Job · Chapter 38

V. 1. Lord-The eternal word, Jehovah, the same who spake from mount Sinai. Answered-Out of a dark and thick cloud, from which he sent a tempestuous wind, as the harbinger of his presence. In this manner God appears and speaks to awaken Job and his friends, to the more serious attention to his words; and to testify his displeasure both against Job, and them, that all of them might be more deeply humbled and prepared to receive, and retain the instructions which God was about to give them.

Verse 1. The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind] It is not hpws suphah, as in the preceding chapter, Job 37:9; but hrws searah, which signifies something turbulent, tumultuous, or violently agitated; and here may signify what we call a tempest, and was intended to fill Job’s mind with solemnity, and an awful sense of the majesty of God. The Chaldee has, a whirlwind of grief, making the whole rather allegorical than real; impressing the scene on Job’s imagination.

Verse 1. Then the Lord answered Job — No sooner had Elihu uttered the words last mentioned, but there was a sensible token of the presence of that dreadful majesty of God among them, spoken of verse 22, and Jehovah began to debate the matter with Job, as he had desired; out of the whirlwind — Out of a dark and thick cloud, from which he sent a terrible and tempestuous wind, as the harbinger of his presence. The LXX. render the clause, dia lailapov kai nefwn, perturbinem et nubes, by a tempest and clouds. It is true, the Chaldee paraphrast, by the addition of a word, has given a very different exposition of this text, thus: Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind of grief; taking the word hr[s, segnarah, rendered whirlwind, not in a literal, but in a metaphorical sense: as if the meaning were only this: that amidst the tumult of Job’s sorrows, God suggested to him the following thoughts, to bring him to a sense of his condition. The matter is viewed in nearly the same light by a late writer in a periodical work, styled The Classical Journal, who contends that this Hebrew word properly means trouble, and may be rendered whirlwind only when it is applied to the elements, denoting the troubled state of the atmosphere; but when it has reference to man, it can have no such signification. In answer to this it must be observed, that many passages occur in the Old Testament, in which the word evidently means, and is rightly translated, whirlwind, or tempest, as that writer himself acknowledges; but probably not one can be found, at least he has not produced one, in which, as a noun, it means merely trouble, nor can it with propriety be so translated here, on account of the preposition ˆm, min, which properly means a, ab, de, e, ex, from, or out of, and not because of, as he proposes rendering it: for surely it would be improper to read the passage, “The Lord answered Job out of his trouble, &c.” Accordingly the generality of expositors agree to understand it of a sensible and miraculous interposition of the Deity appearing in a cloud, the symbol of his presence, not to dispute, but absolutely to decide the controversy. God appeared and spoke to him in this manner, says Poole, 1st. Because this was his usual method of manifesting himself in those times, and declaring his will, as we see Exodus 19:13; Numbers 9:15; 1 Kings 19:11; Ezekiel 1:4; 2d, To awaken Job and his friends to a more serious and reverent attention to his words; 3d, To testify his displeasure both against Job and them; and, lastly, that all of them might be more deeply and thoroughly humbled, and prepared to receive and retain the instructions which God was about to give them. “There arose,” says Bishop Patrick, “an unusual cloud, after the manner of God’s appearing in those days, and a voice came out of it, as loud as a tempest, which called to Job.” “Nothing can be conceived more awful than this appearance of Jehovah; nothing more sublime than the manner in which this speech is introduced. Thunders, lightnings, and a whirlwind announce his approach: all creation trembles at his presence: at the blaze of his all-piercing eye every disguise falls off; the stateliness of human pride, the vanity of human knowledge, sink into their original nothing. The man of understanding, the men of age and experience; he who desired nothing more than to argue the point with God; he that would maintain his ways to his face; confounded and struck dumb at his presence, is ready to drop into dissolution, and repents in dust and ashes.” See Heath.

Verse 1. The whirlwind. Clouds and flames are the chariots of the Lord, in deigning to speak with men. When he spake to Elijah in Horeb, it was with wind, and fire, and earthquake. Likewise in Psalm 18:11, it is said, he clothed himself with thick clouds of darkness. It belongs to him alone to clear up the clouds of his providence.

1. The Lord — Jehovah. See note, Job 1:21. This name of tenderness, mercy and hope reappears as the solution of the mystery draws nigh. Answered Job — Bishop Wordsworth remarks, that the mention of the fact that the Lord answered Job is tantamount to an intimation that some one else had spoken just before the Lord’s answer. This was Elihu. Out of the whirlwind — hr[sh nm; more properly, out of the storm. Canon Cook (Speaker’s Com.) justly observes, that the article refers to the last part of Elihu’s address. It is an attestation to the genuineness of that discourse, nor has any satisfactory explanation been suggested by those who reject it. Nothing could be more abrupt than the transition from Job’s last words to this statement. And said — The natural inference is, that the communication was an articulate utterance, and not, as Canon Cook intimates, a mere mental impression upon the understanding. The closing description of Elihu shows that the storm was abating. There is, therefore, no intrinsic difficulty in supposing an audible voice of God. Introduction — By a pertinent question Jehovah singles Job out as the object of special address, and recognizes him as the leader in arraigning the divine counsel, and proceeds to summon him to prepare for the divine adjudication he has so often invoked, (Job 9:34, 35; 13:18; 23:3; 31:35,) and more especially to meet the conditions of his own challenge,

V. 2. Counsel-God’s counsel. For the great matter of the dispute between Job and his friends, was concerning God’s counsel and providence in afflicting Job; which Job had endeavoured to obscure and misrepresent. This first word which God spoke, struck Job to the heart. This he repeats and echoes to, Job 42:3, as the arrow that stuck fast in him.

Verse 2. Who is this that darkeneth counsel] As if he had said, Who art thou who pretendest to speak on the deep things of God, and the administration of his justice and providence, which thou canst not comprehend; and leavest my counsels and designs the darker for thy explanation?

Verse 2. Who is this, &c. — What and where is he that presumes to talk at this rate? That darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? — Words proceeding from ignorance, mistake, and want of consideration. Who is this that disparages my counsels, and darkens the wisdom of my dispensations with his ignorant discourses about them? This language becomes not a creature, much less a professor of the true religion. The person here intended is not Elihu, who spoke last, but Job, who had spoken most, as is manifest from the former verse, in which it is said, The Lord answered Job; and from Job 42:3, where Job takes the following reproof to himself, as also from the following discourse, wherein God convinces Job by divers of the same kind of arguments which Elihu had used against him. With a single question God shows the absolute emptiness of human abilities, strikes Job to the heart, and puts an end to the dispute.

(Job 13:22:) THEN CALL THOU, AND I WILL ANSWER, 2, 3.

2. Who is this that darkeneth, etc. — A more pertinent and mortifying rebuke for the victor in debate could hardly be conceived. Counsel — In the sense of plan, of which the sufferings of Job were a part — an idea which God proceeds more fully to illustrate by the additional design or plan which appears in the formation of the world. The quaint old divine, Thomas Brooks, citing this text, says: “Men of abstract conceits and wise speculations are but wise fools: like the lark that soareth on high, peering and peering, but at last falleth into the net of the fowler. Such persons are as censorious as curious, and do Christ and his Church but very little service in this world.”

V. 3. Gird up-As warriors then did for the battle.

Verse 3. Gird up now thy loins] I will not confound thee with my terrors; dismiss all fearful apprehensions from thy mind; now act like a man, rbgk kegeber, like a hero: stand and vindicate thyself. For I will demand of thee-I will ask thee a series of questions more easy of solution than those which thou hast affected to discuss already; and then thou shalt have the opportunity of answering for thyself.

The most impressive and convincing manner of arguing is allowed to be that by interrogation, which the Almighty here adopts. The best orations delivered by the ancients were formed after this manner. That celebrated oration of Cicero against Catiline, which is allowed to be his masterpiece, begins with a multitude of short questions, closely pressed upon each other. See the end of the chapter. See Clarke “Job 38:41”.

Verse 3. Gird up now thy loins — If thou hast the courage to argue the case with me, as thou hast often desired, make thyself ready for the debate. For I will demand of thee — Hebrew, Ëlava, eshelecha, I will ask thee questions; which he does in the following verses; and answer thou me — yn[ydwh, hodigneeni, make me know, or, inform me, concerning the things about which I inquire of thee. Give answers to my questions.

Ver. 3. Gird up now thy loins like a man, like the ancient Kibborim or giants. Oh Job, thou art ignorant of the cause of thy calamities; thou knowest not that thy character has been impeached in heaven; neither dost thou know the mysteries of creation and of providence, as it is insinuated in the following part of this chapter.

3. Gird up now thy loins — See note, Job 12:20. Job, who controverts the purposes of the Most High, from the nature of the case assumes an equal or co-extensive knowledge with Deity — an assumption now to be tested by a series of questions which shall still further demonstrate his absolute ignorance of the physical world, and logically show his utter incompetency to sit in judgment upon the simplest questions of the moral world. He is, therefore, called upon to “gird up his loins.” for he will need all his resources for the task before him. Like a man — A recognition of the true nobleness of the manhood of normal man. 1 Corinthians 16:13. Poverty and distress, and even the loathsomeness of disease, sully it not — “a man’s a man for a’ that.”

