Job 26:13

By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens,.... The visible heavens, with the sun, moon, and stars, with which they are studded and bespangled, and look exceeding beautiful; and the invisible

Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof.

By his spirit; either, 1. By his Divine virtue or power, which is sometimes called his spirit, as . Or, 2. By his Holy Spirit, to which the creation of the world is ascribed, . He hath garnished the heavens; adorned or beautified them with those glorious lights, the sun, and moon, and stars. The crooked serpent; by which he understands either, 1. All the kinds of serpents, or fishes, or monsters of the sea. Or, 2. The most eminent of their kinds, particularly the whale, which may be here not unfitly mentioned (as it is afterwards more largely described) amongst the glorious works of God in this lower world; as the garnishing of the heavens was his noblest work in the superior visible parts of the world. Or, 3. A heavenly constellation, called the great dragon and serpent, which being most eminent, as taking up a considerable part of the northern hemisphere, may well be put for all the rest of the constellations or stars wherewith the heavens are garnished. Thus he persisteth still in the same kind of God’ s works, and the latter branch explains the former. And this sense is the more probable, because Job was well acquainted with the doctrine of astronomy, and knew the nature and names of the stars and constellations, as appears also from 38:31.

Job 26:13 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.Ver. 13. By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens] Spiritu eius caeli sunt ipsa pulchritudo, By his Spirit the heavens are beauty itself, so Vatablus rendereth it, Adoravit, decoravit, pulchrefecit. Hinc κοσμος. That Three in One, and One in Three, wrought in the creation: see Psalms 33:6, "By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth." Here Jehovah, his Word, and his Spirit, are noted to be the Maker of the world; so Genesis 1:1-31. The heathens had some blind notions hereof, as appeareth by Plutarch, who reporteth that in Thebe, a town of Egypt, they worshipped a God whom they acknowledged to be immortal; but how painted they him? In the likeness of a man blowing an egg out of his mouth; to signify that he made the round world by the spirit of his mouth. Upon the heavens especially God hath bestowed a great deal of skill and workmanship, as appeareth, Hebrews 11:10 Psalms 8:3, where heaven is called, The work of God’ s fingers; a curious Divine work; a metaphor from them that make tapestry. Garnished it is with stars, as a palace is with stately pictures, besides the inward beauty, which is unconceivable. There is something of a Saphir in the Hebrew word here rendered garnished, and Revelation 21:19 search is made through all the bowels of the earth to find out all the precious treasures that could be had, gold, pearls, and precious stones of all sorts; and what can these serve to? only to shadow out the glory of the walls of the New Jerusalem, and the gates, and to pave the streets of the city. See also Isaiah 54:11-12. His hand hath formed the crooked serpent] Enixa est, peperit, hath brought forth as by birth, hath formed the most deformed and dreadful creature in the earth; or those flaming dragons flying in the air (meteors I mean); or the constellation in heaven called the Dragon, between the two Bears, and not far from the north pole ( Est hoc sane maximum, et maxime conspicuum in caelo sidus, &c.); or, lastly, those sea dragons, the whales, which Mercer thinketh most likely to be here meant, and compareth Isaiah 27:1 Psalms 104:26 Job 40:20. Neither need we wonder, saith he, that the beginning of the verse is of heaven and the end of the sea; for Job would show and set forth two admirable works of God in two extremes of the world; viz. in heaven above, and in the waters under the earth; his power and wisdom shineth everywhere in the creatures, neither can a man easily look beside a miracle. Job, therefore, insisteth not long upon particulars, but, as one lost in the labyrinth of admiration at so great things, he thus shuts up:

(13) The crooked serpent.—By this expression is doubtless meant the forked lightning-flash, though it is difficult to determine whether any, or what mythological ideas may underlie the expression, or whether it is anything more than a figure derived from the natural world, which suggested the similitude of the flying serpent. Others understand by it the constellation of the Northern Dragon, to whose influence storms were ascribed.

Verse 13. By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens] See the observations below.

13. by his spirit he hath garnished] Rather as above. The reference is to the clearing away of storm clouds, that darken the heavens, by the breath of God. hath formed] Rather as above, pierceth. The words express the half poetical, half mythological conception that the darkening in storm or in eclipse of the heavenly bodies was caused by the Dragon swallowing them up. See on ch. Job 3:8, Job 7:12. There is no reason to identify the swift or fleeing serpent with the constellation of the Dragon. Comp. Isaiah 27:1, with Mr Cheyne’s excellent note.

By his spirit - The word spirit here is either synonymous with wisdom, referring to the wisdom by which God made the heavens; or with breath - meaning, that he did it by his own command.

13. Garnished the heavens — Literally, By his breath the heavens are bright. At the root of Shiphra, bright, (a woman’s name in Exodus 1:15,) lies the idea of beauty.