but if God is with us it does not matter. The three lessons, considered together, teach us that this world is an island in the midst of a great ocean. We are like the mariners on the lake--the more the storm rages the more lights will be turned toward the haven. We all need a refuge from the storm. Some seek it in the sciences and philosophy; but the only haven is in the arms of Jesus, where there is at least heaven, sweet, blessed heaven, for the burdened and weary. (George C. Lorimer, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Job 38
XXVII.
"MUSIC IN THE BOUNDS OF LAW"
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Job 38
OVER the shadowed life of Job, and the world shadowed for him by his own intellectual and moral gloom, a storm sweeps, and from the storm issues a voice. With the symbol of vast Divine energy comes an answer to the problem of tried and troubled human life. It has seemed, as time went by, that the appeals of the sufferer were unheard, that the rigid silence of heaven would never break. But had he not heard? "Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." Job should have known. What is given will be a fresh, presentation of ideas now to be seen in their strength and bearing because the mind is prepared and made eager. The man, brought to the edge of pessimism, will at last look abroad and follow the doings of the Almighty even through storm and darkness. Does the sublime voice issue only to overbear and reduce him to silence? Not so. His reason is addressed, his thought demanded, his power to recognise truth is called for. A great demonstration is made, requiring at every step the response of mind and heart. The Creator reveals His care for the creation, for the race of men, for every kind of being and every need. He declares His own glory, of transcendent power, of immeasurable wisdom, also of righteous and holy will. He can afflict men, and yet do them no wrong but good, for they are His men, for whom He provides as they cannot provide for themselves. Trial, sorrow, change, death-is anything "disastrous" that God ordains? Impossible. His care of His creation is beyond our imagining. There are no disasters in His universe unless where the will of man divorced from faith would tear a way for itself through the fastnesses of His eternal law.
Eloah is known through the tempest as well as in the dewdrop and the tender blossom. What is capable of strength must be made strong. That is the Divine law throughout all life, for the cedar on Lebanon, the ox in the yoke, the lion of the Libyan desert. Chiefly the moral nature of man must find its strength. The glory of God is to have sons who can endure. The easy piety of a happy race, living among flowers and offering incense for adoration, cannot satisfy Him of the eternal will, the eternal power. Men must learn to trust, to endure, to hold themselves undismayed when the fury of tempest scours their world and heaps, the driven snow above their dwellings and death comes cold and stark. Struggle man shall, struggle on through strange and dreadful trials till he learn to live in the thought of Divine Will and Love, coordinate in one Lord true to Himself, worthy to be trusted through all cloud and clash. Ever is He pursuing an end conformable to the nature of the beings He has created, and, with man an end conformable to his nature, the possibilities of endless moral development, the widening movements of increasing life. Let man know this and submit, know this and rejoice. A dream life shall be impossible to man, use his day as he will.
Is this Divine utterance from the storm required by the progress of the drama? Some have doubted whether its tenor is consistent with the previous line of thought; yet the whole movement sets distinctly towards it, could terminate in no other way. The prologue, affirming Gods satisfaction with His servant, left us assured that if Job remained pure and kept his faith his name would not be blotted from the book of life. He has kept his integrity; no falsehood or baseness can be charged against him. But is he still with God in sincere and humble faith? We have heard him accuse the Most High of cruel enmity. At the close he lies under the suspicion of impious daring and revolt, and it appears that he may have fallen from grace. The author has created this uncertainty knowing well that the verdict of God Himself is needed to make clear the spiritual position and fate of His servant.
Besides this, Jobs own suspense remains, of more importance from a dramatic point of view. He is not yet reconciled to providence. Those earnest cries for light, which have gone forth passionately, pathetically to heaven, wait for an answer. They must have some reply, if the poet can frame a fit deliverance for the Almighty. The task is indeed severe. On one side there is restraint, for the original motive of the whole action and especially the approval of Job by his Divine Master are not to be divulged. The tried man must not enjoy vindication at the risk of losing humility, his victory over his friends must not be too decisive for his own spiritual good, nor out of keeping with the ordinary current of experience. On the other side lies the difficulty of representing Divine wisdom in contrast to that of man, and of dealing with the hopes and claims of Job, for vindication, for deliverance from Sheol, for the help of a Redeemer, either in the way of approving them or setting them definitely aside. Urged by a necessity of his own creating, the author has to seek a solution, and he finds one equally convincing and modest, crowning his poem with a passage of marvellous brilliance, aptness, and power.
It has already been remarked that the limitations of genius and inspiration are distinctly visible here. The bold prophetic hopes put into Jobs mouth were beyond the authors power to verify even to his own satisfaction. He might himself believe in them, ardently, as flashes of heavenly foresight, but he would not affirm them to be Divine in their source because he could not give adequate proof. The ideas were thrown out to live in human thought, to find verification when Gods time came. Hence, in the speeches of the Almighty, the ground taken is that of natural religion, the testimony of the wonderful system of things open to the observation of all. Is there a Divine Redeemer for the faithful whose lives have been overshadowed? Shall they be justified in some future state of being when their bodies have mouldered into dust? The voice from on high does not affirm that this shall be; the reverence of the poet does not allow so daring an assumption of the right to speak for God. On the contrary, the danger of meddling with things too high is emphasised in the very utterance which a man of less wisdom and humility would have filled with his own ideas. Nowhere is there a finer instance of self-denying moderation for the sake of absolute truth. This writer stands among men as a humble student of the ways of God-is content to stand there at the last, making no claim beyond the knowledge of what may be learned from the creation and providence of God.
And Job is allowed no special providence. The voice from the storm is that which all may hear; it is the universal revelation suited to every man. At first sight we are disposed to agree with those who think the appearance of the Almighty upon the scene to be in itself strange. But there is no Theophany. There is no revelation or message to suit a particular case, to gratify one who thinks himself more important than his fellow creatures, or imagines the problem of his life abnormally difficult. Again the wisdom of the author goes hand in hand with his modesty; what is within his compass he sees to be sufficient for his end.
To some the utterances put into the mouth of the Almighty may seem to come far short of the occasion. Beginning to read the passage they may say:-Now we are to have the fruit of the poets most strenuous thought, the highest inspiration. The Almighty when He speaks in person will be made to reveal His gracious purposes with men and the wisdom of His government in those cases that have baffled the understanding of Job and of all previous thinkers. Now we shall see a new light penetrating the thick darkness and confusion of human affairs. Since this is not done there may be disappointment. But the author is concerned with religion. His maxim is, "The fear of God that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding." He has in his drama done much for human thought and theology. The complications which had kept faith from resting in true spirituality on God have been removed. The sufferer is a just man, a good man whom God Himself has pronounced to be perfect. Job is not afflicted because he has sinned. The author has set in the clearest possible light all arguments he could find for the old notion that transgression and wickedness alone are followed by suffering in this world. He has shown that this doctrine is not in accordance with fact, and has made the proof so clear that a thoughtful person could never afterwards remember the name of Job and hold that false view. But apart from the prologue, no explanation is given of the sufferings of the righteous in this life. The author never says in so many words that Job profited by his afflictions. It might be that the righteous man, tried by loss and pain, was established in his faith forever, above all possibility of doubt. But this is not affirmed. It might be that men were purified by their sufferings, that they found through the hot furnace a way into the noblest life. But this is not brought forward as the ultimate explanation, Or it might be that the good man in affliction was the burden bearer of others, so that his travail and blood helped their spiritual life. But there is no hint of this. Jehovah is to be vindicated. He appears; He speaks out of the storm, and vindicates Himself. Not, however, by showing the good His servant has gained in the discipline of bereavement, loss, and pain. It is by claiming implicit trust from men, by showing that their wisdom at its highest is foolishness to His, and that His administration of the affairs of His world is in glorious faithfulness as well as power.
Is it disappointing? Does the writer neglect the great question his drama has stirred? Or has he not, with art far more subtle than we may at first suppose, introduced into the experience of Job a certain spiritual gain-thoughts and hopes that widen and clear the horizon of his life? In the depth of despondency, just because he has been driven from every earthly comfort and stay, and can look only for miserable death, Job sees in prophetic vision a higher hope. He asks, "If a man die, shall he live again?" The question remains with him and seeks an answer in the intervals of suffering. Then at length he ventures on the presage of a future state of existence, "whether in the body or out of the body he cannot tell, God knoweth,"-"My Redeemer liveth; I shall see God for me." This prevision, this dawning of the light of immortality upon his soul is the gain that has entered into Jobs experience. Without the despondency, the bitterness of bereavement, the sense of decay, and the pressure of cruel charges made against him, these illuminating thoughts would never have come to the sufferer; and along this line the author may have intended to justify the afflictions of the righteous man and quietly vindicate the dealings of God with him.
If further it be asked why this is not made prominent in the course of the Almightys address from the storm, an answer may be found. The hope did not remain clear, inspiring, in the consciousness of Job. The waves of sorrow and doubt rolled over his mind again. It was but a flash, and like lightning at midnight it passed and left the gloom once more. Only when by long reflection and patient thought Job found himself reassured in the expectation of a future life, would he know what trouble had done for him. And it was not in keeping with the gradual development of religious faith that the Almighty should forestall discovery by reviving the hope which for a time had faded. We may take it that with rare skill the writer avoids insistence on the value of a vision which could appear charged with sustaining hope only after it was again apprehended, first as a possibility, then as a revelation, finally as a sublime truth disentangled from doubt and error.
Assuming this to have been in the authors mind, we understand why the Almighty, speaking from the storm, makes no reference to the gain of affliction. There is a return upon the original motive of the drama, -the power of the Creator to inspire, the right of the Creator to expect faith in Himself, whatever losses and trials men have to endure. Neither the integrity of man nor the claim of man upon God is first in the mind of the author, but the majestic Godhead that gathers to itself the adoration of the universe. Man is of importance because he glorifies his Creator. Human righteousness is of narrow range. It is not by his righteousness man is saved, that is to say, finds his true place, the development of his nature and the end of his existence. He is redeemed from vanity and evanescence by his faith, because in exercising it, clinging to it through profoundest darkness, amidst thunder and storm, when deep calleth to deep, he enters into that wise and holy order of the universe which God has appointed, -he lives and finds more abundant life.
It is not denied that on the way toward perfect trust in his Creator man is free to seek explanation of all that befalls him. Our philosophy is no impertinence. Thought must have liberty; religion must be free. The light of justice has been kindled within us that we may seek the answering light of the sublime justice of God in all His dealings with ourselves and with mankind. This is clearly before the mind of the author, and it is the underlying idea throughout the long colloquies between Job and his friends. They are allowed a freedom of thought and speech that sometimes astonishes, for they are engaged in the great inquiry which is to bring clear and uplifting knowledge of the Creator and His will. For us it is a varied inquiry, much of it to be conducted in pain and sorrow, on the bare hillside or on the rough sea, in the face of peril, change, and disappointment. But if always the morale of life, the fulfilment of life bestowed by God as mans trust and inestimable possession are kept in view, freedom is ample, and man, doing his part, need have no fear of incurring the anger of the Divine Judge: the terrors of low religions have no place here.
But now Job is given to understand that liberty has its limitation; and the lesson is for many. To one half of mankind, allowing the mind to lie inert or expending it on vanities, the word has come-Inquire what life is, what its trials mean, how the righteous government of God is to be traced. Now, to the other half of mankind, too adventurous in experiment and judgment, the address of the Almighty says: Be not too bold; far beyond your range the activities of the Creator pass: it is not for you to understand the whole, but always to be reverent, always to trust. The limits of knowledge are shown, and, beyond them, the Divine King stands in glory inaccessible, proved true and wise and just, claiming for Himself the dutiful obedience and adoration of His creatures. Throughout the passage we now consider this is the strain of argument, and the effect on Jobs mind is found in his final confession.
Let man remember that his main business here is not to question but to glorify his Creator. For the time when this book was written the truth lay here; and here it lies even for us. and will lie for those who come after us. In these days it is often forgotten. Science questions, philosophy probes into the reasons of what has been and is, men lose themselves in labyrinths at the far extremities of which they hope to find something which shall make life inexpressibly great or strong or sweet. And even theology and criticism of the Bible occasionally fall into the same error of fancying that to inquire and know are the main things, that although inquiry and knowledge do not at every stage aid the service of the Most High they may promote life. The colloquies and controversies over, Job and his friends are recalled to their real duty, which is to recognise the eternal majesty and grace of the Unseen God, to trust Him and do His will. And our experiments and questions over in every department of knowledge, to this we ought to come. Nay, every step in our quest of knowledge should be taken with the desire to find God more gloriously wise and faithful, that our obedience may be more zealous, our worship more profound. There are only two states of thought or dominant methods possible when we enter on the study of the facts of nature and providence or any research that allures our reason. We must go forward either in the faith of God or with the desire to establish ourselves in knowledge, comfort, and life apart from God. If the second way is chosen, light is turned into darkness, all discoveries prove mere apples of Sodom, and the end is vanity. But on the other line, with life which is good to have, with the consciousness of ability to think and will and act, faith should begin, faith in life and the Maker of life; and if every study is pursued in resolute faith, man refusing to give existence itself the lie, the mind seeking and finding new and larger reasons for trust and service of the Creator, the way will be that of salvation. The faults and errors of one who follows this way will not enter into his soul to abide there and darken it. They will be confessed and forgiven. Such is the philosophy of the Book of Job, and the final vindication of His servant by the Almighty.
