Job 25:1

Job 25:1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,

Ver. 1. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said] A pithy and ponderous speech he here maketh, though little to the purpose, for he quite digresseth from the question in hand concerning the wicked’s flourishing, and saints’ sufferings, he chooseth to sing the same song with his fellows, concerning the power and purity of God above all creatures. See Job 4:18; Job 15:15. Some men are of that mind, that they will never be said or set down, but strive to have the last word. This was Peter’s vanity and the rest of the disciples, Mat 26:35, which our Saviour winked at till time should confute them, as it also did soon after.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job_25:1-6

Dominion and fear are with Him.

Ideas of God and man

I. Most exalted ideas of god. He speaks of Him--

1. As the head of all authority. Dominion and fear are with Him.

2. As the maintainer of all peace. He maketh peace in His high places. Who maintains the order of the stellar universe? He is peaceful in His own nature, and peaceful in all His operations.

3. As the commander of all forces. Is there any number of His armies? What forces there are in the universe, material, mental, moral!

4. As the Fountain of all light. Upon whom doth not His light arise? He is the Father of lights.

5. As the perfection of all holiness. How then can man be justified with God? In this chapter Bildad gives--

II. Most humbling ideas of man. He represents him--

1. As morally degenerate. How can he be clean that is born of a woman?

2. As essentially insignificant. He is a worm. How frail in body! He is crushed before the moth. How frail his intellectual powers! Morally he is without strength. Conclusion--

1. The glorious light of nature. There is no reason to believe that Bildad had any special revelation from God.

2. The unsatisfactoriness of religious controversy. What has been the effect of all the arguments on Job? Not correction of mistakes, but great irritation and annoyance. (Homilist.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job 25:1. Then answered Bildad — Who makes the last weak effort against Job; and being unable to deny the truth of his assertions, but at the same time unwilling to give up the argument, shelters himself behind the acknowledged attributes of God, power, justice, and purity, and the infirmities of human nature. Probably he and the rest of Job’s friends now perceived that Job and they did not differ so much as they had thought. They owned that the wicked might prosper for a while; and Job owned they would be destroyed at the last. As to the point of bringing Job to confess himself guilty of some enormous crimes, which they at first rashly supposed had drawn this heavy judgment upon him, that is completely given up, and Bildad satisfies himself with an evasive answer to what Job had observed on that head, to this purpose, namely, that no man, strictly speaking, can be justified before God; man being at best a frail and fallible creature, and God a being of infinite purity and perfection; an argument which concerned Job no more than themselves, but equally involved them all in the same class of sinners. This answer has no reference to what Job spake last, but to that which seemed most reproveable in all his discourses, his censure of God’s proceedings with him, and his desire of disputing the matter with him. Bildad’s sentiments are extremely good and pious, but they are but little to the purpose, since he is now reduced to advance what Job had never disputed. “As we here take our leave,” says Dr. Dodd, “of the arguments urged by Job’s friends, we may just observe, in conclusion, that nothing could be more untoward than this conduct of theirs, to bring a charge against him which they could not prove, and from which his well- known virtue and integrity of life ought to have screened him. But, though Job very plainly shows them the injustice and inhumanity of this procedure; nay, though he confutes them so far that they had nothing to reply, yet, like modern disputants, they stood out to the last, and had not the grace to own their mistake, till God himself was pleased to thunder it in their ears. Here, then, we have a lively instance of the force of prejudice and prepossession.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CHAPTER 25 The Third Address of Bildad

1. What God is (Job 25:1-3)

2. What man is (Job 25:4-6)

Job 25:1-3. Bildad’s arguments are exhausted. He has reached the end of his resources and Zophar does not open his lips again. Nevertheless Bildad’s final word is of great force and beauty, with deep meaning. He gives a picture of what God is.

With Him dominion is reverence;

He maketh peace in His high places.

The number of His hosts who can count?

And upon whom doth not His light arise?

How pregnant with meaning these four sentences!

Job 25:4-6. And what is man, man the creature of the dust, the earthworm.

How then can man be just with God?

Or he be pure who is of woman born?

Behold for Him the moon hath no brightness,

And even the stars are not pure in His sight.

How much less man, that is but a worm!

Or any mortal man-nothing but a worm!

Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Bildad is to be commended here for two things: - 1. For speaking no more on the subject about which Job and he differed. Perhaps he began to think Job was in the right, and then it was justice to say no more concerning it, as one that contended for truth, not for victory, and therefore, for the finding of truth, would be content to lose the victory; or, if he still thought himself in the right, yet he knew when he had said enough, and would not wrangle endlessly for the last word. Perhaps indeed one reason why he and the rest of them let fall this debate was because they perceived that Job and they did not differ so much in opinion as they thought: they owned that wicked people might prosper a while, and Job owned they would be destroyed at last; how little then was the difference! If disputants would understand one another better, perhaps they would find themselves nearer one another than they imagined. 2. For speaking so well on the matter about which Job and he were agreed. If we would all get our hearts filled with awful thoughts of God and humble thoughts of ourselves, we should not be so apt as we are to fall out about matters of doubtful disputation, which are trifling or intricate.

Two ways Bildad takes here to exalt God and abase man: -

I. He shows how glorious God is, and thence infers how guilty and impure man is before him, Job 25:2-4. Let us see then,

1. What great things are here said of God, designed to possess Job with a reverence of him, and to check his reflections upon him and upon his dealings with him: (1.) God is the sovereign Lord of all, and with him is terrible majesty. Dominion and fear are with him, Job 25:2. He that gave being has an incontestable authority to give laws, and can enforce the laws he gives. He that made all has a right to dispose of all according to his own will, with an absolute sovereignty. Whatever he will do he does, and may do; and none can say unto him, What doest thou? or Why doest thou so? Dan 4:35. His having dominion (or being Dominus - Lord) bespeaks him both owner and ruler of all the creatures. They are all his, and they are all under his direction and at his disposal. Hence it follows that he is to be feared (that is, reverenced and obeyed), that he is feared by all that know him (the seraphim cover their faces before him), and that, first or last, all will be made to fear him. Men's dominion is often despicable, often despised, but God is always terrible. (2.) The glorious inhabitants of the upper world are all perfectly observant of him and entirely acquiesce in his will: He maketh peace in his high places. He enjoys himself in a perfect tranquillity. The holy angels never quarrel with him, nor with one another, but entirely acquiesce in his will, and unanimously execute it without murmuring or disputing. Thus the will of God is done in heaven; and thus we pray that it may be done by us and others on earth. The sun, moon, and stars, keep their courses, and never clash with one another: nay, even in this lower region, which is often disturbed with storms and tempests, yet when God pleases he commands peace, by making the storm a calm, Psa 107:29; Psa 65:7. Observe, The high places are his high places; for the heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's (Psa 115:16) in a peculiar manner. Peace is God's work; where it is made it is he that makes it, Isa 57:19. In heaven there is perfect peace; for there is perfect holiness, and there is God, who is love. (3.) He is a God of irresistible power: Is there any number of his armies? Job 25:3. The greatness and power of princes are judged of by their armies. God is not only himself almighty, but he has numberless numbers of armies at his beck and disposal, - standing armies that are never disbanded, - regular troops, and well disciplined, that are never to seek, never at a loss, that never mutiny, - veteran troops, that have been long in his service, - victorious troops, that never failed of success nor were ever foiled. All the creatures are his hosts, angels especially. He is Lord of all, Lord of hosts. He has numberless armies, and yet makes peace. He could make war upon us, but is willing to be at peace with us; and even the heavenly hosts were sent to proclaim peace on earth and good will towards men, Luk 2:14. (4.) His providence extends itself to all: Upon whom does not his light arise? The light of the sun is communicated to all parts of the world, and, take the year round, to all equally. See Psa 19:6. That is a faint resemblance of the universal cognizance and care God takes of the whole creation, Mat 5:45. All are under the light of his knowledge and are naked and open before him. All partake of the light of his goodness: it seems especially to be meant of that. He is good to all; the earth is full of his goodness. He is Deus optimus - God, the best of beings, as well as maximus - the greatest: he has power to destroy; but his pleasure is to show mercy. All the creatures live upon his bounty.

2. What low things are here said of man, and very truly and justly (Job 25:4): How then can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean? Man is not only mean, but vile, not only earthly, but filthy; he cannot be justified, he cannot be clean, (1.) In comparison with God. Man's righteousness and holiness, at the best, are nothing to God's, Psa 89:6. (2.) In debate with God. He that will quarrel with the word and providence of God must unavoidably go by the worst. God will be justified, and then man will be condemned, Psa 51:4; Rom 3:4. There is no error in God's judgment, and therefore there lies no exception against it, nor appeal from it. (3.) In the sight of God. If God is so great and glorious, how can man, who is guilty and impure, appear before him? Note, [1.] Man, by reason of his actual transgressions, is obnoxious to God's justice and cannot in himself be justified before him: he can neither plead Not guilty, nor plead any merit of his own to balance or extenuate his guilt. The scripture has concluded all under sin. [2.] Man, by reason of his original corruption, as he is born of a woman, is odious to God's holiness, and cannot be clean in his sight. God sees his impurity, and it is certain that by it he is rendered utterly unfit for communion and fellowship with God in grace here and for the vision and fruition of him in glory hereafter. We have need therefore to be born again of water and of the Holy Ghost, and to be bathed again and again in the blood of Christ, that fountain opened.

II. He shows how dark and defective even the heavenly bodies are in the sight of God, and in comparison with him, and thence infers how little, and mean, and worthless, man is. 1. The lights of heaven, though beauteous creatures, are before God as clods of earth (Job 25:5): Behold even to the moon, walking in brightness, and the stars, those glorious lamps of heaven, which the heathen were so charmed with the lustre of that they worshipped them - yet, in God's sight, in comparison with him, they shine not, they are not pure; they have no glory, by reason of the glory which excelleth, as a candle, though it burn, yet does not shine when it is set in the clear light of the sun. The glory of God, shining in his providences, eclipses the glory of the brightest creatures, Isa 24:23. The moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Sion. The heavenly bodies are often clouded; we plainly see spots in the moon, and, with the help of glasses, may sometimes discern spots upon the sun too: but God sees spots in them that we do not see. How durst Job then so confidently appeal to God, who would discover that amiss in him which he was not aware of in himself? 2. The children of men, though noble creatures, are before God but as worms of the earth (Job 25:6): How much less does man shine in honour, how much less is he pure in righteousness that is a worm, and the son of man, whoever he be, that is a worm! - a vermin (so some), not only mean and despicable, but noxious and detestable; a mite (so others), the smallest animal, which cannot be discerned with the naked eye, but through a magnifying glass. Such a thing is man. (1.) So mean, and little, and inconsiderable, in comparison with God and with the holy angels: so worthless and despicable, having his original in corruption, and hastening to corruption. What little reason has man to be proud, and what great reason to be humble! (2.) So weak and impotent, and so easily crushed, and therefore a very unequal match for Almighty God. Shall man be such a fool as to contend with his Maker, who can tread him to pieces more easily than we can a worm? (3.) So sordid and filthy. Man is not pure for he is a worm, hatched in putrefaction, and therefore odious to God. Let us therefore wonder at God's condescension in taking such worms as we are into covenant and communion with himself, especially at the condescension of the Son of God, in emptying himself so far as to say, I am a worm, and no man, Psa 22:6.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

CHAPTER XXV Bildad, the Shuhite, in an irregular speech, shows that God's

dominion is supreme, his armies innumerable, and his providence

extended over all, 1-3; that man cannot be justified before God; that even the heavenly

bodies cannot be reputed pure in his sight; much less man, who

is naturally weak and sinful, 4-6.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXV

Verse 1. Bildad the Shuhite] This is the last attack on Job; the others felt themselves foiled, though they had not humility enough to acknowledge it, but would not again return to the attack. Bildad has little to say, and that little is very little to the point. He makes a few assertions, particularly in reference to what Job had said in the commencement of the preceding chapter, of his desire to appear before God, and have his case tried by him, as he had the utmost confidence that his innocence should be fully proved. For this Bildad reprehends Job with arguments which had been brought forth often in this controversy, and as repeatedly confuted, Job 4:18; Job 15:14-16.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

XXV.

