Job 26 commentary

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 knows how to speak what is proper for the weary, Isa 50:4; and his ministers should not grieve those whom God would not have made sad. We are often disappointed in our expectations from our friends who should comfort us; but the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, never mistakes, nor fails of his end.

Many striking instances are here given of the wisdom and power of God, in the creation and preservation of the world. If we look about us, to the earth and waters here below, we see his almighty power. If we consider hell beneath, though out of our sight, yet we may conceive the discoveries of God's power there. If we look up to heaven above, we see displays of God's almighty power. By his Spirit, the eternal Spirit that moved upon the face of the waters, the breath of his mouth, Ps 33:6, he has not only made the heavens, but beautified them. By redemption, all the other wonderful works of the Lord are eclipsed; and we may draw near, and taste his grace, learn to love him, and walk with delight in his ways. The ground of the controversy between Job and the other disputants was, that they unjustly thought from his afflictions that he must have been guilty of heinous crimes. They appear not to have duly considered the evil and just desert of original sin; nor did they take into account the gracious designs of God in purifying his people. Job also darkened counsel by words without knowledge. But his views were more distinct. He does not appear to have alleged his personal righteousness as the ground of his hope towards God. Yet what he admitted in a general view of his case, he in effect denied, while he complained of his sufferings as unmerited and severe; that very complaint proving the necessity for their being sent, in order to his being further humbled in the sight of God.

CHAPTER 26

THIRD SERIES.

Job 26:1-14. Job's Reply.

2-3. without power ... no strength ... no wisdom--The negatives are used instead of the positives, powerlessness, &c., designedly (so Is 31:8; De 32:21). Granting I am, as you say (Job 18:17; 15:2), powerlessness itself, &c. "How hast thou helped such a one?"

savest--supportest.

4. For whose instruction were thy words meant? If for me I know the subject (God's omnipotence) better than my instructor; Job 26:5-14 is a sample of Job's knowledge of it.

whose spirit--not that of God (Job 32:8); nay, rather, the borrowed sentiment of Eliphaz (Job 4:17-19; 15:14-16).

5-14. As before in the ninth and twelfth chapters, Job had shown himself not inferior to the friends' inability to describe God's greatness, so now he describes it as manifested in hell (the world of the dead), Job 26:5, 6; on earth, Job 26:7; in the sky, Job 26:8-11; the sea, Job 26:12; the heavens, Job 26:13.

Dead things are formed--Rather, "The souls of the dead (Rephaim) tremble." Not only does God's power exist, as Bildad says (Job 25:2), "in high places" (heaven), but reaches to the region of the dead. Rephaim here, and in Pr 21:16 and Is 14:9, is from a Hebrew root, meaning "to be weak," hence "deceased"; in Ge 14:5 it is applied to the Canaanite giants; perhaps in derision, to express their weakness, in spite of their gigantic size, as compared with Jehovah [Umbreit]; or, as the imagination of the living magnifies apparitions, the term originally was applied to ghosts, and then to giants in general [Magee].

from under--Umbreit joins this with the previous word "tremble from beneath" (so Is 14:9). But the Masoretic text joins it to "under the waters." Thus the place of the dead will be represented as "under the waters" (Psa 18:4, 5); and the waters as under the earth (Psa 24:2). Magee well translates thus: "The souls of the dead tremble; (the places) under the waters, and their inhabitants." Thus the Masoretic connection is retained; and at the same time the parallel clauses are evenly balanced. "The inhabitants of the places under the waters" are those in Gehenna, the lower of the two parts into which Sheol, according to the Jews, is divided; they answer to "destruction," that is, the place of the wicked in Job 26:6, as "Rephaim" (Job 26:5) to "Hell" (Sheol) (Job 26:6). "Sheol" comes from a Hebrew root--"ask," because it is insatiable (Pr 27:20); or "ask as a loan to be returned," implying Sheol is but a temporary abode, previous to the resurrection; so for English Version "formed," the Septuagint and Chaldee translate; shall be born, or born again, implying the dead are to be given back from Sheol and born again into a new state [Magee].

How hast thou helped him - This seems a species of irony. How wonderfully hast thou counselled the unskilful and strengthened the weak! Alas for you! ye could not give what ye did not possess! In this way the Chaldee understood these verses: "Why hast thou pretended to give succor, when thou art without strength? And save, while thy arm is weak? Why hast thou given counsel, when thou art without understanding? And supposest that thou hast shown the very essence of wisdom?"

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 severe; and refers immediately to the proverbial sayings which in several of the preceding answers have been adduced against the irritated sufferer; for which see Job 8:11-19; 15:20-35, some of which he has already complained of, as in Job 12:3, and following. I concur most fully therefore with Dr. Stock in regarding the remainder of this chapter as a sample, ironically exhibited by Job, of the harangues on the power and greatness of God which he supposes his friends to have taken out of the mouths of other men, to deck their speeches with borrowed lustre. Only, in descanting on the same subject, he shows how much he himself can go beyond them in eloquence and sublimity.

Job intimates that, whatever spirit they had, it was not the Spirit of God, because in their answers falsehood was found.

Dead things are formed from under the waters - This verse, as it stands in our version, seems to convey no meaning; and the Hebrew is obscure; הרפאים, harephaim, "the Rephaim," certainly means not dead things; nor can there be any propriety in saying that dead things, or things without life, are formed under the waters, for such things are formed everywhere in the earth, and under the earth, as well as under the waters.

The Vulgate translates: Ecce gigantes gemunt sub aquis, et qui habitant cum eis. "Behold the giants, and those who dwell with them, groan from under the waters."

The Septuagint: Μη γιγαντες μαιωθησονται ὑποκατωθεν ὑδατος, και των γειτονων αυτου; "Are not the giants formed from under the waters, and their neighbors?"

The Chaldee: אפשר דגבריא דמתמזמזין יתברין ואנון מלרע למיא ומשריתהון eposhar degibraiya demithmazmezin yithbareyan veinnun millera lemaiya umashreiyatehon, "Can the trembling giants be regenerated, when they and their hosts are under the water?"

The Syriac and Arabic: "Behold, the giants are slain, and are drawn out of the water." None of these appear to give any sense by which the true meaning can be determined.

There is probably here an allusion to the destruction of the earth by the general deluge. Moses, speaking concerning the state of the earth before the flood, says, Gen 6:4, "There were giants נפלים nephilim, in the earth in those days." Now it is likely that Job means the same by רפאים rephaim as Moses does by the nephilim; and that both refer to the antediluvians, who were all, for their exceeding great iniquities, overwhelmed by the waters of the deluge. Can those mighty men and their neighbors, all the sinners who have been gathered to them since, be rejected from under the waters, by which they were judicially overwhelmed?

Mr. Good thinks the shades of the heroes of former times, the gigantic spectres, the mighty or enormous dead, are meant.

I greatly question whether sea-monsters be not intended, such as porpoises, sharks, narwals, grampuses, and whales. We know, however that an opinion anciently prevailed, that the Titans, a race of men of enormous stature, rebelled against the gods, and endeavored to scale heaven by placing one mountain on the top of another; and that they and their structure were cast down by the thunder of the deities, and buried under the earth and sea; and that their struggles to arise produce the earthquakes which occur in certain countries. Now although this opinion is supported by the most respectable antiquity among the heathens, it is not to be supposed that in the word of God there can be any countenance given to an opinion at once as absurd as it is monstrous. (But still the poet may use the language of the common people). I must therefore either refer the passage here to the antediluvians, or to the vast sea-monsters mentioned above.

Hell is naked before him - Sheol, the place of the dead, or of separate spirits, is always in his view. And there is no covering to Abaddon - the place of the destroyer, where destruction reigns, and where those dwell who are eternally separated from God. The ancients thought that hell or Tartarus was a vast space in the center, or at the very bottom of the earth. So Virgil, Aen. lib. vi., ver. 577: - - Tum Tartarus ipse

Bis patet in praeceps tantum, tenditque sub umbras,

Quantus ad aethereum coeli suspectus Olympum

Hic genus antiquum terrae, Titania pubes,

Fulmine dejecti, fundo volvuntur in imo. "Full twice as deep the dungeon of the fiends,

The huge Tartarean gloomy gulf, descends

Below these regions, as these regions lie

From the bright realms of yon ethereal sky.

Here roar the Titan race, th' enormous birth;

The ancient offspring of the teeming earth.

Pierced by the burning bolts of old they fell,

And still roll bellowing in the depths of hell."

Pitt.

And some have supposed that there is an allusion to this opinion in the above passage, as well as in several others in the Old Testament; but it is not likely that the sacred writers would countenance an opinion that certainly has nothing in fact or philosophy to support it. Yet still a poet may avail himself of popular opinions.

He stretcheth out the north over the empty place - על תהו al tohu, to the hollow waste. The same word as is used, Gen 1:2, The earth was without form, תהו tohu. The north must here mean the north pole, or northern hemisphere; and perhaps what is here stated may refer to the opinion that the earth was a vast extended plain, and the heavens poised upon it, resting on this plain all round the horizon. Of the south the inhabitants of Idumea knew nothing; nor could they have any notion of inhabitants in that hemisphere.

Hangeth the earth upon nothing - The Chaldee says: "He lays the earth upon the waters, nothing sustaining it."

He bindeth up the waters - Drives the aqueous particles together, which were raised by evaporation, so that, being condensed, they form clouds which float in the atmosphere, till, meeting with strong currents of wind, or by the agency of the electric fluid, they are farther condensed; and then, becoming too heavy to be sustained in the air, fall down in the form of rain, when, in this poetic language, the cloud is rent under them.

He holdeth back the face of his throne - Though all these are most elegant effects of an omniscient and almighty power, yet the great Agent is not personally discoverable; he dwelleth in light unapproachable, and in mercy hides himself from the view of his creatures. The words, however may refer to those obscurations of the face of heaven, and the hiding of the body of the sun, when the atmosphere is laden with dense vapours, and the rain begins to be poured down on the earth.

He hath compassed the waters with bounds - Perhaps this refers merely to the circle of the horizon, the line that terminates light and commences darkness, called here עד תכלית אור עם חשך ad tachlith or im chosech, "until the completion of light with darkness." Or, if we take תכלית tachlith here to be the same with תכלת techeleth, Exo 25:4, and elsewhere, which we translate blue, it may mean that sombre sky-blue appearance of the horizon at the time of twilight, i.e., between light and darkness; the line where the one is terminating and the other commencing. Or, He so circumscribes the waters, retaining them in their own place, that they shall not be able to overflow the earth until day and night, that is, time itself, come to an end.

The pillars of heaven tremble - This is probably a poetical description either of thunder, or of an earthquake: - "He shakes creation with his nod;

Earth, sea, and heaven, confess him God."

But there may be an allusion to the high mountains, which were anciently esteemed by the common people as the pillars on which the heavens rested; and when these were shaken with earthquakes, it might be said the pillars of heaven tremble. Mount Atlas was supposed to be one of those pillars, and this gave rise to the fable of Atlas being a man who bore the heavens on his shoulders. The Greek and Roman poets frequently use this image. Thus Silius Italicus, lib. i., ver. 202: -

Atlas subducto tracturus vertice coelum:

Sidera nubiferum fulcit caput, aethereasque

Erigit aeternum compages ardua cervix:

Canet barba gelu, frontemque immanibus umbris

Pinea silva premit; vastant cava tempora venti

Nimbosoque ruunt spumantia flumina rictu. "Atlas' broad shoulders prop th' incumbent skies:

Around his cloud-girt head the stars arise.

His towering neck supports th' ethereal way;

And o'er his brow black woods their gloom display.

Hoar is his beard; winds round his temples roar;

And from his jaws the rushing torrents pour."

J. B. C.

He divideth the sea with his power - Here is a manifest allusion to the passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites, and the overthrow of Pharaoh and his host, according to the opinion of the most eminent critics.

