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Commentary Critical and Explanatory

Job 26:4

To whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee?

For whose instruction were thy words meant? If for me, I know the subject (God's omnipotence) better than my instructor: Job 26:5 is a sample of Job's knowledge of it.

Whose spirit - not that of God (Job 32:8): nay, rather, the spirit that came from thee in what thou hast just said is the borrowed sentiment of Eliphaz (Job 4:17; Job 15:14).

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See also Job 26:4 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Job 26:4. _WHOSE SPIRIT CAME FROM THEE?_] Mr. _Good_ renders the verse thus: _From whom hast thou pillaged speeches? And whose_ _spirit hath issued forth from thee_? The retort is peculiarly se...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    TO WHOM HAST THOU UTTERED WORDS? - Jerome renders this, Quem docere voluisti? “Whom do you wish to teach?” The sense is, “Do you attempt to teach me in such a manner, on such a subject? Do you take it...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    CHAPTER 26JOB'S REPLY _ 1. A sarcastic beginning (Job 26:1)_ 2. Job also knows and can speak of the greatness of God (Job 26:5) Job 26:1. You have helped me greatly, Bildad, me, who am without power...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    BEGINNING OF JOB'S REPLY TO BILDAD. He speaks sarcastically of the helpfulness and instructiveness of Bildad's speech. He must have been inspired (Job 26:4)!...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    SPIRIT. Hebrew. _neshamah_. App-16....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _to whom hast thou uttered words_?] Job refers to himself and asks, Who is it that thou hast spoken such things to? The same feeling of conscious superiority to his friends and disdain of the instruct...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    Job sarcastically expresses his admiration of Bildad's speech, and gratitude for the help it has been to him....

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    D. GREATNESS AND GOODNESS OF GOD (Job 26:1-14) 1. What a giant of comfort Bildad has been! (sarcasm) (Job 26:1-4) TEXT 26:1-4 26 THEN JOB ANSWERED AND SAID, 2 How hast thou helped him that is with...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    JOB'S EIGHTH SPEECH (JOB 26, 27) 1-4. Job taunts Bildad with the worthlessness of his remarks as a solution of the problem. 2, 3, 4 are spoken ironically....

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    TO WHOM HAST THOU UTTERED WORDS?] i.e. surely not to Job who knows it already. 5-14. The manifestations of God's power and work in the world below, in earth and in heaven. Some scholars think these vv...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    Bildad’s interruption did not impress Job. Such words would not help Job, who was still suffering. And Job thought that Bildad’s description of God was very poor. Job had studied wisdom (chapter 28)....

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    JOB, A SERVANT OF GOD Job _KEITH SIMONS_ Words in boxes (except for words in brackets) are from the Bible. This commentary has been through Advanced Checking. CHAPTER 26 JOB REPLIES TO BILDAD’S...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    _(_4_)_ TO WHOM. — That is, “Is it not to one who had said the same thing himself? Was it not my own breath, my own teaching, that came forth from you?” He then proceeds to show that it is not only th...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    אֶת ־מִ֭י הִגַּ֣דְתָּ מִלִּ֑ין וְ נִשְׁמַת ־מ