(1) Then answered Bildad.—Bildad attempts no formal reply to Job’s statements, he merely falls back upon the position twice assumed by Eliphaz before (Job_4:17-21; Job_15:14-16), and twice allowed also by Job (Job_14:4)—the impossibility of man being just with God—and therefore implies the impiety of Job in maintaining his righteousness before God. God, he says, is almighty, infinite, and absolute. How can any man contend with Him, or claim to be pure in His sight? This is the final speech of the friends. Bildad no longer accuses Job; he practically owns himself and his companions worsted in argument, seeing that he attempts no reply, but reiterates truisms that are independent of the special matter in hand. Job, in Job_23:3-12, had spoken of his longing for the Divine judgment; so Bildad labours to deprive him of that confidence, as though he would say, “I have nothing to do with your facts, nor can I explain them; but be that as it may, I am certain that you, or any mortal man, cannot be pure in the sight of God.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then answered Bildad the Shuhite,.... Not to what Job had just now delivered, in order to disprove that, that men, guilty of the grossest crimes, often go unpunished in this life, and prosper and succeed, and die in peace and quietness, as other men; either because he was convinced of the truth of what he had said, or else because he thought he was an obstinate man, and that it was best to let him alone, and say no more to him, since there was no likelihood of working any conviction on him; wherefore he only tries to possess his mind of the greatness and majesty of God, in order to deter him from applying to God in a judicial way, and expecting redress and relief from him;

and said; as follows.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Answered. He directs his attack against Job’s desiring to plead before God, and gives a wrong statement of his request, which he also attempts to refute, by urging the same inconclusive arguments as before. (Calmet) --- Blind and obstinate disputers still repeat the same objections; (Worthington) as Protestants do against the Catholic doctrines, which have been so often and so ably defended. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Bildad answered, not to that which Job spoke last, but to that which stuck most in Bildad’s mind, and which seemed most reprovable in all his discourses, to wit, his bold censure of God’s proceedings with him, and his avowed and oft-repeated desire of disputing the matter with him.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Bildad's Last Speech

He ignores Job's questionings respecting the justice of God's rule, but declares His perfection and majesty, and the imperfection of all created things, repeating the theme of the first cycle.

2. With him] i.e. with God. He maketh peace, etc.] He keeps in order the hosts of heaven: cp. Isa_24:21; Dan_10:13.

3. Armies] e.g. the angels and the elements.

4. Justified with God] RM 'just before God'; a rebuke to Job's presumption: cp. Job_4:17; Job_15:14.

5a. RV 'Behold, even the moon hath no brightness'; i.e. in the presence of God's glory.

With this chapter the speeches of the three friends, according to their present allocation, come to an end, for it will be observed that Zophar, the third speaker, offers no reply. It is probable, however, that, as already pointed out, Job_27:7-23 are his concluding words. If the present arrangement is correct, we may perhaps infer that they came to the conclusion that they and Job regarded the whole question from different and irreconcilable standpoints, and that further argument was useless. Or the poet may intend to suggest by Bildad's brief speech and Zophar's silence that they felt their case to be exhausted. Indeed, (in Job_32:1) Elihu regards the friends as practically acknowledging themselves worsted in the debate.

J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

BILDAD’S THIRD AND LAST REPLY.

1. Then answered Bildad — Job’s burning desire (chap. 23) to meet his Judge, leads Bildad to contrast the infinite and overwhelming glory of God with the corruption and meanness of man. How shall such a being — a worm bred in corruption — presume to appear in the presence of Him whose armies cannot be counted, and whose all pervading glory casts into shade the stars, and even the moon, so that it shineth not. This brief and sublime speech is the forlorn hope of a sinking cause — the brilliant flash of a signal gun at sea that tells to night and storm that all is lost. “It is an extraordinary refinement of the poet, that he has kept the last speech of the three friends free from direct accusations, and has, as it were, gathered and concentrated in it all that was true in the speeches of the friends.” — Ebrard.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 1-6. Far from accepting Job"s challenge, and grappling with the difficulty involved in the frequent, if not universal, prosperity of the wicked. Bildad, in his weak reply, entirely avoids the subject, and limits himself to briefly touching two old and well-worn topics the might of God (vers. 2, 3) and the universal sinfulness of men. On neither of these two points does he throw any fresh light. He avoids, however, the reckless charges of Eliphaz (Job_22:5-9) as well as the coarse menaces of Zophar. (Job_20:5-29)

Vers. 1, 2. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, Dominion and fear are with him (i.e. with God). God is the absolute Sovereign of the universe, to whom, therefore, all created beings must perforce submit themselves. He is also terrible in his might, so that for their own sakes men should submit to his decrees. Through his active sovereignty, and the fear which he inspires, he maketh peace in his high places. The meaning may be that, through these high attributes, God maintains peace among the dwellers in the supernal regions; but beyond this there is a possible allusion to a time in which peace was disturbed, and the Almighty had to "make" it, or re-establish it. (On the subject of the "war in heaven," and the defeat and subjection of the rebels, see the comment on Job_9:13)

HOMILETICS Vers. 1-4. Bildad to Job: The greatness of God and the littleness of man: an old sermon reproduced.

I THE GREATNESS OF GOD. To impress Job with suitable conceptions of the ineffable majesty of that Divine Being before whom he desired so confidently and, as it appeared to the speaker, so irreverently to come, (Job_23:3-5) Bildad depicts God"s dominion as:

1. Absolute in its character. "Dominion is with him" (ver. 2); i.e. as it is with no other. Earthly potentates derive their sovereignty from him. (Pro_8:15 1Pe_2:14) He also is the Fountain of authority for whatever principalities and powers exist in the heavenly places. (Col_1:16) But dominion exists in God essentially, absolutely, permanently. The uncreated, underived, and governmental supremacy of God is exhibited in Scripture with singular lucidity and fulness. (Gen_14:19 Deu_10:14 2Ki_19:15 1Ch_29:11 Psa_95:3 Mat_11:25 Rev_19:6)

2. Awe-inspiring in its influence. "Dominion and fear are with him" (ver. 2), the term "fear" defining the effect produced upon the creaturely imagination by the sublime majesty of the unnamed Deity, Bildad"s omission of that Deity"s name being a striking illustration of the precise import of his words. Reverential awe is the proper attitude for a creature to assume in presence of God; (Deu_5:29 Deu_10:12Jo Deu_24:14 2Ki_17:36 Psa_2:11) who should be feared by the inhabitants of earth generally, (Psa_33:8) by his redeemed ones especially, (Exo_15:11 Psa_89:17) by such as would serve him acceptably, (Heb_12:28) by those who would dwell with him continually, (Rev_11:18) by angelic hosts (Isa_6:2) and glorified saints. (Rev_15:4) This fear should be based on the majestical government of God, as Lord of heaven and earth.

3. Peaceful in its efficiency. "He maketh peace in his high places" (ver. 2), i.e. "among the celestial beings immediately surrounding him" (Delitzsch); producing

(1) harmony instead of discord, quenching all symptoms of internal dissension, and, where internecine warfare may have broken out, restoring the contending combatants to a state of tranquil amity;

(2) reconciliation instead of estrangement, pointing probably to some sublime act of mediation by which the holy angels were confirmed in obedience (e.g. the enthronement of Christ as Mediator: Candlish, "The Fatherhood of God," p. 279); and

(3) subjugation instead of revolt, exhibiting his power so effectively against the rebel angels that they are completely prevented from working harm against his throne or empire, hut are kept in chains against the judgment of the great day. As God rules in heaven, so also does he reign on earth in and through Christ, who is our Peacemaker, (Eph_2:14) having by his incarnation made peace (unity instead of division) between Jew and Gentile, by his cross produced at-one-ment (the reconciliation of both in one body unto God), and by his power will ultimately effect the complete subjugation of his foes. (1Co_15:24, 1Co_15:28)

4. Illimitable in its sway. "Is there any number of his armies?" (ver. 3). The armies alluded to are

(1) the angels, (Psa_103:21) who are represented in Scripture as an innumerable (Psa_68:17 Heb_12:22 Rev_5:11) host, arrayed in military order, (Dan_4:35) whose shining legions are led on by the power of the supreme Creator, (Psa_104:4 Mat_25:31) every individual member thereof being promptly obedient to that Creators will. (Zec_6:5 Mat_24:21 Heb_1:14)

(2) The stars, which also are in Scripture depicted as an army, (Isa_40:26) are discovered by modern science to be immensely more numerous than ever entered into the mind of Bildad to conceive. Though not intended by Bildad, God"s armies may be said also to include

(3) the creatures generally, which are all in his hand and under his control

5. Beneficent in its administration. "And upon whom cloth not his light arise?" (ver. 3).

(1) The light of his material sun, whose cheering beams, created (Gen_1:16) and directed by him, diffuse themselves abroad upon the face of earth, (Psa_19:6) awaking life, imparting health, producing beauty, inspiring joy, blessing all creatures animate and inanimate, rational and irrational, good and bad alike. (Mat_5:45) A sunless earth would be an arctic region of perpetual ice, a dismal chamber of horrors, a prison-house of misery, a cheerless sepulchre of death. Besides being signal demonstrations of God"s creative wisdom and power, the making of light and the disposition of it in a central orb are striking tokens of his goodness.