He smiteth through the proud - רהב Rahab, the very name by which Egypt is called Isa 51:9, and elsewhere. Calmet remarks: "This appears to refer only to the passage of the Red Sea, and the destruction of Pharaoh. Were we not prepossessed with the opinion that Job died before Moses, every person at the first view of the subject must consider it in this light." I am not thus prepossessed. Let Job live when he might, I am satisfied the Book of Job was written long after the death of Moses, and not earlier than the days of Solomon, if not later. The farther I go in the work, the more this conviction is deepened; and the opposite sentiment appears to be perfectly gratuitous.

By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens - See the observations below.

Lo, these are parts of his ways - קצות ketsoth, the ends or extremities, the outlines, an indistinct sketch, of his eternal power and Godhead.

How little a portion is heard - שמץ shemets, a mere whisper; admirably opposed, as Mr. Good has well observed, to רעם raam, the thunder, mentioned in the next clause. As the thunder is to a whisper, so are the tremendous and infinitely varied works of God to the faint outlines exhibited in the above discourse. Every reader will relish the dignity, propriety, and sense of these expressions. They force themselves on the observation of even the most heedless. By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens - Numerous are the opinions relative to the true meaning of this verse. Some think it refers to the clearing of the sky after a storm, such as appears to be described Job 26:11, Job 26:12; and suppose his Spirit means the wind, which he directs to sweep and cleanse the face of the sky, by which the splendor of the day or the lustre of the night is restored: and by the crooked, flying, or aerial serpent, as it is variously rendered, the ecliptic is supposed to be meant, as the sun's apparent course in it appears to be serpentine, in his approach to and recession from each of the tropics. This tortuous line may be seen on any terrestrial globe. Many will object to this notion as too refined for the time of Job; but this I could easily admit, as astronomy had a very early existence among the Arabians, if not its origin. But with me the chief objection lies against the obscurity of the allusion, if it be one; for it must require no small ingenuity, and almost the spirit of divination, to find out the sun's oblique path in the zodiac in the words His hand hath formed the crooked serpent. Others have imagined that the allusion is to the lightning in that zigzag form which it assumes when discharged from one cloud into another during a thunder storm. This is at once a natural and very apparent sense. To conduct and manage the lightning is most certainly a work which requires the skill and omnipotence of God, as much as garnishing the heavens by his Spirit, dividing the sea by his power, or causing the pillars of heaven to tremble by his reproof. Others think that the act of the creation of the solar system is intended to be expressed, which is in several parts of the sacred writings attributed to the Spirit of God; (Gen 1:2; Psa 33:6); and that the crooked serpent means either Satan, who deceived our first parents, or huge aquatic animals; for in Isa 27:1, we find the leviathan and dragon of the sea called נחש ברח nachash bariach, the very terms that are used by Job in this place: "In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan, the piercing serpent, (נחש ברח nachash bariach), even leviathan, that crooked serpent, (נחש עקלתון nachash akallathon), and he shall slay the dragon (התנין hattannin) that is in the sea." And we know that in Gen 1:21 התנינם הגדלים hattanninim haggedolim, which we translate great whales, includes all sea-monsters or vast aquatic animals. Calmet, who without hesitation adopts this sentiment, says: "I see no necessity to have recourse to allegory here. After having exhibited the effects of the sovereign power of God in the heavens, in the clouds, in the vast collection of waters in the sea, it was natural enough for Job to speak of the production of fishes." The intelligent Dr. Sherlock gives another interpretation. After strongly expressing his disapprobation of the opinion that Job should descend, after speaking of the creation of the heavens and their host, to the formation of snakes and adders, he supposes "that Job here intended to oppose that grand religious system of sabaeism which prevailed in his time, and to which, in other parts of this book, he alludes; a system which acknowledged two opposite independent principles by which the universe was governed, and paid Divine adoration to the celestial luminaries. Suppose, therefore, Job to be acquainted with the fall of man, and the part ascribed to the serpent of the introduction of evil, see how aptly the parts cohere. In opposition to the idolatrous practice of the time, he asserts God to be the maker of all the host of heaven: By his Spirit he garnished the heavens. In opposition to the false notion of two independent principles, he asserts God to be the maker of him who was the author of evil: His hand hath formed the crooked serpent. You see how properly the garnishing of the heavens and the forming of the serpent are joined together. That this is the ancient traditionary explication of this place, we have undeniable evidence from the translation of the Septuagint, who render the latter part of this verse, which relates to the serpent, in this manner: Προσταγματι δε εθανατωσε δρακοντα αποστατην, By a decree he destroyed the apostate dragon. The Syriac and Arabic versions are to the same effect: And his hand slew the flying serpent. "These translators apply the place to the punishment inflicted on the serpent; and it comes to the same thing, for the punishing the serpent is as clear an evidence of God's power over the author of evil as the creating him. We need not wonder to see so much concern in this book to maintain the supremacy of God, and to guard it against every false notion; for this was the theme, the business of the author." - Bp. Sherlock on Prophecy, Diss. ii.

From the contradictory opinions on this passage, the reader will no doubt feel cautious what mode of interpretation he adopts, and the absolute necessity of admitting no texts of doubtful interpretation as vouchers for the essential doctrines of Christianity. Neither metaphors, allegories, similes, nor figurative expressions of any kind, should ever be adduced or appealed to as proofs of any article in the Christian faith. We have reason to be thankful that this is at present the general opinion of the most rational divines of all sects and parties, and that the allegory and metaphor men are everywhere vanishing from the meridian and sinking under the horizon of the Church. Scriptural Christianity is prevailing with a strong hand, and going forward with a firm and steady step.

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 better than his creatures? Whose spirit - Who inspired thee with this profound discourse of thine?

Dead things - Job having censured Bildad's discourse, proceeds to shew how little he needed his information in that point. Here he shews that the power and providences of God reaches not only to the things we see, but also to the invisible parts of the world, not only to the heavens above and their inhabitants, and to men upon earth, of which Bildad discoursed, chap.25:2,3, but also to such persons or things as are under the earth, or under the waters; which are out of our sight and reach; yet not out of the ken of Divine providence. These words may be understood; either, of dead, or lifeless things, such as amber, pearl, coral, metals, or other minerals, which are formed or brought forth; by the almighty power of God, from under the waters; either in the bottom of the sea, or within the earth, which is the lowest element, and in the scripture and other authors spoken of as under the waters; this being observed as a remarkable work of God's providence, that the waters of the sea, which are higher than the earth, do not overwhelm it. Or, of dead men, and of the worst of them, such as died in their sins, and after death were condemned to farther miseries; for of such this very word seems to be used, Prov 2:18 9:18, who are here said to mourn or groan from under the waters; from the lower parts of the earth, or from under those subterranean waters, which are supposed to be within and under the earth; Psalm 33:7, and from under the inhabitants thereof; either of the waters or of the earth, under which these waters are, or with the other inhabitants thereof; of that place under the waters, namely, the apostate spirits. So the sense is, that God's dominion is over all men, yea, even the dead, and the worst of them, who though they would not own God, nor his providence, while they lived, yet now are forced to acknowledge and feel that power which they despised, and bitterly mourn under the sad effects of it in their infernal habitations.

Hell - Is in his presence, and under his providence. Hell itself, that place of utter darkness, is not hid from his sight. Destruction - The place of destruction.

North - The northern part of the heavens, which is put for the whole visible heaven, because Job and his friends lived in a northern climate. Nothing - Upon no props or pillars, but his own power and providence.

Holdeth - From our view, that his glory may not dazzle our sight; he covereth it with a cloud. Throne - The heaven of heavens, where he dwelleth.

Pillars - Perhaps the mountains which by their height and strength seem to reach and support the heavens. Astonished - When God reproveth not them, but men by them, manifesting his displeasure by thunders, or earthquakes.

Parts - But small parcels, the outside and visible work. Portion - Of his power and wisdom, and providence. His Power - His mighty power, is aptly compared to thunder; in regard of its irresistible force, and the terror which it causes to wicked men.

2. How hast thou helped him that is without power ? how savest thou the arm that hath no strength?

Thou hast helped egregiously: It is an Ironical expression, implying the quite contrary, that he had not at all helped. See the like, Gen. 3. 22. 1 Kings 18. 27. 1 Cor. 4. 8, 10.

Either 1. God, who it seems is weak and unwise, and needed so powerful and eloquent an Advocate as thou art, to maintain his Rights and plead his Cause. Or rather 2. Iob himself. I am a poor helpless Creature, my strength and spirits quite broken with the pains of my Body and perplexities of my Mind, whom Nature, and Humanity, and Religion should have taught thee to support and comfort, with a representation of the gracious Nature and Promises of God, and not to terrifie and overwhelm me with displaying his Soveraign Majesty, the thoughts whereof are already so distractive and dreadful to me.

3. How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom ? and how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is ?

Either 1. God: Thou hast in effect undertaken to teach God how to govern the World. Or rather 2. me, whom you take to be a man void of understanding, Chapter 11. 2, 3. whom therefore you should have instructed with wholesom counsels, instead of these impertinent discourses; and who indeed do want wisdom being perfectly at a loss, and not knowing what to say or do.

Heb. Essence, the truth and substance of the thing in question between us; Thou hast spoken the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and all that can be said in the matter. Or, Wisdom, as this word is used, Prov. 3. 21. A most wise and profound discourse thou hast made and much to the purpose: an Ironical expression as before.

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

For whose Instruction hast thou uttered these things? For mine? Doest 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 incomparably greater and better than his Creatures?

So the sense is, whom hast thou revived or comforted by this discourse? Not me surely. The spirit or breath of a man is in a manner suppressed and intercepted in deep sorrows and consternations, such as Iob's were, and when he is cheared or refreshed, it finds vent and breaths out freely as it did before. But I do not remember that ever this Phrase is used in this sense, but on the contrary, the giving or restoring of life are expressed by the co[illegible: 1+ letters]ing in, and not by the going out of spirit or breath, as appears from Gen. 2. 7. Ezek 37. 5, 6, 10. The words therefore are and may be otherwise understood; either thus, Whose spirit or inspiration, (as this word signifies, Iob 32. 8.) came from thee? Who inspired thee with this profound discourse of thine? Was it by Divine Inspiration, as thou wouldest have us to believe? Or was it not a rash suggestion of thy own vain and foolish mind? Or thus, Whose spirit went out (to wit, of his body by an extasie of admiration) for thee, by reason of thy discourse? I may be thought partial in my censure of it, but thou mayst perceive none of our Friends here present admire it, except thy self. Or to, or for whom (the Particle eth being here understood out of the former Branch, as is usual among the Hebrews) did breath go out from thee; i. e. didst thou speak? For whose good, or to what end didst thou speak this? God needed it not, I receive no edification or benefit by it.

5. Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof.

