Job 40:9

Hast thou an arm like God?.... Such power as he has, which is infinite, almighty, and uncontrollable, and therefore there is no contending with him; as he has an arm on which good men may lean on and

Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him? Arm - God's omnipotence (Isaiah 53:1). Thunder - God's voice (Job 37:4). 10.

Thou art infinitely short of God in power, and therefore in justice; for all his perfections are equal and infinite. Injustice is much more likely to be in thee, an impotent creature, than in the Almighty God; of which See Poole "". Canst thou thunder with a voice like him? therefore do not presume to contend with him.

Job 40:9 Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?Ver. 9. Hast thou an arm like God?] That thou shouldest wrestle a fall with him, and hope to overmatch him? "Thou hast a mighty arm," saith David: "strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand," Psalms 89:13. It spans the heavens, and holds the earth in the hollow of it. The weight of it broke the angels’ backs; and the terror of it may be seen in all those writs of execution recorded in the Scriptures. Oh, it is a fearful thing, saith the apostle, to fall into the (punishing) hands of the living God! Hebrews 10:31 Or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?] Of Pericles, the orator, it is said, that when he declaimed, Intonabat., fulgurabat, totam Graeciam commiscebat, &c., he thundered, he lightened, he mingled all Greece together (Cicero). And Livy, speaking of a certain Roman commander, saith, Haec cum intonuisset iracundus, &c., These things, when he had thundered out angrily, and with a courage, the people departed of their own accord. Alexander the Great, being once vexed at his soldiers for mutining and tumultuating, thunder-struck them with these words, Facessite hine ocyus, neminem teneo; liberate occulos meos ingratissimi milites, Get you quickly out of my presence, and be packing hence, ye ungrateful soldiers. And Severus, the emperor, in like sort dealt with his unruly army, Discedite Quirites, said he, et incertum an Quirites. These were terrible hard words, and very resolutely uttered: but what is any or all of this to the voice of God’ s thunder, whereof see before? Knowest thou not, O Job, that thine arm is an arm of flesh? and thy voice so small and low that a fly would not be frighted at it?

Verse 9. Hast thou an arm like God?] Every word, from this to the end of Job 40:14, has a wonderful tendency to humble the soul; and it is no wonder that at the conclusion of these sayings Job fell in the dust confounded, and ascribed righteousness to his Maker.

Chap. Job 40:6 to Job 42:6. The Lord’s Second Answer to Job out of the Storm Shall Man charge God with unrighteousness in His Rule of the World? All that the first speech of the Lord touched upon was the presumption of a mortal man desiring to contend with the Almighty. The display from Creation of that which God is had the desired effect on Job’s mind: he is abased, and will no more contend with the Almighty. But Job had not only presumed to contend with God, he had charged Him with unrighteousness in His rule of the world and in His treatment of himself. This is the point to which the second speech from the storm is directed. The passage has properly two parts. First, Job 40:6-14, as Job had challenged the rectitude of God’s rule of the world, he is ironically invited to clothe himself with the Divine attributes and assume the rule of the world himself. Then follows, ch. Job 40:15 to Job 41:34, a lengthy description of two monsters, Behemoth and Leviathan. Second, ch. Job 42:1-6, Job’s reply to the Divine challenge. He confesses that he spoke things which he understood not. He had heard of God by the hearing of the ear, but now his eye saw Him, and he abhorred his former words and demeanour, and repented in dust and ashes.

Hast thou an arm like God? - The arm is the symbol of strength. The question here is, whether Job would venture to compare his strength with the omnipotence of God? Or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?

9. An arm like God — The arm of the Lord is the symbol of omnipotence, as in Isaiah 51:9, in which, in sublime strains, Jehovah is represented as personifying his own omnipotence.