Bible Commentaries

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

Isa 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.

3. plentifully . . . the thing as it is--rather, "abundantly--wisdom." Bildad had made great pretensions to abundant wisdom. How has he shown it?

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 Isa 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

Isa 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"

(Ps 18:4, 5);

and the waters as under the earth

(Ps 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].

6.

(Job 38:17; Ps 139:8; Pr 5:11).

destruction--the abode of destruction, that is, of lost souls. Hebrew, Abaddon

(Re 9:11).

no covering--from God's eyes.

7. Hint of the true theory of the earth. Its suspension in empty space is stated in the second clause. The north in particular is specified in the first, being believed to be the highest part of the earth

(Isa 14:13).

The northern hemisphere or vault of heaven is included; often compared to a stretched-out canopy

(Ps 104:2).

The chambers of the south are mentioned

(Job 9:9),

that is, the southern hemisphere, consistently with the earth's globular form.

8. in . . . clouds--as if in airy vessels, which, though light, do not burst with the weight of water in them

(Pr 30:4).