(2) The light of his providential favour, in respect of which he is styled "the Father of lights". (Jam_1:17) The goodness of God, like the light of the sun, is freely flowing, (Jam_1:5) far-extending, (Psa_33:5) all-enriching, (Psa_145:9) never-failing. (Psa_100:5) As the Divine beneficence blesses all God"s terrestrial creatures, we may rest assured it does not forget his celestial armies of saints and angels.

(3) The light of his gracious truth, which is also set forth in Scripture under the emblem of light, (Isa_2:5 Isa 9:2Jo Isa 12:35 2Co_4:4) Christ, in whom that light is embodied, (Joh_1:4 Joh_9:5) is characterized as the true Light, (Joh_1:8, Joh_1:9) being designed for the saving illumination of the spiritually benighted, collectively and individually. The light of his gospel is destined to circle round the earth like the sun. (Psa_19:4 Rom_10:18)

6. All-transcending in its splendour. "Whom doth not his light surpass?" (Delitzsch), The resplendent Ruler of the numberless legions of heaven is One whose glory, i.e. as a personal Sovereign, outshines in radiance that of each and all of those beings of light over whom he reigns. These latter have no light they derive not from him, as the moon and planets have none they receive not from the sun, and Christians none that does not come to them from Christ, round whom they revolve like attendant satellites; and so the glory which the angels or other creatures have is as no glory by reason of "the glory that excelleth.

II THE LITTLENESS OF MAN. With a painful lack of originality, Bildad, the master of ancient laws and popular traditions, quietly appropriates a sentiment which already Eliphaz had uttered, (Job_4:17-21 Job_15:14 Job_15:16) and to which even Job had assented, (Job_9:2 Job_14:4) that in comparison with so transcendently glorious a Being man must for ever be immeasurably insignificant and mean.

1. Guilty. "How then can man be justified with God?" (ver. 4). The argument is a fortiori: If these radiant beings constituting God"s celestial armies would never think of contending with him in order to establish the faultless purity of their characters, it is simply monstrous to suppose that a frail man, whose feebleness is the result of a depraved moral constitution, would ever succeed in securing acquittal before the bar of a holy God. The language implies

(1) that no man can be justified by works a doctrine pervading both the Old and New Testaments; (Job_9:2 Psa_143:2 Isa_57:12 Rom_3:20 Eph_2:9 Tit_3:5)

(2) that if a man is to be justified, it must be by grace, (Gen_15:6 Psa_32:2 Rom_3:24 Rom_5:21Ti Rom_3:7) i.e. without works and by faith; while it seems also to teach

(3) that the legal standing of the angels before the throne is not of works any more than man"s a doctrine of which obscure hints are believed to be found in Scripture (cf. Candlish"s "Fatherhood of God", lect. 6. p. 250).

2. Impure. "How can he be clean that is born of a woman?" (ver. 4). In Bildad"s estimation the moral defilement of man is

(1) involved in his origin, as being the child of woman a sentiment in which Job (cf. Job_14:1, Job_14:4) and Eliphaz (Job_15:14) alike concur (cf. homiletics, in loc .);

(2) proved by his station: "Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight: how much less, then, man?" (vers. 5, 6). Bildad, soaring at a lower altitude than Eliphaz, (Job_4:18) contrasts the glory of God with the purity of his highest creatures. The incomparable brilliance of an Oriental evening sky is attested by travellers; yet the pale, clear, silver whiteness of the moon"s light, and the sparkling lustre of the starry orbs, become dimmed beside the insufferable radiance of the Divine glory. (1Ti_6:16) The imperfection of the highest creatures being thus established, it follows that man, one of the lowest (physically considered), cannot be pure.

3. Feeble. "Man that is a worm, and the son of man that is a worm" (ver. 6). Man is compared by Eliphaz to a dweller in a mud hut, (Job_4:19) and by Job to a flower springing up from the soil. (Job_14:2) He is here likened to a worm bred by putrefaction, i.e. a mean, despicable, and insignificant creature, (Psa_22:6) which he is

(1) in comparison with the rest of creation, (Psa_8:3, 4 Isa_41:24) but much more

(2) in comparison with the God of creation. (Isa_40:22)

Learn:

1. The claim God has on the reverential homage of his creatures.

2. The antiquity of the gospel doctrine of justification by faith.

3. The humility man should cultivate in thinking of himself.

4. The infinite condescension of him who is the Lord of all the armies oflight in becoming a worm and no man.

5. The transcendent glory of Divine grace which contemplates the elevation of "man that is a worm, and the son of man that is a worm," to a position higher than the stars or the angels; yea, to a partnership in that very dominion (Rev_3:21) which belongs to God.

HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Ver. 1-4. The majesty of God and the weakness of man.

Leaving untouched the perplexing question of the prosperity of bad men, Bildad makes the point of his attack upon Job his assertions of innocence. (Job_23:10-12) His object is to insist that, the distance between man and God being infinite, man cannot enter into controversy with God, nor can he be pure in his eyes. The address of Bildad consists mainly of repetitions from the previous discourses of Eliphaz (Job_4:17 Job_15:14) descriptions of the majesty and sublimity of God. In reply, Job seizes the opportunity offered by his antagonist, and, after a few bitter words of self-vindication, proceeds to outvie and far surpass Bildad in his description of the greatness of God.

I GOD"S MAJESTY; AND APPLICATION. (Vers. 2-4)

1. Absolute power"carrying with it overwhelming awe into the minds of his subjects a power which has quelled the earlier discord of heaven and made peace in those heights is associated with God (ver. 2). He is "Lord of hosts," and those hosts are innumerable the stars of heaven, the angels who inhabit and guide them; (Job_15:15) and all the marvellous forces of nature winds, lightnings, waves, (Job_38:19-21 Psa_104:4) which do his bidding (ver. 3).

2. He is the absolute Light"from which all others are but reflected and derived. It is his garment and his glory. (Psa_104:2 Eze_1:27, 1Ti_6:16) It blesses and cheers all that lives. (Mat_5:45) No living creature is exempt from its all-pervading beams. Then how can a mortal be just with God? How can man, in his feebleness, enter into court and contend with absolute Power? (comp. Job_9:2) Thus the speaker would convict Job of folly. And then comes the second member of ver. 4 leading to the second great thought of the speech: "How can he be pure that is born of a woman?

II GOD"S PURITY; AND APPLICATION. (Vers. 5, 6) The bright silver lustre of the moon seems pale, the stars are dimmed, when compared with the essential and eternal splendour of the Highest to say nothing of man, the maggot, the worm! The stars are but the outer adornments of the palace and abode of God; and how, then, shall man, living on this dim spot that men call earth, think to meet God on equal terms and dispute with him? If he, like moon and stars, keeps to his rank and order, he may enjoy the benefit of God; if he attempts to travel beyond it, he will be crushed by the weight of the Divine majesty (Cocceius). The view of yonder glory reminds man of his sin and corruption. The celestial lustre is the sign of celestial purity in the inhabitants of heaven; his frailty and mortality are the evidence of his sin. The time has not yet come when, life and immortality being brought to light, man is conscious of the grandeur of his inward faith and of his spiritual destiny, when he refuses to be crushed by the dazzling might and splendour of the material universe because conscious of affinity to the creative thought. J.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

THIRD SPEECH OF BILDAD THE SHUHITE

His speech either a very abortive one, or it includes, as some think, the following chapter from the fifth verse to the end, the first four verses of that chapter probably belonging to the next one, but, by the mistake of transcribers, placed at the beginning of this.

The object of the speech to show Job’s presumption in thinking himself righteous before God, and in wishing to debate his cause with Him as an innocent sufferer.

With this view he sets forth the character and attributes of God. Appears to charge Job, though only by implication, with rebellion against the Divine Majesty, and to wish to overwhelm him with a view of the Divine power and holiness.

The speech true in its statements, just in its sentiments, sublime in its poetry. The argument employed in it solid, and similar to that ultimately used by Jehovah Himself to silence Job. The speech wanting in appropriateness to the case in hand, and in sympathy with the party addressed.

I. Bildad briefly descants on the attributes of God

1. His sovereignty (Job_25:2). “Dominion and fear are with him.” God not named. With Him whom thou challengest. Him emphatic. With Him and no other. God “the great and only Potentate.” The Supreme Ruler in heaven, earth, and hell. Therefore not to be resisted with impunity. As the supreme universal Ruler, God must be’ righteous in all His works. Therefore wicked, as well as ruinous, to oppose Him. God’s attribute of sovereignty frequently insisted on in the Scriptures. Examples: Psa_103:19; Isa_45:9; Dan_4:25; Dan_4:34-35. Fitted—

(1) To silence murmurings under affliction and trial.—

(2) To pacify and rest the soul under dark dispensations and mysterious providences. “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?”—

(3) To comfort the heart depressed by a view of abounding sin and misery, and of the apparent triumph of iniquity in the world. God, as Sovereign Ruler, able to make the wrath of man to praise Him, and to restrain the remainder of that wrath. Suffering only the discipline employed, or the punishment inflicted, by the Supreme Governor. Hell his prison-house for rebellious and impenitent subjects. His sovereignty consistent with the permission of rebellion and evil in His dominions. Will one day bring all things into full subjection.

2. Terrible majesty. “Dominion and fear are with him.” “With God is terrible majesty” (ch. Job_37:22). God’s majesty fitted to awaken fear. All the earth to stand in awe of Him. “Who shall not fear Thee?”—the song in heaven (Rev_15:4). “God greatly to be feared even in the assembly of his saints” (Psa_89:7). Seraphim cover their faces with their wings before Him (Isa_6:2). The posts of the temple-doors and the granite mass of Sinai shook at His presence (Isa_6:4; Psa_68:8). John, in Patmos, from fear fell at His feet as dead (Rev_1:17). Sin especially makes men afraid of God. “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luk_5:8).—As a consequence of God’s sovereignty and Divine majesty, He preserves harmony among the highest classes of His creatures. “He maketh peace in His high places.”—

(1) Among the angels, His higher intelligent creatures (Psa_103:20). God’s will done perfectly in heaven. No rebellious thought, word, or action found there. All loving, reverential submission to, and acquiescence in, the Divine will. Rebellion once permitted to enter, but immediately subdued and expelled for ever. Heaven a place of peace and harmony, order and tranquillity, safety and felicity. No hostile attempts suffered to be made upon its inhabitants from without; no disturbance or disquiet to arise within.—

(2) Among the heavenly bodies. These preserved by the Supreme Ruler in their respective orbits. No collision or injurious disturbance permitted from each other. “Music of the spheres,” an idea as true as it is beautiful.—Inferences:

(1) If peace prevails in His high places, it should also do so in His lower ones—the earth and its inhabitants. Monstrous for man to be in rebellion against His Creator.—

(2) If God makes peace in His high places, He will also make it in His lower ones. God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. To make peace on earth, the object of His Son’s mission into the world. “On earth peace” (Luk_2:14).—

(3) God the great peacemaker. His nature peace. True peace the peace of God. All true peace from Him. The God of peace. The author not of confusion, but of peace, order, and concord (1Co_14:33).—

(4) No rebellion which God is not able to quell. The continuance of rebellion on earth not the result of God’s weakness or indifference, but of His patience, compassion, and wisdom. The long-suffering of God is salvation. Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2Pe_3:9; 2Pe_3:15). He who makes peace in His places, is able to make it also in His lower ones.—

(5) God’s rule an efficient one. He not only wishes, but makes peace. Our great comfort. Man’s efforts to make peace in the world, in a country, in a family, in himself, ineffectual. God able to subdue all things to Himself, and so to make peace. He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth (Psa_46:9). Shall sepak peace to the heathen (Zec_9:10). Commands peace to raging winds and threatening waves. Speaks peace to the troubled soul: “Be of good comfort; thy sins are forgiven thee: go in peace.”

