Job rivals Bildad in magnifying the greatness of God Bildad in his short speech magnified the greatness of God, and His purity, before which even the heavens are not clean. Job had heard all this before, it did not touch the enigma of his life and of providence. Hence, _first_, he pours out the ful... [ Continue Reading ]
_how savest thou_?] Rather, how HAST THOU SAVED? i. e. succoured.... [ Continue Reading ]
Job sarcastically expresses his admiration of Bildad's speech, and gratitude for the help it has been to him.... [ Continue Reading ]
_plentifully declared the thing as it is_ Rather, PLENTIFULLY, or, abundantly, DECLARED KNOWLEDGE, or, wisdom. The word is that which occurs in ch. Job 5:12; see notes. "Him that is without power," "that hath no wisdom" &c., is of course Job himself; and he expresses his admiration of the contributi... [ Continue Reading ]
_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 instructions they were giving him reappears here, which came out already in ch. Job 12:4. It is the same fee... [ Continue Reading ]
God's presence and power in the underworld. Job 26:5 reads according to the pointing, The Shades tremble Underneath the waters and their inhabitants. The "Shades" (Heb. _Refáim_, the flaccid) are the departed persons, whose place of concourse is Sheol. Comp. Isaiah 14:9, where "the dead" are the... [ Continue Reading ]
That Job has no need to be instructed regarding the greatness of God he now shews, by entering upon an exhibition of its operations in every sphere of that which exists, Hades, the Earth and Heaven, in which he far outstrips the feeble effort of Bildad.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hell_ is in Heb. _Sheol_, the place where deceased persons congregate, the world beneath. It is not a place of pain, though a dark and dreary abode, ch. Job 10:21-22. Those there are the dead, who still subsist, though they do not live. "Destruction," Heb. _abaddon_, is a synonym for Sheol, ch. Job... [ Continue Reading ]
It may be doubtful whether "the north" refers to the northern part of the earth or to the northern heavens. In favour of the latter reference is the fact that the expression "stretch out," often said in regard to the heavens (e.g. ch. Job 9:8), is not elsewhere used with reference to the earth, and... [ Continue Reading ]
God's power and greatness in heaven and earth.... [ Continue Reading ]
The wonder of the clouds, floating reservoirs of water, which do not burst under the weight of waters which they contain. Men bind up water in skins or bottles, God binds up the rain floods in the thin, gauzy texture of the changing cloud, which yet by His power does not rend under its burden of wat... [ Continue Reading ]
_he holdeth back_ Or, HE SHUTTETH UP, or, enshrouds. The "face of his throne" is perhaps the outside of it, or that view which it would present if seen; and the meaning is that He enshrouds His throne so that it is not seen by those below. The idea cannot be that this is an occasional phenomenon, as... [ Continue Reading ]
The verse reads, He hath drawn as a circle a bound upon the face of the waters, At the confines of light and darkness. The second clause is literally; _even to the confines of light with_(or, by) _darkness_, i. e. as far as where the utmost bound of light borders with darkness. The idea seems to... [ Continue Reading ]
The "pillars" of the heavens, if the conception be not wholly ideal, may be the lofty mountains on which the heavens seem to rest, and which, as they are lost in the clouds, are spoken of as belonging to heaven. At God's rebuke, when His voice of thunder rolls, or when earthquakes shake the earth, t... [ Continue Reading ]
These verses probably read, 12. He quelleth the sea with his power, And by his understanding he smiteth through Rahab. 13. By his breath the heavens are bright, His hand pierceth the fleeing serpent. Others for "quelleth" or stilleth, prefer the meaning "stirreth up." Comp. Isaiah 51:15; Jeremi... [ Continue Reading ]
_by his spirit he hath garnished_ Rather as above. The reference is to the clearing away of storm clouds, that darken the heavens, by the breath of God. _hath formed_ Rather as above, PIERCETH. The words express the half poetical, half mythological conception that the darkening in storm or in eclip... [ Continue Reading ]
The verse reads, Lo these are the outskirts of his ways; And how small a whisper is that which we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand? The power of God is illustrated in the mighty works described in Job 26:5. Yet what we see of Him in these is but the ends, the outskirt... [ Continue Reading ]