The three following verses describe the providential dealings of the Almighty with the wicked, who are entirely in His hands, and at His disposal in every step they take. The strong, whose trust in their own strength God might smite down by His Almighty power, He preserves alive, even in critical positions; and he rises to health and vigour at a moment when he despaired of life. God sustains him and raises him up again, His eyes are on his ways, and though he be exalted for a brief period, he soon sinks down, and is seen no more for ever. Delitzsch. Cut off as the tops of the ears of corn; that is, rudely and hurriedly; the allusion being to a practice still common among marauding Bedouins, who, not caring to load themselves unnecessarily with the straw, cut off merely the ripe ears of the wheat or barley, and make their escape. Assured of the truth of his facts, Job appeals confidently to the friends, challenging them to disprove his statements. Let us review these facts shortly, and follow the line of argument. In chap. xxiii. we found Job musing over the mystery of his own sufferings, undeserved as he believed them to be. In the next, he dilates on a subject equally mysterious to him, the immunity from adversity and undoubted prosperity, of the really wicked. All that he propounds is laid down in a calm and courteous manner, differing widely from the rude sentences of Eliphaz; in fact, as he has undoubtedly the better of the argument, he can afford to be calm and collected. As all that he says in his defence is wholly discredited by the friends, who denounce his hypocrisy and obstinacy, he can only withdraw himself from them, and appeal to the judgment of God, in full confidence of being able to assert his innocence; and secure a triumphant acquittal. But he cannot reach the judgment-seat, he fails to find the Judge, and because his search is unsuccessful, he fancies that his Judge is avoiding him, and intentionally hiding himself. Hence the piteous exclamations of chap. xxiii.; he cannot understand why he, fully conscious of his own innocence, should be so relentlessly persecuted, while the notoriously ungodly not only escape punishment, but actually enjoy a large amount of worldly prosperity. In proof of his position, he produces a large amount of incontrovertible evidence, which he fearlessly calls upon the friends to disprove; but this, Bildad, who answers next, and but shortly, does not attempt to do. CHAPTER XXV. I Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, 3 Is there any number of his armies? 4 How then can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean [that is] born of a woman? 5 Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; Yea, the stars are not pure in his sight: 6 How much less man, [that is] a worm? And the son of man, [which is] a worm? Dominion and fear [are] with him; if a sovereign claims and holds universal sway, he must be universally feared, or respected; with regard to Jehovah, this was pre-eminently true, and no one felt the full force of this more than Job. He maketh peace in his high places; that is, he dispenses on high that rigid justice which ensures peace. Is there any number of his armies? Such a question seems superfluous, referring as it does to the Almighty, whose great title, Jehovah Sabaoth, Lord of Hosts, implies the vast magnitude of the forces at his disposal; a vast army thus described by Calmet, "Whether we understand the host of heaven, or the angels and ministers of the Lord; or the stars and planets, which, army-like, perform the will of God; or lastly, the people of the Lord, both of the old and new covenant, which is truly a great army of which GOD is the General and Commander." The myriads ranging under the banners of Jehovah Sabaoth, exceed numeration, and therefore pass our finite comprehension. See Ps. lxviii. 17; Dan. vii. 10; Matt. xxvi. 53; Rev. v. II. Upon whom doth not his light arise? If Jehovah's sway is universal, then the light of His glory must be universally apparent; or if He dispenses justice in His high places, then "He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and the good." Mat. v. 45. In verse 4 Bildad simply repeats what Eliphaz had previously declared in xv. 14-16. Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not. The literal meaning of the Hebrew is, the moon he hath not pitched its tent, i.e. has not made it stationary, and we have thus a distinct reference to its lunations and daily movements round the earth. "If then the lunar light, that beauteous and ever idolized object, thus changeth, and decreaseth in or upon her perfection, or rather, till it disappears, and the stars be not pure in his sight, how much less shall man be perfect and sinless?" Parkhurst's Heb. Lex. How much less man, [that is] a worm? Bildad's deduction is clearly wrong; in ver. 3 he implies that the light of heaven shines on all, and equally illuminates and invigorates all orders of creation; therefore there is no reason that man, a unit thereof, though he be as humble, and perhaps as repulsive as a worm, should not receive his share of the Divine favour and protection. In his short reply Bildad does not attempt to refute any of Job's facts, but contents himself with enunciating a few truisms reflecting upon Job's repeated declarations of innocence, and implying