cut off as the tops of the ears of who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth? corn. 25 And if it be not so now, to stubble that was burnt. So, in Egypt, the children of Israel were directed to obtain the stubble left in the fields, in making brick, instead of having straw furnished them. The meaning of Job here is, that they would not be taken away by a violent eath, or before their time, but that they would be like grain standing in the field to the time of harvest, and then peacefully gathered. Comp. Ps. lxxiii. 4. 25 And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar? A challenge to any one to prove the contrary to what he had said. Job had now attacked their main position, and had appealed to facts, in defence of what he held. He maintained that, as a matter of fact, the wicked were prospered, that they often lived to old age, and that they then died a peaceful death, without any direct demonstration of the divine displeasure. He boldly appeals, now, to any one to deny this, or to prove the contrary. The appeal was decisive. The fact was undeniable, and the controversy was closed. Bildad (ch. xxv.) attempts a brief reply, but he does not touch the question about the facts to which Job had appealed, but utters a few vague and irrelevant proverbial maxims, about the greatness of God, and is silent. His proverbs appear to be exhausted, and the theory which he and his friends had so carefully built up, and in which they had been so confident, was now overthrown Perhaps this was one design of the Holy Spirit, in recording the argument thus far conducted, to show that the theory of the divine administration, which had been built up with so much care, and which was sustained by so many proverbial maxims, was false. The overthrow of this theory was of sufficient importance to justi fy this protracted argument, for (1,) it was and is of the highest importance that correct views should prevail of the nature of the divine administration; and (2,) it is of especial importance in comforting the afflicted people of God. Job had experienced great aggravation, in his sufferings, from the position which his friends had maintained, and from the arguments which they had been able to adduce, to prove that his sufferings were proof that he was a hypocrite. But it is worth all which it has cost; all the experience of the afflicted friends of God, and all the pains taken to reveal it, to show that af fliction is no certain proof of the divine displeasure, and that important ends may be accomplished by means of trial. CHAPTER XXV. ANALYSIS OF THE CHAPTER. THIS short reply of Bildad closes what the three friends of Job had to say, for Zophar does not attempt to answer. Bildad does not attempt to meet the appeals which Job had made to facts, or reply to his arguments. He does not even reproach Job as he and his friends had done before, or even express his conviction that he was a wicked man. The speech is evidently that of one who felt that he must say something, but who did not know how to meet the course of argument which Job had pursued. He asserts, in a lofty strain, the majesty, Jominion, and infinite perfection of the Deity, and then repeats the proposition, that in the sight of such a God the whole universe must be regarded as impure. It would seem to be implied that he supposed that Job's arguments went on the supposition that man was pure, and that all that was necessary to be said, was to re-affirm the impossibility that any should be holy in the sight of God. Many a man, when perplexed with some view of truth which wholly confounds all his reasoning and sets aside his maxims, but who lacks the ingenuousness to admit the force of the argument adduced, meets a case just as Bildad did. Unconvinced, he adheres to his own opinion; unable to meet the argument, he does not attempt to reply to it, yet feels that he must say something to show that he is not silenced. The feebleness of this reply, however, only encourages Job to utter the triumphant sentiments expressed in the following chapters. 2. Dominion and fear are with him. 3. Is there any number of his arThat is, God has a right to rule, and mies? The armies of heaven; or he ought to be regarded with rever- the hosts of angelic beings, which are ence. The object of Bildad is to often represented as arranged or marshow that He is so great and glorious shalled into armies. See Notes on that it is impossible that man should Isa. i. 9. The word which is herc be regarded as pure in his sight. He He used is not the common one which is begins, therefore, by saying, that he rendered 'hosts,' (N), but is 717, is a Sovereign; that he is clothed with majesty, and that he is worthy which means properly a troop, band, of profound veneration. He maketh or army. It may here mean either peace in his high places. High the constellations often represented places' here refer to the heavenly as the army which God marshals worlds. The idea is, that he pre- and commands, or it may mean the serves peace and concord among the angels. ¶ And upon whom doth not hosts of heaven. Numerous and his light arise? This is designed mighty as are the armies of the skies, evidently to show the majesty and yet he keeps them in order and in