XXVIII.
THE RECONCILIATION
Job 38:1 - Job 42:6
THE main argument of the address ascribed to the Almighty is contained in chapters 38 and 39 and in the opening verses of chapter 42. Job makes submission and owns his fault in doubting the faithfulness of Divine providence. The intervening passage containing descriptions of the great animals of the Nile is scarcely in the same high strain of poetic art or on the same high level of cogent reasoning. It seems rather of a hyperbolical kind, suggesting failure from the clear aim and inspiration of the previous portion.
The voice proceeding from the storm cloud, in which the Almighty veils Himself and yet makes His presence and majesty felt, begins with a question of reproach and a demand that the intellect of Job shall be roused to its full vigour in order to apprehend the ensuing argument. The closing words of Job had shown misconception of his position before God. He spoke of presenting a claim to Eloah and setting forth his integrity so that his plea would be unanswerable. Circumstances had brought upon him a stain from which he had a right to be cleared, and, implying this, he challenged the Divine government of the world as wanting in due exhibition of righteousness. This being so, Jobs rescue from doubt must begin with a conviction of error. Therefore the Almighty says:-
"Who is this darkening counsel
By words without knowledge?
Gird up now thy loins like a man;
For I will demand of thee and answer thou Me."
The aim of the author throughout the speech from the storm is to provide a way of reconciliation between man in affliction and perplexity and the providence of God that bewilders and threatens to crush him. To effect this something more than a demonstration of the infinite power and wisdom of God is needed. Zophar affirming the glory of the Almighty to be higher than heaven, deeper than Sheol, longer than the earth, broader than the sea, basing on this a claim that God is unchangeably just, supplies no principle of reconciliation. In like manner Bildad, requiring the abasement of man as sinful and despicable in presence of the Most High with whom are dominion and fear, shows no way of hope and life. But the series of questions now addressed to Job forms an argument in a higher strain, as cogent as could be reared on the basis of that manifestation of God which the natural world supplies. The man is called to recognise not illimitable power only, the eternal supremacy of the Unseen King, but also other qualities of the Divine rule. Doubt of providence is rebuked by a wide induction from the phenomena of the heavens and of life upon the earth, everywhere disclosing law and care cooperant to an end.
First Job is asked to think of the creation of the world or visible universe. It is a building firmly set on deep-laid foundations. As if by line and measure it was brought into symmetrical form according to the archetypal plan; and when the cornerstone was laid as of a new palace in the great dominion of God there was joy in heaven. The angels of the morning broke into song, the sons of the Elohim, high in the ethereal dwellings among the fountains of light and life, shouted for joy. In poetic vision the writer beholds that work of God and those rejoicing companies: but to himself, as to Job, the question comes-What knows man of the marvellous creative effort which he sees in imagination? It is beyond human range. The plan and the method are equally incomprehensible. Of this let Job be assured-that the work was not done in vain. Not for the creation of a world the history of which was to pass into confusion would the morning stars have sung together. He who beheld all that He had made and declared it very good would not suffer triumphant evil to confound the promise and purpose of His toil.
Next there is the great ocean flood, once confined as in the womb of primeval chaos, which came forth in living power, a giant from its birth. What can Job tell, what can any man tell of that wonderful evolution, when, swathed in rolling clouds and thick darkness, with vast energy the flood of waters rushed tumultuously to its appointed place? There is a law of use and power for the ocean, a limit also beyond which it cannot pass. Does man know how that is?-must he not acknowledge the wise will and benignant care of Him who holds in check the stormy devastating sea?
And who has control of the light? The morning dawns not by the will of man. It takes hold of the margin of the earth over which the wicked have been ranging, and as one shakes out the dust from a sheet, it shakes them forth visible and ashamed. Under it the earth is changed, every object made clear and sharp as figures on clay stamped with a seal. The forests, fields, and rivers are seen like the embroidered or woven designs of a garment. What is this light? Who sends it on the mission of moral discipline? Is not the great God who commands the dayspring to be trusted even in the darkness? Beneath the surface of earth is the grave and the dwelling place of the nether gloom. Does Job know. does any man know, what lies beyond the gates of death? Can any tell where the darkness has its central seat? One there is whose is the night as well as the morning. The mysteries of futurity, the arcana of nature lie open to the Eternal alone.
Atmospheric phenomena, already often described, reveal variously the unsearchable wisdom and thoughtful rule of the Most High. The force that resides in the hail, the rains that fall on the wilderness where no man is, satisfying the waste and desolate ground and causing the tender grass to spring up, these imply a breadth of gracious purpose that extends beyond the range of human life. Whose is the fatherhood of the rain, the ice, the hoar frost of heaven? Man is subject to the changes these represent; he cannot control them. And far higher are the gleaming constellations that are set in the forehead of night. Have the hands of man gathered the Pleiades and strung them like burning gems on a chain of fire? Can the power of man unloose Orion and let the stars of that magnificent constellation wander through the sky? The Mazzaroth or Zodiacal signs that mark the watches of the advancing year, the Bear and the stars of her train-who leads them forth? The laws of heaven, too, those ordinances regulating the changes of temperature and the seasons, does man appoint them? Is it he who brings the time when thunderstorms break up the drought and open the bottles of heaven, or the time of heat when the dust gathers into a mass, and the clods cleave fast together? Without this alternation of drought and moisture recurring by law from year to year the labour of man would be in vain. Is not He who governs the changing seasons to be trusted by the race that profits most of His care?
At Job_38:39 attention is turned from inanimate nature to the living creatures for which God provides. With marvellous poetic skill they are painted in their need and strength, in the urgency of their instincts, timid or tameless or cruel. The Creator is seen rejoicing in them as His handiwork, and man is held bound to exult in their life and see in the provision made for its fulfilment a guarantee of all that his own bodily nature and spiritual being may require. Notable especially to us is the close relation between this portion and certain sayings of our Lord in which the same argument brings the same conclusion.
"Two passages of Gods speaking," says Mr. Ruskin, "one in the Old and one in the New Testament, possess, it seems to me, a different character from any of the rest, having been uttered, the one to effect the last necessary change in the mind of a man whose piety was in other respects perfect; and the other as the first statement to all men of the principles of Christianity by Christ Himself-I mean the 38th to 41st chapters of the Book of Job and the Sermon on the Mount. Now the first of these passages is from beginning to end nothing else than a direction of the mind which was to be perfected, to humble observance of the works of God in nature. And the other consists only in the inculcation of three things: 1st, right conduct; 2nd, looking for eternal life; 3rd, trusting God through watchfulness of His dealings with His creation."
The last point is that which brings into closest parallelism the doctrine of Christ and that of the author of Job, and the resemblance is not accidental, but of such a nature as to show that both saw the underlying truth in the same way and from the same point of spiritual and human interest.
"Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lioness?
Or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
When they couch in their dens
And abide in the covert to lie in wait?
Who provideth for the raven his food,
When his young ones cry unto God
And wander for lack of meat?"
Thus man is called to recognise the care of God for creatures strong and weak, and to assure himself that his life will not be forgotten. And in His Sermon on the Mount our Lord says, "Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they?" The parallel passage in the Gospel of Luke approaches still more closely the language in Job-"Consider the ravens that they sow not neither reap."
The wild goats or goats of the rock and their young that soon become independent of the mothers care; the wild asses that make their dwelling place in the salt land and scorn the tumult of the city; the wild ox that cannot be tamed to go in the furrow or bring home the sheaves in harvest; the ostrich that "leaveth her eggs on the earth and warmeth them in the dust"; the horse in his might, his neck clothed with the quivering mane, mocking at fear, smelling the battle afar off; the hawk that soars into the blue sky: the eagle that makes her nest on the rock, -all these, graphically described, speak to Job of the innumerable forms of life, simple, daring, strong, and savage, that are sustained by the power of the Creator. To think of them is to learn that, as one among the dependants of God, man has his part in the system of things. his assurance that the needs God has ordained will be met. The passage is poetically among the finest in Hebrew literature, and it is more. In its place, with the limit the writer has set for himself, it is most apt as a basis of reconciliation and a new starting point in thought for all like Job who doubt the Divine faithfulness. Why should man, because he can think of the providence of God, be alone suspicious of the justice and wisdom on which all creatures rely? Is not his power of thought given to him that he may pass beyond the animals and praise the Divine Provider on their behalf and his own?
Man needs more than the raven, the lion, the mountain goat, and the eagle. He has higher instincts and cravings. Daily food for the body will not suffice him, nor the liberty of the wilderness. He would not be satisfied if, like the hawk and eagle, he could soar above the hills. His desires for righteousness, for truth, for fulness of that spiritual life by which he is allied to God Himself, are his distinction. So, then, He who has created the soul will bring it to perfectness. Where or how its longings shall be fulfilled may not be for man to know. But he can trust God. That is his privilege when knowledge fails. Let him lay aside all vain thoughts and ignorant doubts. Let him say: God is inconceivably great, unsearchably wise, infinitely just and true; I am in His hands, and all is well.
The reasoning is from the less to the greater, and is therefore in this case conclusive. The lower animals exercise their instincts and find what is suited to their needs. And shall it not be so with man? Shall he, able to discern the signs of an all-embracing plan, not confess and trust the sublime justice it reveals? The slightness of human power is certainly contrasted with the omnipotence of God, and the ignorance of man with the omniscience of God; but always the Divine faithfulness, glowing behind, shines through the veil of nature, and it is this Job is called to recognise. Has he almost doubted everything, because from his own life outward to the verge of human existence wrong and falsehood seemed to reign? But how, then, could the countless creatures depend upon God for the satisfaction of their desires and the fulfilment of their varied life? Order in nature means order in the scheme of the world as it affects humanity. And order in the providence which controls human affairs must have for its first principle fairness, justice, so that every deed shall have due reward.
Such is the Divine law perceived by our inspired author "through the things that are made." The view of nature is still different from the scientific, but there is certainly an approach to that reading of the universe praised by M. Renan as peculiarly Hellenic, which "saw the Divine in what is harmonious and evident." Not here at least does the taunt apply that, from the point of view of the Hebrew, "ignorance is a cult and curiosity a wicked attempt to explain," that "even in the presence of a mystery which assails and ruins him, man attributes in a special manner the character of grandeur to that which is inexplicable," that "all phenomena whose cause is hidden, all beings whose end cannot be perceived, are to man a humiliation and a motive for glorifying God." The philosophy of the final portion of Job is of that kind which presses beyond secondary causes and finds the real ground of creaturely existence. Intellectual apprehension of the innumerable and far-reaching threads of Divine purpose and the secrets of the Divine will is not attempted. But the moral nature of man is brought into touch with the glorious righteousness of God. Thus the reconciliation is revealed for which the whole poem has made preparation. Job has passed through the furnace of trial and the deep waters of doubt, and at last the way is opened for him into a wealthy place. Till the Son of God Himself come to clear the mystery of suffering no larger reconciliation is possible. Accepting the inevitable boundaries of knowledge, the mind may at length have peace.
And Job finds the way of reconciliation:
"I know that Thou canst do all things,
And that no purpose of Thine can be restrained.
Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge?
Then have I uttered what I understood not,
Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not."
"Hear, now, and I will speak;
I will demand of Thee, and declare Thou unto me.
I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear;
But now mine eye seeth Thee,
Wherefore I repudiate my words and repent in dust and ashes."
All things God can do, and where His purposes are declared there is the pledge of their accomplishment. Does man exist?-it must be for some end that will come about. Has God planted in the human mind spiritual desires?-they shall be satisfied. Job returns on the question that accused him-"Who is this darkening counsel?" It was he himself who obscured counsel by ignorant words. He had only heard of God then, and walked in the vain belief of a traditional religion. His efforts to do duty and to avert the Divine anger by sacrifice had alike sprung from the imperfect knowledge of a dream life that never reached beyond words to facts and things. God was greater far than he had ever thought, nearer than, he had ever conceived. His mind is filled with a sense of the Eternal power, and overwhelmed by proofs of wisdom to which the little problems of mans life can offer no difficulty.
"Now mine eye seeth Thee." The vision of God is to his soul like the dazzling light of day to one issuing from a cavern. He is in a new world where every creature lives and moves in God. He is under a government that appears new because now the grand comprehensiveness and minute care of Divine providence are realised. Doubt of God and difficulty in acknowledging the justice of God are swept away by the magnificent demonstration of vigour, spirit, and. sympathy, which Job had as yet failed to connect with the Divine Life. Faith therefore finds freedom, and its liberty is reconciliation, redemption. He cannot indeed behold God face to face and hear the judgment of acquittal for which he had longed and cried. Of this, however, he does not now feel the need. Rescued from the uncertainty in which he had been involved-all that was beautiful and good appearing to quiver like a mirage-he feels life again to have its place and use in the Divine order. It is the fulfilment of Jobs great hope, so far as it can be fulfilled in this world. The question of his integrity is not formally decided. But a larger question is answered, and the answer satisfies meantime the personal desire.