The first division of the discourse — THE COMPREHENSIVE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD’S MORAL GOVERNMENT DISPLAYED BY JOB JUSTIFIES THE PROPOUNDING OF SOME QUESTIONS AS TO THE PHYSICAL AND SEEMINGLY INANIMATE WORLD, IN THE MIDST OF WHICH MAN HAS BEEN

V. 4. Where-Thou art but of yesterday; and dost thou presume to judge of my eternal counsels! When-When I settled it as firm upon its own center as if it had been built upon the surest foundations.

Verse 4. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?] Thou hast a limited and derived being; thou art only of yesterday; what canst thou know? Didst thou see me create the world?

Verses 4, 5. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? — When I settled it as firm upon its own centre as if it had been built upon the surest foundations? Then thou wast nowhere; thou hadst no being: thou art but of yesterday; and dost thou presume to judge of my eternal counsels? I made the world without thy help, and therefore can govern it without thy advice or direction. Declare who hath laid the measures thereof — Who hath prescribed how long, and broad, and deep it should be? Or who hath stretched the line upon it? — The measuring-line, to regulate all its dimensions, so that it might be as beautiful as useful; if thou knowest — But if thou art ignorant of these manifest and visible works, do not pretend to the exact knowledge of my mysterious providences.

PLACED, WITH THE HIGH ENDOWMENTS OF WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING, 4-38. First long strophe — THE VASTNESS OF JOB’S KNOWLEDGE MUST EMBRACE THE PROCESS OF THE CREATION OF EARTH, SEA, AND LIGHT, 4-15.

“All true knowledge is genetic.” — Hitzig. He who claims insight into that which is, must know how it came to be, for nature (natura) is a perpetual birth. This first long strophe treats of the wonder-working of Omnipotence. Each of the minor strophes consists of four verses, the fourth verse of each, according to Schlottmann, forming a climax in the thought.

a. Job is summoned to explain the founding of the earth; the laying out of its architectural proportion; and even so simple and yet glorious a matter as the laying of its corner-stone, 4-7.

4. Laid the foundations — When I founded the earth (a more exact rendering) better harmonizes with the wonderful scientific disclosure of Job 26:7.

V. 5. Measures-Who hath prescribed how long and broad and deep it should be. Line-the measuring line to regulate all its dimensions.

Verse 5. Who hath laid the measures thereof] Who hath adjusted its polar and equatorial distances from the centre?

Who hath stretched the line] Who hath formed its zones and its great circles, and adjusted the whole of its magnitude and gravity to the orbit in which it was to move, as well as its distance from that great centre about which it was to revolve? These questions show the difficulty of the subject; and that there was an unfathomable depth of counsel and design in the formation of the earth.

Verses 4, 5. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? — When I settled it as firm upon its own centre as if it had been built upon the surest foundations? Then thou wast nowhere; thou hadst no being: thou art but of yesterday; and dost thou presume to judge of my eternal counsels? I made the world without thy help, and therefore can govern it without thy advice or direction. Declare who hath laid the measures thereof — Who hath prescribed how long, and broad, and deep it should be? Or who hath stretched the line upon it? — The measuring-line, to regulate all its dimensions, so that it might be as beautiful as useful; if thou knowest — But if thou art ignorant of these manifest and visible works, do not pretend to the exact knowledge of my mysterious providences.

5. If thou knowest — Rather, That thou shouldst know. This sounds the key-note to the whole series of questions — the folly of man’s assuming to comprehend the work of God. The puniness of the human mind will be set forth, just as a molehill finds its true dimensions beneath the shadow of a mountain. Each question conveys an oblique allusion to Job for his folly in arraigning an incomprehensible God. Job 9:35; 13:18, 22; 23:3-7; 31:35-37. Stretched the line — Like a wise master-builder, with measuring-line he lays out the world. “Behold,” says Samuel Wesley, “the architecture of God! The terms are those of the geometer or builder. The bases, the hinges, the lines, the perpendicular, the corner-stone, the measures.”

V. 6. Foundations-This strong and durable building hath no foundations but God’s power, which hath marvelously established it upon itself. Cornerstone-By which the several walls are joined and fastened together, and in which, next to the foundations, the stability of a building consists. The sense is, who was it that built this goodly fabrick, and established it so firmly that it cannot be moved.

Verse 6. Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened?] How does it continue to revolve in the immensity of space? What supports it? Has it foundations like a building, and is it fastened with a key-stone, to keep the mighty fabric in union?

Verses 6, 7. Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? — This strong and durable building hath no foundations but God’s power, which hath marvellously established it upon itself. Who laid the corner-stone? — By which the several walls are joined and fastened together, and in which, next to the foundations, the stability of a building consists. The sense is, Who was it that built this goodly fabric, and established it so firmly that it cannot be moved. When the morning stars sang together — When, in the morning of time, the blessed angels, the firstborn of the Father of lights, fitly called morning stars, because of their excellent lustre and glory, joined in praising God together for his glorious works, strangely rising up to their view from non-existence, by the infinite wisdom and power of their omnipotent Maker. “It is observable from many passages in the prophets, that the angels are spoken of under the metaphor of stars. See particularly Isaiah 14:12, 14. The beauty and propriety of these allusions of the prophets will appear with greater lustre, when it is considered that the hosts of heaven were the objects of heathen idolatry: both the visible and invisible host; as well the angels as the lights of heaven; for the superstition seems to have been originally the same, as the worship of the heavenly bodies terminated in the worship of those angels or intelligences who were believed to animate or conduct them; and hence we see a reason why the angels are called stars and morning stars in Scripture.” — Peters. And the sons of God — The angels, as before, called the sons of God, because they had their whole being from him, and because they bear his divine and glorious image; shouted for joy — On the appearance of the new-made world, in the creation of which they saw new displays of their heavenly Father’s wisdom, power, and goodness, and learned to know more of his infinite perfections than they had known before, and, of consequence, to love and praise him with greater fervency and delight.

6. Whereupon are… fastened — On what were its foundations sunk? A question that implies that the earth hung free in space, as stated Job 26:7. Foundations — The Hebrew signifies also “pedestals,” “bases.” The corner-stone — In ancient times it was massive, and not only served to bind together the sides of the building, but also as a depository for sacred objects. Sennacherib, in the Bellino inscription, speaks several times of the tinim — the clay tablets or cylinders that were inscribed with sacred writings, and deposited in the corner-stone. Compare a discourse in loc., by E.M. Goulburn.

V. 7. Stars-The angels, who may well be called morning-stars, because of their excellent lustre and glory. Sons of God-The angels called the sons of God, because they had their whole being from him, and because they were made partakers of his Divine and glorious image. Shouted-Rejoiced in and blessed God for his works, whereby he intimates, that they neither did advise or any way assist him, nor dislike or censure any of his works, as Job had presumed to do.

Verse 7. When the morning stars sang together] This must refer to some intelligent beings who existed before the creation of the visible heavens and earth: and it is supposed that this and the following clause refer to the same beings; that by the sons of God, and the morning stars, the angelic host is meant; as they are supposed to be first, though perhaps not chief, in the order of creation.

For the latter clause the Chaldee has, “All the troops of angels.” Perhaps their creation may be included in the term heavens, Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” These witnessed the progress of the creation; and, when God had finished his work, celebrated his wisdom and power in the highest strains.

Verses 6, 7. Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? — This strong and durable building hath no foundations but God’s power, which hath marvellously established it upon itself. Who laid the corner-stone? — By which the several walls are joined and fastened together, and in which, next to the foundations, the stability of a building consists. The sense is, Who was it that built this goodly fabric, and established it so firmly that it cannot be moved. When the morning stars sang together — When, in the morning of time, the blessed angels, the firstborn of the Father of lights, fitly called morning stars, because of their excellent lustre and glory, joined in praising God together for his glorious works, strangely rising up to their view from non-existence, by the infinite wisdom and power of their omnipotent Maker. “It is observable from many passages in the prophets, that the angels are spoken of under the metaphor of stars. See particularly Isaiah 14:12, 14. The beauty and propriety of these allusions of the prophets will appear with greater lustre, when it is considered that the hosts of heaven were the objects of heathen idolatry: both the visible and invisible host; as well the angels as the lights of heaven; for the superstition seems to have been originally the same, as the worship of the heavenly bodies terminated in the worship of those angels or intelligences who were believed to animate or conduct them; and hence we see a reason why the angels are called stars and morning stars in Scripture.” — Peters. And the sons of God — The angels, as before, called the sons of God, because they had their whole being from him, and because they bear his divine and glorious image; shouted for joy — On the appearance of the new-made world, in the creation of which they saw new displays of their heavenly Father’s wisdom, power, and goodness, and learned to know more of his infinite perfections than they had known before, and, of consequence, to love and praise him with greater fervency and delight.

Ver. 7. Sons of God. The hosts of angels shouted for joy.

