Job 36
Butler1. ELIHU also proceeded, and said,
2. Suffer me a little, and I will shew thee; For I have yet somewhat to say on God’s behalf.
3. I will fetch my knowledge from afar, And will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
4. For truly my words are not false: One that is perfect in knowledge is with thee.
5. Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any: He is mighty in strength of understanding.
6. He preserveth not the life of the wicked: But giveth to the afflicted their right.
7. He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous: But with kings upon the throne He setteth them for ever, and they are exalted.
8. And if they be bound in fetters, And be taken in the cords of affliction;
9. Then he sheweth them their work, And their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.
10. He openeth also their ear to instruction, And commandeth that they return from iniquity.
11. If they hearken and serve him, They shall spend their days in prosperity, And their years in pleasures.
12. But if they hearken not, they shall perish by the sword, And they shall die without knowledge.
13. But they that are godless in heart lay up anger: They cry not for help when he bindeth them.
14. They die in youth, And their life perisheth among the unclean.
15. He delivereth the afflicted by his affliction, And openeth their ear in oppression.
16. Yea, he would have led thee away out of distress Into a broad place, where there is no straitness; And that which is set on thy table should be full of fatness.
17. But thou art full of the judgment of the wicked: Judgment and justice take hold on thee.
18. Let not wrath stir thee up against chastisements; Neither let the greatness of the ransom turn thee aside.
19. Will thy riches suffice, that thou be not in distress, Or all the forces of thy strength?
20. Desire not the night, When peoples are cut off in their place.
21. Take heed, regard not iniquity: For this hast thou chosen rather than affliction.
22. Behold, God doeth loftily in his power: Who is a teacher like unto him?
23. Who hath enjoined him his way? Or who can say, Thou hast wrought unrighteousness?
24. Remember that thou magnify his work, Whereof men have sung.
25. All men have looked thereon; Man beholdeth it afar off.
IN his former speeches Elihu was intent upon correcting the false principles in regard to God enunciated by Job; in his present speech he keeps still before him the same great object—namely, to present just thoughts of God; but having in the former speeches corrected the false ideas of Job, he proceeds now more positively to present his own elevated conceptions of the Creator. The object of the passage is to extol the greatness of God in all His operations, both among men and in the world. Thus the passage falls into two parts: First (36:1-25), in which the greatness of God in His providential treatment of men is extolled. Here the speaker gives a fuller statement of his theory of the meaning of the afflictions sent on men by God (vs. 1-15), and exhorts Job to recognize God’s purpose in his sufferings, and to unite with all men in exalting Him. Second (36:26-33; 37:1-24), in which the greatness, wisdom, and unsearchableness of God, as these are manifested in the phenomena of the heavens, are magnified, and Job is exhorted to lay these great wonders to heart and to bow beneath the wisdom and power of God, who far transcends man’s comprehension.
Chap. 36: 1-25. God’s gracious designs in afflicting men; and exhortation to Job to unite with all men in extolling His greatness. First (vs. 1-4). In some words of introduction Elihu beseeches Job to listen to him still further, for he has yet something to say on God’s behalf; and he will speak what is true, for he has perfect knowledge. Second (vs. 5-15). Then he proceeds to his theme—the greatness of God, a greatness of mind and understanding, which does not despise the weak but rules all with goodness and wisdom. Afflictions are but instances of this gracious wisdom, for by them He opens the ear of men to instruction. Third (vs. 16-25), application of this doctrine of the meaning of afflictions to Job—God is through them alluring him into a prosperous and happy life. And the speaker adds a warning against murmuring, and an exhortation to adore and magnify as all men do the great God.
3. Righteousness to my Maker. Elihu gives here in a word the ruling idea of his discourses; they are all meant to ascribe righteousness or right to God; they are a defence of God against the charges of Job. The expression rendered my Maker does not occur elsewhere in the Old Testament. A. B. D.
4. Perfect in knowledge. By this Elihu means that he speaks with a perfect conviction of the truth of his arguments; perfectness means honesty, integrity, and is a word often applied to good men, to Job, for instance, both by himself and by the Lord.
5. Despiseth not any. This refers to Job’s reproaches of God for neglecting and despising his cause. No created being is too mean to be regarded by Him. Cook.—God despises not any; which is a good reason why we should honor all men. He is mighty in strength and wisdom, and yet does not look with contempt upon those that have but a little strength and wisdom if they but mean honestly. Nay, therefore He despises not any, because His wisdom and strength are incontestably infinite; therefore, the condescensions of His grace can be no diminution to Him. They that are wise and good will not look upon any with scorn and disdain.