3. His power and greatness (Job_25:3). “Is there any number of his armies?” These armies are—

(1) Angels (Psa_103:2]). These innumerable (Psa_68:17; Rev_5:11; Dan_7:10). Angels of light doubtless much more numerous than those of darkness. Yet of these a legion, or some thousands, found in one single person (Mar_5:9; Mar_5:13). Milton rightly sings—

“Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth

Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.”

The inhabitants of this earth probably only as a drop in the ocean compared with the “innumerable company of angels.”—

(2) Heavenly bodies (Isa_40:26). These to us literally innumerable. Vastly more numerous than could be dreamt of by Bildad at that time. Only a very few of these visible to the naked eye. An immense multitude of dense clusters of stars apparently scattered throughout all space. These clusters like so many vast armies. The whole aggregate of these starry worlds a mighty host drawn up in endless battalions, probably only visible at once to the eye of the Almighty. Our Galaxy, or Milky Way, one of those immense clusters of stars or suns, with nearly thirty times as many towards the centre as near the extremities,—being rather a succession of irregular masses, more or less connected by isthmuses or bridges of orbs, stretching from the one to the other, in any one of which the number of stars is past reckoning. Yet this immense cluster, or combination of clusters, with its stars scattered by millions like glittering dust, is only one of these numerous “armies” that compose the celestial host. Upwards of two thousand of these nebulous clusters discovered in the northern, and more than one thousand in the southern heavens, which, by powerful telescopes, have been resolved into innumerable stars.—

(3) All creatures employed in serving God and ministering to His will. So locusts, &c., spoken of as Jehovah’s “great army” (Joe_2:25). The army of the Medes and Persians His weapons against Babylon (Isa_13:5; Jer_50:14). “Fire and hail, snow and vapour, stormy wind fulfilling his word,” included among his armies (Psa_148:8; Job_38:22-23). All nature His servants when “the Lord of hosts mustereth his host of the battle” (Isa_13:4).

“What is creation less

Than a capacious reservoir of means

Formed for His use, and ready at His will?”

4. His goodness and beneficence. “On whom doth not his light arise.” His light is:

(1) Literally and physically the light of the sun in the heavens. “His going forth is from the end of the earth, and his circuit unto the ends of it: nothing hid from the heat thereof” (Psa_19:6). “He maketh his sun to shine on the evil and on the good.” All lands, classes, characters, individuals, partakers of the precious benefit. Its preciousness only fully realized by those who have long felt its want—surrounded by “clouds instead, and ever-during dark.”—

(2) Figuratively, His favour and providential goodness. This universal. “The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.” “He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil” (Luk_6:35). “The Lord loveth the stranger in giving him food and raiment” (Deu_10:18). He sendeth rain both on the just and on the unjust. “Giveth rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness” (Act_16:17). God the Father of lights, from whom cometh down every good gift and every perfect gift (Jas_1:17).—

(3). “The light of truth and saving knowledge” (2Co_4:16). That light designed for all men. Christ the Light and the Saviour of the world. The true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world (Joh_1:9). A light to lighten the Gentiles. His birth glad tidings of great joy, which should be to all people. His commission to His disciples, Go ye unto all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. In Paul’s time that Gospel had already come into all the known world (Col_1:6). Christ lifted up to draw all men unto Him. The duty of the Church everywhere to hold forth this light (Php_2:15-16). Though the light may arise on all, men may wilfully shut it out, or not care to come forth and enjoy it. Unbelief closes the shutters against the light of life. Men may love darkness rather than light, their deeds being evil. No argument against the unversality of light that some men are blind, or shut up in prison, or refuse to enjoy its beams. The condemnation of many that light is come into the world (Joh_3:19).

5. His purity and holiness.—Job_25:5. “Behold, even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.” The moon and stars probably visible at the time, the dialogue being held in the soft moonlight of a tranquil evening in Arabia. Moon and stars apparently the fairest and purest objects in the visible creation. Yet even these impure in the view of and in comparison with God. The moon loses its brightness when seen beside Him, as the stars pale before the rising sun. All, even the purest creatures, impure in comparison with God. Seraphim cover their faces and their feet with their wings while standing before Him. Their adoring exclamation one to another: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts” (Isa_6:3. The song of glorified Saints: “Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord? for thou only are holy” (Rev_15:4). Isaiah, in the view of Jehovah’s glory in the temple, exclaims: “Woe is me! For I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, and dwell among a people of unclean lips” (Isa_6:5). Imperfection and varia bleness inherent in every creature. Spots on the sun and dark shadows on the surface of the moon. Absolute purity and perfection alone in God. The slightest shade of evil or imperfection infinitely removed from His spotlessly holy nature. All sin His perfect and unchangeable abhorrence. The lustre of stars and the holiness of angels only a faint reflection from His own.

II. Bildad’s inference (Job_25:4-6).

1. From God’s perfections in themselves. Job_25:4.—“How then can man (Hebrew, ‘weak, miserable man,’—enosh) be justified (Heb., ‘just’ or righteous) with God? Or How can he be clean that is born of a woman?” If God be such, how can man be righteous “with Him?”

(1) In comparison with Him;

(2) In His sight;

(3) In controversy with Him as a party;

(4) Before His tribunal as a judge.

Bildad’s inference intended to have pecial reference to Job. Founded on man’s character as a creature,—poor, weak, miserable, liable to suffering, disease, and, death. The reference rather to his physical than to his moral character. The latter however bound up with the former. Both the result of the Fall in Eden. Bildad infers man’s impurity from his physical infirmity as a creature. Man in his best estate necessarily impure in comparison with God. His moral impurity, however, not from his being a creature, but a fallen creature. “God made man upright.” Adam created in God’s image and after God’s likeness. As he left His Creator’s hands, pronounced by Himself “very good.” A suffering and a sinful state the twin effect of the first disobedience. “By one man sin entered the world, and death by sin.” “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners” (Rom_5:12; Rom_5:19). Only by the grace of God and the obedience of a second Adam can man now be righteous. The righteousness in which a man can now stand that of one who is both God and man,—one “born of a woman” like other men, and yet, unlike other men, begotten by the Father, and conceived in a virgin’s womb by the power of the Holy Ghost. The man Christ Jesus the specimen of a righteous man without sin. All believers viewed as righteous in Him. Made also partakers of His holy nature and character. The Gospel of the Grace of God gives the only answer to Bildad’s question, How can man be just with God? The answer, By union with the God-man Christ Jesus, effected through faith in him by the operation of the Holy Ghost. A man is now righteous with God, legally, through the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to him; pure in God’s sight, morally, through the regenerating power of the Holy Ghost in him. Viewed in Christ, God sees “no iniquity in Jacob.” Washed by faith in the blood of the Lamb we are made “whiter than the snow.” “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee (Son_4:7). Man, as “born of a woman,” is unclean; as born again of God, is or shall be pure as God is pure (1Jn_3:2-3).

2. From the impurity in God’s sight belonging to the purest creatures. Job_25:6—“How much less [pure in his sight is] man that is a worm (or maggot, the product of putridity), and the son of man who is a [crawling] worm (kindred terms used to denote the lowest state of degradation as well as weakness and defilement).” If the purest creatures are not clean in God’s sight, how then can man be so? Man made lower than the angels (Psa_8:5). A worm—

(1) In his place as a creature.

(2) In his character as a sinner.

Bildad’s second question also answered by the Gospel. Man, though a worm, can be clean in God’s sight. Christ, the Holy One of God, a worm, as a partaker of our weak humanity. Believers made one with Him are partakers of His pure and holy nature. The Son of God became a worm with man, to make worms sons of God with Himself. Every believer now possessed of a higher and holier nature than that of angels—the nature of the Son of God (Gal_2:20; Eph_5:30; 2Pe_1:4). The word of Christ, received by faith, the instrument in producing this purity (Joh_15:3; Joh_17:17; Eph_5:26; 1Pe_1:22).

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Bildad teaches us, to think highly and honourably of God, and to think meanly of ourselves, ver. 1-6.

Answered - Not to that which Job spake last, but to that which seemed most reprovable in all his discourses; his censure of God's proceedings with him, and his desire of disputing the matter with him. Perhaps Bildad and the rest now perceived that Job and they did not differ so much as they thought. They owned that the wicked might prosper for a while. And Job owned, they would be destroyed at the last.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

II. Bildad and Job: Chap. 25–26

A.—Bildad: Again setting forth the contrast between God’s exaltation and human impotence

Job 25

1. Man cannot argue with God

Job_25:2-4

1          Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said:

2     Dominion and fear are with Him,

He maketh peace in His high places.

3     Is there any number of His armies?

and upon whom doth not His light arise?

4     How then can man be justified with God?

or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?

2. Man is not pure before God: Job_25:5-6

5     Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not;

yea, the stars are not pure in His sight.

6     How much less man, that is a worm;

and the son of man, which is a worm?

B.—Job: Rebuke of his opponent, accompanied by a description, far surpassing his, of the exaltation and greatness of God

Job 26

1. Sharp rebuff of Bildad: Job_26:1-4

1          But Job answered, and said:

2     How hast thou helped him that is without power?

how savest thou the arm that hath no strength?

3     How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom?

and how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is?

4     To whom hast thou uttered words?

and whose spirit came from thee?

2. Description of the incomparable sovereignty and exaltation of God, given to surpass the far less spirited effort of Bildad in this direction: Job_26:6-14

5     Dead things are formed

from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof.

6     Hell is naked before Him,

and destruction hath no covering.

7     He stretcheth out the north over the empty place,

and hangeth the earth upon nothing.

8     He bindeth up the waters in His thick clouds;

and the cloud is not rent under them.

9     He holdeth back the face of His throne,

and spreadeth His cloud upon it.

10     He hath compassed the waters with bounds,

until the day and night come to an end.

11     The pillars of heaven tremble,

and are astonished at His reproof.

12     He divideth the sea with His power,

and by His understanding He smiteth through the proud.

13     By His spirit He hath garnished the heavens;

His hand hath formed the crooked serpent.