Iob having censured Bildad's discourse concerning God's Dominion and Power as insignificant and impertinent to their question, he here proceedeth to shew how little he needed his information in that Point, and that he was able to instruct him in that Doctrine, of which accordingly he gives divers Proofs or Instances. Here he sheweth tha[illegible: 1+ letters] the Power and Pro[illegible: 1+ letters]dence of God reacheth not onely to the things which we see, but also to the invisible parts of the World, not onely to the Heavens above and their Inhabitants, and to Men upon Earth, of which Bildad discoursed Chap. 25. 2, 3. but also to such persons or things as are under the Earth, or under the Waters, which are under the Earth, which are out of our sight and reach, and might be thought to be out of the ken or care of Divine Providence. This Hebrew word sometimes signifies Giants, as Deut. 2. 11, 20. & 3. 13. and 1 Chron. 20. 8. Whence it may be translated to other great, and as it were, gigantick Creatures, and more commonly dead men, as Psalm 88. 11. Prov. 2. 18. & 9. 18. & 21. 16. Isa. 14. 9. & 26. 14. 19. Whence it is supposed metaphorically to signifie also dead or lifeless things; though there be no example of that use of the word elsewhere; and it may seem improper to call those things dead, which never had no[illegible: 1+ letters] were capable of life. The next Hebrew Word, or the Verb is primarily used of Women with Child, and signifies their bringing forth their young Ones with travel or grievous pains; as Iob 39. 3. Psalm 29. 9. Isa. 23. 4. & 45. 10. and thence it signifies either to [illegible: 1+ letters]orm or bring forth, as below, verse 13. Prov. 26. 10. Or to grieve or mourn, or to be in pain. Accordingly these words are diversly understood; either 1. of dead, or lifeless things, such as Amber, Pearl, Coral, Metals, or other Minerals. which are formed or brought forth; to wit, by the Almighty power of God, from under the waters; i. e. either in the bottom of the Sea, or within the Earth, which is the lowest Element, and in the Scripture and other Authors spoken of as under the Waters; this being observed as a remarkable Work of God's Providence, that the Waters of the Sea which are higher than the earth do not overwhelm it, and from under (which may be repeated out of the former Clause of the Verse, after the manner of the Hebrews) the inhabitants thereof; i. e. either of the Waters, which are Fishes, or of the Earth, which are Men. Or rather 2. of the Giants of the old World, which were men of great Renown whilest they lived, Gen. 6. 3. and the remembrance of them and of their exemplary destruction was now in some sort fresh and famous; who once carried themselves insolently towards God and men, but were quickly subdued by the Divine Power, and dr[illegible: 1+ letters]ned with a Deluge, and now mourn or gr[illegible: 1+ letters]an from [illegible: 1 word] the waters where they were buried, and from under the present Inhabitants thereof, as before. Or 3. of vast and gigantick Fishes or Monsters of the Sea, who by God's infinite power were formed or brought forth under the waters, with the other inhabitants thereof; to wit, of the Waters, the lesser Fishes. Or 4. of dead man, and of the worst sort of them, such as died in their sins, and after death were condemned to further miseries; for of such this very word seems to be used, Prov. 2. 18. & 9. 18. who are here said to mourn or groan from under the waters; i. e. from the lower parts of the earth, or from under those sub[illegible: 1+ letters]erranean Seas of Waters, which are by Scripture and by Philosophers supposed to be within and under the Earth; of which see Deut. 8. 7. Iob 28. 4▪ 10. Psalm 33. 7. and from under the inhabitants thereof,; i. e. either of the Waters or of the Earth, under which these Waters are, or with the other inhabitants thereof; i. e. of that place under the Waters, to wit, the Apostate Spirits. So the sense is, that Gods dominion is over all men, yea even the dead, and the worst of them, who though they would not own God, nor his Providence, whilest they lived, yet now are forced to acknowledge and feel that power which they despised, and bitterly mourn under the sad effects of it in their subterraneal and infernal Habitations, of which the next Verse speaks more plainly. And this sense seems to be favoured by the Context and scope of the place, wherein Iob begins his discourse of Gods Power and Providence at the lowermost and hidden parts of the World, and thence proceeds to those parts which are higher and visible. Nor is it strange that Iob speaks of these matters, seeing it is evident that Iob, and others of the holy Patriarchs and Prophets of old, did know and believe the Doctrine of the future Life, and of its several Recompences to good and bad men. Others understand this of the Resurrection of the dead; The dead shall be born (as this word is used, Psal. 2. 7. Prov. 8. 24, 25. i. e. shall be raised, which is a kind of Regeneration, or second Birth, and is so called, Mat. 19. 28. Act. 13. 33.) from under the waters (i. e. even those of them that lie in the waters, Rev. 20. 13. that were drowned and buried in the Sea, and devoured by Fishes, &c. whose case may seem to be most desperate, and therefore they only are here mentioned) and (or, e[illegible: 1+ letters]en, this particle being oft used expositively) the Inhabiants thereof, i. e. those dead corps which lie or have long lain there.

Marginal references: Or, shall the dead be born under the waters? So Gr.; Or, will the i[illegible: 1+ letters]itants?

6. Hell h is naked before him i, and destruction hath no covering .

As this word is frequently used, as Iob 11. 8. Isa. 57. 9, &c. And so it seems to be explained by the following word destruction, i. e. the place of destruction, which Interpreters generally understand of Hell, or the place of the Damned. Others the Grave, the most secret and obscure places and things.

i. e. It is in his Presence and under his Providence. So far am I from imagining that God cannot see through a dark Cloud, as you traduced me, Chap. 22▪ 13. that I very well know, that even Hell it self, that place of utter darkness, is not hid from his sight.

k i. e. The place of destruction, as it is also used, Prov. 15. 11. by a Metonymy of the Adjunct.

l To wit, such as to keep it out of his sight.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] 8. 11 Heb. 4. 13▪

7. He stretcheth out the North over the empty place , and hangeth the earth upon nothing .

i. e. The Northern Pole, or part of the Heavens, which he particularly mentions and puts for the whole visible Heaven, because Iob and his Friends lived in a Nothern Climate, and were acquainted only with that part of the Heavens, the Southern Pole and parts near it being wholly unknown to them. The Heavens are oft and fitly said to be spread or stretched out like a Curtain or Tent, to which they are resembled.

To wit, the Air, so called not Philosophically, as if it were wholly empty, but popularly, because it seems to be so, and is generally void of solid and visible bodies.

Upon its own Center which is but an imaginary thing, and in truth nothing: Or upon no Props or Pillars, but his own Power and Providence: Which is justly celebrated as a wonderful Work of God both in Scripture, and in Heathen Authors.

Marginal references: Chap. 9. 8. Psal. 104. 2, &c.

8. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them .

This also is a miraculous Work of God, considering the nature of these Waters which are fluid and heavy, and pressing downward, especially being oft-times there in great abundance, and withal the quality of the Clouds, which are thin and loose bodies of the same nature with Fogs and Mists upon the Face of the Earth, and therefore of themselves utterly unable to bear that weight, and to keep up those Waters from falling suddenly and violently upon the Earth.

9. He holdeth back the face of his throne , and spreadeth his cloud upon it.

i. e. To wit, from our view, that its lustre and glory should not reach us, and so dazle our sight, he covereth it with a Cloud, as the next words explain it. Or, He holdeth fast, or binds together, or strengthens it, that it may be able to bear that burden.

Either 1. this lower Air, which is as the Face or open part of the Heavens, which is often called God's Throne, as ▪ salm 11. 4. Isa. 66. 1. Amos 9. 6. Or 2. the appearance or manifestation of the Heaven of Heavens where he dwelleth, whose light and glory is too great for mortal eyes, which therefore by Clouds and other ways he hides from us.

10. He hath compassed the waters with bounds , until the day and night come to an end .

To wit, of the Sea, for of the upper Waters coming out of the Clouds he spake before.

Which are partly the Rocks and Shores, and principally God's appointment, made at the first Creation, and renewed after the Deluge, Gen. 9. 11. 15. that the Waters should not overwhelm the Earth: See Iob 38. 8, 10, 11. Psalm 104. 3. Ier. 5. 22.

i. e. Unto the end of the World, for so long these Vicissitudes of Day and Night are to continue, Gen. 8. 22. & 9. 9, &c. Ier. 5. 22. & 31. 35, 36.

Marginal references: Ps. 33 7. & 104 9.; Heb. until the end of light with darkness.

11. The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his reproof y.

Either 1. those Mountains which by their height and strength may seem to reach and support the Heavens, as the Poets said of Atlas; for this is a Poetical Book, and there are many Poetical expressions in it. These tremble sometimes by force of Earthquakes, or by God's glorious appearance in them, as Sinai did Or 2. Holy Angels, but they are not subject either to trembling or to God's rebuke. Or 3. the Heavenly Bodies, as the Sun, and Moon, and Stars, which as they may seem in some sort to support, so they do certainly adorn the Heavens: And we know Pillars are oft made, not for support, but only for Ornament; as the two famous Pillars of the Temple, Iachin and Boaz, 1 Kings 7. 21. And these oft-times seem to tremble and be astonished, as in Eclipses or Tempests, and terrible Works of God in the Air, by which they are frequently said to be affected and changed, because they seem so to us; and many things are spoken in Scripture according to appearance: See Isa. 13. 10. & 24. 23. Ioel 2. 10, 31. Mat. 24. 29. &c. Either 1. when God rebuketh them: for God is sometimes said in Scripture to rebuke the lifeless Creatures; which is to be understood figuratively of the Tokens of God's anger in them. Or 2. when God reproveth not them, but men by them, manifesting his displeasure against sinful men by Thunders, or Earthquakes, or prodigious Works.

12. He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth thorough the proud .

He speaks either 1. of God's dividing the Red-sea for the Israelites to pass over: And consequently the Hebrew word Rahab, which here follows, and is translated pride, or the proud, is meant of Egypt, which is oft called Rahab, as Psalm 87. 4. & 89. 10. Isa. 51. 9. But it seems most probable that that Work was not yet done, and that Iob lived long before Israels coming out of Egypt. Or rather 2. of the common Work of Nature and Providence, in raising Tempests, by which he breaketh or divideth the Waves of the Sea, by making deep Furrows in it, and casting up part of the Waters into the Air, and splitting part of them upon the Rocks and Shores of the Sea.

i. e. By his wise Counsel and administration of things, so as may obtain his own glorious ends.

Either 1. the Whale, which is called King over all the children of pride, Job 41. 34. and which is sometimes by force of Tempests cast upon the shore. Or rather 2. the Sea, which is fitl[illegible: 1+ letters] called proud, as its Waves are called, Iob 38. 11. because it is lofty, and fierce, and swelling, and unruly; which God is said to smite when he subdues and restrains its rage, and turns the storm into a calm.

Marginal references: Isa. 51. 15.; Or, stilleth, Chap. 38. 11.; Heb. pride.

13. By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens , his hand hath formed the crooked serpent .

Either 1. by his Divine Vertue or Power, which is sometimes called his Spirit, as Zach. 4. 6. Mat. 12. 28. Or 2. by his holy Spirit, to which the Creation of the World is ascribed, Gen. 1. 2. Iob 33. 4. Psalm 33. 6.

Adorned or beautified them with those glorious Lights the Sun, and Moon and Stars.

By which he understands either 1. all the kinds of Serpents, or Fishes, or Monsters of the Sea. Or 2. the most eminent of their kinds, particularly the Whale, which may be here not unfitly mentioned (as it is afterwards more largely described) amongst the glorious Works of God in this lower World; as the garnishing of the Heavens was his noblest Work in the superiour visible parts of the World. Or 3. an Heavenly Constellation, called the great Dragon and Serpent, which being most eminent, as taking up a considerable part of the Northern Hemisphere, may well be put for all the rest of the Constellations or Stars wherewith the Heavens are garnished. Thus he persisteth still in the same kind of God's Works, and the latter Branch explains the former. And this sense is the more probable, because Iob was well acquainted with the Doctrine of Astronomy, and knew the nature and names of the Stars and Constellations, as appears also from Chapter 9. 9. and 38. 31.

Marginal references: Psal. 33. [illegible: 1+ letters].; Heb. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] a b[illegible: 1+ letters]r. Isa. 27. 1.

14. Lo, these are parts of his ways , but how little a portion is heard of him ? but the thunder of his power who can understand?

Or, the extremities, but small parcels, the outside and visible work: How glorious then are his invisible and more inward Perfections and Operations.

i. e. Of his Works.

i. e. Of his Power and Wisdom, and Providence and Actions. The greatest part of what we see or know of him, is the least part of what we do not know and of what is in him, or is done by him.

Either 1. of his mighty and terrible Thunder, which is oft mentioned as an eminent work of God; as Iob 28. 25. & 40. 9. Psalm 29. 3. & 77. 18. Or 2. of his mighty Power, which is aptly compared to Thunder, in regard of its irresistible force, and the terrour which it causeth to wicked men: This Metaphor being used by others in like cases; as among the Grecians, who used to say of their vehement and powerful Orators, that they did thunder and lighten; and in Mark 3. 17. where powerful Preachers are called Sons of Thunder.

Job 26:1-4  1  Then Job began, and said:  2  How has thou helped him that is without power,

Raised the arm that hath no strength!   3  How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom,

And fully declared the essence of the matter!   4  To whom hast thou uttered words,

And whose breath proceeded from thee?