7. He withdraws not His eyes from the righteous. Though they may seem sometimes neglected and forgotten, and that befalls them which looks like an oversight of Providence, yet the tender, careful eye of their Heavenly Father never withdraws from them. If our eye be ever toward God in duty, His eye will be ever upon us in mercy, and when we are at the lowest will not overlook us. H.—God’s unceasing watchfulness over the righteous is shown equally in their prosperity and in their adversity. The words “with kings upon the throne” describe the ordinary, and in all cases the final result of God’s love to the righteous; they are kings and priests to their God, inheritors of His kingdom. Elihu’s words are even more true than he knows. Cook.—How significant is this in a Christian sense, now that God has made the humble and meek to “sit together with Christ Himself in heavenly places,” and Christ, who is King of kings, says, “To him that overcometh will I give to sit with Me on My throne.” Wordsworth.
8-12. Elihu reverts again to his fundamental principle of the design of suffering, making special application of it to the case of Job. Afflictions, he repeats, are sent upon the righteous for their good; and such an experience is fraught with solemn responsibility to the afflicted themselves. If they recognize the gracious purpose of God in their sorrows, and heed the lesson they involve, then the design of this painful dispensation will be accomplished, and it will be itself removed. If, on the contrary, they disregard the voice of love and warning which speaks to them in these distresses, they will incur the Divine displeasure and bring God’s judgment on themselves in the form of still heavier sorrows than they have yet experienced. W. H. G.—Herein Elihu sets forth more fully an idea which is essential to the complete treatment of the subject—the idea of suffering as a means of purification. By this means Elihu begins to soften the heart of Job, so much wounded by the cruelty of his friends; he thus prepares the way for that complete submission which is to be consummated by the appearance of Jehovah. He was the forerunner of Jehovah. Godet.
8-10. If life often appears to present a different picture and men are seen in affliction, this affliction is a discipline needful to warn them and bring their evil before them. The expression “fetters” (v. 8) is rather to be taken figuratively, meaning affliction or adversity, as “cords of affliction” in the next clause suggests. The meaning of afflictions—they are a Divine warning and stimulus to rouse men out of a sinful lethargy and bring their sin to their remembrance. A. B. D.—The words which describe afflictions which of all the righteous are purposely chosen to indicate their direct object—viz., to arrest and chastise them when they are going wrong. Fetters and bonds are to be understood figuratively, though the literal sense is defensible. Cook.
Afflictions are God’s voice showing to men their sinfulness, and warning them, by a salutary discipline, of their evil way and the dangers to which it exposes them. And while His providence is engaged in chastising, His spirit is acting in their hearts, opening their ears to instruction, and persuading the hitherto disobedient to return from iniquity. The thoughts here expressed approach very nearly to the lessons of Christian submission to God’s dealings with His children given in the New Testament. Curry.—Though afflictions are evils in themselves, yet they are good for us, because they discover to us our disease and tend to our cure. We are not sufficiently sensible how great an evil sin is till we feel the effects and consequences of it. And, therefore, to rectify our apprehensions concerning it, God makes us to suffer by it. Thus Elihu describes the happy effects of affliction in these verses. God doth but invite and entreat us by His mercies, but His judgments have a more powerful and “commanding” voice. When He “holds man in cords of affliction, then He openeth their ear to instruction.” In prosperity we are many times incapable of counsel, but when we are under God’s correcting hand, then we are fit to be spoken with. Archbishop Tillotson.
11. If the affliction do its work and accomplish that for which it is sent, He will comfort them again according to the time that He has afflicted them; if they hearken and serve Him, if they comply with His design and serve His purpose in these dispensations, if when the affliction is removed they continue in the same good mind that they were in when they were under the smart of it, if they perform the vows they made and live in obedience to God’s commands, then they shall spend their days in prosperity again and their years in true pleasures. Piety is the only sure way to prosperity and pleasure; this is a certain truth, yet few will believe it. H.
Pleasures. The original word expresses a finer and more inward sense of enjoyment; but “pleasures” is frequently used in our Version for the deepest and highest happiness. “Prosperity” is also too outward a word. The original has “in good,” which includes all sources of pure enjoyment. Cook.
12. God would have instructed them by their afflictions, but they received not instruction, would not take the hints that were given them; and, therefore, they shall die without knowledge, notwithstanding the means of knowledge which they were blessed with. They that die without knowledge die without grace, and are undone forever. H.
15. The verse goes back to the great general principle of the use of affliction in God’s hand (v. 8), in order to connect with it the case of Job, and to found an exhortation to him upon it (v. 16). The word in affliction, in oppression, might mean through affliction, etc.
16-25. Application to Job of the principles in regard to affliction just enunciated by Elihu. A. B. D.