14     Lo, these are parts of His ways:

but how little a portion is heard of Him?

but the thunder of His power who can understand?

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. Job’s reply to the last assaults of Eliphaz had certainly avoided all personality, but had at the same time asserted his complete innocence in very strong, almost objectionable language (Job_23:10-12). It is more particularly to this vulnerable point that Bildad turns his attention in this, his last discourse, which limits itself to showing how unbecoming it is for man—this miserable worm of the earth—to arrogate to himself any right whatever before God, or to impute to himself any justice. In substance, accordingly, he lays down only two propositions, and that without enlarging on them, to wit: (1) Man cannot argue with God, the Almighty; (2) Before God, the Holy One, man cannot be pure. In this discourse, which closes the series of attacks on Job, he describes the divine greatness and exaltation, a description which is decidedly meagre, made up only of repetitions of what Eliphaz had said in his former discourses (comp. Job_4:17 seq.; Job_15:14 seq.). No wonder that Job discovers the opportunity thus presented to him, and in his reply, first of all, addresses to the speaker a sharp, bitterly satirical rebuff, and then meets his propositions in regard to God’s greatness and holiness, not by denying them, but by surpassing them with a far more magnificent and eloquent description of the same divine attributes. [And note particularly that as Bildad’s illustrations of his theme are drawn from the heavenly hosts and luminaries, Job in his reply dwells principally, though not exclusively on God’s greatness as manifested in the heavens above.—E.]—The Strophe-scheme of both discourses is very simple, Bildad’s discourse containing only two strophes, the first of three, the second of two verses; Job’s discourse containing four strophes, each of three verses.

2. The last discourse of Bildad: Job 25. Man can neither argue with God, nor is he pure before Him.

First Strophe: Job_25:2-4.—Dominion and fear are with Him, who maketh peace in His high places.—הַמְשֵׁל, lit. “to wield dominion, to exercise sovereignty,” a substantive Inf. absol. Hiph.; comp. Ewald, § 156, e.—[פחד is added in order to set forth the terrible majesty of this sovereignty.—Schlott.]—בִּמְרוֹמָיו cannot be understood as a more precise qualification of the subject: “He in His high places, He who is enthroned in the heights of heaven” (Reimarus, Umbreit, Hahn). It is rather a local qualification of the action affirmed of the subject. It accordingly describes the peace founded by God as established in the heights of heaven, and so having reference to the inhabitants of heaven, and pre-supposing their former strife. Bear in mind what was said above by Job of God’s “judging those in heaven” (Job_21:22), and comp. Isa_24:21; also below Job_26:13.—It is a weakening of the sense which is scarcely justified by the language to understand the passage as teaching God’s agency in harmonizing either the elements of the heavenly Kosmos (the perpetually recurring cycle, the wonderfully ordered paths of the stars, comp. Clemens Rom. 1 Cor. 19), or the discord of the heavenly spirits, conceived of only in the most abstract possible manner, but in truth continually averted by God, and thus as teaching the maintenance, not the making or institution, of peace (so Seb. Schmidt, J. Lange, Starke, etc.). [“Ewald explains the words of the heavenly powers and spirits represented by the innumerable host of the stars, which might indeed some time be at war among themselves, but which are ever brought again by the Higher Power into order and peace. But nothing whatever is said elsewhere of such a discord as now coming to pass in the upper world. All analogies point rather to a definite fact which is assigned to the beginning of creation.” Schlott.].

Job_25:3. Is there any number to His armies?—גְדוּדָיו, synonymous with צְבָאָיו, which is used elsewhere in this sense, are God’s hosts or armies, the stars, first of all, indeed, the heavenly armies, together with the angels which rule and inhabit them (comp. above on Job_15:15). Whether also the lower forces of nature, such as lightnings, winds, etc. (comp. Job_38:19 seq.; Psa_104:4, etc.) are intended, as Dillmann thinks is doubtful in view of the indefiniteness of the figurative form of expression. And upon whom does not His light arise?—The emphatic suffix ehu in אוֹרֵהוּ (comp. עֵינֵיהוּ, Job_24:23) puts His light, to wit God’s own light, in contrast with the derived lower light of His hosts. The expression is scarcely to be understood of the sunlight, which indeed itself belongs to the number of these נְדוּדִים: neither can יָקוּם be taken יִזְרַח= (neither here, nor Job_11:17). It is inadmissible accordingly to refer the words to the rising sun, as a sign of the fatherly beneficent solicitude of God for His earthly creatures (comp. Mat_5:45. So against Mercier, Hirz. Hahn, Schlott., etc.). We are to understand them rather of that absolutely supra-terrestrial light in which God dwells, which He wears as His garment, by which indeed He manifests His being, His heavenly doxa (Psa_104:2; Eze_1:27 seq.; 1Ti_6:16, etc.). In respect to this light Bildad asks: “upon whom does it not arise?” The question is not: “whom does it not surpass?” [“over whom (i.e. which of these beings of light) does it not rise, leaving it behind, and exceeding it in brightness?” Delitzsch], for קוּם would scarcely be appropriate for this thought, since the degree of light is not measured by its height (against Ewald, Heiligst., Del.)—but: “upon whom does it not dispense blessings and happiness?” (Dillm.)

Job_25:4. How could a mortal be just with God—(comp. Job_9:2): i. e. how could he appear before Him, to whose absolute power all heavenly beings are subject, arguing with Him, and making pretensions to righteousness? The second member, with which Job_4:17; Job_15:14 may be compared, stands connected with the principal thought of the discourse, which immediately follows, to the effect that no man possesses purity or moral spotlessness before God.

Second strophe: Job_25:5-6.

Job_25:5. Behold, even the moon, it shineth not brightly, and the stars are not pure in His eyes.—עַד־יָרֵחַ, lit. “even to the moon,’ i.e. even as regards the moon. In the following וְלֹא the וְ is the Vav of the apodosis; comp. Gesen. § 145 [§ 142], 2; and see above Job_23:12. יָהִל=יַאֲהִיל from אהל, an alternate form, found only here, of הלל, to be bright, to shine; comp. Job_31:26. Gekatilia’s attempt to render the verb—“to pitch a tent,” is inadmissible, for that must have read יְאָהֵל שָׁם, in order to yield the meaning—“He pitcheth not his tent.”—The clause—“in His eyes”—in the second member, belongs also to the first. Comp. the parallel passages already cited in Job_4:15.—Furthermore it is only the physical light, the silver-white streaming brilliancy of the stars, which is here put beside the absolute glory of God’s light (which is at once physical and ethical). Scarcely is there reference to the angels as inhabiting the stars, and to their moral purity (against Hirzel); from which however nothing can be inferred unfavorable to the theory that the stars, i.e., the heavenly globes of the starry world, are inhabited by angels.

Job_25:6. Much less then (אַף בִּי, as in Job_15:16) mortal man, the worm, etc. In regard to these figures of the maggot and the worm, as setting forth the insignificance, weakness, and contemptibleness of man, comp. Psa_22:7 [6]; also Isa_53:2, and similar descriptions.

3. Job’s rejoinder: Job 26. First Division (and Strophe): Job_26:2-4 : Sharp ironical rebuke of Bildad.

Job_26:2. How hast thou helped the powerless!מֶה־ here, like מַה, is equivalent to an ironical—“How well! How excellent!” (comp. Job_19:28). לֹא־כֹחַ, lit. “no-power” is abstr. pro conc. = the powerless; so also in bלֹא־עֹו = the strengthless, the feeble; and in Job_26:3 aלֹא חָכְמָה=the unwise, ignorant. By these three parallel descriptive clauses Job means of course himself, as the object of the well-intended, but perverted attempts of the friends to teach him (not God, as Mercier, Schlottm., etc. explain) [as though Bildad had regarded God as too feeble to maintain His own cause. But against this explanation the choice of verbs, if nothing else, would be, as Delitzsch argues, decisive].

Job_26:3..…and hast declared wisdom in abundance (לָרֹב, lit. “for multitude”) [“an ironical hit at the poverty-stricken brevity of B.’s speech.” Dillm.]. תּוּשִׁיָּה, here as in Job_5:12 may be rendered by “that which is to be accomplished,” provided it be referred to the intellectual world, and so understood as vera et realis sapientia (J. H. Mich.). Here indeed the word is used ironically of its opposite.

Job_26:4. To whom hast thou uttered words?—i. e. whom hast thou been desirous of reaching by thy words? for whom were thy elaborate speeches coined? was it, possibly, for me, who have not been touched by them in the least? So correctly the LXX.: τίνι ἀνήγγειλας ῤήματα, and the Vulg.: quem docere voluisti? The translation: “with whose assistance (אֶת־מִי) hast thou utttered these words?” (Arnh. Hahn) [Con.] seems indeed to be favored by b, but is condemned by the construction of the verb הִגִּיד elsewhere in our book with a double accusative (so also Job_31:37; comp. Eze_43:10), and does not agree so well with what precedes.—And whose breath went forth from thee?—i.e. from what kind of inspiration (inbreathing) hast thou spoken? is it the divine? Num Deo inspirante locutus es? The question involves a biting irony; for the speech of Bildad, so poor and meagre in thought, merely repeating a little of what Eliphaz had said already, might look accordingly as though it had been inspired by the latter.

4. Second Division: Job_26:5-14 : Eclipsing and surpassing the description given by Bildad of the exaltation and majesty of God by one far more glorious.

Second Strophe: Job_26:5-7. While Bildad’s description took its start from heaven, and it stars, Job begins by appealing to the realm of shades, together with its subterranean inhabitants as witnesses of the divine omnipotence and majesty, in order from this depth, the lowest foundation of all that is, to mount upward to the heavenly world—The shades are made to tremble.—רְפָאִים are not “giants,” as the Ancient Versions render the word, but in accordance with the root דפה (“to be slack, relaxed, exhausted,” comp. Ewald, § 55, e), “weak, powerless,” namely, the marrowless and bloodless shades or forms of the underworld, the wretched inhabitants of the realm of the dead; so also in Psa_88:11 [10]; Pro_2:18; Pro_9:18, and often: Isa_26:14; Isa_26:19; comp. Job_14:9 seq. [It seems every way reasonable to associate with the idea of weakness, nervelessness, etc., here given to the word that of gigantic stature, when we remember that this same word did denote a race of earthly giants, and that the tendency of the imagination to magnify the spectral forms of the dead is so common, if not universal. So Good: “The spectres of deified heroes were conceived, in the first ages of the world, to be of vast and more than mortal stature, as we learn from the following of Lucretius:

Quippe et enim jam tum divûm mortalia secla

Egregias animo fades vigilante videbant;

Et magis in somnis mirando corporis actu.”

