The Book of Job
Job 26
Chapter XXVI · Vol. II, pp. 967–968
1 Job, reproving the uncharitable spirit of Bildad, 5 acknowledgeth the power of God to be infinite and unsearchable.
1 But Job answered and said,
2 How hast thou ahelped him that is without power?1 how savest thou the arm that hath no strength?
a Pr.25.11. Ec.12.10,11. ch.4.3,4. Is.40.14.
1 This is no irony, but a solemn question—a question that strongly denies the thing after which it inquires.—C.
3 How hast bthou counselled him that hath no wisdom? and chow hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is?
b ch.11.2,3;13.2,4;16.2,3.
c Ac.20.20. 1 Co.2.4. 2 Ti.3.15-17.
6 hHell3 is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.
A.M. cir. 2484. B.C. cir. 1520.
h Pr.15.11. Ps.139.8,11. He.4.13.
3 Sheol, the invisible world of the dead, covered from our eyes, is naked before him.—C.
13 By qhis Spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed rthe crooked serpent.
r Is.27.1. Ps.74.13,14.
14 Lo, these are parts of his ways: but hows little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?2
s 1 Co.13.9-12; 2.9. ch.11.7;40.9. Jn.16.12. Ps.29.3-9.
2 M. Good renders it, 'And the mere whisper we can hear of him! but the thunder' (the full heavenly voice) 'of his power who can understand?'—C.
Notes
To this Job, in a derisive manner, answered, 2, 3. To what purpose serve these hints, either to support the cause of the Almighty, or to direct him in his government of the world, or to comfort a dispirited and instruct an ignorant soul? Who can be a whit bettered by aught you have so confidently uttered, that is quite foreign to the point in hand? 4. Do you imagine that I need to be instructed in these points? or that you, as one inspired of God, can by such hints revive and refresh my spirit? 5. I myself can discourse to far better purpose concerning God. While terrible monsters, minerals, pearl, coral, and the like, are formed in the bottom of the sea or heart of the earth, and fishes and animals on the surface of it, the departed ghosts tremble and travail in pain in the deep and dark regions of misery. 6. The whole state of the dead, whether of soul or body, is perfectly obvious to God's all-seeing eye; and all the depths and miseries of hell are perpetually visible to him. 7. He spreads the heavens over the apparently empty regions of air; and so balances the earth by his power, that it hangs like a ball in the air supported by nothing. 8. He binds up large collections of water in the clouds (by which he covers his glory, and on which he rides in majesty) as in firm bags, till he please to make them distil in dew, rain, snow, or hail. 9. He conceals his own glorious abodes; he firmly fixes the visible heavens, and spreads his veiling collection of clouds over them, to conceal his glory and restrain the scorching beams of the sun. 10. Everywhere, while the revolutions of day and night continue, he has fixed the shores and boundaries of the sea, that, rage as it will, it cannot exceed them. 11. The lofty mountains, which seem the supporting pillars of heaven, tremble and shake when he corrects men by earthquakes, thunders, or tempests. 12. By his power he tosses the sea into a terrible fury, and as it were divides it into ridges and mountainous billows; and by his wise government he again calms it at pleasure, and mortally wounds the crocodiles and other proud monsters which inhabit it. 13. By the influence of his Holy Spirit he at first adorned the heavens by his power; he formed the Milky Way and all their winding constellations. By his wind he clears up the sky; and his almighty power strikes prostrate the most direful and destructive monsters of sea or land. 14. Nay, behold, these are but the outlines and a very small parcel of his works. It is but very little that we either hear or know concerning him; but the thunder-like declarations of his prevailing, his infinite excellency, who can comprehend?
Ver. 5. [The mighty dead (the giants of the antediluvian world, Ge. 6. 4) are laid open from below, and the (living) inhabitants thereof 'are naked before God.' C.——Job's object in this sublime speech is to show that his view of the power, wisdom, and goodness of God is far more comprehensive than that of Bildad. God's dominion is not confined to the heavens, it extends to the grave, to the world of spirits:—in universal nature, in fact, Jehovah reigns supreme. P.]
Ver. 13. ['By his Spirit (his creative, omnipotent Spirit) the heavens are beautiful;' i.e. it was the Spirit's work which made them so. P.——The crooked serpent. The zodiac, whose constellations mark the apparent annual place of the sun in the heavens. C.——Others think reference is made either to the constellation of the Dragon, which lies between the Greater and Lesser Bears, and winds round a great part of the Polar Circle; others, again, suppose the Milky Way is meant. P.]
Reflections.—Sometimes self-conceited persons may be ridiculed out of their notions when reasoning is not effectual: and in disputes much is ordinarily said that is not to the present purpose; and not the edification of their neighbour, but victory over him, is the great aim of the disputants. Little is it remembered, that not the displays of God's highness, but of his grace in Christ, can give ease to a wounded spirit. But it is happy when disputes end in men's glorifying God with one mind and one mouth. The perfections of the Deity are plainly marked in all his works of nature and grace; and all things must be well done where God himself is the sole or principal agent. Let me therefore in all behold his hand, his face. If he conceal the glories of his throne from this lower world, let me walk by faith, not by sight. If he has garnished the heavens, let me set my affections on things above and not on things of the earth. If his perfections are unsearchable, let me always admire and adore him.