16. The design of Job’s afflictions being for his good, they are spoken of as means by which God in His mercy sought to lead (allure) him away from distress—a condition that was full of peril by reason of his self-righteousness. Out of such a perilous state God desired to bring him into a broad place, a condition of safety, where also the Divine blessing might be showered upon him freely. The figure of an abundantly supplied table is in harmony with the facts and sentiments of patriarchal life. The idea stripped of all poetic imagery seems to be, that because God saw that Job was in some danger of coming short of the single-minded devotion that is alone acceptable to Him He had subjected him to chastisement in order to his correction, which, as the event shows, was thoroughly effectual, and Job’s later prosperity is the fulfilment of all that is suggested in the last line of this verse.
17. Instead of accepting God’s instructions, given in the form of chastisements, with a submissive and docile spirit, Job had looked upon them in a spirit of rebellious anger, because he was, in respect to them, “full of the judgment of the wicked.” He refused to see in them the hand of a just and merciful Father. Curry.
18. Elihu’s doctrine is that afflictions are not the expression of God’s wrath but of His disciplinary mercy; and his great object is to warn Job against putting this false construction on God’s dealing with him. In the second clause he warns Job against being led astray by the greatness of the ransom, by which he means Job’s severe afflictions; he admonishes Job not to allow himself to be drawn from the right way by the greatness of the ransom required of him as the price of his restoration to happiness—namely, humble submission to the Divine chastisements, as though this ransom were exceeding great.
19. No other ransom will avail—not riches nor all the power of wealth. Only the purification of suffering will cleanse him from his evil (34 : 36) and deliver him. Elihu demands with emphasis whether all his riches will be accepted as a ransom? It need not be said that the question is put merely for the purpose of heightening the effect of the idea in v. 18, that suffering is the only ransom possible. A similar thought is expressed in Psalm 49 : 7. A. B. D.
20. It was the repose of the grave for which Job longed—for that “night” of death whose successive generations sink down to the world beneath them. Conant.—Such was Job’s conception of the night of death. But Elihu here reminds him that the night of death would be at the same time the night of Divine judgment, and that so terrible is that judgment that it can sweep off whole peoples on the spot; how much less, then, could he, single-handed and alone, hope to face it without perishing! Let him rather repent. Evans.
21. Again, Job is reminded of the one way of escape still open to him—that of genuine repentance; and the faithful admonition is repeated that in the past he has chosen to abide in impenitence, instead of accepting God’s chastisements in the spirit of true obedience. Curry.
22. None is so fit to direct our actions as He; none teaches with such authority and convincing evidence, with such condescension and compassion, nor with such power and efficacy as God does. He teaches by the Bible, and that is the best book; teaches by His Son, and He is the best Master. H.
23. God is a Teacher without a rival; it therefore becomes men to heed His lessons and obey His instructions. It is the key-note of Elihu’s song that God’s ineffable glory is the sure pledge of the righteousness of His dispensations. He chooses His own way as a sovereign, and by what He does He teaches what is right. It is not for man to test the rectitude of what God does or may do in the exercise of His power, but to learn with unanswering docility by what God does what is righteousness and judgment, for in these his throne abides. Curry.
24. Look which way we will, we see the productions of God’s wisdom and power; we see that done and that doing concerning which we cannot but say, This is the work of God; the finger of God; it is the Lord’s doing. Every man may see afar off the heaven and all its lights, the earth and all its fruits, to be the work of Omnipotence; much more when we behold them nigh at hand. The eternal power and God-head of the Creator are clearly seen and understood by the things that are made. The beauty and excellency of the work of God, and the agreement of all the parts of it, are what we must remember to magnify and highly extol; not only justify it as right and good, but magnify it as wise and glorious, and such as no creature could contrive or produce. Man may see His works and is capable of discerning His hand in them (which the beasts are not), and therefore ought to praise them and give Him the glory of them. H.
The Creator did not bestow so much exquisite workmanship and skill upon His creatures to be looked upon with a careless, incurious eye, especially to have them slighted or contemned; but to be admired by the rational part of the world, to magnify His own power, wisdom, and goodness throughout all the world and the ages thereof. The more we search and discover of His works, the greater and more glorious we find them to be—the more worthy of and the more expressly to proclaim their great Creator. To make such researches, then, is to answer the ends for which God hath bestowed so much art, power, and wisdom about His works, as well as given us senses to view and survey them, and an understanding and curiosity to search into them; it is to follow and trace Him where and whither He leads us, that we may see and admire His handiwork ourselves and set it forth to others, that they may see, admire, and praise it also. Such is the recommendation of Elihu: “Remember that thou magnify His work.” Anon.
36: 26 BEHOLD, God is great, and we know him not;
The number of his years is unsearchable.