This idea will certainly add to the gloomy sublimity of the description here. Let one imagine the gigantic “marrowless, bloodless phantoms or shades below writhe like a woman in travail as often as the majesty of the heavenly Ruler is felt by them, as perhaps by the raging of the sea, or the quaking of the earth.” Delitzsch. “That even these beings, although otherwise without feeling or motion, and situated at an immeasurable distance from God’s dwelling-place are sensible of the effects of God’s activity,—this is a much stronger witness to God’s greatness than aught that B. had alleged.” Hirzel]. Of these shades, living far from God in the depths under the earth and under the seas (comp. b: “beneath the waters and their inhabitants”), it is here said: “they are put in terror, they are made to tremble and quake” (יְחוֹלָלוּ, Pul. from חוּל, comp. Ewald, § 141 b), an expression which, like Psa_139:8; Pro_15:11, is intended to describe the energy of the divine omnipotence as illimitable and filling all things, extending even down to Sheol. Comp. also Jam_2:19, a passage otherwise related to the one before us, and perhaps suggested by it, but having a different purpose. [The rendering of E. V. needs but to be compared with the above to show how erroneous and unsatisfactory it is.—E.].

Job_26:6. Naked is the underworld before Him (comp. Heb_4:13 : πάντα δὲ γυμνὰ καὶ τετραχηλισμένα τοῖζ ὀφθαλμοῖζ αὐτοῦ), and the abyss of hell has no covering (for Him). Comp. on Pro_15:11, a passage parallel to this in matter, where אֲבַדּוֹן (lit. “destruction, annihilation”) stands precisely as here as a synonym of שְׁאֹל; also Psa_139:8, and below Job_38:17. [The definition, “destruction, annihilation” here given for אבדון is of course not to be understood in the metaphysical sense of the extinction of being. It is the destruction of life, as enjoyed on the face of the earth; the extinction of light, the derangement of order, the wasting away of all vital energy and beauty. Hence as שְׁאוֹל describes the underworld as the insatiable receptacle of the departed, demanding and drawing men into itself, orcus rapax, אֲבַדּוֹן gives us a glimpse yet deeper into its abysmal horrors, its destructive, wasting potencies. Hence the fearful significance with which in Rev. (Job_9:11) it is applied, as the Hebrew equivalent to the Greek Apollyon, to the angel of the bottomless pit.—E.].

Job_26:7. Who stretcheth out the northern heavens over empty space.—The Participles in this and the two following verses attach themselves to God, the logical subject of the ver. preceding [and are used to describe the divine activity herein specified as continuous]. Our rendering of צָפוֹן in the sense of the northern heavens, the northern half of the heavenly vault, has decisively in its favor the verb נטה, which is never used of the stretching out or expansion of the earth, or a part of it, but always of the out-stretching of the heavenly vault, which is conceived of as a tent; comp. Job_9:8; Isa_40:22; Isa_44:24; Zec_12:1; Psa_104:2, etc. It would be singular, moreover, if Job had first mentioned only a part of the earth, the northern, and not until afterwards had mentioned it as a whole, however true it might be that the popular notion of oriental antiquity, which represented the north of the earth as a part of it which abounded most in mountains, and was highest and heaviest, would seem to favor this view (against Hirzel, Ewald, Heiligst., Schlottmann, Dillmann). [Ewald calls attention to the corresponding Hindu notion concerning the north. Schlottmann thinks such a reference to the north as the heaviest part of the earth best suited to the connection. Dillmann argues that it could not properly be affirmed of the heavens, that they are stretched out over the תֹּהוּ]. The reference of צָפוֹן to the northern hemisphere of the heavens (Umbreit, Vaih., Hahn., Olsh., Del., etc.) is favored also by this considetion in addition to those already mentioned, that all the more important constellations which our book mentions (the Bear, Pleiades, etc.) belong to this northern hemisphere, and that moreover among other people of the ancient world, the “pole” (i. e. the north pole), and “heaven,” are used as synonyms; so especially among the Romans (Varro, de L. L. vii. 2, § 14; Ovid, Fast. 6, 278; Horace, and other poets). The correct view was substantially given by Brentius: Synecdoche, a part for the whole; for Aquino, which is Septentrio [North] is used for the whole heaven or firmament. Hangeth the earth upon nothing: בְּלִימָה, not anything [lit. “not-what”] = nothing, here substantially synonymous with “the empty space,” תֹּהוּ (comp. Gen_1:2), hence denoting the endless empty space in which the earth (which according to Job_26:10 is conceived of as a flat disk, rather than as a ball). together with the overarching northern heavens, hangs freely. The cosmological conception of the suspension of the earth in the empty space of the universe (with which may be compared parallel representations from the classics, such as Lucretius II., 600 seq.. Ovid, Fast. II., 269 seq.) does not conflict with the mention of the “pillars of the earth” in Job_9:6, for the reason that the “pillars” are conceived of as the inner roots or bones, the skeleton as it were of the body of the earth. It is only quite indirectly that the passage before us can be used to prove the creation of the world out of nothing. We may suggest as worthy of note the descriptions, which remind us of the one before us, in the more recent oriental poets, as e. g. the Persian Ferideddin Attar (in 5. Hammer, Geschichte der schönen Redekünste Persiens, p. 141, 143):

“Pillarless he spreads out the heavens

A canopy above the earth. …

What bears the atmosphere? ’Tis nothing,

Nothing on nothing, and only nothing;”

also the Arabian Audeddin Alnasaph (de religione Sonnitar., princ. Job_5:2):

“Out of a breath He made the heavens;” and already in the Koran, in its Sur. Job_13:2, it is said: “It is Allah, who has built the heavens on high, without founding it on visible pillars.” Comp. Umbreit on the ver.

Third Strophe: Job_26:8-10. Who bindeth up (or “shuts in,” comp. Pro_30:4, c) the waters in His clouds: which accordingly are regarded as vessels [bags, bottles, etc.] or transparent enclosures for the waters of the heavens above: without the clouds bursting under them (the waters); i. e. so that the weight of these masses of water does not cause them to pour themselves forth in torrents of rain out of their cloud-vessels, implying that this is as God expressly wills and orders it; comp. Gen_7:11; Gen_8:2. [“By which nothing more or less is meant than that the physical and meteorological laws of rain are of God’s appointment.” Del.].

Job_26:9 [“describes the dark and thickly clouded sky that showers down the rain in the appointed rainy season.” Del.] Who enshroudeth the outside of His throne—lit. “of the throne,” for כִּסֵּה, as in 1Ki_10:19 is for כִסֵּא, scarcely, as Hirzel thinks, by an error of transcription for כִסְּאֹה. But unquestionably “the throne” is simply = “His throne,” God’s throne in heaven (comp. Isa_66:1; Mat_5:34). It is said of the face or outside (פְּנֵי) of this throne, i. e., that side of it which is turned towards this earth, that God “encloses” or “enshrouds” it by causing the clouds to come between it and the earth. מְאַחֵז, Piel from אחז, used here of the artificial veiling, or unclosing, draping it as it were) [“אחז signifies to take hold of, in architecture to hold together by means of beams, or to fasten together. … then also as usually in Chald. and Syr. to shut (by means of cross-bars, Neh_7:3), here to shut off by surrounding with clouds.” Del. Hence not exactly “to hold back,” E. V. but to “fasten up.” Merx understands the verb of bearing, holding up, and the verse to set forth the miracle that God bears up the throne on which He sits. But in that case פני would be superfluous. E.]. Spreading over it His clouds—this member of the verse explaining the former. עָלָיו refers to פְּנֵי כִסְאוֹ, and the quadril. verb פַּרְשֵׁז is Inf. Absol. and may thus be rendered in Latin by expendendo, in our language by the Pres. Active Participle (comp. Ew. § 141, c; and Del. on the ver.) [According to others, e. g., Dillmann, Green, § 189 a, the vb. is preterite. Gesenius (Lex) regards the quadriliteral as a mixed form, from פרש and פרז. Delitzsch argues forcibly against this, and regards it as an intensive form of פרשׂ, formed by prosthesis, and an Arabic change of Sin into Shin.]

Job_26:10 [passes from the waters above to the waters below]. He hath rounded off (encircled, חָג, comp. the ἐγύρωσεν of the LXX.) a bound (חֹק as in Job_14:5) for the face of the water, to the ending of the light beside the darkness: or “to the extremity” (the confines, the boundary line) of the light with the darkness, ad lucis usque tenebrarumque confinia (Pareau). So correctly Del. and Dill. [E. V. Con., Words., Carey, Renan., Rod. Merx], while most moderns (Rosenm., Ewald, Hirz., Schlottm., Hahn, etc.) take עַד־תַּכְלִיִת by itself in an adverbial sense, “most perfectly, most accurately,” (comp. Job_28:3), take אוֹר either as a remoter accus. of חנ (so Hirz.), or as Genit. to חֹק, standing at the head of the clause in the construct state (so Ewald). In either case, however, we get a construction which is much too harsh. As proving that עַד־תַּכְלִית is by no means necessarily used adverbially, comp. above Job_11:7. The meaning of the verse will be rightly apprehended only by referring it not to the limit in time between light and darkness, i. e. to the regular succession of day and night (Schlottm.), but to the limit in space, the line separating between the light and dark regions of the heavenly circle, which runs along the surface of the waters of the ocean, encircling the earth. “That is to say this description, like that in Pro_8:27, has for its basis the conception, prevalent also among the classic nations, and down into the middle ages, that the earth is encompassed all around by water, or a sea,—that upon this earth-encircling ocean is marked out the circle of the celestial hemisphere, along which the sun and stars run their course (so that a part of the water lies within this circle)—that the region of the stars, of the light, lies inside of this circle, and that the region of darkness begins outside of it; comp. Voss on Virg. Georg. I., 240 seq.” Dillm.

Fourth Strophe: Job_26:11-13.—The pillars of heaven are made to tremble, and are astonished at His rebuke.—“Pillars of heaven” is the name which the poet gives to the mountains towering upon high, which seem as it were to bear up the arch of heaven; comp. the ancient classic legend of Atlas, and see above on Job_9:6. In speaking of these pillars as “moved to trembling” (יְרוֹפָפוּ, Piel. from רוּף, τινάσσειν) [“the signification of violent and quick motion backwards and forwards is secured to the verb” by forms in the Targ., Talm. and Arabic.—Del.], and as fleeing in astonishment before God’s rebuking thunder (comp. Psa_104:7; Isa_50:2; Nah_1:4), the poet describes here he phenomenon of an earthquake, or that of a tremendous thunderstorm (comp. Psalms 29.; also Rev_6:12 seq.; Job_20:11).