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    XXII. THE OUTSKIRTS OF HIS WAYS Job 26:1; Job 27:1 Job SPEAKS BEGINNING his reply Job is full of scorn and sarcasm. "How hast thou helped one without power! How hast thou saved the strengthless...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    “THE OUTSKIRTS OF HIS WAYS” Job 26:1 Job taunts Bildad with his reply as having imparted no help or thought. He then proceeds, Job 26:5, to give a description of God's power as manifested in Hades, i...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    We come next to Job's answer. The reply to Bildad occupies but one chapter, which is characterized from beginning to end by scorn for the man who had no more to say. In a series of fierce exclamations...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    To whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit (c) came from thee? (c) That is, moves you to speak this?...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    Life. Septuagint also seem to understand this of God. (Calmet) --- Job does not blame his friends for undertaking to approve the ways of Providence, but for condemning himself (St. Chrysostom) rashly,...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    (1) В¶ But Job answered and said, (2) How hast thou helped him that is without power? how savest thou the arm that hath no strength? (3) How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? and how hast...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY COVERS CHAPTER S 4 THROUGH 31. As to the friends of Job, they do not call for any extended remarks. They urge the doctrine that God's earthly government is a full measure and...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    TO WHOM HAST THOU UTTERED WORDS?.... That others know not; dost thou think thou art talking to an ignorant man? be it known to thee, that he knows as much, and can say as much of the Divine Being, of...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    To whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee? Ver. 4. _To whom hast thou uttered words?_] And, as thou thinkest, words weighty, and worthy of all acceptation, when in truth there...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _To whom hast thou uttered words_ For whose instruction hast thou uttered these things? For mine? Dost thou think I do not know that which the meanest persons are not unacquainted with; that God is in...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    To whom hast thou uttered words? Did Bildad really hope to strike Job with his empty talk? Did he realize that it would not make the slightest impression on him? AND WHOSE SPIRIT CAME FROM THEE? From...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    A SHARP IRONICAL REPROOF...

  • Leslie M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible

    BILDAD'S WORDS FUTILE IN JOB'S CASE (vv.1-4) Job begins a reply that continues through six Chapter s, and his friends are totally silenced. His language is amazing, specially considering the length...

  • Mark Dunagan Commentaries

    "AND WHOSE SPIRIT WAS EXPRESSED THROUGH YOU?": Job seems to be saying that obviously God was not speaking through Bildad, so whose "spirit" was speaking through him? Was he just parroting someone else...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    1-4 Job derided Bildad's answer; his words were a mixture of peevishness and self-preference. Bildad ought to have laid before Job the consolations, rather than the terrors of the Almighty. Christ kn...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    For whose instruction hast thou uttered these things? For mine? Dost thou think me to be so ignorant, that I do not know that which the meanest persons are not unacquainted with, to wit, that God is i...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Job 26:4 uttered H5046 (H8689) words H4405 spirit H5397 came H3318 (H8804) whose spirit - Job 20:3,...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Job's answer to Bildad. His faith in God. CHARACTERS: God, Job, friends. CONCLUSION: God is infinite and incomprehensible; man's capacities to understand Him and all His ways are weak, the...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Job 26:5. _Dead things,_ הרפאים _ha-raphaim,_ the raphaim _are formed from under the waters._ SCHULTENS reads, _Manes orcinorum intremiscunt, de subter aquis, et la habitatores eorum._ The manes of th...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _But Job answered and said._ THE TRANSCENDENT GREATNESS OF GOD I. God appears incomprehensibly great in that portion of the universe that is brought under human observation. 1. In connection with t...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    JOB 26:1 Job: The Power of God, Place of Wisdom, and Path of Integrity. Up until now, the dialogue between Job and his three friends has followed a pattern in which each speech by Job is followed by r...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    JOB—NOTE ON JOB 26:4 Job asks his friends to examine WHOSE HELP and WHOSE BREATH has been behind their words, so they won’t wrongly assume that they have spoken on God’s behalf....

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    _JOB’S REPLY TO BILDAD_ Job, more alive to Bildad’s want of sympathy than to the excellence of his sentiments in regard to the Divine perfections, speaks somewhat petulantly,—certainly with irony and...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION The long discourse of Job now begins, which forms the central and most solid mass of the book. It continues through six chapters (Job 26-31.). In it Job, after hastily brushing aside Bildad...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    So Job answers now this little saying of Bildad. It's his third and final answer to Job, and it's really nothing. Job answered and said, How have you helped him that is without power? how can you save...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    1 Corinthians 12:3; 1 John 4:1; 1 Kings 22:23; 1 Kings 22:24;...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    To whom — For whose instruction hast thou uttered these things? For mine? Dost thou think I do not know, that which the meanest persons are not unacquainted with; that God is incomparably greater and...

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