7. Morning stars — According to some, literal stars, whose song is one of metaphor. They are called morning stars because of their association with the dawn of the world. A beautiful figure it would be, that of the rejoicing of the brightest worlds over the birth of a sister star: (see note Job 3:6) but the less fanciful view, is that which regards the morning stars as a higher order of angels — “creatures of such glory that they surpass all other creatures of God, in the same way that the brightness of the morning star (Lucifer, Isaiah 14:12) eclipses all the other stars.” — Zockler. Stars, in the Scriptures, are the standing figure for angels. Christ calls himself “the bright and morning star,” since he ushers in the everlasting day. Revelation 22:16. The promise of Christ to give “the morning star” to “him that overcometh,” (Revelation 2:28.) leads Dr. Candlish to the speculation that “it may seem probable that some joint-fellowship of angels and men in Christ’s sonship is what, by thus connecting together, in so close a verbal relation, the widely-separated books of Job and the Revelation, the Spirit intends to teach. For thus we find the title ‘morning star,’ which is associated with that of ‘son of God’ in the case of the angels, applied to the Son of God himself, and in him, also, to the overcoming Christian.… In particular, as used in these texts, taken together, it surely points to the identification of unfallen angels and redeemed men with the second person in the Godhead.” See his Cunningham Lectures, pp. 125, 155, 156. Sang together — The ancients laid a cornerstone with music and songs. Ezra 3:10; Zechariah 4:7. Bishop Wordsworth alludes to the songs of the angels “at the laying of the foundation-stone of the temple of the new creation, in the nativity of Christ.” Sons of God — Sons of Elohim. See note on 1:6. Kurtz (Bible and Astronomy, see. 18) enlarges upon the term Elohim: “Let it be borne in mind that angels are always called the sons of God, but not of Jehovah. The term Elohim designates the Divine Being as the fulness and source of life, of power, of blessedness, of holiness, of glory and majesty. The term Jehovah describes him as merciful and gracious.”… “The sons of Elohim are, therefore, they in whom shine forth his power and glory. The sons of Jehovah are those who receive, and are the vehicles of his redeeming mercy. In this sense Israel is called the firstborn son of Jehovah. Exodus 4. 22.” See note, Job 1:21.

Whether the interpretation given to “the morning stars,” spoken of above, be that they belong to the inanimate or animate creation, we are justified in the remark that their creation preceded that of this world. The present allusion to “sons of God” makes it clear that there were conscious and joyous beings of a high grade in existence before the founding of our world; that is, before the creative work described in Genesis 1. This fact leads to the wider inference, that the whole of the universe was not created at once.

b. Job may, perhaps, tell who separated the sea from the womb of primeval chaos, and restrained its violence and rage within doors and bars, and made it docile and pliant as an infant in the hands of God, and subjected it to the dominion of eternal law, 8-11.

V. 8. Doors-Who was it, that set bounds to the vast and raging ocean, and shut it up, as it were with doors within its proper place, that it might not overflow the earth? Break forth-From the womb or bowels of the earth, within which the waters were for the most part contained, and out of which they were by God’s command brought forth into the channel which God had appointed for them.

Verse 8. Who shut up the sea with doors] Who gathered the waters together into one place, and fixed the sea its limits, so that it cannot overpass them to inundate the earth?

When it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?] This is a very fine metaphor. The sea is represented as a newly born infant issuing from the womb of the void and formless chaos; and the delicate circumstance of the liquor amnii, which bursts out previously to the birth of the fœtus, alluded to. The allusion to the birth of a child is carried on in the next verse.

Verses 8-10. Who shut up the sea with doors? — Who was it that set bounds to the vast and raging ocean, and shut it up, as it were, with doors within its proper place, that it might not overflow the earth? When it brake forth, &c. — From the womb or bowels of the earth, within which the waters were for the most part contained, and out of which they were by God’s command brought forth into the channel which God had appointed for them. When I made the cloud the garment thereof — When I covered it with vapours and clouds which rise out of the sea, and hover above it, and cover it like a garment. And thick darkness — Black and dark clouds; a swaddling-band for it — Having compared the sea to a new-born infant, he continues the metaphor, and makes the clouds as swaddling-bands, to keep it within its bounds; though indeed neither clouds, nor air, nor sands, nor shores, can bound the sea, but God alone. And brake up for it my decreed place — Made those hollow places in the earth, which might serve for a cradle to receive and hold this great and goodly infant when it came out of the womb. And set bars and doors — Fixed its bounds as strongly as if they were fortified with bars and doors.

8. As if it had issued — When it issued, or burst forth. The figure is one of incomparable grandeur. At the command of God the sea comes forth from the chaos in which, as in a womb, it had lain concealed. The same verb, jyg, “burst forth,” is used in Psalm 22:9 of the issuing of the fetus from the womb.

V. 9. The cloud-When I covered it with vapours and clouds which rise out of the sea, and hover above it, and cover it like a garment. Darkness-Black and dark clouds. Swaddling band-Having compared the sea to a new-born infant, he continues the metaphor, and makes the clouds as swaddling-bands, to keep it within its bounds: though indeed neither clouds, nor air, nor sands, nor shores, can bound the sea, but God alone.

Verse 9. When I make the cloud the garment] Alluding to the cloth in which the new-born infant is first received. The cloud was the same to the newly raised vapour, as the above recipient to the new-born child. And thick darkness a swaddlingband for it] Here is also an allusion to the first dressings of the new-born child: it is swathed in order to support the body, too tender to bear even careful handling without some medium between the hand of the nurse and the flesh of the child. “The image,” says Mr. Good, “is exquisitely maintained: the new-born ocean is represented as issuing from the womb of chaos; and its dress is that of the new-born infant.”

There is here an allusion also to the creation, as described in Genesis 1:1, 2. Darkness is there said to be on the face of the DEEP. Here it is said, the thick darkness was a swaddlingband for the new-born SEA.

Verses 8-10. Who shut up the sea with doors? — Who was it that set bounds to the vast and raging ocean, and shut it up, as it were, with doors within its proper place, that it might not overflow the earth? When it brake forth, &c. — From the womb or bowels of the earth, within which the waters were for the most part contained, and out of which they were by God’s command brought forth into the channel which God had appointed for them. When I made the cloud the garment thereof — When I covered it with vapours and clouds which rise out of the sea, and hover above it, and cover it like a garment. And thick darkness — Black and dark clouds; a swaddling-band for it — Having compared the sea to a new-born infant, he continues the metaphor, and makes the clouds as swaddling-bands, to keep it within its bounds; though indeed neither clouds, nor air, nor sands, nor shores, can bound the sea, but God alone. And brake up for it my decreed place — Made those hollow places in the earth, which might serve for a cradle to receive and hold this great and goodly infant when it came out of the womb. And set bars and doors — Fixed its bounds as strongly as if they were fortified with bars and doors.

9. Thick darkness a swaddling band — The mighty sea, as it broke forth from unseen depths, was but an infant in the hands of God, with the cloud for garment, and the thick darkness its swaddling cloth. This carrying forward of the image of the newborn sea is evidently an allusion, if not a parallel, to “the darkness on the deep.” (Genesis 1:2.) “I do not believe that this object was ever presented under a bolder figure than that by which it is expressed, of an infant which the Creator of the world swathes and clothes with its appropriate garments. It bursts forth from the clefts of the earth, as from the womb of its mother; the Ruler and Director of all things addresses it as a living being, as a young giant exulting in his subduing power, and with a word the sea is hushed, and obeys him forever.” — HERDER, Hebrew Poetry, 1:89.

V. 10. Break up-Made those hollow places in the earth, which might serve for a cradle to receive and hold this great and goodly infant when it came out of the womb. And set-Fixed its bounds as strongly as if they were fortified with bars and doors.

Verse 10. And brake up for it my decreed place] This refers to the decree, Genesis 1:9: “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place.”

And set bars and doors] And let the dry land appear. This formed the bars and doors of the sea; the land being everywhere a barrier against the encroachments and inundations of the sea; and great rivers, bays, creeks, &c., the doors by which it passes into the interior of continents, &c.

Verses 8-10. Who shut up the sea with doors? — Who was it that set bounds to the vast and raging ocean, and shut it up, as it were, with doors within its proper place, that it might not overflow the earth? When it brake forth, &c. — From the womb or bowels of the earth, within which the waters were for the most part contained, and out of which they were by God’s command brought forth into the channel which God had appointed for them. When I made the cloud the garment thereof — When I covered it with vapours and clouds which rise out of the sea, and hover above it, and cover it like a garment. And thick darkness — Black and dark clouds; a swaddling-band for it — Having compared the sea to a new-born infant, he continues the metaphor, and makes the clouds as swaddling-bands, to keep it within its bounds; though indeed neither clouds, nor air, nor sands, nor shores, can bound the sea, but God alone. And brake up for it my decreed place — Made those hollow places in the earth, which might serve for a cradle to receive and hold this great and goodly infant when it came out of the womb. And set bars and doors — Fixed its bounds as strongly as if they were fortified with bars and doors.

10. Brake up… decreed place — Rather, And broke over it my decree. The tumultuous violence of the ocean is still in the poet’s mind — its struggles were Titanic as it came into contact with the divine law. “The breaking of the land upon it represents, better than any other linguistic painting could do, its wild stubbornness. It is really the sea breaking itself against law; but there is great vividness and even sublimity in the converse of the figure.”-T. Lewis. Schlottmann sees in this sublime description an ambition on the part of the young sea infinitely to extend its mass and limits; (comp. Job 7:12, with note;) but these are broken off with violence by one more powerful, even God himself, and so forever confined within prescribed limits. Job may take comfort; God can also set bars and doors to sorrow’s waves.