glory of God. It refers probably to awe. The object is to present an the light of the sun, as the light which image of the majesty and power of he creates and commands. The idea that Being who thus controls a vast is, that it pervades all things; that, as number of minds. The phrase does controlled by him, it penetrates all not necessarily imply that there had places, and flows over all worlds. been variance or strife, and that then The image is a striking and sublime God had made peace, but that he one, and nothing is better fitted to preserved or kept them in peace. show the majesty and glory of God. 4. How then can man be justified with God? See ch. iv. 17, 18, xv. 15, 16. Instead of meeting the facts to which Job had appealed, all that Bildad could now do was to repeat what had been said before. It shows It shows that he felt himself unable to dispose of the argument, and yet that he was not willing to confess that he was vanquished. ¶ Or how can he be clean? This sentiment had been expressed by Job himself, ch. xiv. 4. Perhaps Bildad meant now to adopt it as undoubted truth, and to throw it back upon Job as worthy of his special attention. It has no bearing on the arguments which Job had advanced, and is utterly irrelevant except as Bildad supposed that the course of argument maintained by Job implied that he supposed himself to be pure. 5. Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not. Or, behold even the moon shineth not. That is, in comparison with God it is dark and obscure. The idea is, that the most " its relation to the word, to be clear or brilliant, from the mutual relation of the verbs and . The Arabic has the same meaning. ¶ Yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. That is, they are not bright in com parison with him. The design is to show the glory of the Most High, and that nothing could be compared with him. See Notes, ch. iv. 18. 6. How much less man. See ch. iv. 19. Man is here mentioned as a worm; in ch. iv. 19 he is said to dwell in a house of clay and to be crushed before the moth. In both cases the design is to represent him as insignificant in comparison with God. ¶ A worm. . See ch. vii. 5. The word is commonly applied to such worms as are bred in putridity, and hence the comparison is the more forcible. And the son of man. Another mode of speaking of man. Any one of the children of man is the same. No one of them can be compared with God. Comp. Notes, Matth. i. 1. 1 Which is a worm. תולעה | beautiful and glorious objects become word here rendered dim and fade away when compared with him. So Jerome renders it, Ecce luna etiam non splendet. The word here rendered shineth (3) frequently means to pitch or remove a tent, and is a form of the word uniformly rendered tent or tabernacle. Some have supposed that the meaning here is, that even the moon and the stars of heaven-the bright canopy above-were not fit to furnish a tent or dwelling for God. But the parallelism seems to demand the usual interpretation, as meaning that the moon and stars faded away before God. The word derives this meaning, according to Gesenius, from This word frequently denotes the Comp. Notes, Isa. i. 18. worm from which the scarlet or crim son color was obtained. It is, however, used to denote the worm that is bred on putrid substances, and is so used here. Comp. Ex. xvi. 20. Isa. xiv. 11, lxvi. 24. It is also applied to a worm that destroys plants. Jnah iv. 7. Deut. xxviii. 39. Here it means, that man that man is poor, feeble, powerless. In comparison with God he is a crawling worm. All that is said in this chapter is true and beautiful, but it has nothing to do with the subject in debate. Job had appealed to the course of events in proof of the truth of his position The true way to meet that was either o deny that the facts existed as he alleged, or to show that they did not prove what he had adduced them to establish. But Bildad did neither; nor did he ingenuously confess that the argument was against him and his friends. At this stage of the controversy, since they had nothing to reply to what Job had alleged, it would have been honorable in them to have acknowledged that they were in error, and to have yielded the palm of victory to him. But it requires extraordinary candor and humility to do that; and rather than do it, most men would prefer to say something— though it have nothing to do with the case in hand. CHAPTER XXVI. ANALYSIS OF THE CHAPTER. Is this chapter Job commences a reply to all that had been said by his three friends, and concludes the controversy. At the close of this chapter, it would seem probable, that he paused for Zophar, whose turn came next to speak, but as he said nothing, he resumed his discourse, and continued it to the close of ch. xxxi. This chapter consists of two parts. I. In the first part (vs. 1-4), Job begins the reply with sarcasms on his opponent as having offered nothing that in reality pertained to the dispute. He had made great pretensions, but he had not in any way met the difficulties of the case. He had not replied at all to his arguments, nor had he done any thing to relieve his mind in its embarrassments. II. In the second part (vs. 5–14) Job himself enters into a statement of the power and majesty of