Job makes no confession of sin, His friends and Elihu, all of whom endeavour to find evil in his life, are entirely at fault. The repentance is not from moral guilt, but from the hasty and venturous speech that escaped him in the time of trial. After all ones defence of Job one must allow that he does not at every point avoid the appearance of evil. There was need that he should repent and find new life in new humility. The discovery he has made does not degrade a man. Job sees God as great and true and faithful as he had believed Him to be, yea, greater and more faithful by far. He sees himself a creature of this great God and is exalted, an ignorant creature and is reproved. The larger horizon which he demanded having opened to him, he finds himself much less than he had seemed. In the microcosm of his past dream life and narrow religion he appeared great, perfect, worthy of all he enjoyed at the hand of God; but now, in the macrocosm, he is small, unwise, weak. God and the soul stand sure as before; but Gods justice to the soul He has made is viewed along a different line. Not as a mighty sheik can Job now debate with the Almighty he has invoked. The vast ranges of being are unfolded, and among the subjects of the Creator he is one, -bound to praise the Almighty for existence and all it means. His new birth is finding himself little, yet cared for in Gods great universe.
The writer is no doubt struggling with an idea he cannot fully express; and in fact he gives no more than the pictorial outline of it. But, without attributing sin to Job, he points, in the confession of ignorance, to the germ of a doctrine of sin. Man, even when upright, must be stung to dissatisfaction, to a sense of imperfection-to realise his fall as a new birth in spiritual evolution. The moral ideal is indicated, the boundlessness of duty and the need for an awakening of man to his place in the universe. The dream life now appears a clouded partial existence, a period of lost opportunities and barren vainglory. Now opens the greater life in the light of God.
And at the last the challenge of the Almighty to Satan with which the poem began stands justified. The Adversary cannot say, -The hedge set around Thy servant broken down, his flesh afflicted, now he has cursed Thee to Thy face. Out of the trial Job comes, still on Gods side, more on Gods side than ever, with a nobler faith more strongly founded on the rock of truth. It is, we may say, a prophetic parable of the great test to which religion is exposed in the world, its difficulties and dangers and final triumph. To confine the reference to Israel is to miss the grand scope of the poem. At the last, as at the first, we are beyond Israel, out in a universal problem of mans nature and experience. By his wonderful gift of inspiration, painting the sufferings and the victory of Job, the author is a herald of the great advent. He is one of those who prepared the way not for a Jewish Messiah, the redeemer of a small people, but for the Christ of God, the Son of Man, the Saviour of the world.
A universal problem, that is, a question of every human age, has been presented and within limits brought to a solution. But it is not the supreme question of mans life. Beneath the doubts and fears with which this drama has dealt lie darker and more stormy elements. The vast controversy in which every human soul has a share oversweeps the land of Uz and the trial of Job. From his life the conscience of sin is excluded. The author exhibits a soul tried by outward circumstances; he does not make his hero share the thoughts of judgment of the evildoer. Job represents the believer in the furnace of providential pain and loss. He is neither a sinner nor a sin bearer. Yet the book leads on with no faltering movement toward the great drama in which every problem of religion centres. Christs life, character, work cover the whole region of spiritual faith and struggle, of conflict and reconciliation, of temptation and victory, sin and salvation; and while the problem is exhaustively wrought out the Reconciler stands divinely free of all entanglement. He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. Jobs honest life emerges at last, from a narrow range of trial into personal reconciliation and redemption through the grace of God. Christs pure heavenly life goes forward in the Spirit through the full range of spiritual trial, bearing every need of erring man, confirming every wistful hope of the race, yet revealing with startling force mans immemorial quarrel with the light, and convicting him in the hour that it saves him. Thus for the ancient inspired drama there is set, in the course of evolution, another, far surpassing it, the Divine tragedy of the universe, involving the spiritual omnipotence of God. Christ has to overcome not only doubt and fear, but the devastating godlessness of man, the strange sad enmity of the carnal mind. His triumph in the sacrifice of the cross leads religion forth beyond all difficulties and dangers into eternal purity and calm. That is through Him the soul of believing man is reconciled by a transcendent spiritual law to nature and providence, and his spirit consecrated forever to the holiness of the Eternal.
The doctrine of the sovereignty of God, as set forth-in the drama of Job with freshness and power by one of the masters of theology, by no means covers the whole ground of Divine action. The righteous man is called and enabled to trust the righteousness of God; the good man is brought to confide in that Divine goodness which is the source of his own. But the evildoer remains unconstrained by grace, unmoved by sacrifice. We have learned a broader theology, a more strenuous yet a more gracious doctrine of the Divine sovereignty. The induction by which we arrive at the law is wider than nature, wider than the providence that reveals infinite wisdom, universal equity and care. Rightly did a great Puritan theologian take his stand on the conviction of God as the one power in heaven and earth and hell; rightly did he hold to the idea of Divine will as the one sustaining energy of all energies. But he failed just where the author of Job failed long before: he did not fully see the correlative principle of sovereign grace. The revelation of God in Christ, our Sacrifice and Redeemer, vindicates with respect to the sinful as well as the obedient the Divine act of creation. It shows the Maker assuming responsibility for the fallen, seeking and saving the lost; it shows one magnificent sweep of evolution which starts from the manifestation of God in creation and returns through Christ to the Father, laden with the manifold immortal gains of creative and redeeming power.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Elihu had now said all he intended. Possibly interrupted…
JEHOVAH’S ADDRESS TO JOB
Elihu had now said all he intended. Possibly interrupted by the storm which had been gathering during his speech. Out of the storm-cloud, from which already issued thunders and lightnings, the Almighty was now to speak. The grandeur and sublimity of the scene not to be surpassed. Its only counterpart at the giving of the law on Mount Sinai (Exo_19:18).
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I. The announcement of the Almighty’s speech. Job_38:1.—“Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind” (or storm-cloud). Observe—
1. The Speaker. “The Lord”—ehovah. A name
(1) Mysterious; expressive of the mysterious attributes of Godhead—eternity, self-existence, unchangeableness, self-dependence—He Who was, is, and is to be. Equivalent to that given by God Himself at the burning bush: “I am,” or “I am that I am”.
(2) Gracious; a covenant name. Assumed by God in relation to Israel as His chosen and covenant people—“Jehovah, the God of Israel”. Indicates unchangeable faithfulness in the performance of His promises and covenant obligations. Especially revealed to Moses at the bush as expressive of the relationship to be established between God and Israel from that period. The pronunciation of the name lost to the Jews, together with their covenant relationship to the Almighty. Now known by them only as the name of four letters. “Adonai”—Lord or Master—substituted for it. The name as given in the text, probably indicative of the Israelitish authorship of the book, as well as in some degree of the period of its composition. The name applied in the Bible to three distinct persons in the Godhead—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Here the Son intended as “The Word,” or He by Whom the Godhead speaks and reveals Himself to man (Joh_1:1). Unspeakable condescension on the part of Jehovah to address Himself to fallen man in any other way than one of judgment.
2. The speech. “Answered.” God’s address to Job an “answer”. Mercy implied in God’s speaking to man at all. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past to the fathers,” &c. (Heb_1:1). Might have treated men as the fallen angels—with eternal silence. One of the greatest trials and griefs to the godly when God appears to be “silent to them” (Psa_28:1). Saul’s great misery that God answered him no more (1Sa_28:15). Especial mercy when God answers men. Implies felt need and desire on man’s part—sense of darkness, perplexity, want. God still answers men—by His written word, His Spirit, the lips of His servants, His providence. Especial mercy when God answers men. Job’s three friends, and then Elihu, had answered Job, but without effect. The answer from God Himself needed. “None teacheth like Him.” “I am the Lord that teacheth thee to profit.” He speaks and instructs “with a strong hand” (Isa_8:11). His word with power. The proper posture of men in relation to God that of Samuel: “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth;” or that of David: “I will hear what God the Lord will speak” (1Sa_3:10; Psa_85:8). God’s answer to Job given according to his desire, yet not such as he expected. Intended not to vindicate Himself or His procedure, but to instruct and humble Job. Given to convince him of the sinfulness of his complaints and questionings, by showing him his own ignorance and littleness in contrast with Jehovah’s omniscience and almightiness. Designed to show him his inability even to judge of His Maker’s procedure, from his inability to explain the commonest operations in nature. The answer a prosecution of the argument of Elihu. Job apparently silenced, but not convinced, by Elihu’s speeches. The address unequalled for majesty of sentiment and sublimity of language by any uninspired production either of ancient or modern times. The speech a daring flight for a poet, but sustained because inspired. The book of Job the sublimest poem in the world. “One of the grandest things ever written with pen—nothing written, I think, in the Bible or out of it, of equal literary merit.”—Carlyle. This speech the sublimest part of the book.
3. The party addressed. “Job.” Others present; possibly, however, without hearing, or at least understanding, what was spoken. Saul’s companions on the way to Damascus saw the light, but “heard not the voice of Him that spake to him” (Act_22:9). Yet, they “heard a voice, but saw no man”—hearing it without understanding its utterance (Act_9:7). A Divine voice, like thunder, spoke to Jesus in the presence of the people, understood by Him, but not by them (Joh_12:28-29). Observe—
(1) Divine sovereignty. The three friends in greater error than Job, yet Job only answered. Yet
(2) sovereignty exercised in justice and goodness. Job alone desired an answer from God, and alone believed that such would be given.
(3) Divine mercy and kindness in answering Job. His spirit at times all but, if not actually, rebellious, and his language petulant and irreverent—such as called for deep repentance. God does not turn away from His sincere, though sinning, servants.
(4) God’s faithfulness to His people. His answer a sharp reproof to Job. “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.” God loves His people too well to suffer sin upon them. Saints often dealt with in an apparently rougher manner than even sinners.
(5) The particularity of God’s dealing with men. Job singled out in this address, as if the only person present. So always when God speaks effectually. “Thou art the man.” “Zacchæus, make haste and come down.” The Good Shepherd “calleth His own sheep by their name.”
4. The place. “Out of the whirlwind”. The tempest raised for this special purpose. Perhaps an ordinary storm-cloud now produced in the providence of God to be employed as His pavilion whence to issue this address. Natural for a storm to be chosen for such a purpose. Perhaps a similar storm employed in the giving of the law (Exo_19:18). All nature under God’s control, and ready at His call. The lightnings His servants, saying: Here we are (Job_38:35). A storm the symbol of judgment and the expression of power. The descent of the Spirit at Pentecost like the sound of “a rushing mighty wind” (Act_2:2). Divine interposition on behalf of David and David’s Lord represented as connected with a storm of wind and hail, thundering and lightning (Psa_18:9-14). Clouds, fire, and tempest accompany the Judge’s descent at the last day (Psa_50:3; Dan_7:10; 2Th_1:8; Rev_1:7). The whirlwind, or storm-cloud, now employed as expressive of—
(1) The majesty of the Speaker;
(2) The weightiness of the matter;
(3) The power of the Almighty to accomplish His purposes, whether of mercy or judgment;
(4) The terribleness of His displeasure. Intended
(1) To awaken more solemn attention;
(2) To convey a deeper impression of the power and majesty of God;
(3) To contribute to the object of the speech, Job’s conviction and humiliation. Suitable as—
(1) Accompanying a Divine reproof; 2) On an occasion in which the power, justice, and providence of God had appeared to be called in question. The present case compared and contrasted with God’s voice to Elijah in the wilderness—a wind, earthquake, and fire, yet the Lord in none of them, but in “a still, small voice” which followed (1Ki_19:11-12). Observe—
(1) All nature used as God’s instruments. The storm-cloud employed as His pavilion, and the whirlwind as His car (Psa_18:10-11).
(2) Terrible to hate such a Being for our enemy; blessed to have Him for our friend. “A fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb_10:31).
(3) God occasionally speaks to His people out of a storm. Storms in the experience of believers; but the Lord is in the storm, and speaks out of it. An ancient version of the text reads: “The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind of grief.” A Father’s voice in every tempest of trouble that overtakes a believer. The voice, as in Job’s case, may be one of reproof, but is, at the same time, one of love. “It is I; be not afraid.” “I will allure her into the wilderness, and I will speak comfortably unto her” (Marg.: “to her heart”). What appears only to betoken wrath, and to threaten destruction, made to believers to be a channel of mercy. In Job’s case the storm-cloud prepared the way for the sunshine that followed. Blessed for God to speak to us, though out of a whirlwind. A storm of any kind a blessing, if God speaks to us out of it. If God only speak to us, we may well leave the mode of His doing so to Himself. The same loving Father and faithful covenant-God, whether He speak in a whirlwind, an earthquake, a fire, or a “still, small voice.”