Verse 11. Hitherto shalt thou come] Thus far shall thy flux and reflux extend. The tides are marvellously limited and regulated, not only by the lunar and solar attractions, but by the quantum of time also which is required to remove any part of the earth’s surface from under the immediate attractive influence of the sun and moon. And this regulation takes place by means of the rotation of the earth round its own axis, which causes one thousand and forty-two miles of its equator to pass from under any given point in the heavens in one hour; and about five hundred and eighty miles in the latitude of London: so that the attracted fluid parts are every moment passing from under the direct attractive influence, and thus the tides cannot generally be raised to any extraordinary height. The attraction of the sun and moon, and the gravitation of its own parts to its own centre, which prevent too great a flux on the one hand, and too great a reflux on the other; or, in other words, too high a tide, and too deep an ebb, are also some of those bars and doors by which its proud waves are stayed, and prevented from coming farther; all being regulated by these laws of attraction by the sun and moon, the gravitation of its own parts from the sun and moon, and the diurnal motion round its own axis, by which the fluid parts, easily yielding to the above attraction, are continually moving from under the direct attractive influence. Here a world of wisdom and management was necessary, in order to proportion all these things to each other, so as to procure the great benefits which result from the flux and reflux of the sea, and prevent the evils that must take place, at least occasionally, were not those bars and doors provided. It is well known that the spring-tides happen at the change and full of the moon, at which time she is in conjunction with and opposition to the sun. As these retire from their conjunction, the tides neap till about three days after the first quadrature, when the tides begin again to be more and more elevated, and arrive at their maximum about the third day after the opposition. From this time the tides neap as before till the third day after the last quadrature; and afterwards their daily elevations are continually increased till about the third day after the conjunction, when they recommence their neaping; the principal phenomena of the tides always taking place at or near the some points of every lunar synodic revolution.

Ver. 11. Here shall thy proud waves be stayed, The laws of gravity which regulate the tides, are adjusted with the greatest nicety; and they vary not, except by winds and hurricanes, which drive the tides beyond the equilibrium.

11. Hitherto shalt thou come — No one would, a priori, have conceived that so vast and mighty a body of water as the ocean could be kept in place by so contemptible a barrier as a shore of sand. There may have been in the mind of the speaker a more enlarged conception than that of a mere coast girding the sea on every side. That conception may have embraced the wonderful forces which unite to secure the stability of the ocean, and maintain its equilibrium. “The mean depth of the sea, according to the calculations of Laplace, is four or five miles. On this supposition, the addition to the sea of one fourth of the existing waters would drown the whole of the globe, excepting a few chains of mountains. Whether this be exact or no, we can easily conceive the quantity of water which lies in the cavities of our earth to be greater or less than it at present is. With every such addition or subtraction the form and magnitude of the dry land would vary” — producing vastly important and destructive consequences, which Whewell proceeds to unfold. — Astronomy and General Physics, book i, chap. 4. The stability of the ocean is secured by numerous nicely adjusted forces, among which the mean specific gravity of the earth, as well as the specific gravities of the moon, planets, and sun, may be mentioned as the most important. To enlarge upon but one of these influences — the density of our earth: the simple circumstance that it is about five times that of water — an exact proportion, which needed a divine mind to establish — furnishes a restraint upon the immense fluid masses, by which they are held incumbent within their ocean bed. “The density of Jupiter is one fourth, that of Saturn less than one seventh, of that of the earth. If an ocean of water were poured into the cavities upon the surface of Saturn its equilibrium would not be stable. It would leave its bed on one side of the globe; and the planet would finally be composed of one hemisphere of water and one of land. If the earth had an ocean of a fluid six times as heavy as water, (quicksilver is thirteen times as heavy,) we should have in like manner a dry and fluid hemisphere” — WHEWELL, ibid., book ii, chap. 6. Be stayed — Literally, One shall set — “a bound” evidently being understood.

c. If so be Job was not in being when the foundations of the world were laid, perhaps he has, during his short life, shown his power and skill in carrying on the works of nature; has, at least once, spread forth upon the earth the light of the morn, causing the aurora to know its place; and thereby, to a certain extent, wielded the moral government of the world, 12-15.

V. 12. Morning-Didst thou create the sun, and appoint the order and succession of day and night. Since-Since thou wast born: this work was done long before thou wast born. To know-To observe the punctual time when, and the point of the heavens where it should arise; which varies every day.

Verse 12. Hast thou commanded the morning] This refers to dawn or morning twilight, occasioned by the refraction of the solar rays by means of the atmosphere; so that we receive the light by degrees, which would otherwise burst at once upon our eyes, and injure, if not destroy, our sight; and by which even the body of the sun himself becomes evident several minutes before he rises above the horizon.

Caused the dayspring to know his place] This seems to refer to the different points in which daybreak appears during the course of the earth’s revolution in its orbit; and which variety of points of appearing depends on this annual revolution. For, as the earth goes round the sun every year in the ecliptic, one half of which is on the north side of the equinoctial, and the other half on its south side, the sun appears to change his place every day. These are matters which the wisdom of God alone could plan, and which his power alone could execute.

It may be just necessary to observe that the dawn does not appear, nor the sun rise exactly in the same point of the horizon, two successive days in the whole year, as he declines forty-three degrees north, and forty-three degrees south, of east; beginning on the 21st of March, and ending on the 22d of December; which variations not only produce the places of rising and setting, but also the length of day and night. And by this declination north and south, or approach to and recession from the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the solar light takes hold of the ends of the earth, Job 38:13, enlightens the arctic and antarctic circles in such a way as it would not do were it always on the equinoctial line; these tropics taking the sun twenty-three and a half degrees north, and as many south, of this line.

Verses 12, 13. Hast thou commanded the morning? — That is, the morning light, or the sun, which is the cause of it. Didst thou create the sun, and appoint the order and succession of day and night. Since thy days — Since thou wast born: this work was done long before thou wast born. And caused the day-spring to know its place — To observe the punctual time when, and the point of the heavens where it should arise; which varies every day. That it might take hold of the ends of the earth — That this morning light should in a moment spread itself from one end of the hemisphere to the other. That the wicked might be shaken out of it — From the face of the earth. And this effect the morning light hath upon the wicked, because it discovers them, whereas darkness hides them; and because it brings them to condign punishment, the morning being the usual time for executing judgment.

Ver. 12. The dayspring, according to the seasons in lengthening day or night, and also the refraction of light from the atmosphere, which occasions a twilight of an hour and a quarter, before the rising and after the setting of the sun.

12. Hast thou commanded the morning — “A morning,” rqb. Since the creation of the earth God has, uncounted times, commanded the morning to arise at its time; has Job since his birth (literally “from thy days”) commanded one morning to break (bakar) the darkness of the night. Dayspring — This word (rjv) is rendered “day,” Job 3:9, on which see note. To know his place — “This seems to refer to the different points in which daybreak appears during the course of the earth’s revolution in its orbit; and which variety of points of appearing depends on this annual revolution. For as the earth goes round the sun every year in the ecliptic, one half of which is on the north side of the equinoctial, and the other half on its south side, the sun appears to change its place every day.” (A. Clarke.) The aurora changes its place according to unerring law, in march and countermarch so exact, that like an intelligent being, it may be said from long association to “know its place.” See note on Job 7:10. Perhaps the so great knowledge of Job may have been by some means communicated to the fleeting, insubstantial, but beauteous, morn, (Shahhar, to shine,) so that, like him, it deviates not from the right, though it may constantly remove its place!! As respects processes of nature, the Semitic mind, from its earliest records, manifested implicit faith in their permanence, for the obvious reason that they are but the out-goings of the Divine Being, (Psalm 65:8-11;) so much so that even the dawn stands as an abiding emblem of the divine faithfulness, for, “His rising is fixed [nakon,] like the morning dawn.” Hosea 6:3. See note, Job 42:7. On the other hand, to the early Aryan mind everything in nature was fanciful and capricious. “The Titanic assurance with which we [Aryans, enlightened by a divine revelation] say the sun must rise, was unknown to the early worshippers of nature.… It seems to us childish when we read in the Veda such expressions as ‘Will the sun rise?’ ‘Will our old friend, the dawn, come back again?’ ‘Will the power of darkness be conquered by the God of light?’” MAX MULLER — Chips, etc., 2:93-100.

V. 13. That-That this morning light should in a moment spread itself, from one end of the hemisphere to the other. Shaken-From the face of the earth. And this effect the morning-light hath upon the wicked, because it discovers them, whereas darkness hides them; and because it brings them to condign punishment, the morning being the usual time for executing judgment.

Verse 13. That the wicked might be shaken out of it?] The meaning appears to be this: as soon as the light begins to dawn upon the earth, thieves, assassins, murderers, and adulterers, who all hate and shun the light, fly like ferocious beasts to their several dens and hiding places; for such do not dare to come to the light, lest their works be manifest, which are not wrought in God. To this verse the fifteenth appears to belong, as it connects immediately with it, which connection the introduction of the fourteenth verse disturbs. “And from the wicked,” such as are mentioned above “their light is withholden;” they love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil; and as they prowl after their prey in the night-season, they are obliged to sleep in the day, and thus its “light is withholden” from them. “And the high arm shall be broken;” or, as Mr. Good translates, “The roving of wickedness is broken off.” They can no longer pursue their predatory and injurious excursions.

Verses 12, 13. Hast thou commanded the morning? — That is, the morning light, or the sun, which is the cause of it. Didst thou create the sun, and appoint the order and succession of day and night. Since thy days — Since thou wast born: this work was done long before thou wast born. And caused the day-spring to know its place — To observe the punctual time when, and the point of the heavens where it should arise; which varies every day. That it might take hold of the ends of the earth — That this morning light should in a moment spread itself from one end of the hemisphere to the other. That the wicked might be shaken out of it — From the face of the earth. And this effect the morning light hath upon the wicked, because it discovers them, whereas darkness hides them; and because it brings them to condign punishment, the morning being the usual time for executing judgment.

