Job 22:12

Job 22:12 [Is] not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!

Ver. 12. Is not God in the height of heaven?] Some add out of the next verse these words, Sayest thou; making Job's atheistic speeches (here mimetically fathered upon him by Eliphaz) an argument of his great wickedness; as if Job should say, and so discover himself ("for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," Mat 12:34) to be of Protagoras's opinion, who doubted Deity, De Diis, utrum sint non ausim affirmare (Prot.); or of Diagoras's, who flatly denied it; or, at least, of Aristotle's, who pent up God in heaven, and taught that he took little or no care of things done on earth. But what saith the psalmist (and Job was of the same mind whatever the Jewish doctors affirm of him to the contrary)? "Our God is in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he pleased" in heaven and in earth. "The Lord is high above all nations; and his glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high, who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth! He raiseth up the poor out of the dust," &c., Psalms 115:3; Psalms 113:4,7. "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth to show himself strong," &c., 2 Chronicles 16:9. His wrath "is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men," Romans 1:18. Job had frequently acknowledged and celebrated the power and providence of God, his judgments upon the wicked, his fatherly chastisements upon himself; deeply detesting all such thoughts and speeches as he is here wrongfully made the author of.

And behold the height of the stars] Heb. The head of the stars; those that are the very highest, and at the top of the visible heaven, the eighth heaven, beyond which some of the ancients acknowledged not any other. Aristotle saith, That beyond the aspect and movement in the heavens, there is neither body, nor time, nor place, nor vacuum. But the Scripture teacheth us that there is beyond the stars, how high set soever, a third heaven, a heaven of heavens, the throne of God, and habitation of the blessed; the starry sky is but as the brick wall encompassing this lofty palace, the glorious and glittering rough cast thereof.

How high they are!] Ut vix eo noster possit aspectus pertingere, so high that our eyes can hardly reach them (Mercer). It is a wonder that we can look up to so admirable a height, and that the very eye is not tired in the way. Now God is far, far above the stars, omnium supremus, altissimorum altissimus. "The high and lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity," Isaiah 57:15, dwelleth in light inaccessible, 1 Timothy 6:16, such as whereof no natural knowledge can be had, nor any help by human arts, geometry, optics, &c. How, then, can he see from such a distance what is here done on earth? saith the atheist; who thinks to hide himself from God, because he hath hidden God from himself. Propterea quod tantum Chaos sit inter nos et Deum (Vat.). Hear him else in the next verse. See also Ezekiel 8:12; Ezekiel 9:9 .