II. The Reproof. Job_38:2.—“Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” The question expressive of wonder and reprehension. “Who is this?” Who so bold, foolish, and pre sumptuous? The wisest and best incompetent to sit in judgment on the Divine procedure. The ground of God’s reproof—“that darkens counsel by words without knowledge.” Job not reproved for his previous life, but his present language. His language blamed not for its impiety, but its presumption and ignorance. Job “darkened counsel”—
(1) By casting reflections on the Divine procedure, and so obscuring its brightness;
(2) Making that which is mysterious to us still darker by cavils and short-sighted reasonings. Great force in the expression. Man, by his carnal reasoning, and still more by his complaining, instead of clearing up what is dark in the Divine procedure, only makes it darker. Observe—
1. All God’s ways are “counsel.” “Counsel is mine and sound wisdom.” Nothing in God’s dealings but what is the result of an infinite wisdom and eternal forethought. “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.” Everything both actual and possible taken into view by Him at one glance. His perfections enable Him not only to know, but to choose and accomplish, what is best. Nothing unforeseen or unprovided for. A sparrow’s fall not without God. His purposes called His “counsel,” because the result of wisdom and forethought (Psa_33:11; Pro_19:21; Isa_28:29; Act_2:23). God’s grace in Christ abundant towards us, but “in all wisdom and prudence” (Eph_1:8). Every event in Providence and every trouble in a believer’s experience, the filling up of a wise and well-calculated plan, without any prejudice to man’s freedom or lessening of his responsibility.
2. Man, by reasoning about, and cavilling against, God’s dealings, only darkens the subject. Our duty in reference to God’s procedure not to reason and question, but to submit and adore. The more that man, in his own carnal wisdom, reasons about God and His providence, the greater His perplexity and confusion. To teach man’s duty in reference to the Divine procedure, the object of the Almighty’s present address. Its meaning, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psa_66:10).
3. Human reasonings in regard to God and his dealings, apart from revelation, only “words without knowledge.” Such reasonings the mere thoughts and prattle of children in regard to the administration of a kingdom. God and His ways known only as He is pleased to reveal them. “What I do, thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.” Our knowledge, while on earth, at best but “in part”—fragmentary and piecemeal. God’s providential dealings seen hereafter as a transparent sea of glass (Rev_15:2).
4. All cavils and complaints against God’s dealings in providence only the result of ignorance—“words without knowledge”.
III. The Challenge Job_38:3.—“Gird up now thy loins like a man (a valiant man, ready to enter on a contest, as Job had wished to do with the Almighty (ch. Job_13:22),—spoken in irony and humbling reproof); for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.” Job’s desire now granted, but not in the way he expected. God “calls” (ch. Job_13:22), but not to enter into a suit with Job in regard to his past life. The questions put, not as to what he has done, but what he knows and is able to do. The object of them to shew his folly and presumption in questioning his Maker’s dealings. His knowledge shown to be ignorance, and his power perfect weakness. These contrasted with the wisdom and power of God, as seen—
(1) In His work of creation;
(2) In His work of providence. A series of questions proposed which follow each other like claps of thunder in the ear of the silenced patriarch. The challenge intended to show Job his utter incapacity to sit in judgment on God’s procedure, and his arrogance in arraigning it. Job reminded by it that he is but of yesterday and knows nothing, and that he is unable to put a finger to the commonest processes of nature, either in the inanimate or animate world; while all has been seen, planned, and executed ages before he was born, and is continually, every moment, and in all places, executed still by Him who is both Creator and Governor of the universe. The questions such as to teach us true Christian wisdom—silence and submission in the presence of God’s most mysterious and painful providences. Observe—
1. Man’s proper character and behaviour in relation to God’s procedure, rather that of a child than of a “man.” The things of God hidden from the wise and prudent, but “revealed unto babes.” Our duty and interest in relation to God’s dealings, to behave ourselves like “a weaned child” (Psa_131:2). “In malice be ye children, but in understanding be ye men” (1Co_14:20).
2. In the presence of God, man’s posture to be rather that of a child than of a “man”. In relation to our duty as Christians in the world, we are to “quit ourselves like men and be strong,” but in the presence of God to take the place of children. When Jeremiah took the place of a child, God made him “an iron pillar and a brazen wall against the whole land” (Jer_1:6; Jer_1:18). The “worm Jacob” taken by God and employed as a “new sharp thrashing instrument having teeth, to thrash the nations” (Isa_41:15).
3. Man’s duty to “gird up his loins” in order to work for God, not to debate with Him. The mightiest but a sorry match for his Maker. “Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth; but woe unto him that striveth with his Maker” (Isa_45:9). “Who will set the thorns and briars against me in battle.” Man’s glory and honour, to contend for God; his disgrace and ruin, to contend with Him.
IV. The Questioning. Job_38:4-41).—Embraces a wide field both in nature and Providence. As suitable and appropriate to humble man’s pride in the present age of advanced science, as in the days of the patriarch. The questions have relation to—
1. Job’s antiquity and God’s creation of the world. Job_38:3-7.—“Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if (or ‘since’—ironically) thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures (assigned the dimensions and proportions) thereof, if (or since) thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it (the measuring line, in order to regulate its form and dimensions for beauty and use)? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened (‘its bases sunk’)? or who laid the corner-stone thereof (rendering the fabric so firm as not to fall to pieces); When the morning stars (angels, figuratively so called from their splendour and early place in creation; or perhaps, literal stars, by personification) sang together (like the Priests and Levites at the foundation and finishing of the second Temple (Ezr_3:10-11; Zec_4:7), and all the sons of God (angels, so called from their Divine origin and resemblance) shouted for joy?” (participating with their Maker’s joy in the perfection of the work and the prospects connected with it (Exo_31:17; Psa_104:31; Pro_8:31).
Observe—
(1) Man incapacitated from his very creaturehood, and especially his comparatively recent creation, for forming a judgment, apart from revelation, concerning God’s purposes and procedure. The plan of the world’s government formed in connection with the creation of it. To form an unaided judgment of the former, man should have been present at the latter.
(2) Every thing Connected with the
Formation of the Earth,
indicative of infinite wisdom and power, but lying beyond man’s present knowledge. Science confessedly ignorant of such a thing as creation, and of the origin of the universe. The rocks probably intended here as the “foundations” of the earth. These ascertained to descend several miles below the surface. The earth’s crust known to the depth of eight or ten miles. Supposed, from calculation, to extend nearly twenty miles lower. The globe itself believed to have been at the beginning a mass of metal resembling quicksilver, and to have been launched into space in a state of extreme heat—being first, by a natural process, covered with rust and then with water. The first really solid ground believed to have been granite—a hard, fire-baked substance, prepared in the interior furnace of the globe for the pavement of the water-covered earth, and pressed, while in a soft state, by some enormous weight occasioned by the hot and burning metals that rested over it. Its hard stony masses afterwards, by some mighty agency, forced up to the surface; some portions being left under the waters, while others were driven up through them, and formed mountains and hills. The granite subsequently covered by various earths placed on it by the Creator, so as to form the earth’s crust. The granite itself formed out of eight of the sixty materials found in the crust of the globe, these forming three distinct bodies (quartz, mica, and feldspar), each so constituted as to answer the purposes for which it was required, viz.—to form by its union with the other substances a solid pavement, suitable to go round the globe. Streams of electricity supposed to have accompanied the mighty forces that lifted the granite, in mountain piles, up through the waters, causing it to crack and rend into four-sided blocks. The granite thus uplifted at various periods of the world’s existence, and made the great storehouse whence mud, sand, and fragments have been supplied for the building up of the greater number of our rocks; its blocks grinding one against another, and its mountain surfaces being broken and crumbled into dust by the united action of frost, wind, and rain. The particles rolling down the rocky steeps, and falling into innumerable rills trickling down the mountain’s side, believed to have been washed by them into the valleys below, to meet the river floods; where they were ground and smoothed, through constant friction, into masses of sand, mud, and rubble, swept into the ocean, and driven still onwards by tides and currents, till they gradually sank down and formed flat beds or strata. Some of these strata thousands of feet in depth. Hardened into rock by the pressure of new beds over them, by the effects of heat, and by dissolved iron or lime percolating in water through the masses. Some of the loosened particles of granite falling into the surrounding waters, believed to have been spread in beds over the hot ocean floors, or piled up in hollow places between the sea-mountains; and having been there baked by the hot granite, to have formed what are called crystalline rocks of gneiss and mica slate, sometimes two miles in depth; while clay slate, several hundred feet in thickness, was further made from the same materials, and divided into its thin plates by the electric fluid having been sent through the mass of the slate mud. The earth thus said in Scripture to have been “founded upon the seas and established upon the floods” (Psa_24:2); an ocean of water having been the original covering of the globe, before the rocks were heaved up through its waters. In another sense, the earth without foundations, being hung “upon nothing” (ch. Job_26:7), and kept in its place while moving round the sun, by the two opposite centripetal and centrifugal forces.
(3) The formation of the earth and its preparation as a habitation for man, especially when viewed in connection with its future history, a work of such glory and excellence as to call forth the joyful songs of angelic spectators. The earth itself, before sin defaced it, and as it appeared on the day on which God rested from His work, a scene of matchless beauty. That must have been beautiful, and worthy of the songs of angels, which the Divine Creator himself pronounced “very good.” From that earth, as probably in some degree made known at the time of its formation, angels themselves were to derive a large accession both to their knowledge and their joy (Eph_3:10; 1Pe_1:12; Luk_2:10-14; Rev_5:12).
(4) Angels of inconceivable antiquity. Millions of ages since the foundations of the earth were laid in its granite rocks. Angels apparently spectators during the laying of those foundations as well as through the whole process of the earth’s formation. Hence probably called “morning stars.” God’s elder children. Full of knowledge as the elder-born of creation. Happy they are who made to resemble them in character and to spend eternity in their society!
(5) That in God’s works of creation on earth sufficient to occupy the songs of the highest created Intelligences. How glorious then those works, and how worthy of our contemplation and praise! A lesson here intended for Job. The angels’ joyful adoration exhibited for his and our imitation. God’s works, whether of creation or providence, to be commended, not complained against nor cavilled at. A privilege to be the inhabitants of a world whose formation awakened the joyful songs of angels. If angels rejoiced and sung on account of its formation, how much more may we, if savingly interested in the redemption-work of Him by whom and for whom all things were made, and who, to save us, took our nature and became our elder Brother!
2. The sea and its barriers of sand and rock. Job_38:8-11.—“Or who shut up the sea (probably the waters that covered the earth at the beginning of the Mosaic creation, Gen_1:2) with doors, when it brake forth (perhaps from an underground abyss), as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof (perhaps the darkness or thick vapour that was ‘upon the face of the deep,’ Gen_1:2), and thick darkness a swaddling band for it (the waters viewed as a new-born infant); and brake up for it my decreed place (or, ‘appointed my decree over it’), and set bars and doors (in the sand and rocks, while preparing the sea and dry land, Gen_1:9); and said: Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.”
The operations here referred to, in accordance with the account of the creation given in the book of Genesis. Darkness and dense vapour enveloping the globe and its watery surface, the natural effect of the earth’s internal heat acting upon the waters that covered it. According to geologists, the fiercest heat of the glowing globe probably checked from ascending into the air through the rusty covering spread over it; the change in temperature thus causing the steaming vapours in the atmosphere to fall down upon that covering in the shape of water, and so to surround the whole of the globe with one general primeval ocean. The “doors,” or sandy and rocky barriers of the ocean afterwards formed, the result of upheavals and subsidencies at subsequent and different periods. The whole process the work of a wisdom and power surpassing our conception, and one far beyond the knowledge and comprehension of men. Observe—
The restraint imposed upon the rolling and dashing waves of ocean by a barrier of sand and rocks, the emblem of the restraint put upon the pride and rebellion of intelligent creatures. Fallen angels restrained within the bounds assigned them by the Almighty. ‘Reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day (Jud_1:8). Their liberty to tempt and do mischief only such as He is pleased to allow. Such restraining power frequently exhibited by the Saviour when on earth. In their endeavours to crush the Church, allowed to proceed so far and no farther. So with wicked men and the Church’s human adversaries. Herod “stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the Church.” Had already slain one apostle and was intent on the murder of another, when he is smitten by an invisible hand and miserably dies (Act_12:1, &c.). The reformation under Luther took place immediately after the Pope and his adherents, at the Lateran Council in 1514, rejoiced that not a single voice was raised against his authority throughout the whole world. The power of the Moslems arrested at Tours by Charles Martel in 1492, when it threatened to subdue the whole of Europe, as it had already done a large portion of it. The Invincible Armada, by which Philip
2. of Spain expected to crush the Reformation in England, with its troops drawn from all quarters, after three years of preparation, carrying, as it did, the instruments of torture by which the heretics of England were to pay the price of their desertion from Rome, was destroyed almost without hand when on the very eve of accomplishing its purpose. Deus flavit, et dissipantur. “God blew and they are scattered.” “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.” The “gates of hell” may send forth its raging legions against the Church of Christ, but “shall not prevail against it.” The interests of the Church as a whole, and of every believer composing it, safe in the hands of such a God and Saviour.