27. For he draweth up the drops of water, Which distil in rain from his vapour:
28. Which the skies pour down And drop upon man abundantly.
29. Yea, can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, The thunderings of his pavilion?
30. Behold, he spreadeth his light around him; And he covereth the bottom of the sea.
31. For by these he judgeth the peoples; He giveth meat in abundance.
32. He covereth his hands with the lightning; And giveth it a charge that it strike the mark.
33. The noise thereof telleth concerning him, The cattle also concerning the storm that cometh up.
37: 1 Yea, at this my heart trembleth, And is moved out of its place.
2. Hear, oh, hear the noise of his voice, And the sound that goeth out of his mouth.
3. He sendeth it forth under the whole heaven, And his lightning unto the ends of the earth.
4. After it a voice roareth; He thundereth with the voice of his majesty: And he stayeth them not when his voice is heard.
5. God thundereth marvellously with his voice; Great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.
6. For he saith to the snow, Fall thou on the earth; Likewise to the shower of rain, And to the showers of his mighty rain.
7. He sealeth up the hand of every man; That all men whom he hath made may know it.
8. Then the beasts go into coverts, And remain in their dens.
9. Out of the chamber of the south cometh the storm:
Chaps. 36: 26-33; 37. The entire passage has two sections. First, to the end of 37: 13, the incomprehensible greatness of God, seen in the phenomena of the atmosphere; in the formation of the rain drops; in the thunder-
And cold out of the north.
10. By the breath of God ice is given: And the breadth of the waters is straitened.
11. Yea, he ladeth the thick cloud with moisture; He spreadeth abroad the cloud of his lightning:
12. And it is turned round about by his guidance, That they may do whatsoever he commandeth them Upon the face of the habitable world:
13. Whether it be for correction, or for his land, Or for mercy, that he cause it to come.
14. Hearken unto this, O Job: Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.
15. Dost thou know how God layeth his charge upon them, And causeth the lightning of his cloud to shine?
16. Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, The wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge?
17. How thy garments are warm, When the earth is still by reason of the south wind?
18. Canst thou with him spread out the sky, Which is strong as a molten mirror?
19. Teach us what we shall say unto him; For we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness.
20. Shall it be told him that I would speak? Or should a man wish that he were swallowed up?
21. And now men see not the light which is bright in the skies: But the wind passeth, and cleareth them.
22. Out of the north cometh golden splendour: God hath upon him terrible majesty.
23. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out; he is excellent in power: And in judgment and plenteous justice he will not afflict.
24. Men do therefore fear him: He regardeth not any that are wise of heart.
storm; in snow and ice, which seals up the hand of man and makes him powerless before the mighty power of God; in His lading the cloud with moisture and guiding it to the fulfilment of His varied behests upon the whole earth.
Second (37 : 14-24), Elihu exhorts Job to consider these marvels of Him which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working, and to let them duly impress him ; bidding him behold the wonderful balancing of the summer cloud in the heavens, when the earth is still with the south wind (vs. 14-17), and the burnished sky is stretched out like a molten mirror (v. 18). With what words shall man come before the Omnipotent to contend with Him ! Man, who is dazzled by the light of the sky, how should he behold the terrible glory around God ! Therefore all men do fear Him ; and He hath not respect to those that are wise in their own understanding (v. 19-24). A. B. D.
26. God is great.** Great in power, for He is omnipotent and independent ; great in wealth, for He is self-sufficient and all-sufficient ; great in Himself, great in all His works ; great, and therefore greatly to be praised ; great, and therefore we know Him not ; we know that He is, but not what He is ; we know what He is not, but not what He is. We know in part, but not in perfection. This comes in here as a reason why we must not arraign His proceedings nor find fault with what He does, because it is speaking evil of the things that we understand not and answering a matter before we hear it. We know not the duration of His existence, for it is infinite ; the number of His years cannot possibly be searched out, for He is eternal, there is no number of them ; He is a being without beginning, succession, or period, who ever was and ever will be, and ever the same, the great I AM. This is a good reason why we should not prescribe to Him or quarrel with Him, because as He is such are His operations, quite out of our reach. H.
Elihu affirms that God is great, and therefore He must also be just. He shows that Job’s allegation that he has been unrighteously handled, and his impeachment of God’s righteousness, are contraventions of His nature as manifested in creation. The omnipotence and wisdom of God, which are everywhere apparent in the universe, furnish a testimony to God’s righteousness. All attributes of the Divine nature are rays proceeding from one centre ; where one is, there also of necessity must the others be. How can the being who everywhere shows Himself in creation to be most perfect be defective at this one point ? Every witness, therefore, in nature to God’s greatness as a Creator rises against an arraignment of God’s righteousness. Whoso will bring a charge against God’s justice must measure himself with the Divine omnipotence. Wordsworth.