the Almighty. He shows that he could speak in as lofty a style of the greatness of God as his friends could. His object in this seems to be, not merely a trial of skill in the description which was given of God, but to show them that the views which he cherished were not produced by any low and grovelling conceptions of God. He had the most exalted ideas of him. He accorded with all that they said. He could even go beyond them in his descriptions of the divine majesty and glory. His views about his own character, therefore, were not inconsistent with the most exalted conceptions of the Deity, nor did he regard the most elevated views of God as any proof that he himself was eminently guilty or hypocritical, as they seemed to suppose. Having thus shown that his views of God were quite as exalted as those of his friends, in the next chapter he returns to his argument, and defends the positions which he had before advanced. BUT Job answered and said, 2 How hast thou helped a a Is. 40. 14. him that is without power? how savest thou the arm that hath no strength? 2. How hast thou helped him that had regarded Job as manifesting great is without power? It has been doubt-weakness in his views of God and of ed whether this refers to Job himself, the two friends of Bildad, or to .he Deity. Rosenmüller. The connection, however, seems to demand that it should be referred to Job himself. It is sarcastical. Bildad had come as a friend and comforter. He had, also, in common with Eliphaz and Zophar, taken upon himself the office of teacher and counsellor. He his government; as destitute of all strength to bear up aright under trials, and now all that he had done to aid one so weak was found in the impertinent and irrelevant generalities of his brief speech. Job is indignant that one with such pretensions should have said nothing more to the purpose. Herder, however, renders this as if it related wholly to God, and it | a 3 How hast thou counselled | words? and whose spirit " came him that hath no wisdom? and from thee? how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is? 5 Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the 4 To whom hast thou uttered inhabitants thereof. 1 cannot be denied that the Hebrew nothing new, and that met none of would bear this: the real difficulties of the case. Truly much wisdom hast thou taught him!"' ¶ How savest thou the arm that hath no strength? That is, your remarks are not adapted to invigorate the feeble. He had come professedly to comfort and support his afflicted friend in his trials. Yet Job asks what there was in his observations that was fitted to produce this effect? Instead of declaiming on the majesty and greatness of God, he should have said something that was adapted to relieve an afflicted and a troubled soul. 3. How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? As he had undertaken to give counsel to another, and to suggest views that might be adapted to elevate his mind in his depression, and to console him in his sorrows, he had a right to expect more than he had found in his speech. ¶ And how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is? The word rendered “the thing as it is" () denotes properly a setting upright, uprightness from ; then help, deliverance, Job vi. 13; purpose, undertaking, enterprise, Job v. 12; then counsel, wisdom, understanding, Job xi. 6, xii. 16. Here it is synonymous with reason, wisdom, or truth. The word rendered plentifully' (3) means 'for multitude,' or abundantly, and the sense here is, that Bildad had made extraordinary pretensions to wisdom, and that this was the result. This short, irrelevant speech was all; a speech that communicated 4. To whom hast thou utterea words? Jerome renders this, Quem docere voluisti ?" Whom do you wish to teach?" The sense is, 'Do you attempt to teach me in such a manner, on such a subject? Do you take it that I am so ignorant of the perfections of God, that such remarks about him would convey any real instruction?' T¶ And whose spirit came from thee? That is, by whose spirit didst thou speak? What claims hast thou to inspiration, or to the uttering of sentiments beyond what man himself could originate? The meaning is, that there was nothing remarkable in what he had said that would show that he had been indebted for it either to God or to the wise and good on earth. 5. Dead things. Job here commences his description of God, to show that his views of his majesty and glory were in no way inferior to those which had been expressed by Bildad, and that what Bildad had said conveyed to him no real information. In this description he far surpasses Bildad in loftiness of conception, and sublimity of description. Indeed, it may be doubted whether for grandeur this passage is surpassed by any description of the majesty of God in the Bible. The passage here has given rise to much discussion, and to a great variety of opinion. Our common translation is most feeble, and by no means conveys its true force. The object of the whole passage is to assert the universal dominion of God. Bildad had said (ch. xxv.) that the dominion of God extended to the heavens, and to the armies of the skies; that God surpassed in majesty the splendor of the heavenly bodies; |