Bildad is the person addressed, and the exclamations in Job 26:2, Job 26:3 are ironical: how thy speech contains nothing whatever that might help me, the supposedly feeble one, in conquering my affliction and my temptation; me, the supposedly ignorant one, in comprehending man’s mysterious lot, and mine! ללא־כח, according to the idea, is only equivalent to כח לו (אין) לאשׁר לא, and זרוע לא־עז equivalent to זרוע בלא־עז (לא עז לו); the former is the abstr. pro concreto, the latter the genitival connection - the arm of the no-power, i.e., powerless (Ges. §152, 1). The powerless one is Job himself, not God (Merc., Schlottm.), as even the choice of the verbs, Job 26:2, Job 26:3, shows. Respecting תּוּשׁיּה, which we have translated essentiality, duration, completion, we said, on Job 5:12, that it is formed from ישׁ (vid., Pro 8:21), not directly indeed, but by means of a verb ושׁי brev a fo  (ושׁה), in the signification subsistere (comp. Arab. kân, and Syriac קום);Comp. also Spiegel, Grammatik der Huzväresch-Sprache, S. 103. it is a Hophal-formation (like תּוּגה), and signifies, so to speak, durability, subsistentia, substantia, ὑπόστασις, so that the comparison of ושׁי with אשׁשׁ, Arab. 'ss (whence אשׁישׁ, Arab. ası̂s , asâs , etc., fundamentum) is forced upon one, and the relationship to the Sanskrit as (asmi = εἰμὶ) can remain undecided. The observation of J. D. MichaelisAgainst the comparison of the Arab. wâsâ , solari, by Michaelis, Ges., and others (who assume the primary significations solatium, auxilium), Lagarde (Anmerkungen zur griech. Uebersetzung der Proverbien, 1863, S. 57f.) correctly remarks that Arab. wâsâ , is only a change of letters of the common language for Arab. âsâ ; but Arab. wâšâ, to finish painting (whence Arab. twšyt, decoration), or ושׁה as a transposition from שׁוה, to be level, simple (Hitzig on Pro 3:21), leads to no suitable sense. to the contrary, Supplem. p. 1167: non placent in linguis ejusmodi etyma metaphysica nimis a vulgari sensu remota; philosophi in scholis ejusmodi vocabula condunt, non plebs, is removed by the consideration that תושׁיה, which out of Prov. and Job occurs only in Isa 28:29, Mich. Job 6:9, is a Chokma-word: it signifies here, as frequently, vera et realis sapientia (J. H. Michaelis). The speech of Bildad is a proof of poverty of thought, of which he himself gives the evidence. His words - such is the thought of Job 26:4 - are altogether inappropriate, inasmuch as they have no reference whatever to the chief point of Job’s speech; and they are, moreover, not his own, but the suggestion of another, and that not God, but Eliphaz, from whom Bildad has borrowed the substance of his brief declamation. Since this is the meaning of Job 26:4, it might seem as though את־מי were intended to signify by whose assistance (Arnh., Hahn); but as the poet also, in Job 31:37, comp. Eze 43:10, uses הגּיד seq. acc., in the sense of explaining anything to any one, to instruct him concerning anything, it is to be interpreted: to whom hast thou divulged the words (lxx, τίνι ἀνήγγειλας ῥήματα), i.e., thinking and designing thereby to affect him?

In what follows, Job now continues the description of God’s exalted rule, which Bildad had attempted, by tracing it through every department of creation; and thus proves by fact, that he is wanting neither in a recognition nor reverence of God the almighty Ruler.

Job 26:5-7   5   - The shades are put to pain

Deep under the waters and their inhabitants.   6  Sheôl is naked before him,

And the abyss hath no covering.   7  He stretched the northern sky over the emptiness;

He hung the earth upon nothing.

Bildad has extolled God’s majestic, awe-inspiring rule in the heights of heaven, His immediate surrounding; Job continues the strain, and celebrates the extension of this rule, even to the depths of the lower world. The operation of the majesty of the heavenly Ruler extends even to the realm of shades; the sea with the multitude of its inhabitants forms no barrier between God and the realm of shades; the marrowless, bloodless phantoms or shades below writhe like a woman in travail as often as this majesty is felt by them, as, perhaps, by the raging of the sea or the quaking of the earth. On רפאים, which also occurs in Phoenician inscriptions, vid., Psychol. S. 409; the book of Job corresponds with Psa 88:11 in the use of this appellation. The sing. is not רפאי (whence רפאים, as the name of a people), but רפא (רפה), which signifies both giants or heroes of colossal stature (from רפה = Arab. rafu‛a , to be high), and the relaxed (from רפה, to be loose, like Arab. rafa'a , to soften, to soothe), i.e., those who are bodiless in the state after death (comp. חלּה, Isa 14:10, to be weakened, i.e., placed in the condition of a rapha). It is a question whether יחוללוּ be Pilel (Ges.) or Pulal (Olsh.); the Pul., indeed, signifies elsewhere to be brought forth with writing (Job 15:7); it can, however, just as well signify to be put in pain. On account of the reference implied in it to a higher causation here at the commencement of the speech, the Pul. is more appropriate than the Pil.; and the pausal â, which is often found elsewhere with Hithpael (Hithpal.), Psa 88:14; Job 33:5, but never with Piel (Pil.), proves that the form is intended to be regarded as passive.

Job 26:8-10   8  He bindeth up the waters in His clouds,

Without the clouds being rent under their burden.   9  He enshroudeth the face of His throne,

Spreading His clouds upon it. 10  He compasseth the face of the waters with bounds,

To the boundary between light and darkness.

The clouds consist of masses of water rolled together, which, if they were suddenly set free, would deluge the ground; but the omnipotence of God holds the waters together in the hollow of the clouds (צרר, Milel, according to a recognised law, although it is also found in Codd. accented as Milra, but contrary to the Masora), so that they do not burst asunder under the burden of the waters (תּחתּם); by which nothing more nor less is meant, than that the physical and meteorological laws of rain are of God’s appointment. Job 26:9 describes the dark and thickly-clouded sky that showers down the rain in the appointed rainy season. אחז signifies to take hold of, in architecture to hold together by means of beams, or to fasten together (vid., Thenius on 1Ki 6:10, comp. 2Ch 9:18, מאחזים, coagmentata), then also, as usually in Chald. and Syr., to shut (by means of cross-bars, Neh 7:3), here to shut off by surrounding with clouds: He shuts off פּני־כסּה, the front of God’s throne, which is turned towards the earth, so that it is hidden by storm-clouds as by a סכּה, Job 36:29; Psa 18:12. God’s throne, which is here, as in 1Ki 10:19, written כּסּה instead of כּסּא (comp. Arab. cursi, of the throne of God the Judge, in distinction from Arab. 'l - ‛arš , the throne of God who rules over the world),According to the more recent interpretation, under Aristotelian influence, Arab. 'l - ‛rš is the outermost sphere, which God as πρῶτον κινοῦν having set in motion, communicates light, heat, life, and motion to the other revolving spheres; for the causae mediae gradually descend from God the Author of being (muhejji) from the highest heaven into the sublunary world. is indeed in other respects invisible, but the cloudless blue of heaven is His reflected splendour (Exo 24:10) which is cast over the earth. God veils this His radiance which shines forth towards the earth, פּרשׁז אליו עננו, by spreading over it the clouds which are led forth by Him. פּרשׁו is commonly regarded as a Chaldaism for פּרשׁז (Ges. §56, Olsh. §276), but without any similar instance in favour of this vocalizaton of the 3 pr. Piel (Pil.). Although רענן and שׁאנן, Job 15:32; Job 3:18, have given up the i of the Pil., it has been under the influence of the following guttural; and although, moreover, i before Resh sometimes passes into a, e.g., ויּרא, it is more reliable to regard פרשז as inf. absol. (Ew. §141, c): expandendo. Ges. and others regard this פרשז as a mixed form, composed from פרשׁ and פרז; but the verb פרשׁ (with Shin) has not the signification to expand, which is assumed in connection with this derivation; it signifies to separate (also Eze 34:12, vid., Hitzig on that passage), whereas פרשׂ certainly signifies to expand (Job 36:29-30); wherefore the reading פּרשׂז (with Sin), which some Codd. give, is preferred by Bär, and in agreement with him by Luzzatto (vid., Bär’s Leket zebi, p. 244), and it seems to underlie the interpretation where פרשז עליו is translated by עליו (פּרשׂ) פרש, He spreadeth over it (e.g., by Aben-Ezra, Kimchi, Ralbag). But the Talmud, b. Sabbath, 88 b (פירש שדי מזיו שכינתו ועננו עליו, the Almighty separated part of the splendour of His Shechina and His cloud, and laid it upon him, i.e., Moses, as the passage is applied in the Haggada), follows the reading פּרשׁז (with Shin), which is to be retained on account of the want of naturalness in the consonantal combination שׂז; but the word is not to be regarded as a mixed formation (although we do not deny the possibility of such forms in themselves, vid., supra, p. 468), but as an intensive form of פרשׂ formed by Prosthesis and an Arabic change of Sin into Shin, like Arab. fršḥ , fršd , fršṭ , which, being formed from Arab. frš = פּרשׂ (פּרשׂ), to expand, signifies to spread out (the legs).

Job 26:10 passes from the waters above to the lower waters. תּכלית signifies, as in Job 11:7; Job 28:3; Neh 3:21, the extremity, the extreme boundary; and the connection of תּכלית אור is genitival, as the Tarcha by the first word correctly indicates, whereas אור with Munach, the substitute for Rebia mugrasch In this instance (according to Psalter, ii. 503, §2), is a mistake. God has marked out (חן, lxx ἐγύρωσεν) a law, i.e., here according to the sense: a fixed bound (comp. Pro 8:29 with Psa 104:9), over the surface of the waters (i.e., describing a circle over them which defines their circuit) unto the extreme point of light by darkness, i.e., where the light is touched by the darkness. Most expositors (Rosenm., Hirz., Hahn, Schlottm., and others) take עד־תכלית adverbially: most accurately, and refer חג to אור as a second object, which is contrary to the usage of the language, and doubtful and unnecessary. Pareau has correctly interpreted: ad lucis usque tenebrarumque confinia; עם in the local sense, not aeque ac, although it might also have this meaning, as e.g., Ecc 2:16. The idea is, that God has appointed a fixed limit to the waters, as far as to the point at which they wash the terra firma of the extreme horizon, and where the boundary line of the realms of light and darkness is; and the basis of the expression, as Bouillier, by reference to Virgil’s Georg. i. 240f., has shown, is the conception of the ancients, that the earth is surrounded by the ocean, on the other side of which the region of darkness begins.

Job 26:11-13 11  The pillars of heaven tremble

And are astonished at His threatening. 12  By His power He rouseth up the sea,

And by His understanding He breaketh Rahab in pieces. 13  By His breath the heavens become cheerful;

His hand hath formed the fugitive dragon.