27,28. Rain always presents itself first to an Oriental mind as the greatest source of all blessings. The words are graphic and carefully chosen. Cook.—Elihu, to affect Job with God’s sublimity and sovereignty, had directed him (35 : 5) to look unto the clouds ; in these verses he shows us what we may observe in the clouds we see which will lead us to consider the glorious perfections of their Creator. The clouds are as springs to this lower world ; the source and treasure of its moisture, and the great bank through which it circulates a necessary provision, the stagnation of which would be as hurtful to this lower world as of the blood to the body of man. H.
Consider the vast amount of water which is stored up in the atmosphere. The average quantity of aqueous vapor, or water held in the air, is estimated to be 54,460,000,000,000 tons. The annual amount of rainfall is estimated to be 186,240 cubic miles. If this rain were at any one moment equally spread over the land portion of the globe, it would cover all the continents—Asia, Africa, Europe, North and South America—with water three feet deep. Of course this water did not originate in the sky ; some time or other it must have ascended. Reflect now that water in its natural state, i.e., water as water, is 773 times heavier than air. Water as vapor occupies 1600 times larger space than water as liquid. Hence water in its vapor state is vastly lighter than air, and naturally ascends. That is the whole secret. By the simple, noiseless, generally invisible process of evaporation, this stupendous weight is raised to and kept suspended at this tremendous height. You know that the countless rivers of earth are evermore, day and night, pouring their vast volumes into the seas. Did you ever think why the seas do not overflow ? E.g., the narrow River Jordan alone annually discharges into the Dead Sea, say, a billion tons of water, and the Dead Sea has no apparent outlet ; and yet it does not overflow. And why ? Because as much water soars from it as flows into it. Did you ever think why the vast, inconceivable quantity of water suspended in the air does not fall on you in smiting, annihilating avalanches ? It is simply because the mists and clouds are but stupendous aerial reservoirs of water, oftentimes thousands of feet in thickness and tens of thousands of acres in breadth. The august system which supplies this vast earth with water is but a gigantic system of water-works, occupying very many thousands of miles in space, having its countless pumps of evaporation and reservoirs of clouds. G. D. B.
Design in water. In studying the evidence of design in water, consider that its specific gravity has been so adjusted that our ships float, and the oceans are made great highways for the nations; that it is easily converted into vapor, and as easily condensed to fertilizing rain and refreshing dew, which nourish the growing plants, fill the springs, and keep the rivers, the great arteries of the globe, in circulation; that at a comparatively low temperature it is changed into highly elastic steam, which, imprisoned by man in his iron boilers, has become the great civilizer of the world; that it has been so exceptionally constituted that the great mass cannot be cooled below forty degrees, and again has been made such a poor conductor of heat that, when the surface is frozen, the very ice becomes a protection against the cold; that to this same liquid there has been given a very great capacity for heat, and that thus it has been made the means of tempering materially the climates of the globe. Add to this that water has been made an almost universal solvent; that from the substances it holds in solution the crustacea form their shells and the coral polypi build their reefs; that it fills the cavities of the rocks with gems and their fissures with useful ores. Besides this host of wonderful mechanical adaptations, remember that water has been made a chemical agent of great energy and power; that there have been united in it the apparently incompatible qualities of blandness and great chemical force; that although in the laboratory of nature it corrodes the most resisting rocks, it also circulates through the leaflets of the rose and the still more delicate human lungs; that it forms the greater part of all organized beings, from the lichen to the oak, and from the polyp to man. Reflect, now, that these are only a few of the grosser qualities and functions of this remarkable compound, gleaned here and there from many others no less wonderful, and you will form still but a very imperfect conception of the amount of design which has been crowded into it. Attempt to find a liquid which, if in sufficient quantity, might supply its place, and you will be still further impressed by this evidence of intelligence and of thought. Of all the materials of our globe, water bears most conspicuously the stamp of the Great Designer, and as in the Book of Nature it teaches the most impressive lesson of His wisdom and power, so in the Book of Grace it has been made a token of God’s eternal covenant with man, and still reflects His never-fading promise from the painted bow. Cooke.
30. Spreadeth His light around
Him. Think how silent and gentle, though mighty, is the action of the light. Morning by morning God’s great mercy of sunrise steals upon a darkened world in still, slow, self-impartation; and the light which has a force that has carried it across gulfs of space that the imagination staggers in trying to conceive, yet falls so gently that it does not move the petals of the sleeping flowers, nor hurt the lids of an infant’s eyes, nor displace a grain of dust. Its force is gigantic, but, like its author, its gentleness makes its dependents great. So should we live and work, clothing all our power in tenderness, doing our work in quietness, disturbing nothing but the darkness, and with silent increase of beneficent power filling and flooding the dark earth with healing beams. A. M.