3. The vicissitude of day and night. Job_38:12-15.—“Hast thou commanded the morning (to succeed the night) since thy days (since thou wast born, or, because thou hast seen many days); and caused the day-spring to know his place (the exact time throughout the year when it should arise); that it might take hold of the ends of the earth (spreading its light from one end of the earth to the other—from the eastern to the western horizon), that the wicked might be shaken out of it (as no longer able to pursue their deeds of darkness after the morning light has risen)? It (the earth) is turned as clay to the seal (Heb., ‘as clay of the seal,’ as the clay under the impression of the seal, exhibiting forms and appearances which were not visible upon it before); and they (the objects on the earth’s surface) stand [forth] as a garment (a beautiful, parti-coloured, and variously-figured robe clothing the earth, which during the night was entirely unseen). And from the wicked their light is withholden (these being, as the result of their evil deeds, deprived of the light either by imprisonment or death), and the high arm (their mighty power, or the arm uplifted for deeds of violence,) shall be (or is) broken” (in consequence of the light exposing their deeds and leading to their detection and punishment, and from courts of justice being in those countries usually held in the morning). Observe—
(1) One of the most striking examples of Divine wisdom, power, and goodness, afforded in the succession of day and night. The result of the earth’s daily rotation on its axis in its annual revolution round the sun, and the inclination of that axis from the perpendicular. The return of light every morning a mercy demanding devout thankfulness, and calling for adoring consideration of the Divine wisdom and goodness; all the more as this has been going on ever since the creation of the world.
(2) Man’s feebleness exhibited in connection with the return of each morning’s light. Man unable to promote or hinder, hasten or retard, its return by a single moment.
(3) Among other beneficial objects accomplished by the return of morning light, is its subserviency to God’s moral government of the world, in checking the commission of evil deeds which can only be perpetrated under the cover of night, and in leading to their detection and punishment.
(4) As every morning throughout the year exhibits afresh to man’s view the earth arrayed in its beautiful garments, our duty is thankfully to recognize the goodness of God in an arrangement which conduces so much to our comfort and enjoyment, as well as to our convenience.
4. The depths of the ocean. Job_38:16.—“Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea (the ‘fountains of the great deep,’ Gen_7:11; or ‘the entangled thickets’ or jungle in the ocean beds)? or hast thou walked (as on dry land) in the search of the depth?” (penetrated and examined the depths of the ocean or its caverned recesses). Three facts connected with the ocean-depths exhibiting God’s greatness and man’s littleness.
(1) The unexplored vegetation found in the bottom of sea. The bed of the ocean in many localities luxuriantly clothed with marine vegetation, to the extent of many hundred miles. These submarine forests and jungles thronged with living beings, while no eye of man rests on their hidden beauties.
(2) The great depth of water in some parts of the ocean. Probable that, considering the greater extent of the ocean than of the land, the bed of the former descends to a depth considerably exceeding the highest mountains of the latter. In the North Atlantic, no bottom found in 1849 with a line of 34,200 feet, nearly equal to six and a half miles in length. In the South Atlantic, the depth reached, in 1853, of eight miles and three quarters. In these almost unfathomable depths, not a plant that vegetates, nor a creature that finds a home in those ocean-caves, but is open to God’s omniscient eye, and is the object of his providential care.
(3) The existence of fountains in the bottom of the sea. These fountains emit their streams of fresh water into the ocean from underground sources. In many places the water of the sea is fresher at great depths than at the surface, owing to the presence of such springs. A powerful jet of fresh water found in the Gulf of Spezzia, and others in the Persian Gulf and in the Bay of Xagua, south-east of Cuba.
5. The earth’s interior and the nether world of spirits. Job_38:17.—“Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?” Two ideas suggested in these interrogatories.
(1) The earth’s interior hidden and unknown to men. The place of departed spirits often represented as in the interior of the earth, probably from the body being buried beneath its surface (1Sa_28:8-15). The earth’s interior entirely unknown to man. Rocks of various kinds known to constitute its crust to the depth of eight or ten miles. This crust supposed to extend perhaps fifteen miles further—an extent, however, of which nothing is known. The space beyond, probably an immense cavern of subterranean fire, heating the lower parts of the crust, and occasioning hot springs and volcanoes, which from time to time force up flames, lava, and red-hot mud.
(2) The world of spirits unknown and unpenetrated by men while in the body. Of that world nothing is certainly known except as revealed in the Word of God. Man unable to penetrate its hidden regions except by bursting the bars of his corporeal enclosure. Views of the abode of happy spirits sometimes vouchsafed to favoured men on earth, probably while in an ecstatic state (2Co_12:2-4; Rev_4:1-11; Rev_7:9-17). Persons miraculously restored to life unable to report their observation and experience in the spirit-world. Glimpses of heaven occasionally afforded to to believers, especially when already arrived at its confines. Human power or science unable to draw aside the veil that conceals the world of spirits from our view. Mysteries connected with the state of the dead not revealed. One thing certain;—a heaven of joy or a hell of woe awaits men after death, according as their character prepares them for one or the other. Fallen angels “reserved in chains under darkness to the judgment of the great day,” with temporary liberty allowed, in the mean time to perhaps a part (Jud_1:6; Luk_8:18-31).
6. The earth’s extent. Job_38:18.—“Hast thou perceived (as in one glance) the breadth of the earth? declare if (or since) thou knowest it all.” The language adapted to the ideas then prevalent in regard to the earth. Its form and extent equally unknown in the days of the patriarch. The earth then thought to be a vast plain with inequalities on its surface, stretching to an unknown extent, and bounded on all sides by the ocean. More recent observation and study have ascertained, with sufficient accuracy, both the figure and the dimensions of the earth. In consequence however of its spherical figure, man’s eye able to rest at any moment on but a small portion of its surface. The Eye of Omniscience every moment equally on every part of that surface, as well as on its secret depths.
7. The origin and diffusion of light. Job_38:19-21; Job_38:24. “Where is the way [to] where [the] light dwelleth? and as for darkness (viewed as a substance, rather than as the absence of light), where is the place thereof (from whence it comes, or where it exactly begins)? that thou shouldst take it to (or ‘seize it at’) the bound thereof (where it begins and terminates), and that thou shouldst know the paths to the house thereof? Knowest thou (or ‘thou knowest’) it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great? By what way is the light parted (diffusing itself over the earth every morning), which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?” (the solar heat causing the air to ascend while colder air rushes in to fill its place, thus causing the wind, especially the trade winds, which blow for months from east to west; or, “which the east wind scatters upon the earth,”—the light rising in the east).
Light
naturally an object of special attention to early sages. Its emanation from the sun and other heavenly bodies obvious. The subject, however, still a mysterious one. According to Genesis, light created before either sun or moon. These bodies merely reservoirs or reflectors of light. The question still arose: What is light, and what is its origin? Philosophers still uncertain as to its nature. Doubtful whether an extremely thin and subtle fluid substance, or merely an agitation or undulation of the ether, producing its effects in a similar way to that in which sound is produced; the undulations in the one case striking the ear and in the other the eye, and so producing the sensation of sound or light respectively. The former, till lately, generally believed; the latter now the prevailing theory. Light now viewed by men of science as radiant force. Uncertain whether, by the creation of light at the beginning, we are to understand the creation of the actual force itself, or that of the particular condition or medium of radiation, technically known as ether, supposed to permeate space and substance. The latter thought more probable. Of the source of light, the account in Genesis says nothing. Its existence or appearance followed the command: “Let there be light.” That it came from an external source, previous to the sun’s formation or appearance, seems evident from the alternation of light and darkness during the intervening days. Light ascertained, from the testimony of the rocks, to have operated on the earth ages before man’s residence on it. The sun the centre of light, only as endued with a luminous atmosphere which envelopes its opaque body, but through which portions of that body are distinctly visible. The manner in which the light is “parted,” or separated from its great solar centre, as much a mystery now as in the days of the patriarch. Known to occupy a certain time in reaching the earth. Its rate of travel ascertained to be about thirteen millions of miles in a minute, and the period required in reaching the earth, about eight minutes. Some of the laws according to which light operates, in recent times satisfactorily ascertained. Known to be composed of different coloured rays—red, yellow, and blue; their composition affording the white light, and their “parting” or separation, and partial blending, giving the various colours presented by different objects. Exhibited in their pure and blended form in the rainbow; the raindrops separating the rays and refracting them at different angles after the manner of a prism, and so producing the three primary and four secondary colours. The light emanating from the fixed stars generally like that of our own sun, but in some cases coloured; different stars appearing to be different colours.
The question in regard to the abode of the light, perhaps referring rather to the sun itself, frequently called “the light,” as being the centre and source of it to the earth. Represented as coming forth as a bridegroom “from his chamber” (Psa_19:4). The question: Where is that chamber? The earth’s annual revolution round the sun and daily rotation on its own axis, not then known. The sun supposed to move from east to west, as it appears to do. But whence he rose, and where he remained after setting, a mystery. The Ptolemaic theory of the earth being the centre of the system, and the sun, &c., moving round it, finally succeeded by the Copernican or Newtonian, which places the sun in the centre, at the distance of ninety-five millions of miles from the earth. The sun appears to rise in the east and move towards the west, from the earth moving on its axis from west to east. The opposite hemispheres of the globe naturally illuminated and in darkness alternately once in twenty-four hours, the period of one rotation on its axis.
8. The snow and hail. Job_38:22-23. “Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and of war?” Snow and hail known to be the effects of cold in the higher regions of the atmosphere; the former being condensed vapour congealed before it is formed into drops, and the latter the drops themselves congealed in their descent to the earth. Usually brought by cold winds from the north; their treasures therefore, to those living north of the equator, apparently in the northern regions. These regions probably unknown in the days of Job. The treasures of the snow and hail, however, rather in the higher parts of the atmosphere, where man has not been able to penetrate. Spoken of as “treasures” from their vast abundance, and as being apparently stored up in the clouds. Snow and hail among the Creator’s instruments in His government of the world, employed often in a way of judgment. Hail especially an instrument of destruction to the crops of the field. Employed as one of the plagues on Egypt (Exo_9:14); and as the means of discomfiting the combined forces of the Canaanites (Jos_10:11). To be, perhaps, still more grievously employed among the judgments to be inflicted on the kingdom of Antichrist, forming part of the seventh and last vial (Rev_16:21). The sufferings and destruction of Napoleon’s Grand Army, in 1812, mainly due to the snow and cold of a Russian winter. Snow and hail among the Almighty’s reserved treasures for the discomfiture of His and His Churches’ adversaries, to be probably employed in the “battle of that great day of God Almighty,—in the place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon” (Rev_16:14-16).
9. Rain. Job_38:25-28; Job_38:34; Job_38:37-38.—“Who hath divided a water-course (conduit or channel) for the overflowing (inundation or pouring forth) of waters [in the form of rain], or a way for the lightning (or flash) of thunder (the usual precursor of rain in the east, ch. Job_28:26; Zec_10:1): to cause it to rain on the earth where no man is [to care either for the ground or the beasts that live upon it]; on the wilderness, where there is no man [but only the inferior animals to be provided for]; to satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring? Hath the rain a father? Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, [commanding] that abundance of waters may cover thee? Who can number the clouds in wisdom (or ‘muster’ them as an army for the purpose for which he requires them (2Ki_25:29)? Who can stay (or ‘lay,’ so, as to empty) the bottles of heaven (the clouds, resembling in their form and use the dark-coloured water-skins employed in the East), when the dust groweth into hardness (is fused into a solid mass), and the clouds cleave fast together (thus forming soil for cultivation, instead of mere dust,—the effect of continued drought)?” Still points to the mysteries of meteorology, even yet but imperfectly understood, but evincing a wisdom and a power altogether Divine.
Four circumstances connected with rain here alluded to as exhibiting God’s greatness and man’s littleness.
(1.) That the rain does not descend in one mass of water from the clouds, but in innumerable channels or tiny rills. Who makes these channels? what has man to do with the forming of them? Man, as in Egypt, makes channels for conveying the water from the well to irrigate his garden or his field; but who makes those channels that convey the water down from the clouds?
(2) The mysterious production of the rain, by the conversion of invisible into visible vapour, and its condensation into drops, which increase in size as they fall to the ground. This atmospheric process unknown in the days of Job, and still a mystery of Divine power and wisdom. “Hath the rain a father?”
(3) The preparation for the rain by the lightning or electric flash, dissolving the rain-cloud by reducing its temperature, or otherwise. Drops of water known to result from the combination of the two gases of which water is composed, through the introduction of an electric spark. But what power is it which so manages that mysterious element or force called electricity, as to produce the copious and fertilizing showers? “Who hath made a way for the lightning?”
(4) That the wilderness receives a supply of rain as well as inhabited places. Proof of its abundance and the riches of Divine goodness. No stinting with God, neither from want of ability nor willingness to bestow. Enough and to spare with Him. Even the beasts in the solitary waste provided for. His also to make even the solitary place to be glad for His people, and to cause the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose (Isa_35:1). Divine power and goodness able to turn the wilderness into a fruitful field as seen in the cases in African deserts (Isa_32:15).