The mountains towering up to the sky, which seem to support the vault of the sky, are called poetically “the pillars of heaven.” ירופפוּ is Pulal, like יחוללוּ, Job 26:5; the signification of violent and quick motion backwards and forwards is secured to the verb רוּף by the Targ. אתרופף = התפּלּץ, Job 9:6, and the Talm. רפרף of churned milk, blinding eyes (comp. הרף עין, the twinkling of the eye, and Arab. rff , fut. i. o. nictare), flapping wings (comp. Arab. rff and rfrf , movere, motitare alas), of wavering thinking. גּערה is the divine command which looses or binds the powers of nature; the astonishment of the supports of heaven is, according to the radical signification of תּמהּ (cogn. שׁמם), to be conceived of as a torpidity which follows the divine impulse, without offering any resistance whatever. That רגע, Job 26:12, is to be understood transitively, not like Job 7:5, intransitively, is proved by the dependent (borrowed) passages, Isa 51:15; Jer 31:35, from which it is also evident that רגע cannot with the lxx be translated κατέπαυσεν. The verb combines in itself the opposite significations of starting up, i.e., entering into an excited state, and of being startled, from which the significations of stilling (Niph., Hiph.), and of standing back or retreat (Arab. rj‛), branch off. The conjecture גּער after the Syriac version (which translates, go‛ar bejamo) is superfluous. רהב, which here also is translated by the lxx τὸ κῆτος, has been discussed already on Job 9:13. It is not meant of the turbulence of the sea, to which מחץ is not appropriate, but of a sea monster, which, like the crocodile and the dragon, are become an emblem of Pharaoh and his power, as Isa 51:9. has applied this primary passage: the writer of the book of Job purposely abstains from such references to the history of Israel. Without doubt, רהב denotes a demoniacal monster, like the demons that shall be destroyed at the end of the world, one of which is called by the Persians akomano, evil thought, another taromaiti, pride. This view is supported by Job 26:13, where one is not at liberty to determine the meaning by Isa 51:9, and to understand נחשׁ בּרח, like תּנּין in that passage, of Egypt. But this dependent passage is an important indication for the correct rendering of חללה. One thing is certain at the outset, that שׁפרה is not perf. Piel = שׁפרה, and for this reason, that the Dagesh which characterizes Piel cannot be omitted from any of the six mutae; the translation of Jerome, spiritus ejus ornavit coelos, and all similar ones, are therefore false. But it is possible to translate: “by His spirit (creative spirit) the heavens are beauty, His hand has formed the flying dragon.” Thus, in the signification to bring forth (as Pro 25:23; Pro 8:24.), חללה is rendered by Rosenm., Arnh., Vaih., Welte, Renan, and others, of whom Vaih. and Renan, however, do not understand Job 26:13 of the creation of the heavens, but of their illumination. By this rendering Job 26:13 and Job 26:13 are severed, as being without connection; in general, however, the course of thought in the description does not favour the reference of the whole of half of Job 26:13 to the creation. Accordingly, חללה is not to be taken as Pilel from חול (ליל), but after Isa 57:9, as Poel from חלל, according to which the idea of Job 26:13 is determined, since both lines of the verse are most closely connected. (בּריח) נחשׁ בּרח is, to wit, the constellation of the Dragon,Ralbag, without any ground for it, understands it of the milky way (העגול החלבי), which, according to Rapoport, Pref. to Slonimski’s Toledoth ha-schamajim (1838), was already known to the Talmud b. Berachoth, 58 b, under the name of נהר דנוד. one of the most straggling constellations, which winds itself between the Greater and Lesser Bears almost half through the polar circle.

“Maximus hic plexu sinuoso elabitur Anguis Circum perque duas in morem fluminis Arctos.” (Virgil, Georg. i. 244f.)

Aratus in Cicero, de nat. Deorum, ii. 42, describes it more graphically, both in general, and in regard to the many stars of different magnitudes which form its body from head to tail. Among the Arabs it is called el - hajje , the serpent, e.g., in Firuzabâdi: the hajje is a constellation between the Lesser Bear (farqadân, the two calves) and the Greater Bear (benât en - na‛sch , the daughters of the bier), “or et - tanı̂n , the dragon, e.g., in one of the authors quoted by Hyde on Ulugh Beigh’s Tables of the Stars, p. 18: the tanîn lies round about the north pole in the form of a long serpent, with many bends and windings.” Thus far the testimony of the old expositors is found in Rosenmüller. The Hebrew name תּלי (the quiver) is perhaps to be distinguished from טלי and דּלי, the Zodiac constellations Aries and Aquarius.Vid., Wissenschaft, Kunst, Judenthum (1838), S. 220f.

It is questionable how בּרח is to be understood. The lxx translates δράκοντα ἀποστάτην in this passage, which is certainly incorrect, since בריח beside נחשׁ may naturally be assumed to be an attributive word referring to the motion or form of the serpent. Accordingly, Isa 27:1, ὄφιν φείγοντα is more correct, where the Syr. version is חויא חרמנא, the fierce serpent, which is devoid of support in the language; in the passage before us the Syr. also has חויא דערק, the fleeing serpent, but this translation does not satisfy the more neuter signification of the adjective. Aquila in Isaiah translates ὄφιν μόχλον, as Jerome translates the same passage serpentem vectem (whereas he translates coluber tortuosus in our passage), as though it were בּריח; Symm. is better, and without doubt a substantially similar thought, ὄφιν συγκλείοντα, the serpent that joins by a bolt, which agrees with the traditional Jewish explanation, for the dragon in Aben-Ezra and Kimchi (in Lex.) - after the example of the learned Babylonian teacher of astronomy, Mar-Samuel (died 257), who says of himself that the paths of the heavens are as familiar to him as the places of NehardeaVid., Grätz, Geschichte der Juden, iv. 324. On Isa 27:1 Kimchi interprets the מבריח differently: he scares (pushes away).  - is called נחשׁ עקלתון, because it is as though it were wounded, and בריח, because it forms a bar (מבריח) from one end of the sky to the other; or as Sabbatai Donolo (about 94), the Italian astronomer,Vid., extracts from his המזלות ספר in Joseph Kara’s Comm. on Job, contributed by S. D. Luzzatto in Kerem Chemed, 7th year, S. 57ff. expresses it: “When God created the two lights (the sun and moon) and the five stars (planets) and the twelve מזלור (the constellations of the Zodiac), He also created the תלי (dragon), to unite these heavenly bodies as by a weaver’s beam (מנור אורגים), and made it stretch itself on the firmament from one end to another as a bar (כבריח), like a wounded serpent furnished with the head and tail.” By this explanation בּריח is either taken directly as בּריח, vectis, in which signification it does not, however, occur elsewhere, or the signification transversus (transversarius) is assigned to the בּריח (= barrı̂ah) with an unchangeable Kametz, - a signification which it might have, for brch Arab. brḥ signifies properly to go through, to go slanting across, of which the meanings to unite slanting and to slip away are only variations. בּריח, notwithstanding, has in the language, so far as it is preserved to us, everywhere the signification fugitivus, and we will also keep to this: the dragon in the heavens is so called, as having the appearance of fleeing and hastening away. But in what sense is it said of God, that He pierces or slays it? In Isa 51:9, where the תנין is the emblem of Egypt (Pharaoh), and Isa 27:1, where נחשׁ בריח is the emblem of Assyria, the empire of the Tigris, the idea of destruction by the sword of Jehovah is clear. The present passage is to be explained according to Job 3:8, where לויתן is only another name for נחש בריח (comp. Isa 27:1). It is the dragon in the heavens which produces the eclipse of the sun, by winding itself round about the sun; and God must continually wound it anew, and thus weaken it, if the sun is to be set free again. That it is God who disperses the clouds of heaven by the breath of His spirit, the representative of which in the elements is the wind, so that the azure becomes visible again; and that it is He who causes the darkening of the sun to cease, so that the earth can again rejoice in the full brightness of that great light, - these two contemplations of the almighty working of God in nature are so expressed by the poet, that he clothes the second in the mythological garb of the popular conception.

In the closing words which now follow, Job concludes his illustrative description: it must indeed, notwithstanding, come infinitely short of the reality.

Job 26:14 14  Behold, these are the edges of His ways,

And how do we hear only a whisper thereof!

But the thunder of His might - who comprehendeth it?

These (אלּה retrospective, as in Job 18:21) are only קצות, the extremest end-points or outlines of the ways of God, which Job has depicted; the wondrous fulness of His might, which extends through the whole creation, transcends human comprehension; it is only שׁמץ דּבר therefrom that becomes audible to us men. שׁמץ (שׁמץ) is translated by Symm. here ψιθύρισμα, Job 4:12, ψιτηυρισμός; the Arab. šamiṣa (to speak very quickly, mutter) confirms this idea of the word; Jerome’s translation, vix. parvam stillam sermonis ejus (comp. Job 4:12, venas, tropical for parts), is doubly erroneous: the rendering of the שׁמץ has the antithesis of רעם against it, and דּבר is not to be understood here otherwise than in ערות דּבר, Deu 23:15; Deu 24:1 : shame of something = something that excites a feeling of shame, a whisper of something = some whisper. The notion “somewhat,” which the old expositors attribute to שׁמץ, lies therefore in דבר. מה is exclamatory in a similar manner as in Psa 89:48 : how we hear (נשׁמע, not נשׁמע) only some whisper thereof (בּו partitive, as e.g., Isa 10:22), i.e., how little therefrom is audible to us, only as the murmur of a word, not loud and distinct, which reaches us!

As in the speech of Bildad the poet makes the opposition of the friends to fade away and cease altogether, as incapable of any further counsel, and hence as conquered, so in Job’s closing speech, which consists of three parts, Job 26:1, Job 27:1, Job 29:1, he shows how Job in every respect, as victor, maintains the field against the friends. The friends have neither been able to loose the knot of Job’s lot of suffering, nor the universal distribution of prosperity and misfortune. Instead of loosing the knot of Job’s lot of suffering, they have cut it, by adding to Job’s heavy affliction the invention of heinous guilt as its ground of explanation; and the knot of the contradictions of human life in general with divine justice they have ignored, in order that they may not be compelled to abandon their dogma, that suffering everywhere necessarily presupposes sin, and sin is everywhere necessarily followed by suffering. Even Job, indeed, is not at present able to solve either one or other of the mysteries; but while the friends’ treatment of these mysteries is untrue, he honours the truth, and keenly perceives that which is mysterious. Then he proves by testimony and an appeal to facts, that the mystery may be acknowledged without therefore being compelled to abandon the fear of God. Job firmly holds to the objective reality and the testimony of his consciousness; in the fear of God he places himself above all those contradictions which are unsolvable by and perplexing to human reason; his faith triumphs over the rationalism of the friends, which is devoid of truth, of justice, and of love.

Job first answers Bildad, Job 26:1. He characterizes his poor reply as what it is: as useless, and not pertinent in regard to the questions before them: it is of no service to him, it does not affect him, and is, moreover, a borrowed weapon. For he also is conscious of and can praise God’s exalted and awe-inspiring majesty. He has already shown this twice, Job 9:4-10; Job 12:13-25, and shows here for the third time: its operation is not confined merely to those creatures that immediately surround God in the heavens; it extends, without being restrained by the sea, even down to the lower world; and as it makes the angels above to tremble, so there it sets the shades in consternation. From the lower world, Job’s contemplation rises to the earth, as a body suspended in space without support; to the clouds above, which contain the upper waters without bursting, and veil the divine throne, of which the sapphire blue of heaven is the reflection; and then he speaks of the sea lying between Sheôl and heaven, which is confined within fixed bounds, at the extreme boundaries of which light passes over into darkness; - he celebrates all this as proof of the creative might of God. Then he describes the sovereign power of God in the realm of His creation, how He shakes the pillars of heaven, rouses the sea, breaks the monster in pieces, lights up the heavens by chasing away the clouds and piercing the serpent, and thus setting free the sun. But all these - thus he closes - are only meagre outlines of the divine rule, only a faint whisper, which is heard by us as coming from the far distance. Who has the comprehension necessary to take in and speak exhaustively of all the wonders of His infinite nature, which extends throughout the whole creation? From such a profound recognition and so glorious a description of the exaltation of God, the infinite distance between God and man is most clearly proved. Job has adequately shown that his whole soul is full of that which Bildad is anxious to teach him; a soul that only requires a slight impulse to make it overflow with such praise of God, as is not wanting in an universal perception of God, nor is it full of wicked devices. When therefore Bildad maintains against Job that no man is righteous before such an exalted God, Job ought indeed to take it as a warning against such unbecoming utterances concerning God as those which have escaped him; but the universal sinfulness of man is no ground of explanation for his sufferings, for there is a righteousness which avails before God; and of this, job, the suffering servant of God, has a consciousness that cannot be shaken.

Job's Reproof of Bildad. (b. c. 1520.)

1 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 thou plentifully declared the thing as it is? 4 To whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee?