31,32. He makes use of the clouds for quite contrary ends; both to punish mankind by lightning, tempests, and floods, and to make a plentiful provision for them by fruitful showers. Bishop Patrick.
37:1. At this my heart trembleth. There is no break or pause in the thought between chaps. 36 and 37; the division is strictly arbitrary. The idea of the thunderstorm is dominant, with its awe-inspiring power, expressed by the figure of the melting of the heart, and its removal out of its place. It is a well-known fact that the boldest as well as the most timid are awed by the darkness, the glare of the lightning, and the loud peals of the thunder at the coming on of these storms. Even the irrational animals partake of the same feeling. Curry.
2-5. The passage contains a most vivid description of a rising storm, apparently one which was then coming on, preparing the minds of all present for the manifestation of the Godhead in the whirlwind. Cook.—The description is equally graphic and true to nature. (See Psalm 77:16-19.) These descriptions of meteorological phenomena in this marvellous poem have attracted the attention and commanded the admiration of both literary and scientific writers, notably Humboldt, who, referring to this very chapter, remarks: “The meteorological processes which take place in the atmosphere, the formation and solution of vapor, according to the changing direction of the wind, the play of its colors, the generation of the hail, and the rolling of thunder, are described with individualizing accuracy, and many questions are propounded which we, in the present state of our physical knowledge, may, indeed, be able to express under more scientific definitions, but scarcely to answer satisfactorily.”
6-8. The snowfall, the small rain of the beginnings of the rainy season, and the mighty rain that comes on when the seasons are at their height, are all sketched in one verse. The next verse (7) tells of its immediate effects upon men—the hand of every man is sealed up—shut up from ordinary labor—while the world is given over to a force before which men are powerless; and v. 8 tells of the effects produced upon the beasts, which hide away in their dens, some species to sleep away the season of storms in complete inaction. Curry.
6. To the snow, Fall thou on the earth. The smallest snowflakes are formed with the exactest skill and wisdom by the same hand that weighed out the mountains, poured forth the seas, hung the firmament with its radiant spheres, rolled every globe upon its own axis, and flung them whirling through unfathomed space. Creative power Divine, and a skill that mocks imagination’s utmost stretch, are here displayed in infinite minuteness. Truly, not the loud thunder of the cataract, nor the roar of ocean, nor the rush of mightiest avalanches, nor the heights sublime of vast majestic mountains, can more overwhelmingly impress the soul with a sense of the incomprehensible, unwearied, ever-active Omnipresence of the Mind of God! An atheist is baffled by a snowflake, by a raindrop, by a shooting ray of light; and so, too, is the man who can deny the Omnipresent and particular providence of God. G. B. C.
7. He sealeth up. Brings all human labors to a standstill, so that men may meditate upon His work, or that men who are His work may have a season for reflection. Elihu here reverts to his fixed thought, whatever God does has man’s instruction for its object. Cook.—He seals up the hand of every man. In frost and snow husbandmen cannot follow their business, nor some tradesmen, nor travellers when the weather is extreme; the plough is laid by, the shipping laid up, nothing is to be done, nothing to be got, that men, being taken off from their own work, may know His work, and contemplate that and give Him the glory of that; and, by the consideration of that work of His in the weather which seals up their hands, be led to celebrate His other great and marvellous works. H.
9,10. These verses are a description of stormy, cold, and frosty weather; winds, cold, and freezing are still among “the great things which God doeth, and which we cannot comprehend.” Scott.
10. Snowflakes and crystals of frost present under the microscope, and sometimes to the naked eye, wheels within wheels, orbs concentric and eccentric, radii, sectors, lunes, and polygons, with figures and angles of every kind which the highest magnifying power only exhibits in a still higher perfection. What is yet more wonderful, all these beautiful forms come by a very rapid process from the chaotic vapor of the clouds, or from formless drops so strangely transformed into other and far different appearances. This change is here declared to be wrought by the Spirit or breath of God. Crystallization is a beautiful term, but it furnishes no explanation of the phenomena themselves. Science knows no more of the hidden power at work among these particles of vapor than of what is going on in the mysterious nebula of Orion. It is from the same breath, too, come apparently the most opposite results—“hailstones and coals, or flames of fire” (Psalm 18:12). T. Lewis.
11-13. These verses express still more fully and graphically the Divine agency in the lower heavens, in the formation of the clouds and distribution of the rain over the earth, sometimes to scourge, sometimes to bless the land and to display God’s mercy; and in all these things He challenges our confidence and obedience. Curry.