(5) That the clouds are so managed as to be made the means, by their filling and emptying, like so many huge water-skins, of irrigating the earth and ministering to man’s necessities. Who so musters those clouds, like a general his forces, taking account of their number, size, &c., as to have them ready for his service, and to bring them together whenever he pleases to employ them? Who disposes and empties those bottles of heaven?
10. The dew. Job_38:18.—“Who hath begotten the drops of dew?” Another of the mysteries of nature. Dew long supposed to fall on the ground during the night. But whence its fall? There is no cloud. No one ever saw it fall. The process better understood in modern times. The dew rather a formation or deposit than a descent. The moisture in the saturated air, in consequence of the greatly reduced temperature during the night and its contact with the cooler ground, condenses on certain substances and forms drops, like those which stand on the wall of a room, when the air, which has been saturated with moisture, is suddenly cooled by the reduction of the temperature. Usually falls, or is deposited, in clear cold nights after a warm day. Hence found with us especially in autumn. Most copious in warm climates, where the days are hot and the nights often cold. In eastern countries, as in Judæa, the want of rain often compensated by the abundant dew, in cooling and moistening the ground, and in refreshing and promoting vegetation. Hence the frequent allusion to it and to its beneficial effects found in the Scriptures (Gen_27:28; Deu_33:13; Deu_33:28; Psa_132:3; Prove. Job_19:12; Isa_18:4). Frequently employed for comparison and metaphor. The Word of God compared to it from its influence on the soul (Deu_32:2). The people of God compared to it from their influence on the world (Mic_5:7). God Himself compared to it in relation to his people (Hos_14:5). The converts of Christ compared to it both from their number and beauty, especially as seen in the morning of the resurrection after the night of the tomb (Psa_110:3).
11. The ice and hoar-frost. Job_38:29-30.—“Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath engendered it? The waters (in consequence of the cold) are hid as with a stone (or, ‘being made as a stone’), and the face of the deep (any collection of water) is frozen” (‘held bound’ or ‘holds itself together,’ i.e. is congealed). Ice known to be water rendered solid by the loss of its natural heat, which keeps its particles separate and so preserves it in a liquid state, but which the water gives out to the atmosphere in contact with it in consequence of the great reduction of its temperature. Hoar-frost simply the dew frozen before it has been formed into drops. The temperature of the atmosphere that to which these and almost all the phenomena of meteorology are due. This again due to the radiant force, or light, as including heat, imparted by the sun to the earth, and then again dispersed into space. Heat an element or force pervading all bodies, and keeping their particles at a certain degree of expansion. Suddenly withdrawn from nature, the globe would shrink into a much smaller compass; what is now in a gaseous state would become liquid; the liquid would become solid; and all vegetable and animal life on the earth’s surface would instantly perish. On the other hand, an opposite result would ensue from a much increased degree of heat. Solids would become liquid or be consumed, while liquids would be converted into vapour. The wisdom, power, and goodness of God seen in so tempering the heat given forth from the sun, that both the atmosphere and the earth are in their present ordinary condition. Times indicated by the rocks when a different state of things existed. A time indicated in the Scriptures of truth, when it will be otherwise again (2Pe_3:10; 2Pe_3:12).
12. The heavenly bodies. Job_38:31-33.—“Canst thou bind (restrain, or perhaps unite) the sweet influences (or delights, or according to another reading, ‘bonds’) of Pleiades (Marg., ‘Chimah, or the Seven Stars’), or loose the bands of Orion? (Marg., ‘Chesil,’ or the Fool or, Impious one; a magnificent constellation appearing in winter, and therefore connected with stormy weather, hence probably the Hebrew name. Orion a warrior in Greek mythology; the name given from the supposed resemblance of the constellation to a giant or hero; the ‘bands’ of Orion either the rigours of winter, which bind up vegetation, or the invisible tie which connects the numerous stars that compose it, the telescope revealing myriads more than are visible to the naked eye, particularly in the nebula seen in the belt of the figure). Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth (Marg., ‘the [twelve] signs of the Zodiac,’ appearing successively through the twelve months of the year), in his season? or, canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? (probably the constellation known as the Great Bear, or the Plough; the Hebrew and Arabic name Aish denoting the Bier, the four stars in the body of the Bear forming the Bier itself, and the three in the tail, its ‘sons’ or attendant mourners: the constellation appropriately said to be ‘guided,’ not brought forth,—being visible all through the year, and appearing continually to move round the centre which we call the North Pole). Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven (or laws of the heavens)? Canst thou set the dominion (or influence) thereof in the earth?”
The attention of eastern sages directed at an early period to the stars, their time of appearing, and their supposed influence on the earth. Their successive appearance indicative of the seasons of the year and the time suitable for agricultural and other pursuits. Stars early grouped into figures or constellations, to which names were given from their supposed resemblance to terrestrial objects. Twelve of these appeared to rise or come into view successively in the course of the year, thus marking the twelve months. Their names, the Ram, the Bull, &c. These twelve groups or constellations, called the twelve signs of the Zodiac, probably what is here meant by Mazzaroth. The name perhaps identical with one denoting “abodes,” as indicating the different stages of the sun in his apparent annual course. Said to be “brought forth,” because apparently so; their appearance being probably due to the earth’s progress round the sun. Natural things spoken of in the Bible rather as they appear to be, than as they are in reality.
The Pleiades or Seven Stars, a group or cluster of stars in the constellation or Sign of the Bull. Their Hebrew name Chimah, denoting a heap or cluster, probably given from their appearance. Appears about the middle of April. Hence associated with the season of spring, whence its Latin name—Vergiliæ. The name in the text its Greek one, from a word denoting to “sail”; as indicating the time when navigation might be safely commenced. The “sweet influences,” or delights, ascribed, according to the present text, to the Pleiades, as marking the arrival of Spring. The genial change in the weather accompanying the appearance of this constellation, hailed as not merely necessary to vegetation and the sustenance of man and beast, but as also contributing in a high degree to man’s comfort and enjoyment. The season of
Spring
loved and celebrated in all ages, as the season—
(1) Of returning brightness and sunshine, after the clouds and gloom of winter.
(2) Of warmth and comfort, after the cold and tempests of preceding months.
(3) Of revived life, both in the vegetable and animal creation—the natural world appearing to burst forth as from a state of death.
(4) Of freshness and beauty, as seen everywhere in the verdure of the fields, the foliage of the woods, and the flowers of the garden and the meadow.
(5) Of joyousness and gaiety, exhibited in the melody of birds and hum of insects that fills the air, the flitting butterfly and the sportive fish.
(6) Of love, as seen especially in the birds that now pair and build their nests, and warble their affection to one another. All nature appears to rejoice and put on festal attire, and man participates largely in the “sweet influences” of Spring.
“Now that the winter’s gone, the earth hath lost
Her snow-white robes; and now no more the frost
Candies the grass, or calls an icy cream
Upon the silver lake or crystal stream;
But the warm air thaws the benumbed earth,
And makes it tender; gives a second birth
To the dead swallow; wakes in hollow tree
The drowsy cuckoo and the humble bee.
Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring
In triumph to the world the youthful spring
The valleys, hills, and woods in rich array
Welcome the coming of the long’d-for May.
Now all things smile.”
Spring fitted and intended—
(1) To awaken gratitude to its Divine and bountiful Author, who gives us again to rejoice in “the sweet influences of the Pleiades.” Then, if ever, it is to be said: “All thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless Thee” (Psa_145:10).
(2) To serve as an emblem of the spiritual spring—(i.) When the soul is renewed and quickened to spiritual life by the Holy Ghost, and Jesus arises on it as “the Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings.” Man’s natural state, in consequence of the Fall, one of winter and spiritual death. Christ came into the world and comes into the soul as the reviving Sun, to impart life, and fruitfulness, and joy. The Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, employed by Him to breathe upon the soul and renew its life. (ii.) When the believer, under the same Divine influence, is restored to liveliness and comfort, and to the “joys of God’s salvation,” after a season of darkness, deadness, and tempest. (iii.) When both the Church and the earth itself shall be renewed in life and beauty at the Lord’s advent and the resurrection of the just. A new life then imparted to the believer’s body after the winter of the tomb, and a new earth created out of the ashes of the present one, wherein shall dwell righteousness (2Pe_3:12-13; Rom_8:21-23). The Bridegroom’s call to the Church then fully realized: “Lo, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; and the time of singing is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land: Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away” (Son_2:11-13).
The Pleiades, especially the brightest star in the cluster, called Alcyone, recently ascertained to be the centre or axle round which the Solar System revolves, the sun carrying with it the earth and other planets with their satellites, and moving in the direction of the constellation Hercules. The number of stars seen in the cluster, with the aid of a good telescope, nine or ten times as many as those visible to the naked eye. The distance of the group from the sun, thirty-four millions of times greater than that of the sun from the earth. The “influences” of the Pleiades upon the earth, in so attracting it with the whole Solar System as to carry it round it at the rate, it is supposed, of four hundred and twenty-two thousand miles a day, in an orbit which it will require many thousands of years to accomplish, probably unspeakably greater than was dreamt of in the days of Job. Yet perfectly known to Him who asked the question: Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades? and who Himself communicated to the group its mighty power of attraction. The Hebrew name, interpreted by some as denoting a pivot or hinge, in striking accordance with this recent discovery of science.”—See an article on the subject from Dr. McMillan in Dickinson’s Theological Quarterly for April, 1875.
The “ordinances of heaven,” or laws governing the motions and influences of the heavenly bodies, much better understood now than in the time of the patriarch. The discovery of these laws one of the greatest achievements of modern science, associated with the names of Newton, Kepler, and Laplace. The laws themselves of a different nature from that contemplated by early sages. The law of gravitation,—by which bodies and the particles which compose them act upon each other according to their bulk, with an attracting force which increases as the squares of their distance from each other decrease,—found so far as observation has been able to penetrate, to operate through all space. This law, in connection with another,—that of the vis inertiæ of bodies operating as a centrifugal force, or the tendency of a body to move on in a straight line when once put in motion—that by which the earth and other planets, with their attendant moons, are preserved in their orbits and carried round the sun. The same law in operation among the fixed stars, some of which are observed to revolve round each other. Each star thus preserved in its own place in the heavens. The same law that which carries our solar system round its centre in the Pleiades, and which probably carries the Pleiades themselves round some other centre hid far away in the unexplored depths of our galaxy; and, possibly, the galaxy itself, with its countless millions of worlds, round some other centre,—perhaps the glorious throne of their Almighty Creator.
The conservation of force—or the fact that none of the natural forces—heat, light, electricity, mechanical motion, magnetism, and chemism,—is either created or annihilated in any of the material processes of the universe, but is only transformed—either taking the place of or giving place to an equivalent amount of some other force—pronounced by the late Professor Faraday to be “the highest law in physical science which our faculties permit us to perceive.” Yet, how little it is that we know of the “ordinances of heaven,” or laws of the material universe, we are reminded by the well-known language of one of the greatest discoverers of those laws. According to the authority just quoted, the idea of gravity as varying inversely as the square of the distance, apparently in direct opposition to the principle of the conservation of force; involving, as it appears to do, the creation and annihilation of power to an enormous extent, simply by the change of distance,—a result equal to the “highest acts our minds can appreciate of infinite power upon matter.” Here science, notwithstanding her amazing progress in unfolding the mysteries of the universe, is at a stand. Besides her ignorance of the nature of the forces which she has succeeded in discovering, she is unable to explain the apparent opposition between the two highest physical laws with which she is acquainted. These “ordinances of heaven,” as not only “known” but established by the Almighty, singularly expressive of the infinite power and glorious majesty of “Him, with whom we have to do.”
The “dominion” or influence of the heavenly bodies upon the earth, also a subject transcending man’s present knowledge. The influence of the sun alone upon the earth still full of mystery. Science teaches us that on the light or radiant force (including heat) imparted by the sun, depend well nigh the whole of the phenomena of meteorology; being the cause not only of the temperature of the earth, but of the moistness of the atmosphere, of winds, of clouds, of dew, of rain, of ocean-currents, and of “every one of the elements which, variously combined and conditioned by the earth’s external features, go to make up climate.”—Warrington’s Week of Creation. Changes in the condition of our own atmosphere, and so of the weather, believed to be connected with changes in the atmosphere of the sun. The influence of the moon upon the earth, especially upon its waters, well known. A portion of heat discovered to reach us even from the fixed stars. The chemical influence of the solar rays on bodies exposed to the light also well known. The very existence of vegetation dependent on that element or force in those rays called actinism or chemism. Even metals and rocks unable to be exposed to its influence without undergoing a change in consequence of it. The “dominion” or influence of the heavenly bodies, especially of the sun, doubtless intimately connected with the physical forces now known to man, and found to be so correlated as to be capable of producing and being resolved or transformed into each other. Man so far from “setting” that “dominion” in the earth, that he even yet very imperfectly understands it.