One would not have thought that Job, when he was in so much pain and misery, could banter his friend as he does here and make himself merry with the impertinency of his discourse. Bildad thought that he had made a fine speech, that the matter was so weighty, and the language so fine, that he had gained the reputation both of an oracle and of an orator; but Job peevishly enough shows that his performance was not so valuable as he thought it and ridicules him for it. He shows,

I. That there was no great matter to be found in it (v. 3): How hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is? This is spoken ironically, upbraiding Bildad with the good conceit he himself had of what he had said. 1. He thought he had spoken very clearly, had declared the thing as it is. He was very fond (as we are all apt to be) of his own notions, and thought they only were right, and true, and intelligible, and all other notions of the thing were false, mistaken, and confused; whereas, when we speak of the glory of God, we cannot declare the thing as it is, for we see it through a glass darkly, or but by reflection, and shall not see him as he is till we come to heaven. Here we cannot order our speech concerning him, ch. xxxvii. 19. 2. He thought he had spoken very fully, though in few words, that he had plentifully declared it, and, alas! it was but poorly and scantily that he declared it, in comparison with the vast compass and copiousness of the subject.

II. That there was no great use to be made of it. Cui bono—What good hast thou done by all that thou hast said? How hast thou, with all this mighty flourish, helped him that is without power? v. 2. How hast thou, with thy grave dictates, counselled him that has no wisdom? v. 3. Job would convince him, 1. That he had done God no service by it, nor made him in the least beholden to him. It is indeed our duty, and will be our honour, to speak on God's behalf; but we must not think that he needs our service, or is indebted to us for it, nor will he accept it if it come from a spirit of contention and contradiction, and not from a sincere regard to God's glory. 2. That he had done his cause no service by it. He thought his friends were mightily beholden to him for helping them, at a dead lift, to make their part good against Job, when they were quite at a loss, and had no strength, no wisdom. Even weak disputants, when warm, are apt to think truth more beholden to them than it really is. 3. That he had done him no service by it. He pretended to convince, instruct, and comfort, Job; but, alas! what he had said was so little to the purpose that it would not avail to rectify any mistakes, nor to assist him either in bearing his afflictions or in getting good by them: "To whom has thou uttered words? v. 4. Was it to me that thou didst direct thy discourse? And dost thou take me for such a child as to need these instructions? Or dost thou think them proper for one in my condition?" Every thing that is true and good is not suitable and seasonable. To one that was humbled, and broken, and grieved in spirit, as Job was, he ought to have preached of the grace and mercy of God, rather than of his greatness and majesty, to have laid before him the consolations rather than the terrors of the Almighty. Christ knows how to speak what is proper for the weary (Isa. l. 4), and his ministers should learn rightly to divide the word of truth, and not make those sad whom God would not have made sad, as Bildad did; and therefore Job asks him, Whose spirit came from thee? that is, "What troubled soul would ever be revived, and relieved, and brought to itself, by such discourses as these?" Thus are we often disappointed in our expectations from our friends who should comfort us, but the Comforter, who is the Holy Ghost, never mistakes in his operations nor misses of his end.

The Wisdom and Power of God. (b. c. 1520.)

5 Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. 6 Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering. 7 He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. 8 He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them. 9 He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it. 10 He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end. 11 The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof. 12 He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud. 13 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent. 14 Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?

The truth received a great deal of light from the dispute between Job and his friends concerning those points about which they differed; but now they are upon a subject in which they were all agreed, the infinite glory and power of God. How does truth triumph, and how brightly does it shine, when there appears no other strife between the contenders than which shall speak most highly and honourably of God and be most copious in showing forth his praise! It were well if all disputes about matters of religion might end thus, in glorifying God as Lord of all, and our Lord, with one mind and one mouth (Rom. xv. 6); for to that we have all attained, in that we are all agreed.

I. Many illustrious instances are here given of the wisdom and power of God in the creation and preservation of the world.

1. If we look about us, to the earth and waters here below, we shall see striking instances of omnipotence, which we may gather out of these verses. (1.) He hangs the earth upon nothing, v. 7. The vast terraqueous globe neither rests upon any pillars nor hangs upon any axle-tree, and yet, by the almighty power of God, is firmly fixed in its place, poised with its own weight. The art of man could not hang a feather upon nothing, yet the divine wisdom hangs the whole earth so. It is ponderibus librata suis—poised by its own weight, so says the poet; it is upheld by the word of God's power, so says the apostle. What is hung upon nothing may serve us to set our feet on, and bear the weight of our bodies, but it will never serve us to set our hearts on, nor bear the weight of our souls. (2.) He sets bounds to the waters of the sea, and compasses them in (v. 10), that they may not return to cover the earth; and these bounds shall continue unmoved, unshaken, unworn, till the day and night come to an end, when time shall be no more. Herein appears the dominion which Providence has over the raging waters of the sea, and so it is an instance of his power, Jer. v. 22. We see too the care which Providence takes of the poor sinful inhabitants of the earth, who, though obnoxious to his justice and lying at his mercy, are thus preserved from being overwhelmed, as they were once by the waters of a flood, and will continue to be so, because they are reserved unto fire. (3.) He forms dead things under the waters. Rephaim-giants, are formed under the waters, that is, vast creatures, of prodigious bulk, as whales, giant-like creatures, among the innumerable inhabitants of the water. So bishop Patrick. (4.) By mighty storms and tempests he shakes the mountains, which are here called the pillars of heaven (v. 11), and even divides the sea, and smites through its proud waves, v. 12. At the presence of the Lord the sea flies and the mountains skip, Ps. cxiv. 3, 4. See Hab. iii. 6, &c. A storm furrows the waters, and does, as it were, divide them; and then a calm smites through the waves, and lays them flat again. See Ps. lxxxix. 9, 10. Those who think Job lived at, or after, the time of Moses, apply this to the dividing of the Red Sea before the children of Israel, and the drowning of the Egyptians in it. By his understanding he smiteth through Rahab; so the word is, and Rahab is often put for Egypt; as Ps. lxxxvii. 4; Isa. li. 9.

2. If we consider hell beneath, though it is out of our sight, yet we may conceive the instances of God's power there. By hell and destruction (v. 6) we may understand the grave, and those who are buried in it, that they are under the eye of God, though laid out of our sight, which may strengthen our belief of the resurrection of the dead. God knows where to find, and whence to fetch, all the scattered atoms of the consumed body. We may also consider them as referring to the place of the damned, where the separate souls of the wicked are in misery and torment. That is hell and destruction, which are said to be before the Lord (Prov. xv. 11), and here to be naked before him, to which it is probable there is an allusion, Rev. xiv. 10, where sinners are to be tormented in the presence of the holy angels (who attended the Shechinah) and in the presence of the Lamb. And this may give light to v. 5, which some ancient versions read thus (and I think more agreeably to the signification of the word Rephaim): Behold, the giants groan under the waters, and those that dwell with them; and then follows, Hell is naked before him, typified by the drowning of the giants of the old world; so the learned Mr. Joseph Mede understands it, and with it illustrates Prov. xxi. 16, where hell is called the congregation of the dead; and it is the same word which is here used, and which he would there have rendered the congregation of the giants, in allusion to the drowning of the sinners of the old world. And is there any thing in which the majesty of God appears more dreadful than in the eternal ruin of the ungodly and the groans of the inhabitants of the land of darkness? Those that will not with angels fear and worship shall for ever with devils fear and tremble; and God therein will be glorified.

3. If we look up to heaven above, we shall see instances of God's sovereignty and power. (1.) He stretches out the north over the empty place, v. 7. So he did at first, when he stretched out the heavens like a curtain (Ps. civ. 2); and he still continues to keep them stretched out, and will do so till the general conflagration, when they shall be rolled together as a scroll, Rev. vi. 14. He mentions the north because his country (as ours) lay in the northern hemisphere; and the air is the empty place over which it is stretched out. See Ps. lxxxix. 12. What an empty place is this world in comparison with the other! (2.) He keeps the waters that are said to be above the firmament from pouring down upon the earth, as once they did (v. 8): He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, as if they were tied closely in a bag, till there is occasion to use them; and, notwithstanding the vast weight of water so raised and laid up, yet the cloud is not rent under them, for then they would burst and pour out as a spout; but they do, as it were, distil through the cloud, and so come drop by drop, in mercy to the earth, in small rain, or great rain, as he pleases. (3.) He conceals the glory of the upper world, the dazzling lustre of which we poor mortals could not bear (v. 9): He holds back the face of his throne, that light in which he dwells, and spreads a cloud upon it, through which he judges, ch. xxii. 13. God will have us to live by faith, not by sense; for this is agreeable to a state of probation. It were not a fair trial if the face of God's throne were visible now as it will be in the great day. Lest his high throne, above expression bright, With deadly glory should oppress our sight, To break the dazzling force he draws a screen Of sable shades, and spreads his clouds between. Sir R. Blackmore . (4.) The bright ornaments of heaven are the work of his hands (v. 13): By his Spirit, the eternal Spirit that moved upon the face of the waters, the breath of his mouth (Ps. xxxiii. 6), he has garnished the heavens, not only made them, but beautified them, has curiously bespangled them with stars by night and painted them with the light of the sun by day. God, having made man to look upward (Os homini sublime dedit—To man he gave an erect countenance), has therefore garnished the heavens, to invite him to look upward, that, by pleasing his eye with the dazzling light of the sun and the sparkling light of the stars, their number, order, and various magnitudes, which, as so many golden studs, beautify the canopy drawn over our heads, he may be led to admire the great Creator, the Father and fountain of lights, and to say, "If the pavement be so richly inlaid, what must the palace be! If the visible heavens be so glorious, what are those that are out of sight!" From the beauteous garniture of the ante-chamber we may infer the precious furniture of the presence-chamber. If stars be so bright, what are angels! What is meant here by the crooked serpent which his hands have formed is not certain. Some make it part of the garnishing of the heavens, the milky-way, say some; some particular constellation, so called, say others. It is the same word that is used for leviathan (Isa. xxvii. 1), and probably may be meant of the whale or crocodile, in which appears much of the power of the Creator; and why may not Job conclude with that inference, when God himself does so? ch. xli.

II. He concludes, at last, with an awful et cætera (v. 14): Lo, these are parts of his ways, the out-goings of his wisdom and power, the ways in which he walks and by which he makes himself known to the children of men. Here, 1. He acknowledges, with adoration, the discoveries that were made of God. These things which he himself had said, and which Bildad had said, are his ways, and this is heard of him; this is something of God. But, 2. He admires the depth of that which is undiscovered. This that we have said is but part of his ways, a small part. What we know of God is nothing in comparison with what is in God and what God is. After all the discoveries which God has made to us, and all the enquiries we have made after God, still we are much in the dark concerning him, and must conclude, Lo, these are but parts of his ways. Something we hear of him by his works and by his word; but, alas! how little a portion is heard of him? heard by us, heard from us! We know but in part; we prophesy but in part. When we have said all we can, concerning God, we must even do as St. Paul does (Rom. xi. 33); despairing to find the bottom, we must sit down at the brink, and adore the depth: O the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God! It is but a little portion that we hear and know of God in our present state. He is infinite and incomprehensible; our understandings and capacities are weak and shallow, and the full discoveries of the divine glory are reserved for the future state. Even the thunder of his power (that is, his powerful thunder), one of the lowest of his ways here in our own region, we cannot understand. See ch. xxxvii. 4, 5. Much less can we understand the utmost force and extent of his power, the terrible efforts and operations of it, and particularly the power of his anger, Ps. xc. 11. God is great, and we know him not.

CHAP. XXVI Verſe 1. But Job anſwered and ſaid]

BIldad had vexed him with his impertinencies and ſuperfluous diſcourſes of Gods Attributes, as if Job had denied them, or doubted of them, which was far from him, witneſs this Chapter. He therefore rippleth up Bildad with a continued ſmart irony, in the three next following verſes, letting looſe the reines to his juſtly conceived grief and indignation, and invading his adverſary with theſe ſharp queſtions by way of wonderment.