12. And it is turned round about by His guidance. The irregular motions of the clouds proceed not from any power of their own, but from His superior direction; they, like all other created things, may be said to receive their commission from their Maker. Chappelow.
13. Rain sometimes turns into a judgment; it is a scourge to a sinful land; as once it was for the destruction of the whole world, so it is now often for the correction or discipline of some parts of it, by hindering seeding and harvest, raising the waters, and damaging harvests and dwellings. At other times it is a blessing; it is for His land that that may be made fruitful. See what a necessary dependence we have upon God, when the very same thing, according to the proportion in which it is given, may be either a great judgment or a great mercy, and without God we cannot have either a shower or a fair gleam. H.
14-20. Hearken unto this, O Job. Elihu makes his final appeal to Job, again reminding him of God’s great power and wisdom and of man’s helplessness and ignorance before Him. If Job is able to plead his cause before God, as he had desired, he is challenged to declare what men shall say to God, or how they might order their speech were they permitted to plead before Him. Job is reminded of his weakness by the contrast between God’s power over His works—the lightning and the clouds—and his own feebleness, as shown in the fact that he must be protected by his garments, and yet find these to be a burden when the hot south wind of the desert blows upon him. A glance at the face of the sky, spread out like a mirror, which God made and upholds, and to which man cannot reach, should teach him humility and uncomplaining submission. Curry.
14. Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God. Through all the works of nature God has displayed such manifold and amazing instances of perfect art and consummate skill; has placed before our eyes such a variety of glorious scenes, and framed everything in such order and beauty, harmony and proportion, that it may seem strange men should ever need to be called on to consider them. To consider and admire the wondrous works of God and to behold His government of the universe will doubtless be a principal branch of future felicity. Good reason therefore there is why we should now begin to accustom ourselves to this blessed study. Balgny.
16. We know not how the clouds are poised in the air, the balancing of them, which is one of the wondrous works of God. They are so balanced, so spread, that they never rob us of the benefit of the sun; even the cloudy day is day; so balanced that they do not fall at once or burst into cataracts or waterspouts; the rainbow is an intimation of God’s favor in balancing the clouds so as to keep them from drowning the world. Nay, so are they balanced that they impartially distribute their showers on the earth, so that, one time or other, every place has its share. H.—After all that science can tell us of the clouds, and how they are balanced in the air, there yet remains the deep and glorious mystery about them in which all things are embosomed. And after all our scientific knowledge is gained, that man sees the clouds most truly who sees them as the tokens of God, of His power and presence in the world. W. R. Brooks.
17. He describes an Arabian noonday in the height of summer, when the sun is in his full strength, and not a breath of wind stirring to cool the sultry air. The word “wind” is not in the original. “The south” means the south quarter of the heavens, when the sun is in the meridian. The excessive heat and bright transparency of the air in a summer’s noon, especially in the warmer climates, perplex philosophy with many difficult questions.
19-21. These concluding verses are the peroration; wherein he represents to Job the rashness and danger of disputing with God; sets forth the incomprehensibility of the schemes of providence; insists that they are planned and executed with most perfect equity and justice; and exhorts him and all mankind to annihilate themselves before their Maker, in profoundest reverence of His adorable majesty. Scott.
21,22. The meaning of this passage is: As, when the light of the sun is hidden from the sight of man by a cloud, the sun is nevertheless shining in the atmosphere, and presently again unveils itself to the eye, so God, though His interposition is often concealed from us, is surrounded by pure light; and as the dark north bears gold in its bosom, so also is there pure light behind the obscurity of God’s dispensations. Thus Elihu shows that man is not obliged to resign himself to such conclusions as Job had done, but may, from perceiving that there is a purpose in the Divine dealings, at least attain to so much knowledge that instead of arrogantly censuring providence, he may confidently look for a solution of its enigmas. O.
21. The text represents man’s life under the figure of a cloudy day. The sun is in the heavens, and there is always a bright light on the other side of the clouds; but only a dull, pale beam pierces through. Still, as the wind comes at length to the natural day of clouds, clearing them all away, and pouring in, from the whole firmament, a glorious and joyful light, so will a grand clearing come to the cloudy and dark day of life, and a full effulgence of light, from the throne of God, will irradiate all the objects of knowledge and experience. While we live under a cloud, yet there is abundance of light on the other side of the cloud and above it. All our experience in life goes to show that the better understanding we have of God’s dealings, the more satisfactory they appear. Things which seemed dark or inexplicable, or even impossible for God to suffer without wrong in Himself, are really bright with goodness in the end. What, then, shall we conclude but that on the other side of the cloud there is always a bright and glorious light, however dark it is underneath. Further, the cloud we are under will break away and be cleared. Precisely what is to be the manner and measure of our knowledge, in that fuller and more glorious revelation of the future, is not clear to us now, for that is one of the dark things, or mysteries, of our present state. But that there will be a great and sudden clearing of God’s way, as we enter that world, and a real dispersion of all the clouds that darken us here, is doubtless to be expected; for when our sin is completely taken away (as we know it then will be) all our guilty blindness will go with it, and that of itself will prepare a glorious unveiling of God and a vision of His beauty as it is. H. B.