13. Ends of the earth — See note on Job 37:3. Daylight, as it chases evil-doers back to their hiding places, seems “to take hold of the carpet of the earth, as it were, by the edges,” and shake from it the wicked. The dawn shines forth under the figure of “a watchman, a messenger of the prince of heaven sent to chase away bands of robbers,” with their deeds of darkness. In ancient times justice was administered in the early morning, (Jeremiah 21:12,) as Drusius has fully shown. There is an unmistakable allusion to Job’s complaint, (Job 24:16, 17.) The constant return of the light of the day “thus becomes an image of the perpetual flight and destruction of wicked men before God.” — Ewald, 297.

V. 14. It-The earth. Turned-Is changed in its appearance. By the seal-The seal makes a beautiful impression upon the clay, which in itself hath no form, or comeliness. So the earth, which in the darkness of night lies like a confused heap without either form or beauty, when the light arises and shines upon it, appears in excellent order and glory. They-The men and things of the earth, whether natural, as living creatures, herbs and trees; or artificial, as houses or other buildings. Stand-Present themselves to our view. Garment-Wherewith the earth is in a manner clothed and adorned.

Verse 14. It is turned as clay to the seal] The earth, like soft clay, is capable of modifying itself in endless ways, and assuming infinite forms. As a proof of this, see the astonishing variety of plants, flowers, and fruits, and the infinitely diversified hues, odours, tastes, consistency, and properties, of its vegetable productions.

There seems to be an allusion here to the sealing of clay, which I believe has been, and is now, frequent in the East. Six of those Eastern seals for sealing clay, made of brass, the figures and characters all in relief, the interstices being entirely perforated and cut out, so that the upper side of the seal is the same as the lower, now lie before me. They seem to have been used for stamping pottery, as some of the fine clay still appears in the interstices.

And they stand as a garment.] The earth receiving these impressions from the solar light and heat, plants and flowers spring up, and decorate its surface as the most beautiful stamped garment does the person of the most sumptuously dressed female.

Mr. Good translates the whole verse thus:—

“Canst thou cause them to bend round as clay to the mould, so that they are made to sit like a garment?”

He supposes that reference is here made to the rays of light; but take his own words: “The image, as it appears to me, is taken directly from the art of pottery, an image of very frequent recurrence in Scripture; and in the present instance admirably forcible in painting the ductility with which the new light of the morning bends round like clay to the mould, and accompanies the earth in every part of its shape so as to fit it, as we are expressly told in the ensuing metaphor, like a garment, as the clay fits the mould itself.” Mr. Good supposes that a mould in which the pottery is formed, not a seal by which it is impressed, is referred to here. In this sense I do not see the metaphor consistent, nor the allusion happy. It is well known that the rays of light never bend. They may be reflected at particular angles, but they never go out of a straight course. A gun might as well be expected to shoot round a corner, as a ray of light to go out of a straight line, or to follow the sinuous or angular windings of a tube, canal, or adit. But if we take in the sun as he advances in his diurnal voyage, or rather the earth, as it turns round its axis from west to east, the metaphor of Mr. Good will be correct enough; but we must leave out bending and ductility, as every part of the earth’s surface will be at least successively invested with the light.

Verse 14. It is turned as clay to the seal — As the seal makes a beautiful impression upon the clay, which, in itself, hath no form or comeliness; so the earth, which in the darkness of the night lies like a confused heap, without either form or beauty, has quite a new face put upon it by the return of the morning light, and appears in excellent order and glory. And they stand as a garment — That is, the twilight and morning stand, as it were, dressed in a beautiful and magnificent garment. Or the meaning is, that the men and things of the earth, whether natural, as living creatures, herbs, and trees; or artificial, as houses or other buildings, present themselves to our view, as if covered and adorned with elegant and beautiful clothing.

14. It is turned as clay to the seal — It is changed like signet-clay. The earth, which beneath the veil of night appeared an obscure and disfigured mass, takes the impress of the rising light, and reveals forms of beauty and lineaments of design, just as the uncouth clay receives and retains the stamp of the seal. In other words, the dark earth no sooner feels the touch of the morning light — the seal the Almighty holds in his hand — than it responds by a disclosure of a widespread landscape in all its diversified form and hue. The figure is one of exquisite beauty. Many of the Assyrian seals, according to Layard, (Nineveh, etc., vol. 2:421; 3:608,) were most delicately and minutely ornamented with various sacred devices. They were often cylindrical, and turned on an axis. “They were evidently rolled on the moist clay at the same time as the characters were impressed. The tablet was then placed in the furnace and baked.” Some suppose that there is a reference here to the revolution of the earth around its axis. See note of Hitzig, in loc. As a garment — The objects thus revealed stand forth like the variegated embroidery of a garment. The ancient Egyptians, according to Eusebius, portrayed the world after the form of a man clad in a variegated garment reaching down to the feet.

V. 15. Withheld-That light which enjoyed by others is withholden from them, either by their own choice, because they chuse darkness rather than light; or by the judgment of God, or the magistrate, by whom they are cut off from the light of the living. Arms-Their great strength which they used to the oppression of others.

Verse 15. And, or, rather, but, from the wicked their light is withholden — The earth, and the men and the things in it, have the comfort and benefit of the light, but so have not the wicked; they enjoy not its beautiful approach; either, because they shun it, and choose darkness rather than light, their deeds being evil; or, by the judgment of God, or of the magistrate, by whom they are shut out through imprisonment, or cut off by capital punishment, from the light of the living. And the high arm shall be broken — Their great strength, which they used tyrannically to the oppression and crushing of others.

15. Their light — Darkness is their light, (Delitzsch, “their favourite light,”) as in Job 24:17; John 3:19. The high arm — Compare Job 22:8, 9; 31:22. Shall be broken — Inasmuch as the light of the day prevents the accomplishment of the nefarious work for which the arm was uplifted.

Second long strophe — QUESTIONS ARE PROPOUNDED CONCERNING THE PENETRALIA OF NATURE — THE HIDDEN AND INACCESSIBLE DEPTHS — EVEN THE PRIMORDIA OF HER COMMONEST

V. 16. Springs-Heb. the tears; the several springs out of which the waters of the sea flow as tears do from the eyes. Walked-Hast thou found out the utmost depth of the sea, which in divers places could never be reached by the wisest mariner? And how then canst thou fathom the depths of my counsels?

Verse 16. Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea?] Of these springs, inlets, or outlets of the sea, we know just as much as Job. There was prevalent among philosophers an opinion, that through a porous bottom fresh matter was constantly oozing by which the sea was supplied with new materials. But through such pores these materials might as well ooze out as ooze in.

Walked in the search of the depth?] Hast thou walked from the shallow beach through the great ocean’s bed, till thou hast arrived at its profoundest depths? In other words, Dost thou know the depths of the sea? Job, we may presume, did not. No man since him has found them out. In multitudes of places they are unfathomed by any means hitherto used by man.

Verse 16. Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea — Hebrew, µy ykbn, nibchee jam, Fletus, qui, ex maris profunditatibus currunt, ut lacrymæ ex occulis. Schindler: the springs which flow from the depths of the sea, as tears from men’s eyes: the several sources from which the waters of the sea proceed. Heath renders it, Hast thou been at the sources of the sea? and the next clause he translates, Hast thou traversed the depth of the abyss? Hast thou found out the utmost depth of the sea; which, in divers places, could never be reached by the wisest mariner? And how then canst thou fathom the depths of my counsels?

Ver. 16. The springs of the sea. The submarine rivers are sometimes so powerful as to freshen the sea-water for many leagues. Charibdis, in Sicily, is so powerful as to give an eddy to the whole current in the straits of Messina.

ELEMENTS AND FORCES, 16-27.

This second long strophe descants upon the attribute of wisdom, with the closely allied attribute of omniscience.

a. The knower of all things must have explored the fountains of the sea; have seen the gates of death unveiled; and com-passed the breadths of the earth, 16-18.

16. The search — rqj: the recesses. Same as in Job 11:7, which see. Compare 2 Esdras 4:7, 8, and 8:8.

V. 17. Death-Hast thou seen, or dost thou know the place and state of the dead; the depths and bowels of that earth in which the generality of dead men are buried. Death is a grand secret? We know not when or by what means we shall be brought to death: by what road we must go the way, whence we shall not return. We cannot describe what death is; how the knot is untied between soul and body, or how the spirit goes “To be we know not what, and live we know not how.” With what dreadful curiosity does the soul launch out into an untried abyss? We have no correspondence with separate souls, nor any acquaintance with their state. It is an unknown, undiscovered region, to which they are removed. While we are here in a world of sense, we speak of the world of spirits, as blind men do of colours, and when we remove thither, shall be amazed to find how much we were mistaken.

Verse 17. Have the gates of death been opened unto thee?] Dost thou know in what the article of death consists? This is as inexplicable as the question, What is animal life?

The doors of the shallow of death?] twmlx tsalmaveth, the intermediate state, the openings into the place of separate spirits. Here two places are distinguished: twm maveth, death, and twmlx tsalmaveth, the shadow of death. It will not do to say, death is the privation of life, for what then would be the shadow of that privation?

Verse 17. Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? — Hath the earth opened all her dark caverns to thee? Or, hast thou ever gone down to the centre, or into the depths and bowels of that earth in which the generality of men are buried? Hast thou looked into lwav, sheol, or hades, the intermediate state, the region of departed spirits? And dost thou know how the souls of men are disposed of after death, and what are their various states and conditions? Or, hast thou observed and marked the several ways leading to, and introducing death? Death is a grand secret. 1st, We know not beforehand when, and how, and by what means we or others shall be brought to death; by what road we must go the way whence we shall not return; what disease or disaster will be the door to let us into the house appointed for all living; man knows not his time. 2d, We cannot describe what death is, how the knot is untied between body and soul, nor how the spirit of a man leaves the tenement of clay, and goes: “To be, we know not what, and live, we know not how.”