13. Lightning and meteors. Job_38:35-36.—“Canst thou send lightnings that they may go and say unto thee: Here we are? Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts (perhaps ‘into the dark masses’ of cloud or ‘into the airy dartings’)? or, who hath given understanding to the heart (not here the word always translated ‘heart,’ but one elsewhere denoting a picture, image, or imagination, as in Isa_2:16; Lev_26:1; Psa_73:7,—perhaps the forms of the clouds, or the shooting meteors)?” Human powerlessness seen in relation to the lightning. Man able to draw down electricity from the thundercloud, and by a suitable apparatus to obtain vivid electric sparks and flashes from the atmosphere. But his feebleness in the presence of this mysterious agent shown in the fact that such attempts have been known to be followed by instant death. Although uncontrollable by man, the lightning yet obedient to the command of its Maker. Its origin in the electricity of which the earth is the reservoir. The earth thus shown to contain within it the elements of its own destruction, which only await the bidding of their Creator to do their work.
The allusions in the 36th verse uncertain. The reference to celestial phenomena favoured, if not rendered certain, by the context. Clouds or meteors probably in view, as objects far beyond man’s control, but serving the wise purposes of their Creator as if themselves endowed with intelligence. The first clause possibly a reference to the Aurora Borealis, the well-known lights arising from electricity, and seen sometimes at night shooting up in streams from the northern part of the sky; their motions, especially as seen in more northern latitudes, sometimes amazingly quick and their forms rapidly changing. The second clause of the verse may be an allusion to the phenomenon known as Meteoric Showers or Falling Stars. These meteors usually visible in clear weather about the middle of November. Myriads of small stars appear to shoot out in all directions with the rapidity of lightning, and then suddenly disappear. The nature and origin of the phenomenon still undetermined. To man the motions of these meteors appear in the highest degree arbitrary. But even these, like the lightning-flash, are under the direction of infinite wisdom and in accordance with the will of their Creator. “Not an object in nature left to the reckless sway of chance. All things adjusted with unerring wisdom, managed by infinite power, and overruled for good with paternal care.”—Duncan’s Philosophy of the Seasons.
According to the English version, the questioning in the 36th verse will relate to—
14. Human reason and intelligence. “Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts,” &c. “Wisdom” and “understanding” used to denote reason and intelligence, or the first of the three great classes of mental faculties—the intellect, the emotions, and the will; the intellect including both the cognitive or knowing, and the reflective or reasoning faculties. The “inward parts” and the “heart” spoken of as the seat of these faculties. The brain now more correctly regarded as the seat and organ of the mind. Three things suggested by the questions in reference to the
Human Intellect
(1) Reason and intelligence proper to man. “Wisdom” found in man’s “inward parts,” and “understanding” in his “heart.” Man distinguished from the brute creation by the possession of these faculties of the intellect. Thus qualified to know, love, and intelligently to serve his Creator, to contemplate the works of God around him, to reason on subjects of the most varied and highest import, and to prepare for another and a better life. Only so much “understanding” possessed by the lower animals as to qualify them for the preservation and enjoyment of the present life, and for the propagation and preservation of offspring, as well as to render them, in various respects, serviceable to man. Reason and intelligence in man not something merely differing in degree from the instinct of other animals, but differing from it in kind. Intellect that which allies him both to angels and to God Himself. Constitutes a large portion of the image of his Creator in which he was created. Existed in a much higher degree before sin disordered and depraved his nature. Men now “alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Eph_4:18). The faculties themselves, however, still in existence as man enters the world. Their development the work of time. That development affected by circumstances, and the means employed for it. Education the great means of developing the mental faculties. The intellect of races and families progressive or retrograde according to such development. The degree of intellect different in different individuals, constitutionally and from birth. This difference, doubtless, in some cases the result of circumstances, but more generally from the good pleasure of the Creator, who even in this respect “divideth to every man severally as He will” (1Co_12:11). The degree as well as the development of intellect connected with the condition, size, and configuration of the brain, which forms its seat, and is the organ through which it acts.
(2) Reason and intelligence imparted to man by the Creator. Wisdom “put” into the inward parts; “given” to the heart. The mind or intellect entirely different and distinct from the material organ through which it acts and manifests itself. Reason and thought not a mere force existing in and belonging to the brain as a material substance. The brain the seat and organ of thought, not its cause. Mind not the production of other physical forces, as heat is transformed into electricity; but something superadded to the material organization. Man’s physical frame formed out of the dust of the ground, after which God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Gen_2:7). Man thus made to partake of an intellectual as well as an immortal nature, which rendered him what his Maker designed him to be—a reflection of His own image (Gen_1:26). The art, science, and skill of man mediately or immediately the gifts of God. The language of the prophet applicable not merely to agriculture, but to all the arts and manufactures, and to all the sciences which elevate the human mind and distinguish the most enlightened of the human species: “This also cometh from the Lord of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working” (Isa_28:29). The language of the Almighty concerning Bezaleel, the son of Uri, true of any other similarly eminent in any of the arts of civilized life: “I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works,” &c. (Exo_31:3). “In the hearts of all the wise-hearted I have put wisdom” (Job_38:6).
(3) The impartation of reason and intelligence to man a special exhibition of Divine power and wisdom. “Who put wisdom in the inward parts?” Thought and reason the highest manifestation of power in a creature. Man thus placed far above other creatures greatly his superior in size and physical strength. Able thus to fulfil his Maker’s purpose concerning him and the commission given him, to “subdue” the earth and “have dominion” over all other living creatures (Gen_1:28). Made by the possession of his mental faculties a fellow-worker with God. Enabled, by working upon the materials placed at his hand, to produce other works of power, both of a material and an intellectual nature. Qualified to invent and construct works which are themselves the admiration of others and the multiplication of power. A Watt and an Arkwright enabled to produce machines by which, with a little water and fuel, one man is able to do the work of twenty or a hundred, and the strength of draught-horses can be entirely dispensed with. By a simple apparatus, provided through the human intellect, man is enabled to employ the lightning to convey his messages, and to hold almost immediate fellowship with distant countries and continents. As a co-worker with his Maker, he is enabled, by the faculties which God has given him, to convert the wilderness into a fruitful field, and to cause the desert to “rejoice and blossom as the rose.” If God thus puts wisdom and understanding into man, and endows him with so much power, how great the wisdom and power of the Creator Himself!
15. Beasts and birds of prey. Job_38:39-41—“Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion (or lioness), or fill the appetite of the young lions, when they couch in their dens and abide in the covert to lie in wait? Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander (or, ‘and wander,’ or ‘are famished’) for lack of meat.” Passes from inanimate to animated nature. The present section properly belonging to the next chapter. Begins with beasts of prey. Their food provided for them by the Creator Himself, by bringing other animals, which they are enabled to overcome and feed upon, within their reach. Some animals formed, by their physical structure, to live upon others. Their character as carnivorous given them by God, who provides for them the sustenance for which their bodily organization is adapted. Even the fierce lioness provided with her food by God. Beasts of prey, with all their ferocity, only a portion of the great family for which the Creator daily provides. But how powerless is man in their presence! How unable to provide for them! Man, since the entrance of sin into the world, obliged to employ his intellect in destroying, instead of supporting, such animals.
The “raven” probably mentioned in contrast with the lion. The largest of the sparrow-order of birds. Feeds on carrion as well as fruit and small animals, and is known even to carry off poultry. An unclean bird, and of little apparent significance; yet the raven cared for by the Creator equally with the noble and majestic lord of the forest. His Divine providence, directed even to the young of the raven, when forsaken by the parent bird, or early expelled by it from the nest. Not a cry of these young ravens but enters into the ears of the great and gracious Creator (Psa_147:9). Their cry viewed as directed to Himself as their parent and provider. God cares and provides for the meanest as well as the mightiest of His creatures. A twofold lesson for man.
(1) To be kind to animals, and, when not injurious or destructive, attentive to their wants.
(2) To trust in God while doing His will. The lesson taught by Jesus to his disciples: “Consider the ravens; for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have store-house nor barn: and God feedeth them: how much are ye better than the fowls?” (Luk_12:24). “The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing” (Psa_34:10).
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 38:6-7
Job 38:6-7
The earth might have been regarded by the angels in reference either to its future inhabitants, or to God, or to the evil which had already found its way into the universe.
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I. In reference to its future inhabitants, it was to be the house of a great family and the school of a great character.
II. It was destined to be a temple of God, from every corner of which should ascend to Him continually the incense of praise, where He should signally manifest His glory and develop His perfections.
III. The earth might have been viewed by the angels in reference to the strife with evil which had even then commenced in heavenly places. They saw the end from the beginning; they looked through the perplexities and the entanglements of Providence, and saw judgment through all gradually brought forth unto victory. The principalities and powers who shouted for joy at the foundation of the earth look down even now from their glory thrones upon the contest of which it is the field. Nay, rather should we think of them as encamped among us, and waging an invisible war, of which we ourselves are the subject.
E. M. Goulburn, Sermons, p. 401.
Reference: Job 38:16.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 251.
Job 38:22
Snow is my text, written in letters of white. "Hast thou"—have you, boy or girl—"entered into the treasures of the snow?" How pure it is; how soft it is; how strong it is; how silent it is; how useful it is.
I. Think of the purity of the snow. What a wonderful white it is! You can get no other white like it. If you would learn the lesson of purity, never say an impure word. You cannot help the thought coming into your mind, but do not cherish the thought.
II. Then think of two things about the snow which we do not often think of connecting together. One is silentness, and the other is power. The strongest things in the world are the most silent. The snow is strong. You say you can take it in your hands and melt it; but when all the flakes have drifted together, an engine cannot break it. It will get so strong that it will come down from the mountains and then, rushing down along the mountainside, crush hundreds of houses. It is strong and silent. Your lives would be stronger if they were silent.
III. Another thing about snow is that it joins together two things not always together—beauty and usefulness. The snow, which we talk of as cold, is the thing that keeps the life and warmth in the roots in the earth. It keeps out of the earth the cold east wind, and keeps in the moisture. It is therefore not only beautiful in giving beauty to others, but it is useful.
IV. When you see the snow in the streets, you can say, "O God, for Jesus’ sake make my heart and my life even purer than that white snow." And then think of its use and say, "If it be Thy will, O God, make my life a little use to some, and make it beautiful, not with any earthly beauty, but with the beauty of faith and holiness."
T. T. Shore, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. i., p. 94.
References: Job 38:25-27.—G. Dawson, Sermons on Daily Life and Duty, p. 297; Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 141. Job 38:31.—Ibid., Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 818; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 81; H. Macmillan, Bible Teaching in Nature, p. 1. Job 38:35.—T. Kelly, Pulpit Trees, p. 9; A. W. Momerie, Defects of Modern Christianity, p. 150. Job 38-42—S. Cox, Expository Essays and Discourses, p. 126. 38-42:6—Ibid., Expositor, 1st series, vol. xii., pp. 1, 143, and 199; Ibid., Commentary on Job, p. 489. Job 40:2.—E. Monro, Practical Sermons, vol. i., p. 53. Job 40:3, Job 40:4.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii., No. 83. Job 40:4.—Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 158.
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 the Almighty
The Speeches of the Almighty
When the human debate was over, and Job had proudly asserted his readiness to confront God, conscious of his innocence (Job_31:35-37), there was nothing left, if the contest was to be decided, except a direct intervention of God. This Job had himself again and again demanded. He had challenged God to meet him and justify the treatment He accorded to him. He complains bitterly that God evades him, and lets him suffer, though He knows that he is innocent. Now at last God speaks. But not at all as Job had demanded. For he had implored God to remove His hand from him, in other words, to release him from pain that he might not be distracted by it, and not to make him afraid with His terror, since otherwise he might be driven, though innocent, to confess to guilt. God does not heal him, and He speaks out of the storm. Nor does the matter of His utterance conform to what Job had demanded, any more than the manner of it. For He does not deal with the question of Job's sin, or tell him the reason of his affliction. He puts question after question to him, challenging him to explain the mysteries of the universe. These he cannot comprehend; with what right then does he criticise God's government of the world?
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It is a surprise to some that God should be represented by the poet as taking this line. Why should He speak with such irony, and why not offer the man who had suffered so deeply some explanation and comfort? Partly because Job had brought deserved rebuke on himself for his attack on God's rule of the world. Partly because he needed to rise to a higher point of view from which he could see the complexity of the problem. Moreever, God does not explain to Job the cause of his suffering, since the supreme lesson of the book is that he becomes so sure of God that he knows his affliction to be in harmony with God's righteousness, though he is wholly incapable of reconciling the two intellectually. But after he has reached this position God restores him to health and prosperity.
The vital element in his experience is not the speech of God, but the vision of God. It is in a true relation to God, which is possible only to him to whom the divine vision is vouchsafed, that Job learns to trust God utterly. And as he looks back on the charges he has brought against Him, whom in this deep, mystical manner he has just come to know, he loathes the words he has uttered, and repents in dust and ashes. 'I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee.'
The First Speech of the Almighty (Job 38, 39)
The marvels of creation, which witness to the infinite wisdom, power, and watchful care of the Creator, are presented to Job in such a way as to force from him a confession of ignorance and weakness, and of presumption in venturing to contend with God.