Verſe 2. How haſt thou helped him that is without power?] q.d. Full well haſt thou done it, ſurely. (See a like irony Mark 7.9. and 1 Cor. 4.8, 10) Thou art a very goodly comforter, and with a great deal of Wiſdome thou haſt framed thy diſcourſe to my preſent neceſſity. Thou lookeſt upon me as a poor, forlorn, ſtrengthleſſe, fruitleſſe creature. Thou ſhouldſt therefore have ſet thy ſelf to ſupport me and ſhore me up, by uttering not only commoda, ſed & accommoda, things true and profitable, but things fit and ſutable to my diſtreſſed condition. Thou haſt ſpoken much of the Majeſty and purity of Almighty God (wherein I well accord thee) but theſe are words of terror, ſuch as I can hardly bear. Of ſtrong Phyſick we ſay, Quòd nec puero, nec ſeni, nec imbecillo, ſed robuſto [illegible: 1 letter]conveniat, That it is not for children, or old folks, or weak ones, but for the ſtronger ſort; it is not for every complexion and ſtate. So neither is every diſcourſe for all ſort of people. It is a ſingular skill to be able to time a word, Iſai. 50.4. and to ſet it upon its wheels, Prov. 25.11. to declare unto a man his righteouſneſs, which not one of a thouſand can tell how to do it like him, Job 33.23. to ſeek to find out pleaſant words, ſuch as have both goads and nailes in them, Eccleſ. 12.10, 11. (to prick them on to duty, and to faſten them to the right, as pales are to their railes) to divide the Word of God aright, 2 Tim. 2.25. and to give every one his portion in the due ſeaſon, Matth. 24.45. Not as he in the Emblem, who gave ſtraw to the dog, and a bone to the Aſſe. The good Word of God, is well applyed, is profitable to all things, as is here hinted; ſcil. to help the powerleſſe, to ſave the ſtrengthleſſe, to counſel the ignorant, and to ſet forth things as they are, that there may be no manner of miſtake; but then it muſt be wiſely handled, and the help of Gods holy Spirit muſt be implored, verſe 4. that it may be a Word of reconciliation, a ſavour of life unto life, 2 Cor. 2.16. and 5.19. and whatſoever elſe is ſaid in commendation of it, Pſal. 19.7, 8, 9, 10. Mercer interpreting this verſe and the two following, H[illegible: 1 letter]c de Deo accipio, ſaith he: Theſe things I underſtand concerning God, and it is as if Job had ſaid to Bildad, O how bravely helpeſt thou him that is weak, and pleadeſt for him that is forlorn, as if God wanted thy patronage and defence! No queſtion but thou art a man fit to adviſe him, and to ſet him in a courſe that he cannot otherwiſe hit on: This is a good ſenſe alſo. But what meant Brentius to bring in Job blaſpheming here, as thus, Quem juvas? impotentem? ſalvas brachium invalidi? Cui conſulis? inſipienti? &c. Whom helpeſt thou, O God? the impotent? ſaveſt thou the arm of the ſtrengthleſſe? Whom counſelleſt thou? the ignorant? &c. q.d. Surely thou ſhouldſt do ſo by promiſe, and it would well become thee to do ſo by me: But (alaſſe) thou doſt nothing leſs; and hence it is, that I ſtill ſtick in the bryers, &c. Upon this gloſs wee may write as the Canoniſts do ſometimes, Palea, or, Hoc non credo.

Verſe 3. How haſt thou counſelled him that hath no wiſdom?] q.d. Thou lookeſt upon me as a fool and an Atheiſt; but this thou doſt with far greater folly: for I am not the man thou takeſt me for, but can ſay as much for God as thy ſelf, and more too: and if I were ſuch as thou wouldſt make of me, I might ſo continue for any help I ſhould have by thy counſel. The like hereunto we may ſay to the Papiſts and other Seducers, who pretend to tender our good, to counſel us for the beſt, and to wiſh our ſalvation.

And how haſt thou plentifully declared the thing as it is?] Heb. the Eſſence, or the Reaſon, or the naked truth: q.d. What ado haſt thou kept to tell me, no mere then I knew before? wherein thou haſt fairly loſt thy labour, and miſſed of thy deſign, if ever thou intendeſt to counſel and comfort me. Very wiſely haſt thou done it, I muſt needs ſay for thee.

Verſe 4. To whom haſt thou uttered words?] And as thou thinkeſt, words weighty, and worthy of all acceptation, when in truth there is no ſuch matter: Bubbles of words they are, and big ſwolne fancies, ſed cui bono? What tack is there in them? and to what good purpoſe are they? Melancthon makes mention of a certain good man,Manl. loc. com. 536. who reading Ariſtotles Diſcourſe concerning the Rainbow, conceited thereupon many ſtrange ſpeculations, and wrote to a friend that he had far outdone Ariſtotle in that matter. But coming afterwards to the Univerſity, and diſputing there upon that Subject, he was found to be utterly out in thoſe fancies of his, which indeed were no better then a ſublime dotage.

And whoſe ſpirit came from thee?] Or, Came out of thee? Was it by Gods Spirit that thou ſpakeſt, or thine owne rather? For there is a ſpirit in man, but the Inſpiration or the Almighty giveth them underſtanding, Job 32.8. Job would not have Bildad think and term his diſcourſes to be divine Inſpirations, or ſuch admirable pieces,Scult. Ann. pag. 238 rare ſayings, being but vulgar and ordinary buſineſſes. Muncer the arch Anabaptiſt wrote a Book againſt Luther, wherein he boaſteth much of the Spirit, and of Prophetical Light, accuſing Luther for unſpiritual, and one that ſavoured nothing but carnal things. The Antinomians uſe to call upon their hearers to mark; it may be they ſhall hear that which they have not heard before, whenas the thing they deliver after ſo promiſing a preface, is either falſe, or what is taught ordinarily by others. Some read the words thus, Whoſe Spirit admired thee? for the ſpirit goeth as it were out of it ſelf after thoſe things it admireth. The Hebrewes expound it thus, Whoſe Spirit haſt thou quickned, or confirmed by theſe thy words? Who is the wiſer or the better for them? Quam animam per hac feciſti? What ſoul haſt thou gained to God by thy Doctrine? Confer Gen. 12.5 the ſouls which they had made, that is, brought to the true fear and ſervice of God.

Verſe 5 Dead things are formed form under the waters] Here Jobs tongue, like a ſilver bell, begins to found out the great things of God far better then Bildad had done,Abbots. beginning at the bottom, and declaring that nothing is bred or brought forth, whether animate or inanimate, fiſh or other things in all the vaſt and deep Ocean, but it is by his decree and power. The Septuagint or Vulgar, for dead and lifeleſs things, render Giants, and underſtand thereby Whales, thoſe huge Sea Monſters formed under the waters.

And the Inhabitants thereof] That is, ſaith One, other fiſhes in general, which are in the Seas where thoſe Whales are: For there is that Leviathan, and there are creeping things (that is, ſmaller fiſhes) innumerable. And in particular certaine little fiſhes that are noted alwayes to ſwimme with the Whales, as Guides of their way, that they may not unawares coming into muddy places, be miered there. Ariſtotle calleth them Muſcles; Pliny, Muſticets.

Verſe 6. Hell and deſtruction are before him] Here beginneth a Magnifical and ſtately deſcription of the Majeſty of God; and 1. from his Omniſcience; 2. From his Omnipotence. For the firſt, Hell and deſtruction are before him: Not the grave only, but the neathermoſt hell, that moſt abſtruſe part of the Univerſe, and moſt remote from heaven, Gods Court. Of hel we know nothing ſave only what the Scripture ſaith of it in general, that there is an hell, and that the pains of it are endleſſe, eaſeleſſe, and remedileſſe, &c. but God only knoweth who are in hell, and who is yet to be hereafter hurled into it. It is the Saints happineſſe that to them there is no ſuch condemnation. Rom. 8.1. that over them this ſecond death hath no power, Rev. 20.6. That if hell had already ſwallowed them up (as they ſometimes when deſerted feel themſelves to be in the very ſuburbs of it) it could no better hold them, then the whales ſtomack could do Jonas. Luke 22.31. Satan hath deſired to have th[illegible: 1 letter]e; ſcil, to hell, but that he ſhall never have; for they are the Redeemed of the Lord, ſaved from the wrath to come, and may triumphingly ſing, Death, where a thy ſting? Hell, where's thy victory? &c.

And deſtruction hath no covering] that is, Hell the place of deſtruction, the Palace of King Abaddon, (ſo the Divel is called, Rev. 9.11) and ſo hell is called in this Text, becauſe thereinto are thruſt all that are deſtined to deſtruction, all the brats of fathomleſſe perdition, ſuch as was Judas the Traytor, who went to his place, and all wicked ones, who ſhall ſurely be turned into hel, with all thoſe that forget God. Pſal. 9 17. This place is not covered, ſaith Ferus here, but open to God, for whomſoever he will caſt thereinto.

Verſe 7. He ſtretcheth out he North ever the empty place] Heb. Over Toh[illegible: 1 letter]. Ariſtotle ſaith, that beyond the moveable heavens, there is neither body, nor time, nor place,De cal[illegible: 1 letter] text. 99 nor vacuum. But on this ſide of the heaven there are bodies, time, place, and as it may ſeem to ſome, an empty place: for ſo the Air is here called, over which, and not over any ſolid matter, for a foundation, God hath ſpread and ſtretched forth the heavens which are here called the North, becauſe they are moved about the North-Pole, and beſides the North is held the upper part of the world, according to that of Virgil, Mundus ut ad Scythiam Riphaeaſque arduus arces Conſurgit; premitur Libya dovexus ad anſtres. Hènce it is here put for the whole heaven, which held up by the Word of Gods power, without any other props, leaneth upon the liquid Aire, the Aire upon the earth, and the earth upon nothing.

And hangeth the earth upon nothing.] Terra pilae fimilis, nullo fulcimine nixa, Aere ſublato tam grave pendet onus.Ovid. 6. Faſtor. The earth hangs in the midſt of heaven, like Architas or Archimedes his Pigeon, equally poiſed with his own weight. Of this great wonder,This is the very finger of God Ariſtotle himſelf admireth it. De Cal. l. 2. c. 13 the Philoſophers after much ſtudy, can give no good reaſon, becauſe ignorant of this, that God hath appoined it ſo to be, even from the firſt Creation, Pſal. 104.5. Heb. 1.2. The Poets fable, that Atlas beareth up heaven with his ſhoulders: but we confeſſe the true Atlas; viz. the Lord our God, who by his Word alone beareth up heaven and earth: And it is here fitly alledged as an Argument of his Almightineſſe. The greatneſs of this work of God, appeareth hereby, ſaith Merlin, that men cannot ſpread aloft the thinneſt curtaine, abſque fulcris, without ſome ſolid thing to uphold it.

Verſe 8. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds] Heb. Clouds, which yet have their name from thickneſſe, becauſe they ariſe from Aire condenſed. In theſe God bottleth up the rain, and there keepeth it in by main ſtrength (as the word ſignifieth) though thoſe veſſels are as thin, and thinner then the liquor that is contained in them. This duly weighed, were enough to convince an Atheiſt, eſpecially if he conſider how.

The cloud is not rent under them] And ſo cauſeth a cataclyſme to drown the earth, as ſometimes at ſea eſpecially, great hurt is done this way among ſhips, by a ſpout, as Mariners call it, the Greeks [non-Latin text not transcribed], and the Dutch Ein Wolckenbruch, or Heavenbreach; viz. when clouds cleave aſunder, and diſcharge themſelves all at once, for a great miſchief to mankind. Now that God thus binds up theſe heavy vapours, and keeps them in the clouds as a ſtrong man in a Cobweb, till brought by the winds whitherſoever he pleaſeth to appoint them, they drop upon the earth buy little and little, to make it fruitful; this is a wonderful work of God, and ſhould bring us to the knowledge of his Power, Wiſdom and Goodneſſe, Rom. 1.19, 20. ſee Job. 38.37. Jer. 5.22.