Thus Mr. Norris, who adds:

“When life’s close knot, by writ from destiny,

Disease shall cut or age untie;

When after some delays, some dying strife,

The soul stands shivering on the ridge of life;

With what a dreadful curiosity

Does she launch out into the sea of vast eternity!”

Let us make it sure that the gates of heaven shall be opened to us on the other side death, and then we need not fear the opening of the gates of death to receive us, though it is a way we are to go but once. 3d, We have no correspondence at all with separate souls, nor any acquaintance with their state. It is an unknown, undiscovered region, to which they are removed. We can neither hear from them, nor send to them. While we are here, in a world of sense we speak of the world of spirits as blind men do of colours; and when we remove thither, shall be amazed to find how much we were mistaken.

Ver. 17. The doors of the shadow of death. This is copied in Psalm 23:4. The gates of death, or the gates of hell: the shadow of death, hades, or the abode of separate spirits. Both these passages indicate a world of spirits, for there could be no shadow effected by annihilation. All pagan mythology asserts the existence of a separate state, as well as the bible.

17. Gates of death — Used figuratively, or according to the usage of that age. The Assyrian legend of the descent of Ishtar into hades, “the house men enter but cannot depart from,” speaks of seven gates. On the Egyptian sarcophagus of Oimenepthah, each department of the regions of the dead is divided from the next by a tall door, turning upon pivots, and guarded, as in the annexed engraving, by a serpent. The British Museum contains a stone door brought from Syria, which turned upon pivots like this door. Comp. 1 Chronicles 22:3; 1 Kings 7:50. As in Job 26:5, 6, (which see,) mention of the secrets of the great deep is linked with the under world of the dead, which lay near by, according to the popular view. Man’s science knows as little of the world of the dead now as then. Hast thou seen — And yet Job has talked of death and its desirableness as if well acquainted with its extended domain; (Job 3:13-19; 10:21, 22; 14:12,13; 17:13-16, etc.;) but not even the gates of death has Job ever seen. Shadow of death — See note, 3:5.

V. 18. Breadth-The whole compass and all the parts of it?

Verse 18. The breadth of the earth?] At that time the circumference of the globe was not known, because the earth itself was supposed to be a vast extended plain, bordered all round with the ocean and the sky.

Verse 18. Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? — Nay, dost thou so much as understand the extent and all the parts of the earth, and the state and quality of all countries, and of the men and things in them? Declare, if thou knowest it all — Give me an answer to these questions, which it is far more easy to do than to answer many other questions which I could put to thee about my secret counsels, and providences, and my reasons for dealing with thee as I do.

18. The breadth of the earth — Plural, “breadths.” However far and whichever way he may travel, man never perceives the breadth of the earth. It is ever fleeing from him. This, then, also belongs to the unknown. b. He must also understand the cosmical phenomena of light and darkness; must not only know the paths to their house, but himself, venerable in years, must at some time have escorted them to their home, 19-21.

V. 19. Dwelleth-Hath its constant and settled abode. Whether goes the sun when it departs from this hemisphere? Where is the tabernacle and the chamber in which he is supposed to rest? And seeing there was a time when there was nothing but gross darkness upon the face of the earth, what way came light into the world? Which was the place where light dwelt at that time, and whence was it fetched? And whence came that orderly constitution and constant succession of light and darkness? Was this thy work? Or wast thou privy to it, or a counsellor, or assistant in it?

Verse 19. Where light dwelleth] What is the source of light? Yea, what is light itself? It is not in the sun, for light was before the sun; but what is light? It is no doubt a substance; but of what kind? and of what are its particles? As to darkness, what is IT? Is it philosophical to say, it is the mere privation of light? I shall think philosophy has made some advances to general accuracy and perfection when it proves to us what cold is, and what darkness is, leaving mere privations out of the question.

Verse 19. Where is the way — Or, rather, the place, as the next clause explains it; and, as the Hebrew Ërd, derech, will bear, where light dwelleth — That is, hath its constant and settled abode. Whither goes the sun when he departs from this hemisphere? Where are the tabernacle and the chamber in which he is supposed to rest? And seeing there was a time when there was nothing but gross darkness upon the face of the earth, what way came light into the world? Which was the place where light dwelt at that time, and whence was it fetched? And whence came that orderly constitution and constant succession of light and darkness? Was this thy work? Or wast thou privy to it, or a counsellor, or assistant in it?

19. Way where light dwelleth — Neither does the corpuscular theory of Newton, nor Huyghens’ undulatory theory, account for the rise, the cause, or the source of light. Its dwelling place, “in what kind of land it dwells,” (Septuagint,) is an impenetrable mystery. “Ask of the learned THE WAY, the learned are blind.”

Speaking of light, Prof. Tyndall remarks: “We are here dealing, for the most part, with suppositions and assumptions merely. We have never seen the atoms of a luminous body, nor their motions. We have never seen the medium which transmits their motions, nor the waves of that medium.” — The Forms of Water, pp. 10, 12. And yet science has penetrated so far into the arcana of nature as to measure the magnitude of ‘the light waves’ by their effects, and to find them varying from one thirty thousandth to one sixty thousandth of an inch. “The whole of that region of space over which astronomers have extended their survey, and doubtless a region many millions of millions of times more extended, may be compared to a wave-tossed sea, only that, instead of a wave-tossed surface, there is a wave-tossed space. At every point, through every point, along every line, athwart every line, myriads of light waves are at all times rushing with the inconceivable velocity of 185,000 miles per second.” — R.A. Proctor. Science, instead of solving, is constantly adding to, its difficulties. Its tetra incognita — its land of the unknown — in an inverse ratio to the explorations made, is constantly enlarging. The most approved works of modern science, professedly clearing the way to the penetralia of nature, do but little more than open up a multitude of indeterminate problems. The haze that rests upon the nature of ultimate material causes — upon the beginning or essence of nature’s forces — is no less dense now than in the days of Job. The secret of this lies in the profound thought of Edmund Burke, that every subject we attempt to explore branches into the infinite. The most that philosophy does is to record the processes of nature — to peer a little into the infinite unknown, in which the primordia of nature DWELL. To make man sensible of his consummate ignorance, and to open up to him the essential finiteness of the human mind, is really the gist of these questions; questions which, though they he never so simple, philosophy will be powerless fully to unfold so long as mind is cased in flesh and blood. “As in Genesis i, the light is here regarded as a self-subsistent, natural force, independent of the heavenly luminaries by which it is transmitted; and herein modern investigation agrees with the direct observations of antiquity.” — Schlottmann. See an article entitled “Drifting Light Waves,” by R.A. Proctor, in Contemporary Review, 1877,

2. pp. 219-240. Also, “On the Place where Light Dwelleth,” in Eclectic Magazine, 1870, i, pp. 725-739; 2. 80-86, taken from the British Quarterly Review.

V. 20. Take it-Bring or lead it: and this it refers principally to the light, and to darkness, as the consequent of the other. Bound-Its whole course from the place of its abode whence it is supposed to come, to the end of its journey. Know-Where thou mayst find it, and whence thou mayst fetch it.

Verse 20. Shouldest take it to the bound thereof?] Or, as Mr. Good, translates, “That thou shouldest lay hold of it in its boundary.” That thou shouldest go to the very spot where light commences, and where darkness ends; and see the house where each dwells. Here darkness and light are personified, each as a real intelligent being, having a separate existence and local dwelling. But poetry animates everything. It is the region of fictitious existence.

I believe this verse should be translated thus:—”For thou canst take US to its boundary; for thou knowest the paths to its house.” This is a strong irony, and there are several others in this Divine speech. Job had valued himself too much on his knowledge; and a chief object of this august speech is to humble his “knowing pride,” and to cause him to seek true wisdom and humility where they are to be found.

Verse 20. That thou shouldest take it — That is, bring, or lead it, namely, principally the light, and secondarily the darkness, as the consequent of it, to the bound thereof? — That is, through its whole course, from the place of its abode, whence it is supposed to come, to the end of the journey which it is to go. Didst thou direct or guide the light, or the sun, that it should at first take, and afterward constantly continue in that course which now it holds; that it should go from east to west, and rise, sometimes in one point or part of heaven, and sometimes in another; and that its day’s journey should be longer in one season of the year and shorter in another? This regular and excellent course must needs be the effect of great wisdom. And whose wisdom was it? Thine or mine? And that thou shouldest know — Namely, practically so as to direct or lead it in the manner now expressed, the paths to the house thereof? — Where thou mayest find it, and whence thou mayest fetch it.

20. Bound thereof — The boundary between light and darkness, (Hirtzel;) or, rather, if we make it parallel with “house,” of the second clause, the primordial, or beginning place. A climax is reached by asking Job if he can escort either light or darkness back to its home.

Verse 21. Knowest thou] This is another strong and biting irony, and the literal translation proves it: “Thou knowest, because thou was then born; and the number of thy days is great,” or multitudinous, רבים rabbim, multitudes.

