Job 26:1-4

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 without power!

How hast thou saved the arm that hath no strength!

3 How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom,

And plentifully declared sound knowledge!

4 To whom hast thou uttered words?

And whose spirit came forth from thee?

COMMENT 26:1-4

Job 26:1As the text stands, from chapter 26 to 31, we have Job's final response to his critics. The beautiful symmetry of the cycles of speeches seems to be broken when Zophar does not respond in the final stage of the debate. But that is only a literary consideration. We are left with baffling obscurities when we attempt to follow the continuity between the transitions. Nevertheless, the irony in the speech seems to fit better in Job's response, as he has delivered himself on the theme beforeJob 13:12; Job 16:2; Job 19:2; Job 19:21. His sarcastic self-assurance leaps forth from every word, far from confessing his own moral malaise; he taunts his friends for failing to bring him God's consolation. Despite many textual enigmas, we encounter some of the loftiest insights ever vouched safe to a tortured human spirit concerning the greatness and grandeur of God. Job will eventually cry out in resignationCan a man by searching find out God? He responds with a resounding No!

Job 26:2In an almost violent burst of sarcasm, Job responds to the irrelevance of Bildad's speech. The speech is composed of two parts: (1) Job's confrontation with Bildad, Job 26:2-4; and (2) Job's unmodifiable protestation of innocence, the extent of which is one of the technical problems which shall be passed in this commentary.[270]

[270] Compare analysis in the various critical Old Testament introduction, egs. Young, Harrison, Pfeiffer, and especially Otto Eissfeldt, The Old Testament, An Introduction (Harper & Row, E.T., 196S), pp. 454-470. Eissfeldt's introduction is controlled by Formgeschichte and Redactiongeschichte assumptions.

There is no legitimate reason to assume that because you is singular this implies that Bildad or Zophar is addressing Job. Job has not been giving them counsel, and counsel before his calamity seems pointless. For the sarcasm in Job's speeches, see Job 4:3-4; Job 6:25; Job 12:2; Job 13:1 ff; and Job 16:2 ff. Elsewhere Job addresses his friends in the plural, except in Job 12:7 ff; Job 16:3; and Job 21:3. Since Bildad's speech was dominated by God as all powerful, it is most likely that Job is asking what consolation he has brought to him in his hours of despair. Bildad's cold comfort reveals little concern or compassion in bringing consolation to this cosmic contender.

Job 26:3As short as Bildad's speech was, it was the bearer of abundant (Heb. rendered plentifully declared in A. V.) wisdom in only five verses. His speech was packed with superabundant wisdom explaining why one wicked man dies at the peak of his life without disease or despair, who has all along been robbing, murdering, and committing adultery, while another wicked man dies enslaved and embittered of spirit. Explain that, Bildad, if you are so wise.

Job 26:4Though the Hebrew can be translated either as To whom (in A. V.) or with whose help, the latter is perhaps to be preferred. Thus, Job is saying that he is as wise and informed as they areJob 12:3; Job 13:2and who are they to give him instruction on the sovereignty of God and that awe is the only appropriate human response. The word rendered spirit is neshamah and is translated as the lamp of the Lord in Proverbs 20:27. Job is ironically asking, Is the source of your wisdom, revelation, and illumination God? In essence he is saying as Rashi has suggested, Who does not know this? Job's friends have often claimed that they were speaking of GodJob 15:11; Job 20:2; Job 22:22.