Job 26:5

Dead [things] are formed from under the waters,.... It is difficult to say what things are here meant; it may be understood of "lifeless" things, as Mr.

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

Job having censured Bildad’ s discourse concerning God’ s dominion and power, as insignificant and impertinent to their question, he here proceedeth to show how little he needed his information in that point, and that he was able to instruct him in that doctrine, of which accordingly he gives divers proofs or instances. Here he showeth that the power and providence of God reacheth not only to the things which we see, but also to the invisible parts of the world; not only to the heavens above, and their inhabitants, and to men upon earth, of which Bildad discoursed ,3, but also to such persons or things as are under the earth, or under the waters, which are under the earth; which are out of our sight and reach, and might be thought to be out of the ken or care of Divine Providence. This Hebrew word sometimes signifies giants, as ,20 3:13 ; whence it may be translated to other great and, as it were, gigantic creatures, and more commonly dead men, as 9:18 21:16 ,19 whence it is supposed metaphorically to signify also dead or lifeless things; though there be no example of that use of the word elsewhere; and it may seem improper to call those things dead, which never had nor were capable of life. The next Hebrew word, or the verb, is primarily used of women with child, and signifies their bringing forth their young ones with travail or grievous pains, as 45:10; and thence it signifies either to form or bring forth, as below, ; or to grieve or mourn, or to be in pain. Accordingly these words are diversely understood; either, 1. Of dead or lifeless things, such as amber, pearl, coral, metals, or other minerals, which are formed or brought forth, to wit, by the almighty power of God, from under the waters, i.e. either in the bottom of the sea, or within the earth, which is the lowest element, and in the Scripture and other authors spoken of as under the waters; this being observed as a remarkable work of God’ s providence, that the waters of the sea, which are higher than the earth, do not overwhelm it; and from under (which may be repeated out of the former clause of the verse, after the manner of the Hebrews) the inhabitants thereof, i.e. either of the waters, which are fishes; or of the earth, which are men. Or rather, 2. Of the giants of the old world, which were men of great renown whilst they lived, , and the remembrance of them and of their exemplary destruction was now in some sort fresh and famous; who once carried themselves insolently towards God and men, but were quickly subdued by the Divine power, and drowned with a deluge, and now mourn or groan from under the waters, where they were buried, and from under the present inhabitants thereof, as before. Or, 3.

Job 26:5 Dead [things] are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof.Ver. 5. Dead things are formed from under the waters] Here Job’ s tongue, like a silver bell, begins to sound out the great things of God far better than Bildad had done, beginning at the bottom, and declaring that nothing is bred or brought forth, whether animate or inanimate, fish or other things in all the vast and deep ocean, but it is by his decree and power (Abbots). The Septuagint or Vulgate, for dead and lifeless things render giants, and understand thereby whales, those huge sea monsters formed under the waters. And the inhabitants thereof] That is, saith one, other fishes in general, which are in the seas where those whales are; for there is that Leviathan, and there are creeping things (that is, smaller fishes) innumerable. And in particular certain little fishes that are noted always to swim with the whales, as guides of their way, that they may not unawares, coming into muddy places, be mired there. Aristotle calleth them muscles; Pliny, musticets.

(5) Dead things are formed.—The Hebrew word is the Rephaim, who were among the aboriginal inhabitants of the south of Palestine and the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea, and it is used to express the dead and the inhabitants of the nether world generally. The word rendered are formed probably means either are pierced or tremble: that is, they are pierced through with terror, or they tremble, with a possible reference to the state of the dead as the prey of corruption, though spoken of them where they are beyond the reach of it. All the secrets of this mysterious, invisible, and undiscoverable world are naked and open before Him—the grave lies naked and destruction is uncovered.

Verse 5. Dead things are formed from under the waters] This verse, as it stands in our version, seems to convey no meaning; and the Hebrew is obscure; הרפאים, harephaim, "the Rephaim," certainly means not dead things; nor can there be any propriety in saying that dead things, or things without life, are formed under the waters, for such things are formed everywhere in the earth, and under the earth, as well as under the waters. The Vulgate translates: Ecce gigantes gemunt sub aquis, et qui habitant cum eis. "Behold the giants, and those who dwell with them, groan from under the waters." The Septuagint: Μηγιγαντεςμαιωθησονταιὑποκατωθενὑδατος, καιτωνγειτονωναυτου; "Are not the giants formed from under the waters, and their neighbours?" The Chaldee: אפשר דגבריא דמתמזמזין יתברין ואנון מלרע למיא ומשריתהון eposhar degibraiya demithmazmezin yithbareyan veinnun millera lemaiya umashreiyatehon, "Can the trembling giants be regenerated, when they and their hosts are under the water?" The Syriac and Arabic: "Behold, the giants are slain, and are drawn out of the water." None of these appear to give any sense by which the true meaning can be determined. There is probably here an allusion to the destruction of the earth by the general deluge. Moses, speaking concerning the state of the earth before the flood, says, Genesis 6:4, "There were giants נפלים nephilim, in the earth in those days." Now it is likely that Job means the same by רפאים rephaim as Moses does by the nephilim; and that both refer to the antediluvians, who were all, for their exceeding great iniquities, overwhelmed by the waters of the deluge. Can those mighty men and their neighbours, all the sinners who have been gathered to them since, be rejected from under the waters, by which they were judicially overwhelmed? Mr. Good thinks the shades of the heroes of former times, the gigantic spectres, the mighty or enormous dead, are meant. I greatly question whether sea-monsters be not intended, such as porpoises, sharks, narwals, grampuses, and whales. We know, however that an opinion anciently prevailed, that the Titans, a race of men of enormous stature, rebelled against the gods, and endeavoured to scale heaven by placing one mountain on the top of another; and that they and their structure were cast down by the thunder of the deities, and buried under the earth and sea; and that their struggles to arise produce the earthquakes which occur in certain countries. Now although this opinion is supported by the most respectable antiquity among the heathens, it is not to be supposed that in the word of God there can be any countenance given to an opinion at once as absurd as it is monstrous. (But still the poet may use the language of the common people.) I must therefore either refer the passage here to the antediluvians, or to the vast sea-monsters mentioned above.

5–13. That Job has no need to be instructed regarding the greatness of God he now shews, by entering upon an exhibition of its operations in every sphere of that which exists, Hades, the Earth and Heaven, in which he far outstrips the feeble effort of Bildad.

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

Second division — AN OF THE DIVINE MAJESTY AND GLORY, Job 26:5-14.Strophe a — Not only are the heavenly hosts pacified by the majestic presence of the Lord as Bildad had shown, (Job 25:1,) but the