Job_26:12. By His power He frightens up the sea.—רגע here not intransitive as in Job_7:5; but transitive in the sense of “frightening up, arousing,” τ̔αράσσειν (comp. Isa_51:15; Jer_31:35); hardly in the sense of intimidating, or putting at rest, as some expositors [Umbreit, Dillm. [Conant, Carey, Rod.], etc.) render the verb after the LXX. (κατέπαυσεν). [E. V. “divideth” (and so Bernard) here, and in all the passages cited: but unsupported and less suitably.]—And by His understanding He smites Rahab in pieces.—Comp. on Job_9:13, where already it was shown to be necessary to understand רַחַב (LXX.: τὸ κῆτος) of a colossal demon-monster of legendary antiquity (not of Egypt, nor of the raging fury of the sea, to which מחץ, “to shatter, to dash in pieces” would not be suitable).

Job_26:13. By His breath the heavens become bright: lit. “are brightness,” שִׁפְרָה, a substantive found only here, which, however, does not denote a permanent quality of the heavens (Rosenm.), but one that is transiently [occasionally] produced by God [by His breath He scatters the clouds, and brightens the face of heaven]; His hand hath pierced the fleeing serpent.—חֹלְלָה, Po. from חלל, Isa_51:9, hence perforavit, trucidavit; not Pil. from חול or חילֹ, so that it would express the idea of forming, creating as the Targ., Jer., Rosenm., Arnh., Vaih., Welte, Renan [E. V., Con., Noy., Ber., Rod.], explain. For here again the discourse treats not of a creative energy of God, but of one that is exercised as a part of the established order of nature, and in all probability it discusses the same theme as that to which Job_3:8 refers, to wit, the production of eclipses of the sun and moon. For the popular superstition prevalent at the time of the composition of our book conceived of this phenomenon as consisting in the attempt of a dragon-like dark monster to swallow up these luminaries, accompanied by an intervention of God, who slays or strangles this monster [“so that it was customary to say, when the sun or moon was eclipsed: ‘The Dragon, or the Flying Serpent, has wound around it;’ and on the other hand when it was released from the obscuration: ‘God has killed the Dragon.’ ” Dillm.] It is to this exercise of God’s power, bringing deliverance, that the clause חֹלְלָה יָדוֹ refers, while נָחָשׁ בָּרִיחַ (the same expression also in Isa_27:1) denotes the monster referred to, which is represented as seized upon in the act of fleeing (before God), hence as “a fugitive, fleeing serpent.” In that parallel passage in Isaiah, the LXX. rightly translate by ὄφιν φεύγοντα, while their rendering in the passage before us, δράκοντα ἀποστάτην, whether we regard the language or the thought, is equally inadmissible with the coluber tortuosus of the Vulg. [followed by E. V. “crooked serpent”], or the serpenlem vectem of the same version in Isa_27:1 (comp. the ὄφιν συγκλείοντα, “the barring serpent,” of Symmachus).

Job_26:14. A recapitulating closing verse, standing outside of the schema of strophes.—Lo, these (אֵלֶּה pointing backwards, as in Job_18:21) are the ends of His ways; or, “of His way,” according to the K’thibh; the same wavering between דַּרְכּוֹ and דְּרָכָיו to be seen also in Pro_8:22. The “ends” or “borders” (Delitzsch) [Conant, Words., etc.,] of God’s ways are the extreme outlines of what He is doing in governing the world, those intimations of His heavenly activity which are lowest, and nearest, and most immediately accessible to our power of apprehension.—And what a faintly whispering word (it is) that we hear!—דָּבָר וּמָה־שֶׁמֶץ, lit. “and what a whisper of a word.” For this combination of מָה with a substantive in apposition, comp. Psa_30:10; Isa_40:18; and for שָׁמַע with בְּ of the attentive hearing of anything, see above Job_21:2; also Job_37:2; Gen_27:5; Psa_92:12. Against the partitive rendering of בּוֹ, advocated by Schlott. and Delitzsch, may be urged the plur form דְּרָכָיו, preferred by the Masoretes, as well as the probability that to express this meaning the preposition מִן would rather have been used. [Here again, as in Job_4:12, the incorrect rendering of E. V.: “How little a portion is heard of Him,” mars the poetic beauty and graphic contrast of the passage. On שמץ Wordsworth remarks: “We feel as it were a zephyr of God’s Presence walking in the garden of this world in the cool of the day.”]—But the thunder of His omnipotence (according to the K’ri גְּבוּרוֹתָיו, “his energies”) who can understand?i. e. the full, unmodified manifestation of His energies, the unsmothered “thunder-course” of His heavenly spheres (comp. what Raphael says in the Prologue to Faust) would be unbearable by us, frail, sinful children of earth. [“Job could not have uttered in nobler language his deep feeling of the degree in which the divine glory surpasses all human knowledge. There resounds in it in truth an echo of the far-off divine thunder itself, and before this the poet has the friends now become entirely dumb.” Schlottm.]

DOCTRINAL, ETHICAL AND HOMILETICAL

1. That which Bildad brings forward against Job in Job 25. is so meagre, and possesses so little novelty, that it may be said, that in his discourse the opposition of the friends dies the death of exhaustion, and that the bitter irony of Job’s rejoinder to it seems fully justified. For the real problem which underlies the whole controversy—the great mystery touching the frequency with which the innocent suffer, which Job had again set forth so eloquently just before—that problem Bildad certainly does not consider. He avoids indeed those bitter personalities and odious accusations against Job with which Eliphaz had made his exit just before in a manner that was altogether unworthy, and takes his leave of the sufferer, whom he himself also had heretofore violently assailed, in a way that is relatively friendly—in a way in which the final peaceful termination of the conflict (Job_42:7-9) is remotely intimated. That which Bildad actually brings forward is a truth which does not at all touch the real point at issue, which Job himself has on former occasions expressly conceded (see Job_9:2; Job_14:4), the same truth which Eliphaz had in his first two discourses prominently emphasized, and in the renewed statement of which, at this time, Bildad closely copies even the expressions of his older associate. He “only reminds Job of the universal sinfulness of the human race once again, without direct accusation, in order that Job may himself derive from it the admonition to humble himself; and this admonition Job really needs, for his speeches are in many ways contrary to that humility which is still the duty of sinful man, even in connection with the best justified consciousness of right thoughts and actions towards the holy God” (Del.).

2. Of the fact that Job is still wanting in proper humility, and in a profound perception of sin, he at once proceeds to give evidence in his rejoinder in Job 26. In this he appears as decisively victorious over his opponents, who have shown themselves totally unequal to the problem to be solved, while he, by his emphatic reference to the incomprehensibleness and unsearchableness of God’s ways, had made at least an important advance towards its solution, and had shown his appreciation of the mystery as such in its entire significance. But he makes his vanquished opponents duly sensible of this superiority which he had over them, when in replying to Bildad, the last speaker of the number, he wields the weapon of sarcasm in a way that is altogether merciless, and seeks to humiliate him by a eulogy of the divine omnipotence and exaltation which is visibly intended to surpass and eclipse that which had been said by him. It is true indeed that this very description in its incomparable grandeur gives us to understand clearly enough how entirely filled and carried away Job is by its infinitely elevated theme, and how by virtue of his flight to this height of an inspired contemplation of God. every thought respecting the unrelenting, or even vindictive persecution of his opponents disappears, so that the closing reference to the unattainable height and glory of the divine nature and activity (Job_26:14) is unaccompanied by any expression whatever of triumphant pride, or bitter enjoyment of their discomfiture (comp. V. Gerlach below, Homiletic Remarks on Job_26:2 seq.). The pure and undivided enthusiasm with which he surrenders himself to the contemplation of the Divine has manifestly an ennobling, purifying, and elevating influence on his spirit. It shows that he is not far removed at length from the goal of a perfectly correct and true solution of the dark mystery which occupies him. It makes it apparent that essentially one thing is lacking to him that he may press upward through the dark scenes of his conflict to the light of pure truth and peace with God, and that is—a humble submission beneath the dealings of the only wise and true God, dealings which are righteous even towards him, sincere repentance and confession of the errors and failures of which he had been guilty even during the hot conflict of suffering through which he had passed, that “repenting in dust and ashes” to which God’s treatment brought him at last, as one who had been afflicted by his Heavenly Father, not indeed in accordance with the ordinary standard of retribution, but nevertheless not unjustly, not without a remedial and loving purpose.

3. That which is of greatest interest in the two short sections preceding not only to the scientific, but also to the practical and homiletic expositor, are those elements of a poetic cosmology and physical theology, which in Bildad’s discourse are presented more briefly and more in the way of suggestion, but which in that of Job are exhibited in a more developed and comprehensive form. It is that material which at an earlier day was treated by Baur in his Systema Mundi Jobæum (Hal. 1707), Scheuchzer in his Jobi Physica Sacra, etc., and which to this day is a theme of no small interest in its theological aspects as well as in those related to cosmology and the history of civilization. The fact that certain mythological representations, and in particular a few traces of astronomical myths, are scattered over this magnificent picture of creation, and that the teachings of modern science concerning the mechanism of the heavens cannot be derived from it, cannot injure the peculiarly high value of the description, nor destroy its utility for practical purposes. It is in any case a view of the universe of incontrovertible grandeur, which in all that is described in Job_26:5-13 beholds only the “fringes” of God’s glory as they hang over on earth (comp. Isa_6:1), only a few meagre lineaments of the entire divine manifestation, only a muffled murmur echoing from afar off as a poor substitute for the thunder of His omnipotence. And in respect to the purity and correctness of its representations in detail, this physical theology of Job ranks sufficiently high, as is shown by that which is said of “hanging the earth upon nothing” (Job_26:7), a description of the fact no less surprising than the following descriptions of meteorological and geological processes are poetically bold and elevated.

Particular Passages

Job_25:4 seq. Cocceius: Although in our eyes the stars may seem καθαρόν τι στίλβειν (to shine with some degree of purity], nevertheless even they are outside of God’s habitation, being esteemed unworthy to adorn His dwelling-place. … How therefore can miserable man, who is mortal and diseased and liable to death, who is a son of Adam, who is no worthier than a worm, or a grub, who is made of earth, who crawls on the earth, who lives by the earth, who is at once foul and defiled, … who in a word is as far below the stars, as the worm is below himself—how shall he dare or be able to face God in His court, and on equal terms to argue with Him? Let him, along with the moon and the stars, keep himself in his own station, and he will enjoy God’s favors; but let him attempt to exalt himself, and he will be crushed by the weight of the divine majesty.—V. Gerlach: As the hosts of heaven are types of the pure spirits of heaven, so is their brightness a type of the holiness of the inhabitants of heaven, just as immediately after (in Job_26:6) the mortality and wretchedness of man is a type of his sinfulness. In this contra-position there lies a profound truth: Holiness and shining brightness, and sin and death’s corruption correspond to each other. In his frailty and mortality man has an incessant reminder of his sin and corruption; in seeing his outward lot he should humble himself inwardly before God.

