1Job reproveth Bildad; 5but acknowledgeth God's power and wisdom to be infinite and unsearchable.
1BUT Job answered and said,
2How hast 1thou helped 2him that is 3without power? 4how savest thou the arm that hath no strength?
1 Namely, thou Bildad.
2 That is, me. Also in the sequel.
3 Namely, not only by reason of his disease and bodily pains, but also in regard of the perplexity and trouble of his mind.
4 These questions do strongly deny. As if he had said, that Bildad has not helped him nor saved at all, for, instead of comforting him with God’s lovingkindness, he had sought to affright him with God’s dreadful majesty.
3How hast thou 5counselled 6him that hath no wisdom? and how hast thou 7plentifully declared 8the thing as it is?
5 Namely, in order that he may be wiser in his understanding, more prudent in speaking, more patient in suffering, more constant in hoping.
6 He speaks contemptibly of himself, because his friends held him but for a silly, unadvised babbler. See Job 11:2, 3.
7 Hebr. in multitude.
8 See of the signification of the Hebrew word Job 5 on verse 12. Job despised and ridiculed here what Bildad had propounded, not in regard of the doctrine itself, but because of the wrongful application thereof.
4To whom hast thou uttered 9words? and 10whose spirit came from thee?
9 That is, the previous arguments used? He wants to say: Are not these things known to me as well as to yourself? Compare Job 12:3, 4; 13:2.
10 That is, by whose spirit has this been spoken? It is not an extraordinary inspiration of God’s Spirit; for, you have not propounded anything, but common things, which are known to everyone. It is therefore by the instigation of your own spirit, which, through lack of understanding, makes wrongful appropriations and decisions. See Job 32:8.
511Dead 12things are 13formed 14from under the waters, 15and the inhabitants thereof.
11 After Job had rejected Bildad’s objection, he enlarges on the description of the perfection of God’s works and attributes, of which Bildad had treated, to show that the things, related by him, were sufficiently known to himself, and consequently that he might have spared his account as unnecessary and unseasonable, and nothing to the matter of their dispute.
12 Understand dead persons. The word rephaim is thus often taken in Holy Scriptures. See Psalm 88:10; Prov. 2:18; 9:18; Isa. 14:9; 26:14. Others understand the dead things, which are formed by God within the earth and waters, as gold, silver, precious stones, copper, iron, steel, etc. Some understand the giants, as the Hebrew word signifies them also, Deut. 2:20; 3:13.
13 That is, regenerated or made alive again, through the resurrection, which is likewise called a regeneration Mat. 19:28. The Hebrew word is taken for to be born Psalm 51:5; Prov. 8:24, 25.
14 That is, out of the earth, which is the nethermost or lowest element.
15 Understand of the waters, that is, the dead bodies, which lie in the sea or other waters. See Rev. 20:13. Therefore some take particle and, for, that is.
616Hell is nakeda17before him, and 18destruction hath no covering.
16 Understand all manner of deep, hidden and secret places, and also hell itself, to which the eye of man cannot reach. Thus the word sheol is taken Psalm 139:8. See likewise Gen. 37 on verse 35.
a Psalm 139:8, 11; Prov. 15:11; Heb. 4:13.
17 That is, before God, Who discerns and governs all things by His Providence.
18 Understand the places wherein all things are destroyed and do perish, and among those the place of the damned also. Compare Prov. 15:11; 27:20.
719Heb stretcheth out 20the north over 21the empty place, and hangeth the earth 22upon nothing.
19 Namely, God.
b Psalm 104:2.
20 That is, the heaven; as a part for the whole, in regard that Job and his friends inhabited the land under the North-part, the circumference of heaven being equally divided by the Equinoctial into the North and South-parts.
21 Understand the entire space which is between heaven and earth.
22 Insomuch that the earth has no support but God’s almighty power. See Psalm 24 on verse 2; 104:5; 136:6.
823He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud 24is not rent 25under them.
23 God makes that clouds to rise upwards out of the damps and vapors of the earth, and gathers them together in the air by His Providence in a manner that they seem to be bound in sacks. Compare Gen. 2:6; 2 Sam. 22:12 and the annotations.
24 That is, does not dissolve or burst, falling entirely on the earth, notwithstanding it consists altogether of water, which naturally runs or falls downward, but drops and distils only here and there, when and according as it pleases the Lord.
25 That is, in the nethermost part of the waters, which are shut up in the clouds as in a sack.
9Hec holdeth back 26the face of his 27throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it.
c Job 9:8; Psalm 104:2, 3.
26 Understand the middle region of the air. This God made fast and firm to serve Him as a workplace from which He imparts His benefits to us; and which He sprinkles with clouds as ornaments.
27 That is, of the heavens, or of the air; of which three heavens is mentioned in the annotation Gen. 2 on verse 1.
10Hed hath compassed the waters with 28bounds, 29untile the day and night come to an end.
d Job 38:8; Psalm 33:7; 104:9; Jer. 5:22.
28 An established embankment round about, over which the waters of the sea cannot go to overwhelm and to cover the dry land. See the following Scripture places, Gen. 1:9; Job 38:18; Psalm 33:7; 104:9; Prov. 8:29; Jer. 5:22.
29 That is, so long as light and darkness shall be in the world; or, so long as the world shall stand or endure.
e Gen. 1:9; Job 38:8; Psalm 33:7; 104:9; Prov. 8:29; Jer. 5:22.
1130The pillars of heaven tremble and are 31astonished at his reproof.
30 Compare 2 Sam. 22:8; Psalm 18:7. Understand by the pillars of heaven the powers thereof, Luke 21:26, which are the nature, properties and operations of the heavens, which seem to be shaken and put out of their places, not only in time of extraordinary lightnings, thunderclaps, winds, showers, storms and tempests, etc., but also by means of many signs in or about the sun, moon, stars, comets and meteors in the heaven, etc.
31 Hebr. are amazed.
12He 32dividethf the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through 33the proud.
32 When He raises severe weather, storms and tempest over the sea, which make the waves and billows to rise in such a manner that the sea seems to split and be full of clefts between the surges, Psalm 107:25, 26.
f Isa. 51:15.
33 That is, her tempestuous and violent waves, Psalm 104:7; 107:29. Hebr. Rahab, which some retain in the text, understanding thereby Egypt, so called by reason of the haughtiness and insolence of the Egyptians, Psalm 89:10; Isa. 51:9.
13Byg his spirit he 34hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed 35the crooked serpent.
g Psalm 33:6.
34 Other, the heaven hath beauty.
35 Hereby may be understood a certain great serpent, either in the sea or on the land. She is described both here, and Isa. 27:1 with an epithet, signifying fugitive, flying or fleeting, scooting away. Some would have it understood of the heavenly sign or constellation called the serpent.
14Lo, 36these are 37parts of his ways: but how 38little a portion is heard of him? but 39the thunder of his power who can understand?
36 These things which thus far we have related of God’s works and attributes.
37 Extreme small particles and little threads, as it were, of the very great and most widely dispersed information, which there is of the ordinary operations of His wonderful power and government.
38 That is, how little is it that we know and comprehend the works of God. What are they?
39 That is, His very great and dreadful power.