Job 26 - Introduction

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 full vials of his sarcasm on Bildad's irrelevant statements, ch. Job 26:2-4. He knows God's greatness not less than Bildad, if knowledge of it only helped him in any way or had any bearing on the dispute, which was not concerning the Greatness of God, but concerning His Justice.

And second, to shew that he does not need to be taught concerning God's greatness, he proceeds to give a far more brilliant picture of it than Bildad had attempted, shewing how it manifests itself,

(1) in the underworld of the Shades, Job 26:5;

(2) in the world above, the earth and heavens, Job 26:7; ending with the sublime thought that, mighty and majestic as the operations of God are which are seen in these parts of the universe, they are but the fringes or outskirts of His ways, only a whisper in comparison to the full thunder of His power.