Job_26:2-4. Wohlfarth: After that Job has ironically shown to his friend the irrelevancy of his reply; he takes a nobler revenge upon him, by delivering a much worthier eulogy on God’s exalted greatness, of which notwithstanding and during his suffering he has a most vivid and penetrating conviction.—V. Gerlach: Job’s frame of mind bordering on pride, which causes him altogether to misunderstand that which is glorious and exalted in Bildad’s last discourse, belongs to the earthly folly which clings to him, which is to be stripped away from him by the sufferings and conflicts of his inner man, and which does at last really fall away from him. The splendid description which follows, and especially its humble conclusion (Job_26:14), proves in the meanwhile that the fundamental disposition of Job’s heart was different from that which the particular expressions uttered by him in his more despondent moods would seem to indicate.

Job_26:7 seq. Brentius: The fact that God stretches out the heavens, and supports the earth, without the aid of pillars, is a great argument in proof of His power (Psa_102:26). The poets relate that Atlas supports heaven on his shoulders; but we acknowledge the true Atlas, the Lord our God, who by His word supports both heaven and earth.—Wohlfarth: The look to heaven which Job here requires us to take, does not indeed reach upwards to the throne of the Eternal (Job_26:7 seq.). But although we cannot now behold Him, who dwells in His inaccessible light, we can nevertheless feel His nearness, recognize His existence, experience His influence, see His greatness and majesty, when we pray to Him as the Being who stretches out the heavens above the earth like a tent, at whose beckoning the clouds open and water the thirsty earth, who has given to the water its bounds, etc. As the work bears witness to its master, so does the universe to its Creator, Preserver, and Ruler (Psa_19:5); and no despairing one has ever beheld the eternal order which stands before him, and its mysterious, but ever beneficent movements, no sinner desiring salvation has ever tarried in the courts of this great temple of God, without being richly dowered with heavenly blessings

Job_26:14. Oecolampadius: These tokens of divine power however great will nevertheless rightly be esteemed small, as being hardly a slight whisper in comparison with the mighty thunder. There is nothing therefore so frightful, but faith will be able to endure it, when it thus exercises itself in the works of God’s power, especially with the word of promise added.—Wohlfarth: We can survey only the smallest portion of God’s immeasurable realm! What is the knowledge of the greatest sages but the short-sighted vision of a worm! Our earth is a grain of sand in the All, the “drop of a bucket,” as the prophet says; and how little do we know of Him; how great is the sum of that which is hidden from us! (1Co_13:9 seq.).

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Bildad Rebukes Job Again.

Since Job had asserted his innocence in such emphatic terms, Bildad believed it incumbent upon him to reprove him, chiefly in two propositions, namely, that man cannot argue with God, and that no man is pure before God. He thereby changed the issue; for the original point of the friends had been that Job’s affliction proved him guilty of some special transgression in the sight of God.

v. 1. Then answered Bildad, the Shuhite, and said, speaking for the last time,

v. 2. Dominion and fear are with Him, the awe through which God exercises His sovereign power; He maketh peace in His high places, even the heavens and all their host being subject to Him and bowing to His decrees without argument.

v. 3. Is there any number of His armies, of whatever forces of angels and of heavenly powers He chooses to carry out His will? And upon whom doth His light arise? The great light of God’s majesty surpasses all understanding of creatures, it cannot be grasped by their finite minds, 1Ti 6:16. It shuts off in advance all criticism on the part of men.

v. 4. How, then, can man be justified with God? How could any mortal hope to vindicate himself in God’s sight? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? It is impossible for any man to contend with the Almighty in the hope of establishing his moral purity.

v. 5. Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not, the moon itself pales beside the absolute glory of God’s light; yea, the stars are not pure in His sight, their scintillating brilliancy also fades into darkness beside God’s majesty.

v. 6. How much less man, that is a worm, mortal man being like a maggot given to corruption in God’s sight, and the son of man, which is a worm, weak and groveling in the dust before the Lord’s almighty power! So Bildad emphasized the general sinfulness of man, his statements implying the admonition that Job should now confess with proper humility. It is so much easier to reprove others than to take a proper inventory of one’s own weaknesses and sins.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job 25:2

The most beautiful word that ever hung upon the mouth of man is peace, because it is sweetness to his fellow-men, and it makes sacrifice to God. Many summers and many winters of life go to ripen that fruit. And of that beautiful fruit of the lips hear what God says: "I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace, to him that is far off and to him that is near, saith the Lord; I will heal him."

I. The words are meant to teach us that up in His high places God is ever devising and carrying on processes which are to produce peace for men in this lower state. In mystery, in solitude, and in largeness, before the foundations of the earth were laid, God began to make peace in His high places. He willed that great scheme whereby Christ should come in the fulness of time to make redemption for a yet unformed and yet uncreated world. The ruin of Eden was prepared for in the high places of the eternal mind; and at once, at the moment of the Fall, the promise came that peace should be restored on earth.

II. The far end of Christ’s work was to give peace on earth. When He ascended from His Cross and grave to more than His former greatness, and when from His eternal throne He began to offer up His mediatorial intercession and pour down upon His Church the Holy Spirit, then was the fabric of man’s peace complete, those words established to the very letter, "He maketh peace in His high places."

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 72.

References: Job 25—S. Cox, Expositor, 1st series, vol. viii., p. 270; Ibid., Commentary on Job, p. 321.

The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

XXI.

THE DOMINION AND THE BRIGHTNESS

Job 25

BILDAD SPEAKS

THE argument of the last chapter proceeded entirely on the general aspect of the question whether the evil are punished in proportion to their crimes. Job has met his friends so far as to place them in a great difficulty. They cannot assail him now as a sort of infidel. And yet what he has granted does not yield the main ground. They cannot deny his contrast between the two classes of evildoers nor refuse to admit that the strong oppressor has a different fate from the mean adulterer or thief. Bildad therefore confines himself to two general principles, that God is the supreme administrator of justice and that no man is clean. He will not now affirm that Job has been a tyrant to the poor, He dares not call him a murderer or a housebreaker. A snare has been laid for him who spoke much of snares, and seeing it he is on his guard.

Dominion and fear are with Him;

He maketh peace in His high places.

Is there any number of His armies?

And on whom doth not His light shine?

How then can man be just with God?

Or how can he of woman born be clean?

Behold, even the moon hath no brightness,

And the stars are not pure in His sight.

How much less man that is a worm,

And the son of man, the worm!

The brief ode has a certain dignity raising it above the level of Bildads previous utterances. He desires to show that Job has been too bold in his criticism of providence. God has sole dominion and claims universal adoration. Where He dwells in the lofty place of unapproachable glory His presence and rule create peace. He is the Lord of innumerable armies (the stars and their inhabitants perhaps), and His light fills the breadth of interminable space, revealing and illuminating every life. Upon this assertion of the majesty of God is based the idea of His holiness: Before so great and glorious a Being how can man be righteous? The universality of His power and the brightness of His presence stand in contrast to the narrow range of human energy and the darkness of the human mind.

Behold, says Bildad, the moon is eclipsed by a glance of the great Creator and the stars are cast into shadow by His effulgence; and how shall man whose body is of the earth earthy claim any cleanness of soul? He is like the worm; his kinship is with corruption; his place is in the dust like the creeping things of which he becomes the prey.

The representation of God in His exaltation and glory has a tone of impressive piety which redeems Bildad from any suspicion of insolence at this point. He is including himself and his friends among those whose lives appear impure in the sight of Heaven. He is showing that successfully as Job may repel the charges brought against him, there is at all events one general condemnation in which with all men he must allow himself to be involved. Is he not a feeble ignorant man whose will, being finite, must be imperfect? On the one hand is the pious exaltation of God, on the other the pious abasement of man.

It is, however, easy to see that Bildad is still bound to a creed of the superficial kind without moral depth or spiritual force. The ideas are those of a nature religion in which the one God is a supreme Baal or Master, monopolising all splendor, His purity that of the fire or the light. We are shown the Lord of the visible universe whose dwelling is in the high heavens, whose representative is the bright sun from the light of which nothing is hidden. It is easy to point to this splendid apparition and, contrasting man with the great fire force, the perennial fountain of light, to say-How dark, how puny, how imperfect is man! The brilliance of an Arabian sky through which the sun marches in unobstructed glory seems in complete contrast to the darkness of human life. Yet, is it fair, is it competent to argue thus? Is anything established as to the moral quality of man because he cannot shine like the sun or even with the lesser light of moon or stars? One may allow a hint of strong thought in the suggestion that boundless majesty and power are necessary to perfect virtue, that the Almighty alone can be entirely pure. But Bildad cannot be said to grasp this idea. If it gleams before his mind, the faint flash passes unrecognised. He has not wisdom enough to work out such a thought. And it is nature that according to his argument really condemns man. Job is bidden look up to the sun and moon and stars and know himself immeasurably less pure than they.

But the truth stands untouched that man whose body is doomed to corruption, man who labours after the right, with the heat of moral energy in his heart, moves on a far higher plane as a servant of God than any fiery orb which pours its light through boundless space. We find ignorance of man and therefore of his Maker in Bildads speech. He does not understand the dignity of the human mind in its straining after righteousness. "With limitless duration, with boundless space and number without end, Nature does at least what she can to translate into visible form the wealth of the creative formula. By the vastness of the abysses into which she penetrates in the effort, the unsuccessful effort, to house and contain the eternal thought we may measure the greatness of the Divine mind. For as soon as this mind goes out of itself and seeks to explain itself, the effort at utterance heaps universe upon universe during myriads of centuries, and still it is not expressed and the great oration must go on forever and ever." The inanimate universe majestic, ruled by eternal law, cannot represent the moral qualities of the Divine mind, and the attempt to convict a thinking man, whose soul is bent on truth and purity, by the splendour of that light which dazzles his eye, comes to nothing. The commonplaces of pious thought fall stale and flat in a controversy like the present. Bildad does not realise wherein the right of man in the universe consists. He is trying in vain to instruct one who sees that moral desire and struggle are the conditions of human greatness, who will not be overborne by material splendours nor convicted by the accident of death.

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

Bildad the Shuhite

See how you translated this man's name in Job 2:11.

Dominion and fear are with him

Here "him" refers to God. The abstract nouns "dominion" and "fear" can be stated as verbs. AT: "God rules over all and people should fear only him" (See: Abstract Nouns)

he makes order in his high places of heaven

"he makes peace in the high heaven"

Is there any end to the number of his armies?

Bildad uses this question to emphasize how great God is. The implicit answer is "no." This refers to the armies of God's angels. AT: "There is no end to the number of angels in his army." or "His armies are so big that no one can count them." (See: Rhetorical Question and Metonymy)

Upon whom does his light not shine?

Bildad uses this question to emphasize that God gives light to every person. AT: "There is no one upon whom his light does not shine." or "God makes his light shine over everyone." (See: Rhetorical Question)

translationWords

dominion

fear

heaven

light

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.