1-38. The wonders of earth and heaven. What does Job know of their nature and origin and ordering?
1. Whirlwind] rather, 'storm.' Theophanies, or manifestations of God to man, are usually represented in OT. as accompanied by convulsions of nature: cp. Exo_19:16-20. There is no necessary reference to the storm in Job 37.
2. The question evidently refers to Job. 'God condemns Job for making dark the divine plan of the world. He had spoken as though it was all a tangled riddle. Really there is in it a beautiful luminous order' (Peake). But this makes Job the last speaker, not Elihu, and supports the view that the latter's speeches are an interpolation.
3. Job had expressed too boldly his desire to contend with God concerning his righteousness. But he has still to learn that he must trust where he cannot understand.
4-7. The creation of the earth.
5. Who hath laid] RV 'Who determined.'
7. Sons of God] the angels.
8-11. The sea.
8. When it brake forth] The ancients thought that the sea issued from the subterranean abyss, with which it was connected by springs in the bed of the ocean: cp. Job_38:16 and Gen_7:11.
10a. Render, 'and prescribed for it its boundary.'
12-15. The dawn.
12. Since thy days] RV adds 'began.'
13. Deeds of darkness are checked by the coming of light: cp. Joh_3:20.
14. RM 'It is changed as clay under the seal, and all things stand forth as in a garment.' Objects which have hitherto been obscure and shapeless take form and colour, as if wrapped in a clinging garment, when daylight comes.
15. Darkness, which is the light of the wicked, disappears, and with it their power to harm is gone.
16, 17. The deep and the under-world. The deep lies beneath the bed of the sea.
16. Search of the depth] RV 'recesses of the deep.'
17. Opened] RV 'revealed.' Death] Sheol, the place of the dead.
19-21. The abode of light and darkness.
19. Where] rather,' whither.'
20. Take it to the bound thereof] i.e. track it.
21. Knowest thou it] RV 'Doubtless thou knowest': spoken ironically.
22-30. The secrets of show and hail, rain and frost.
22. Treasures] RV 'treasuries'; storehouses.
22, 23. Cp. passages such as Jos_10:11; Psalms 18, where God is represented as intervening in the affairs of men through the elements of nature.
24b. RV 'Or the east wind scattered upon the earth.'
25. 'Who has made a channel for the tropical rain to pour down from the heavens through the skies?'
26, 27. God's providence neglects no part of His creation. Job had at the most thought of man, but mainly of himself. God reminds him of the vast animate and inanimate creation.
28a. 'Does man beget the rain?'
30. Render, 'The waters are congealed like stone.'
31a. Render, 'Canst thou group together the Pleiades?' Sweet influences] RV 'cluster.'
Pleiades] see on Job_9:9.
32. Render, 'Canst thou lead forth the signs of the zodiac in the season? 'i.e. Can you influence their appearing? The zodiacal signs were known 3,000 years b.c. (The zodiac is that part of the sky which includes the apparent paths of the sun, moon, and planets. The 'signs' are the divisions of 30 degrees into which, for astronomical and other purposes, it is divided.) Arcturus with his sons] or, 'the Bear over her sons,' i.e. the revolution of the Bear round the Pole and Little Bear.
33. The laws of the seasons and their influence on the earth.
36. Inward parts] RM 'dark clouds.' Heart] RM 'meteor.'
37. In] RV 'by.' Stay] RV 'pour out.' Bottles of heaven] i.e. rain-clouds.
37-41. These vv. are connected in subject with Job 39.
41. They wander] RV 'and wander.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain The Lord answered Job
The Lord answered Job
The words of jehovah have the effect of bringing Job consciously into His presence. Job 42:5. Hitherto the discussions have been about God, but He has been conceived as absent. Now Job and the Lord are face to face. It is noteworthy that Job does not answer Elihu. Despite his harsh judgment he has spoken so truly about God that Job remains silent. Job 38:1 might be paraphrased, "Then Jehovah answered for or on behalf of Job."
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain V. THE LORD’S TESTIMONY TO JOB AND CONTROVERSY WITH…
V. THE LORD’S TESTIMONY TO JOB AND CONTROVERSY WITH Him
CHAPTER 38:1-38
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1. The Lord speaks to Job (Job 38:1-3)
2. The questions of the Lord (Job 38:4-38)
Job 38:1-3. The voice of man is hushed; the voice of the Lord begins to speak. The Almighty, the Creator, the Lord of All comes now upon the scene. He too, like Elihu, had been the silent listener; He heard Job’s complaint and wailing and the babblings of his friends. Elihu’s wonderful utterance, inspired by the Lord, was ended. The thunderstorm is on, no doubt a literal storm, the dark clouds gather--
Then from the North there comes a golden light.
God appears in wondrous Majesty (Job 37:22).
The golden light of God’s own presence and glory overshadows the scene. Out of the whirlwind His own voice is heard. It is that voice which David in the “thunderstorm-Psalm” (Psa 29:1-11) so wonderfully describes. The voice which is upon the waters--full of majesty, the voice which breaketh the cedars; the voice which divideth the flames of fire. When David thus extolled the voice of the Lord, he shows the demands of that voice. “Give unto the LORD, O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the Glory due unto His Name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.” And that voice, though terrible in majesty, will bring peace. “The LORD will bless His people with peace.” What a scene it must have been there in the land of Uz, when the voice of the LORD spoke out of the whirlwind! We can imagine how good Elihu stepped aside and covered his face. And Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, terror-stricken, fell on their faces in the dust, while silent Job, awe-struck, dares not to look up. And what He speaks is for the one great purpose to humble Job, to bring him in the dust.
Job’s last utterance was this: “Oh, that the Almighty would answer me” (31:35). He answers him now. “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” What a blunder expositors have made of speaking of Elihu’s gentle words, and true words, as “a harsh judgment” and that God rebukes him in this verse. No; God does not rebuke Elihu who had exalted His Name and His works. He rebukes Job. He had darkened counsel by the multitude of his senseless words. God answers Job. He is going to ask him questions.
Job 38:4-38. If we were to examine these questions minutely, which the compass of our work does not allow, we would have to write many pages. There are 40 questions which the Lord asks of Job, His creature, concerning His own works in creation. They relate to the earth and its foundations upon which all rests. the bounds of the sea--
When I decreed for it My boundary
And set its bars and doors and to it said,
Thus far-no farther, ocean, thou shalt come:
And here shall thy proud waves be stayed.
He asks about the morning light and the unknown depths, the unexplored depths of the sea, with their hidden secrets, and the gates of death. He questions as to the elements, the treasuries of the snow, the storehouse of hail, the rain, the winds and the ice--
Whose is the womb whence cometh forth the ice?
And heaven’s hoar-frost, who gave it its birth?
As turned to stone, the waters hide themselves;
The surface of the deep, congeal’d, coheres.
And what about the things above, the stars and their wonderful constellations?
Canst thou bind fast the cluster Pleiades?
Or canst thou loosen great Orion’s bands?
Canst thou lead forth the Zodiac’s monthly signs?
Or canst thou guide Arcturus and his sons?
And then the rain clouds, the lightnings and their control. What questions these are. They cover every department of what man terms “natural sciences”--geology, meteorology, geography, oceanography, astronomy, etc. Job had not a single answer to these questions and if he had spoken his words would have been folly. And we, 3000 years or more after, with all our boasted progress, scientific discoveries of the great laws of nature, are still unable to answer these questions in a satisfactory way. All the boastings of science of getting at the secrets of creation are nothing but foam. One breath of the Almighty and man’s speculations, apart from Him and His Word, are scattered to the winds. But what is the aim of the Lord in putting these questions? To show that God is greater than man and to humble man, to bring Job to the needed true knowledge of himself and to deliver him from the pride of his heart.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Manifestation of God’s Majesty in Creation
The Manifestation of God’s Majesty in Creation
v. 1. Then the Lord answered Job, who had repeatedly challenged Him to explain His manner of acting, Cf 31, 35, out of the whirlwind, the tempest itself being a manifestation of the almighty power of God, and said,
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v. 2. Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? In permitting Job to suffer, the Lord was not acting in a capricious, arbitrary way, but according to a plan which He considered good, which Job, however, without a proper understanding of God’s motives, was distorting and questioning; hence the challenge of God.
v. 3. Gird up now thy loins like a man, like a hero ready for battle; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou Me. Job should show his wisdom and therefore his right to criticize by the proper explanation of the phenomena which the Lord intended to discuss.
v. 4. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding. No human being having been present at the creation of the world, no human being can presume to tell God’s secrets concerning its making; the finite mind cannot grasp the infinite wisdom of the Creator.
v. 5. Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest? so that Job should know the proportions and plans; for the figure is taken from an architects’ plans and sketches. Or who hath stretched the line upon it? The thought implied is this, that the Architect of the universe, who planned and executed such a magnificent building, must be far beyond human comprehension and criticism.
v. 6. Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? That is, on what kind of foundation are its pillars sunken? What takes it stand so firm and safe? Or who laid the corner-stone thereof, with the certainty of a trained builder,
v. 7. when the morning stars, all the heavenly host, creatures of the highest brilliance, sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy, in celebrating the festal occasion? Light and beauty and song attended the creation of the world; the highest and most splendid creatures raised their voices in songs of praise.
v. 8. Or who shut up the sea with doors, penning it up in the bed of the ocean, when it brake forth as if it had issued out of the womb, when order was established out of chaos and the raging and swelling waters were separated from the dry land, Genesis 1, 9?
v. 9. When I made the cloud the garment thereof, wrapping the mighty ocean in swaddling-clothes, like a helpless infant, and thick darkness, that of the heaviest cloud-covering, a swaddling-band for it,
v. 10. and brake up for it My decreed place, setting its bounds in the abysses of the deep, and set bars and doors, as for a wild and unruly creature,
v. 11. and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed? God Himself has placed the boundary and the dam for the ocean’s pride, and without His permission not one billow can overstep the bounds.
v. 12. Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days, with power to make its light rise in the east ever since he was born, and caused the dayspring, the dawn of the morning, to know his place, so that it knows just where to appear on the horizon in the various seasons of the year,
v. 13. that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, taking hold of them as of the fringes of an outspread carpet, that the wicked might be shaken out of it, as dirt is shaken out of a rug? The allusion is to the fact that the evil-doers of the night season cease to ply their trade with the coming of the morning.
v. 14. It is turned as clay to the seal, the earth’s surface changing with the coming of morning like signet-clay, all its contours and forms standing out sharply; and they stand as a garment, all the prairies, hills, valleys, trees, and all other objects being set forth in all the various forms and colors of a beautiful garment.
v. 15. And from the wicked their light is withholden, the darkness which they love and which they need for their sinful pursuits, and the high arm shall be broken, the uplifted arm of violence sinking down as the light of day comes. These are some of the facts of creation which set forth the almighty majesty of God, which no man is able adequately to explain.
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 Then Yahweh called
Then Yahweh called
Here, the word "then" marks the beginning of a new part of the book. See if your language has a similar way to introduce a new scene. AT: "After all that had happened, Yahweh called.
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called to Job
"answered Job" or "responded to Job"
out of a fierce storm
"from a powerful storm"
Who is this who brings darkness to plans by means of words without knowledge?
Yahweh uses this question to emphasize that Job spoke of things he did not know about. It can be translated as a statement. AT: "You bring darkness to my plans by means of words without knowledge." (See: Rhetorical Question)
Who is this who brings
"Who are you to bring"
brings darkness to plans
"obscures my plans" or "confuses my purposes." How Job confuses God's plans is spoken of as if he were making God's plans harder to see. The abstract noun "darkness" can be translated as the verb "darkens." AT: "darkens plans" or "makes plans hard to see" (See: Metaphor and Abstract Nouns)
by means of words without knowledge
"by speaking of things about which you do not know"
words without knowledge
The abstract noun "knowledge" can be translated as an adjective. AT: "unknowing words" or "ignorant words" (See: Abstract Nouns)
gird up your loins like a man
"tie your robe up around your waist like a man." Men tied up their robes around their waists so that their legs could move more freely as they did heavy work. The idiom "gird up your loins like a man" means to get ready to do something involving action such as work, a contest, or a battle. Job was to prepare for the hard work of answering God. AT: "get yourself ready for hard work" (See: Idiom)
translationWords
Yahweh
Job
darkness
word
know
gird
loins
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 38:1–42:6 Finally, the Lord answered Job. In this final…
38:1–42:6 Finally, the Lord answered Job. In this final section, the Lord challenges Job’s overreaching self-defense with a display of his works that remind Job of God’s transcendent greatness.
38:1–40:5 God challenges Job, who acknowledges his inability to judge the moral world by demonstrating his ignorance of the natural world’s cosmic (38:4-21) and meteorological elements (38:22-38), animals, and birds (38:39–39:30).
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38:1-3 God challenged Job from out of the whirlwind. The Old Testament commonly associates storms with God’s presence (2 Kgs 2:1, 11; Ezek 1:4; Nah 1:3). Job finally had an audience with God (Job 13:22-23).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.