Verse 21. Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? — An ironical question. If thou pretendest that thou knowest these things, how camest thou by this knowledge? Was it because thou didst then exist in the full and perfect use of thy faculties, and thereby hadst the opportunity of inspecting my works, and of seeing whence the light came? Or, because thou hast gained this knowledge by long experience, as having lived ever since the creation of the world until this time? Whereas, in truth, thou art but of yesterday, and knowest, comparatively, nothing, Job 8:9.

21. Knowest thou it — Thou knowest! for then wast thou born, and the number of thy days is great! The keenest irony. Job knows so much, that he must have come into existence at the time when light and darkness were created!

g. He must have penetrated to the storehouses of snow and hail, and entered nature’s laboratory, where, like so many implements of war, they are produced in vast quantities; he must have found his way to the focal centre from which light divides itself and whence the east wind is dispersed over the earth, 22-24.

V. 22. Treasures-Dost thou know where I have laid up those vast quantities of snow and hail which I draw forth when I see fit?

Verse 22. The treasures of the snow] The places where snow is formed, and the cause of that formation. See on Job 37:6. Treasures of the hail] It is more easy to account for the formation of snow than of hail. Hail, however, is generally supposed to be drops of rain frozen in their passage through cold regions of the air; and the hail is always in proportion to the size of the raindrop from which it was formed. But this meteor does not appear to be formed from a single drop of water, as it is found to be composed of many small spherules frozen together, the centre sometimes soft like snow, and at other times formed of a hard nucleus, which in some cases has been of a brown colour, capable of ignition and explosion. In the description given of snow, Job 37:6, it has been stated that both snow and hail owe their formation to electricity; the hail being formed in the higher regions of the air, where the cold is intense, and the electric matter abundant. By this agency it is supposed that a great number of aqueous particles are brought together and frozen, and in their descent collect other particles, so that the density of the substance of the hailstone grows less and less from the centre, this being formed first in the higher regions, and the surface being collected in the lower. This theory is not in all cases supported by fact, as in some instances the centre has been found soft and snow-like, when the surface has been hard. Hail is the only meteor of this kind, from which no apparent good is derived. Rain and dew invigorate and give life to the whole vegetable world; frost, by expanding the water contained in the earth, pulverizes and renders the soil fertile; snow covers and defends vegetables from being destroyed by too severe a frost; but hail does none of these. It not only does no good, but often much harm-always some. It has a chilling, blasting effect in spring and summer, and cuts the tender plants so as to injure or totally destroy them. In short, the treasures of hail are not well known; and its use in the creation has not yet been ascertained. But frost is God’s universal plough, by which he cultivates the whole earth.

Verses 22, 23. Hast thou entered into the treasures of snow? — Dost thou know where I have laid up those vast quantities of snow and hail which I draw forth when I see fit? Dost thou know the causes of them, and the way to produce them? But if thou art unacquainted with these treasures, it is intolerable presumption in thee to pretend that thou knowest those treasures of wisdom which lie hid in my own breast. Which I have reserved — That is, which snow, and especially which hail, I have prepared, against the time of trouble — When I intend to bring trouble or calamity upon any country or people, for the punishment of their sins, or for their trial. Or, as the Hebrew rx t[l, legneth tzar, may be properly rendered, against the time of the enemy; that is, when I intend to punish mine or my people’s enemies, and to fight against them with these weapons. Against the day of battle and war — “Though the expression here is general, and means only that the Almighty reserves these powers in nature as the instruments of destruction for wicked men; yet particular cases may well be referred to, as explanatory hereof. See, therefore, Exodus 9:23, and Joshua 10:11. Respecting the treasures of snow and hail, the philosophical reader will find great satisfaction by referring to Scheuchzer on the place.” — Dodd.

Ver. 22. The treasures of the hail. Mount Lebanon being nine thousand six hundred feet high, occasions the most tremendous storms of hail in the east. Psalm 68:14.

22. Treasures of the snow — twrxa: a word applied frequently to the treasures of the temple, (1 Kings 7:51,) or to those of the royal house. 1 Kings 14:26; 15:18, etc. It is also employed for “magazines,” “treasuries,” or “storehouses;” but here poetically and figuratively for rich and precious treasures that God has laid up against a time of trouble, of which explanation is given in the following verse. Delitzsch finds in the word otseroth (treasures) a deeper meaning — the final causes of these phenomena which God has created; the form of the question, the design of which is ethical, not scientific, being regulated according to the infancy of the perception of natural phenomena among the ancients. Cp. Psalm 135:7. These weapons of war (ver. 23) come forth from the divine and unseen arsenal, displaying evidences of divine elaboration and skill. Seen under a microscope they present a beauty and a variety unsurpassed by objects either in the animal or vegetable kingdom. Produced in calm air, the snow builds itself into beautiful stellar shapes, each star possessing six rays. Sir John Herschel remarks, that the variety of forms affected by these delicate mechanisms is infinite; the beauty of their patterns incomparable. The treasures of the hail — Hail falls most commonly in the latter part of the spring, in very heavy storms, and the hail stones are of an enormous size, etc. RUSSELL, Hist, of Aleppo, 1:71. Of Palestine in general, Robinson says: Hail falls in the hill country in the rainy season more frequently than snow; but does not, in general, occasion much damage. Fine hail mingled with rain is common. Phys. Geog. of Holy Land, 265.

V. 23. Trouble-When I intend to bring trouble upon any people for their sins.

Verse 23. Reserved against the time of trouble] rx לעת leeth tsar, “to the season of strictness,” i.e., the season when the earth is constringed or bound by the frost.

Against the day of battle and war?] Hailstones being often employed as instruments of God’s displeasure against his enemies, and the enemies of his people. There is probably an allusion here to the plague of hail sent on the Egyptians. See Exodus 9:23, and the notes there, for more particulars concerning hailstones, remarkable showers of them, &c. There may be also a reference to Joshua 10:10, 11, where a destructive shower of what are called hailstones fell upon the Canaanitish kings who fought against Israel. See the note there also.

Verses 22, 23. Hast thou entered into the treasures of snow? — Dost thou know where I have laid up those vast quantities of snow and hail which I draw forth when I see fit? Dost thou know the causes of them, and the way to produce them? But if thou art unacquainted with these treasures, it is intolerable presumption in thee to pretend that thou knowest those treasures of wisdom which lie hid in my own breast. Which I have reserved — That is, which snow, and especially which hail, I have prepared, against the time of trouble — When I intend to bring trouble or calamity upon any country or people, for the punishment of their sins, or for their trial. Or, as the Hebrew rx t[l, legneth tzar, may be properly rendered, against the time of the enemy; that is, when I intend to punish mine or my people’s enemies, and to fight against them with these weapons. Against the day of battle and war — “Though the expression here is general, and means only that the Almighty reserves these powers in nature as the instruments of destruction for wicked men; yet particular cases may well be referred to, as explanatory hereof. See, therefore, Exodus 9:23, and Joshua 10:11. Respecting the treasures of snow and hail, the philosophical reader will find great satisfaction by referring to Scheuchzer on the place.” — Dodd.

23. The day of battle and war — Man’s ordnance for war is the wide-mouthed and wide-resounding cannon; God’s, the silent snowflake, the blight, the unseen fungi floating in the air, or marshalled hosts of insects. “Providence,” said Napoleon, “is on the side of the heaviest battalions;” heaven’s answer consisted simply of snow and hail and cold; and one of the mightiest armies of modern times was laid low. Horace has a similar thought: —

Too long, alas! with storms of hail and snow,

Jove has chastised the world below.

Demosthenes compares the destructive course of King Philip to a storm of hail. For Scripture illustrations see Exodus 9:18; Joshua 10:11; 1 Samuel 7:10; 2 Samuel 23:20; Psalm 68:14; Isaiah 28:17, etc.

V. 24. Distributed-In the air, and upon the face of the earth. This is variously distributed in the world, shining in one place and time, when it doth not shine in another, or for a longer time, or with greater brightness and power than it doth in another. All which are the effects of God’s infinite wisdom and power, and such as were out of Job’s reach to understand. Which-Which light scattereth, raises the east-wind, and causes it to blow hither and thither upon the earth? For as the sun is called by the poets, the father of the winds, because he draws up those exhalations which give matter to the winds, so in particular the east-wind is often observed to rise together with the sun.

Verse 24. By what way is the light parted] Who can accurately describe the cause and operation of a thunder cloud, the cause, nature, and mode of operation of the lightning itself? Is it a simple element or compound substance? What is its velocity? and why not conductible by every kind of substance, as it is known to exist in all, and, indeed, to be diffused through every portion of nature? How is it parted? How does it take its zigzag form? this is the curious, indescribable, and unknown parting. Are all the causes of positive and negative electricity found out? What are its particles, and how do they cohere, and in what order are they propagated? Much has been said on all these points, and how little of that much satisfactorily!

Scattereth the east wind upon the earth?] µydq kadim, the eastern storm, euroclydon, or levanter.

Verse 24. By what way is the light parted — Or dispersed, or distributed, namely, in the air, or upon the face of the earth. This is variously distributed in the world, shining in one place and time, when it doth not shine in another, or for a longer time, or with greater brightness and power than it doth in another; all which are the effects of God’s infinite wisdom and power, and such as were out of Job’s reach to understand. Which scattereth the east wind — Which light scattereth, or raises the east wind, and causes it to blow hither and thither upon the earth? For as the sun is called by the poets, the father of the winds, because he rarefies the atmosphere by his heat, or condenses it by drawing up and loading it with vapours, and thereby destroys the equilibrium of it which produces winds; so, in particular, the east wind is often observed to rise together with the sun. But as there is no Hebrew for which, the words µydq xpy, japhetz kadim, would, perhaps, be better translated, By what way does the east wind scatter itself? continuing the interrogation, and making this a distinct question. That is, whence do the winds come, and whither do they go? And how comes it to pass, that they blow in so many manners, and with such various and contrary effects?