The truth, here expressed in figure, touching the mixed experiences but happy issue of the believer’s life, is repeated in another form by Paul. “For now,” says the apostle, affirming it first plainly and then under another figure, “for now we know in part, but then we shall know as we are known; now we see through a glass darkly”—that is, through a partially obscured medium, “but then face to face.” So Elihu intimates, under a simple, appropriate image: The day of life is overclouded, but, though men see it not, the light is above and shineth dimly through the clouds; at the end the clouds shall all be cleared away, at even-time of the believer’s day it shall be light. God’s dealings with the believer are made up of blended light and shade. But at the end the darkness shall be dispelled, and all shall be light. There is an obvious necessity, wisdom, and kindness in blending shade with light, adversity with prosperity, trial with enjoyment, which many fail to observe and apprehend. An English queen once commanded her portrait to be taken without a shade upon the canvas. With an ignorance as great and infinitely more serious many would have life without its shadings of sorrow and sickness, of suffering and bereavement. They would have life without its moral discipline, without its needful, wise, kind effects of trial. Blessed be God that He knoweth and doeth better than they; that He understands and carries out the law of spiritual portraiture by setting in the shade to bring forth a truthful life to the light. B.
22. A golden sheen; literally, gold. From the context there cannot be a doubt that by this word Elihu means an appearance of a peculiar kind in the heavens, and approaching them from the north. It is something which seems to combine the beautiful with the terrible. That there was something of this fearful fascination about it is evident from the sudden cry, “With God is dreadful majesty!” rendered by Renan, “O admirable splendeur de Dieu!” Nothing but some wonderful glory before his eyes, something that filled him at the same time with wonder and alarm, could have called out such an exclamation. Some such strange appearance (as Ezekiel’s vision, 1:4), represented in the distance mainly by its golden color, appears to Elihu as coming from the same direction (the north). Ezekiel calls it “the likeness of the glory of God,” and falls upon his face; Elihu cries out, “O awful glory of Eloah!” and this is followed by one of those doxologies which appear to have been common to the ancient as well as to the later Arabians—Allah akbar, God is very great (vs. 23, 24), incomprehensible, vast in strength and righteousness, He will not oppress. T. Lewis.
23. This sublime sentiment is the sum of his whole speech in justification of God. The incomprehensibility and infinite perfection of God silence all objections to His government. This is a sufficient answer even to those two perplexing difficulties in the measures of providence which Job had started; the destruction of the righteous with the wicked in general calamities, and the prosperity of so many profligate men to the very end of their lives. Scott.—An admirable summary of the whole scope and bearing of Elihu’s speech; all God’s attributes harmonize with each other, and find their perfect manifestation in love. He will not afflict. He will not afflict greatly, or willingly; affliction is not an end but a means. Cook.
Elihu rejects the hard law of retribution. God’s purpose in chastisement he declares to be the purification of His servants. If He puts those whom He loves into the crucible, it is to purge away their dross, to cleanse them from past sins, and to keep them from falling in the future. Here, certainly, is a step in advance. We are standing on a loftier platform. We are breathing a purer atmosphere. To see a purpose of love in the affliction is to turn it into a blessing. Even if the conscience does not acknowledge it as merited, to be able to say, “It is a Father’s hand that chastens, and He is wiser than I”—this is surely to rob chastisement of its sting. And you will observe that Job accepts in silence this interpretation of his suffering. Evidently it has wrought in him that submission which prepared him for the words of Jehovah, when He answers him out of the whirlwind, and for the humble confession that follows. Perowne.
24. Elihu closes with the practical inference: Therefore men—namely, of the right sort, of sound heart, uncorrupted and unaffected, “fear him.” He does not regard the wise in heart—that is, those who imagine themselves such, and are proud of their “understanding.” Delitzsch.—Fear Him. This great instruction is the point of aim throughout Elihu’s speech; this is the sublime moral of the whole poem. To establish this primary duty of all religion by His own authority, the Deity Himself at last ap-
pears; the design of whose speech to Job is to reduce him to this reverent submission, and by his example to enforce it upon all others. Scott.