Verſe 9 He holdeth back the face of his Throne] i.e. Of heaven, Iſai. 66.1. which he eftſoons overcloudeth and muffleth up or masketh, with a vail: myſtically, by the Face of his Throne, we may underſtand the knowledg of his glory: for this is held from us ſo in this world, that we cannot perfectly know him as he is, but muſt content our ſelves with a learned ignorance, 1. Joh. 3.3. Here darkneſs is, and will be under his feet, Pſal. 18.9.

And ſpreadeth his cloud upon it] It is fitly called, his cloud, becauſe 1. It is his handy-work, Pſal. 18.11. Gen. 9.14. Job 28.26, 27. and 37.15, 16. and 38.9. Pſa. 104.5. His Sun draweth up thoſe vapours, which being thickned in the middle Region of the aire, by the cold encompaſſing and driving them together, become a cloud. 2 He uſed it of old as a ſign of his glorious Power, and gracious preſence with his people, Exod. 13.21. and 16.10. 2 Chron. 5.13, 14. And as a figure of Chriſts guiding and protecting his Church through the wilderneſſe of this world, Iſai. 4.5, 6. 3. He ſtill rideth in ſtate upon the clouds, Iſai. 19.1. Chriſt was by a cloud coached up to heaven, Act. 1.9. and ſhall come in like manner, Apoc. 1.7. and 10.1. We alſo ſhall then be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the Aire, and ſo ſhall we ever be with the Lord, 1 Theſſal. 4.17. —O mora! Chriſte veni.

Verſe 10.Trem. He hath compaſſed the waters with bounds] Decreto circinavit ſuperficiem aquarum: He hath as it were with a pair of Compaſſes drawne a circle about the ſea, that it may not paſſe to drown the earth. Confer chap. 38.8, 10, 11. Pſal. 33.7. and 89.10. and 104 9. Prov. 8.29. So he drew a circle round about the earth, Prov. 8.27. doing all with infinite Wiſdome, Pondere, menſura numero, &c. He founded the earth not upon ſolid Rocks, but fluid waters. And that it floteth not upon them, nor is ſhaken with them (as oft as there is a tempeſt in the Ocean that begirteth it) neither yet is overflowed by them, this is the wonderful-work of God. Ariſtotle in his Book De Mirabil[illegible: 1 letter]bus, admireth it, and acknowledgeth Gods providence, which elſewhere he denyeth. Terminum aquis preſcripſit, ſaith Job here. And this either he had from Moſes. Gen. 1.10. or, if he lived before Moſes, as it is moſt likely he did; he had it, as he had many other things, by tradition from the Fathers. Saylers tell us, that as they draw nigh to the ſhore, when they enter into a haven, they run as it were down hill, And yet men are ſaid to go down (not up) to the ſea in ſhips, Pſal. 107.23. See a reaſon hereof in this Text, and Pſal: 104.96. An vero non ſtupendum eſt? ſaith Lavater. But is it not a wonderful thing, that ſo fierce an Element, ſo huge a maſſe of waters, toſſed by the winds, ſhould be bounded and bridled by ſands, confined and kept within their preſcribed place and ſhore? Eſpecially if the water be (as ſome affirm) ten times bigger then the earth, the air then the water, the fire then the air.

Ʋntil the day and night come to an end] Heb. Until the conſummation of light with darkneſſe; that is, till time ſhall be no more, till the end of the world, when all things ſhal be let looſe to devaſtation, and the ſea ſhall overflow the Land again, as that then it ſhall, ſome would gather from this Text.

Verſe 11. The Pillars of heaven tremble] i.e. the Angels, ſay ſome, who tremble out of conſcience of their own comparative imperfections. The beſt of Saints on earth, ſay others (according to Gal. 2.9. Rev. 3.12. Prov. 9.1, 2.) who tremble at Gods Word, Iſai. 66.2. and have many concuſſions by afflictions. But better underſtand the Firmament of heaven, Hag. 26, 7. Matth. 24.29. The Powers of heaven ſhall be ſhaken, they ſhall quake with the loud check of his Thunder claps. Or the high and mighty mountaines whereon the heavens ſeeme to reſt, as on ſo many pillars, ſhaken by Earth-quakes, and ſometimes with great aſtoniſhment removed out of their places.

And are aſtoniſhed at his reproof] As all the beaſts of the field are at the roaring of the Lion;Lavat. Ʋt quis a gravi & magnae pot[illegible: 1 letter]ſtat[illegible: 1 letter] vire. objurgatus, iremit & [illegible: 2 letters]hementer ſolicitus eſt, as a ſlave chidden by a Prince trembleth, and is aghaſt.

Verſe 12. He divideth the ſea with his power] i.e. With his ſtrong winds cauſing tempeſts, ſee the like Iſai. 51.15. ſo that it lyeth as it were in ridges, the top of one wave far from another, Jer. 31.35. That was a ſtrange thing that is reported to have fallen out at London the laſt week. On Munday Aug. 14, 1654.Sever. Proceed. of State affirm p. 4033. by reaſon of the great winds the Tide was ſo low in the Thames. that boyes waded over it from the one ſide to the other, the old Watermen affirming, they never ſaw it ſo before.

And by his underſtanding he ſmiteth through the proud] Heb. Pride, or Rahab, which is oft put for Egypt; as Pſal. 87.4. and 89.10. Iſai. 51.9. whence ſome would have Pharaoh meant: others the Divel: others, the Whale daſhing againſt a Rock, or driven to ſhore where he is taken: others, the proud waves of the ſea, He hath the ſea in as great awe as a Giant hath a Pigmee. as chap 38.11. diſabled by God to ſtir more; as a man mortally wounded, is to fight longer. An inſtance hereof we have in the hiſtory of Jonas, and another in the Goſpel, Mat. 8. and 14. As God is powerful enough to raiſe ſtormes, ſo he is wiſe enough to lay them again, Pſal. 107.25, 29.

Verſe 13. By his Spirit he hath garniſhed the heavens] Spiritu ejus coeli ſunt ipſa pul[illegible: 3 letters]cudo. By his Spirit the heavens are beauty it ſelf, ſo Vatablus. rendreth it. That Three [illegible: 2 letters] One, and One in Three, wrought in the Creation, ſee Pſal. 33.6.Adoravit, decoravit, pulchrcfecit. Hins [non-Latin text not transcribed]. By the Word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the hoſte of them by the breath of his mouth Here Jehovah, his Word and his Spirit, are noted to be the Maker of the world, ſo Gen. 1. The Heathens had ſome blind notions hereof, as appeareth by Plutark, who reporteth that in Thebe a Town of Egypt, they worſhipped a God whom they acknowledged to be immortal; but how painted they him?Plut. de Ifid. & Ofirid. Var. dere ruſt. lib. 2. c. 1. In the likeneſſe of a man blowing an egg out of his mouth; to ſignifie, that he made the round world by the Spirit of his mouth. Upon the heavens eſpecially, God hath beſtowed a great deal of skill and workmanſhip, as appeareth, Heb. 11 10. and Pſal. 8.3. where heaven is called, The work of Gods fingers; a curious divine work: a Metaphor from them that make Tapeſtry. Garniſhed it is with Stars, as a Palace is with ſtately Pictures, beſides the inward beauty which is unconceivable. There is ſomething of a Saphir in the Hebrew word here rendred Garniſhed, and Revel. 21. ſearch is made through all. the bowels of the earth to find out all the precious Treaſures that could be had. Gold, Pearles, and precious Stones of all ſorts, and what can theſe ſerve to? only to ſhadow out the glory of the walls of the new Jeruſalem, and the gates and to pave the ſtreets of the City? See alſo Iſai. 54.11, 12.

His hand [illegible: 1 word] formed the crooked Serpent] Enixe eſt, peperit, hath [illegible: 2 letters]ough[illegible: 1 letter] forth as by birth, hath formed the moſt deformed and dread[illegible: 3 letters]. Creature in the earth Or thoſe flaming Dragons flying in the Aire (Meteors [illegible: 1 letter] mean;) Or the Conſtellation in heaven called the Dragon, betwixt the two Beares, and not far from the North-Pole (Eſt hos ſane maximum, & maxime conſpicuum in coelo fidus, &c.) Or laſtly, thoſe Sea-Dragons the Whales, which Mercer thinketh moſt likely to be here meant; and compareth Iſai. 27.1. Pſal. 104.26, Job. 40.20. Neither need we wonder, ſaith he, that the beginning of the verſe is of heaven, and the end of the ſea: for Job would ſhew and ſet forth two admirable works of God, in two extremes of the world viz. in heaven above, and in the waters under the earth. his Power and Wiſdome ſhineth every where in the Creatures, neither can a [illegible: 1 word] eaſily ſook beſides a miracle. Job therefore inſiſteth not long upon particulars, but as one loſt in the labyrinth of Admiration at ſo great things, he [illegible: 1 word] ſhuts up

Verſe 14. Lo, theſe are parts of his wayes] Or rather, Particles of his Works: Extrema ſunt viarum ejus ſo the Tigu[illegible: 2 letters]es tranſlate it: theſe are the ends, extremities or utmoſt parts of them, the [non-Latin text not transcribed], as Saint Paul calleth it, that which may be known of God, par [illegible: 1 word] treaturaru[illegible: 1 letter], Rom. 1.19, 20 as the Sun may bee ſeen in the water after a ſoft, but in ro[illegible: 2 letters], as the Schooles ſpeak, in the Cirele where in it runs, we are not able to behold him ſo ſomething of God may be ſeen in his Works in his Word, his back parts we may ſee and live, as Moſes Exod. 33. Quam exigultatem. Piſcat. Parva[illegible: 2 letters] ſtillam Vulg. [non-Latin text not transcribed] a. Sept. Paucu[illegible: 2 letters] de p[illegible: 1 letter]nco, puſillum & parum. admilum Merc. His truth in the Temple, as [illegible: 1 span]

But how little a portion is heard of him?] Heb. What a [illegible: 1 word], or ſh[illegible: 2 letters] of a word or thing, is heard of him? As when one heareth the latter end only of a [illegible: 1 word] that which the eccho reſoundeth, and no more: it is [illegible: 1 word] a [illegible: 1 span] cannot know, we are as narrow mouthed veſſels: Ye are not able to [illegible: 1 word] what I have to ſay to you, ſaith Chriſt to his Apoſtles, John 16.12. And to the people h[illegible: 1 letter] ſp[illegible: 1 letter]ke as they were able to hear, Mark 4.33. and not as he was able to have ſpoken. Lequimur de Deo non quantum debemus, ſed quantum poſſumus. ſaith Gratian the Emperor, We ſpeak of God,I[illegible: 1 letter] Epiſt ad Ambroſ. not ſo much as we ſhould, but ſo much as we can. We prophecy but in part, and what wonder, ſith we know but in part, 1 Cor. 13. In humane things, the wiſeſt men have profeſſed, that the greateſt part of what they knew, was the leaſt of that they knew not: how much more in things divine? By no expreſſions do we ſo fully ſet forth God, ſaith Scaliger, as by thoſe which ſet forth our ignorance. Our ſafeſt Eloquence concerning God, is our ſilence, ſaith learned Hooker.

But the thunder of his power, who can underſtand?] Heb. Of his powers; that is, his powerful thunder: which whilſt Alladius King of the Latines would by certain Engines (that he had made him) imitate, he juſtly periſhed by a Thunderbolt from heaven, his houſe alſo, wherein he had attempted ſo to do, was conſumed with fire from heaven, as Dionyſ. Halicarn. and Oroſius teſtifie. Some by thunder here underſtand Gods aſtoniſhing preſence and utterance of himſelf. Others, his force and grandeur, his notable and thundering exploits, which ſhine all the world over, and to which if all that have been inſtanced ſhall be compared, they will appear to be but as a few heat drops to a great ſhowre of raine. He that ſhall go about co declare them,Lucret. ſhall be forced to ſay with the Poet, Clandicat ingenium, delirat linguaque, menſque.