that a creature so vile, and therefore so heavily punished, need not trouble himself with appeals to a Being infinitely pure and holy. Bildad is, therefore, virtually silenced, and appears no more in the controversy. CHAPTER XXVI. I 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? Job replies at once, and personally addresses Bildad, ironically admiring the assistance rendered by his short and futile address to the cause of his friends, and the little comfort it brought to Job himself; weak, as he was believed to be, it brought him no strength; ignorant though they declared him, it brought him no enlightenment of the mystery which oppressed him so heavily. Whose spirit came from thee? Whose inspiration? This is a satirical allusion to the quotation from Eliphaz's speech in xxv. 4. So little originality had Bildad, that he was indebted to another for his ideas! Somewhat similar, perhaps, was the question addressed by Zedekiah to Micaiah, in 1 Ki. xxii. 24, “Which way went the Spirít of the Lord from me to speak unto thee?" I 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. Job commences a splendid series of illustrations of Divine power, far surpassing the meagre platitudes of Bildad; but at the very outset, we meet a very obscure verse, the right meaning of which has evidently not been caught by our translators. The Hebrew word Rephaim, here translated "dead things,” has a threefold signification; by it are intended: I. The old Canaanitish giants so frequently alluded to in 2. The. disembodied spirits of the dead generally; Ps. 3. The disembodied spirits of the apostate dead; Prov. ii. 18; ix. 18; xxi. 16. Coleman believes that the latter are here alluded to, and translates: Apostate spirits are tormented, Beneath the waters and their inhabitants. The disembodied spirits of these Rephaim, thus imprisoned beneath the waters, are supposed by some to be alluded to in that difficult verse 1 Pet. iii. 19 under the term "spirits in prison," and they are represented as groaning (for so should the word translated "formed" be rendered) in their awful prisonhouse, "reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day." Jude 6. Hell [is] naked before him; Sheôl, or Hades, elsewhere rendered the grave, cannot escape His scrutiny, how can it, when "all things are naked and opened" before His eyes? Heb. iv. 13. For destruction, Delitzsch reads "abyss," which is more in keeping with the first strophe. In these two verses we have a distinct reference to that mysterious, but undoubted region inhabited by disembodied spirits, and known as the intermediate state. From this gloomy abode, this Infernus, Job starts on his task of illustrating the Divine glory. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, or, with Delitzsch: "He stretcheth the northern sky over emptiness; the mysterious north, the scene of God's working, xxiii. 9; the northern sky with its splendid constellations circling round the pole-star, all stretched over nothingness." Hangeth the earth upon nothing. We have in these words a remarkably clear, and probably the earliest description of space. Venerable as is the Hindoo mythology, it is posterior to this declaration; the difficulty of which it meets with the fable of the world-supporting tortoise, though it assigns no foundation on which the animal may stand. The old Arab astronomers grasped the fact, which, in modern days, Newton has substantiated, (He) "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. In verse 8 we have presented a wonderful knowledge of meteorology, the whole subject of rain and its source being rendered in a few words; and the question of gravity is included and comprehended, for it is evidently not a matter of surprise to Job, that, although a vast amount of water is suspended in the atmosphere "in his thick clouds," yet these clouds, contrary to gravity, are not rent. He holdeth back the face of his throne; that is, shrouds it from view by "his thick clouds;" how significant this expression! implying that although the face of the awful throne is concealed from view, shrouded in darkness impenetrable, yet its back part may be seen. Perhaps Job was familiar with a revelation of glory similar to that vouchsafed to Moses, "Thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen." Ex. xxxiii. 23. In verse 10, we have an allusion to the ancient idea, that the earth was surrounded with an ocean, whose utmost limits extended to the regions of eternal night; therefore the expression in the second strophe, until the day and night come to an end, implies a boundary line between light and darkness. II 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 pillars of heaven tremble. In ver. 7, Job alludes to the northern sky, stretched tent-like, over emptiness; and we have here the poles supporting the tent, by which, probably, mountains are intended. Perhaps Job had witnessed a convulsion of nature similar to that so magnificently described by David in Ps. xviii. 7. "Then the earth shook and trembled ; The foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, He divideth the sea with his power; at first sight, we might fancy that we have here an allusion to the dividing of the Red Sea; but, apart from the fact that this miracle occurred many years after, the real meaning of the original does not permit of |