24. By what way, etc. — What is the way that light divides itself? (Dillmann and Hitzig.) Which scattereth, etc. — [How] does the east wind scatter itself over the earth? The east wind, for diffusiveness and destructiveness corresponding to the Eurus of the classics, is here used representatively. It was an east wind that was summoned to hurl the wicked man out of his place, (Job 27:21, on which see note,) and an east wind also which broke the ships of Tarshish. Psalm 48:7. The reason that light and the east wind are mentioned together may be that they both take their rise in the same quarter of the sky, or because of the extreme heat associated with each.

d. Who formed the heavenly conduits, through which the water torrents flow? and who providentially guides the thunderbolt, so that untenanted wastes and the thirsty wilderness are blessed? 25-27.

V. 25. Overflowing-For the showers of rain which come down orderly, and gradually, as if they were conveyed in pipes or channels; which, without the care of God’s providence, would fall confusedly, and overwhelm the earth. Lightning-For lightning and thunder? Who opened a passage for them out of the cloud in which they were imprisoned? And these are joined with the rain, because they are commonly accompanied with great showers of rain.

Verse 25. Divided a water-course] The original תעלה tealah, from hl[ alah, to ascend, may signify rather a cloud, or clouds in general, where the waters are stored up. I cannot see how the overflowings or torrents of water can be said to ascend any other way than by evaporation; and it is by this Divine contrivance that the earth is not only irrigated, but even dried; and by this means too much moisture is not permitted to lie upon the ground, which would not only be injurious to vegetation, but even destroy it. But query, may not a waterspout be intended?

A way for the lightning of thunder] “A path for the bolt of thunder.” God is represented as directing the course even of the lightning; he launches the bolt, and makes the path in which it is to run. To grasp, manage, and dart the thunderbolt or lightning, was a work which heathenism gave to Jupiter, its supreme god. None of the inferior deities were capable of this. But who can thunder with a voice like the Almighty? He is THE THUNDERER.

Verse 25. Who hath divided a water-course, &c. — For the showers of rain, which come down orderly and gradually, as if they were conveyed in pipes or channels; which, without the care of God’s providence, would fall confusedly, and overwhelm the earth. Or a way for the lightning — For lightning and thunder? — Who opened a passage for them out of the cloud in which they were imprisoned? And these are joined with the rain, because they are commonly accompanied with great showers of rain.

25. Overflowing of waters — The rain falls in such immense masses that the sky seems to overflow. Some one’s mind directs, as through aqueducts, these outpourings (literally, “the water gush” of the sky) which inundate specific regions, and even those unoccupied by man. A way for the lightning of thunder — The Hebrew is verbatim the same as in 28:26, on which see note. Thunder is now generally regarded as the result of the sudden re-entrance of the air into a void space, as in the experiment of a bladder tied over an open-mouthed receiver, and burst by the pressure of the external air. This vacuum is supposed to be generated by the lightning in its passage through the air. Electricity communicates a powerful repulsive force to the particles of air along the path of its discharge, producing thus a momentary void, into which immediately afterward the surrounding air rushes with a violence proportioned to the intensity of the electricity. LOOMIS’ Meteorology, p. 168. Dr. Clarke (Com., in loc.) gives a dissertation on the connexion between thunder and rain.

V. 26. To cause-That the clouds being broken by lightning and thunder might pour down rain. No man-To water those parts by art and industry, as is usual in cultivated places.

Verse 26. To cause it to rain on the earth] It is well known that rain falls copiously in thunder-storms. The flash is first seen, the clap is next heard, and last the rain descends. The lightning travels all lengths in no perceivable succession of time. Sound is propagated at the rate of 1142 feet in a second. Rain travels still more slowly, and will be seen sooner or later according to the weight of the drops, and the distance of the cloud from the place of the spectator. Now the flash, the clap, and the rain, take place all in the same moment, but are discernible by us in the succession already mentioned, and for the reasons given above; and more at large in Clarke’s note on “Job 36:29”, &c.

But how are these things formed? The lightning is represented as coming immediately from the hand of God. The clap is the effect of the lightning, which causes a vacuum in that part of the atmosphere through which it passes; the air rushing in to restore the equilibrium may cause much of the noise that is heard in the clap. An easy experiment on the airpump illustrates this: Take a glass receiver open at both ends, over one end tie a piece of sheep’s bladder wet, and let it stand till thoroughly dry. Then place the open end on the plate of the airpump, and exhaust the air slowly from under it. The bladder soon becomes concave, owing to the pressure of the atmospheric air on it, the supporting air in the receiver being partly thrown out. Carry on the exhaustion, and the air presses at the rate of fifteen pounds on every square inch; see on Job 28:28. The fibres of the bladder, being no longer capable of bearing the pressure of the atmospheric column upon the receiver, are torn to pieces, with a noise equal to the report of a musket, which is occasioned by the air rushing in to restore the equilibrium. Imagine a rapid succession of such experiments, and you have the peal of thunder, the rupture of the first bladder being the clap. But the explosion of the gases (oxygen and hydrogen) of which water is composed will also account for the noise. See below.

But how does the thunder cause rain? By the most accurate and incontestable experiments it is proved that water is a composition of two elastic airs or gases as they are called, oxygen and hydrogen. In 100 parts of water there are 88 1/4 of oxygen, and 11 3/4 of hydrogen. Pass a succession of electric sparks through water by means of a proper apparatus, and the two gases are produced in the proportions mentioned above.

To decompose water by galvanism:—Take a narrow glass tube three or four inches long; fit each end with a cork penetrated by a piece of slender iron wire, and fill the tube with water. Let the ends of the two wires within the tube be distant from each other about three quarters of an inch, and let one be made to communicate with the top, the other with the bottom of a galvanic pile in action. On making this communication, bubbles of air will be formed, and ascend to the top of the tube, the water decreasing as it is decomposed.

The oxygen and hydrogen formed by this experiment may be recomposed into the same weight of water. Take any quantity of the oxygen and hydrogen gases in the proportions already mentioned; ignite them by the electric spark, and they produce a quantity of water equal in weight to the gases employed. Thus, then, we can convert water into air, and reconvert this air into water; and the proportions hold as above. I have repeatedly seen this done, and assisted in doing it, but cannot, in this place, describe every thing in detail.

Now to the purpose of this note: the rain descending after the flash and the peal. The electric spark or matter of lightning, passing through the atmosphere, ignites and decomposes the oxygen and hydrogen, which explode, and the water which was formed of these two falls down in the form of rain. The explosion of the gases, as well as the rushing in of the circumambient air to restore the equilibrium, will account for the clap and peal: as the decomposition and ignition of them will account for the water or rain which is the attendant of a thunder storm. Thus by the lightning of thunder God causes it to rain on the earth. How marvellous and instructive are his ways!

Verses 26, 27. To cause it to rain, &c. — That the clouds, being broken by lightning and thunder, might pour down rain. On the wilderness wherein there is no man? — Namely, no one to water those parts by art and industry, as is usual in cultivated and inhabited places. Which makes this work of Divine Providence more necessary, and more remarkable, as hereby provision is made for the relief of the wild beasts, and plants, and other fruits of those forsaken lands, which otherwise would perish with drought. To satisfy the desolate and waste ground — By raining not sparingly, but liberally and abundantly upon it. To cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth — There being many excellent and useful herbs found in desert places, for the growth of which the rain is absolutely necessary. Thus, as God had before put such questions to Job as were proper to convince him of his ignorance; so he now puts such to him as were calculated to convince him of his impotence. As it was but little that he could know, and therefore he ought not to have arraigned the divine counsels, so it was but little he could do, and therefore he ought not to oppose the divine providence.

26. Where no man is — God lays stress on this circumstance in order to humble man, and to show him that the earth was made neither by him nor for him. (Renan.) The subject trenches upon the unfathomable mystery of lavish expenditure, if not apparent waste, in the universe of God. Matthew 26:8. For instance, according to Lockyer, our earth intercepts only one ray out of about two thousand million rays of the sun, the rest, for the most part, falling on no planet, but seemingly poured uselessly into empty space. One of the Arabian poets of the Moallakat — works on account of their superexcellence suspended in the Kaaba at Mecca — beautifully says, “The cloud unloadeth its freight on the Desert of Ghabeit, like a merchant of Yemen alighting with his bales of rich apparel.”

V. 27. To bring forth-Hitherto God has put such questions to Job, as were proper to convince him of his ignorance. Now he comes to convince him of his impotence. As it is but little that he can know, and therefore he ought not to arraign the Divine counsels, so it is but little he can do; and therefore he ought not to oppose Divine providence.

Verse 27. To satisfy the desolate and waste] The thunder cloud not only explodes over inhabited countries, that the air may be purified and the rain sent down to fertilize the earth, but it is conducted over deserts where there is no human inhabitant; and this to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth: for there are beasts, fowls, and insects, that inhabit the desert and the wilderness, and must be nourished by the productions of the ground. Every tribe of animals was made by the hand of God, and even the lowest of them is supported by his kind providence.

Verses 26, 27. To cause it to rain, &c. — That the clouds, being broken by lightning and thunder, might pour down rain. On the wilderness wherein there is no man? — Namely, no one to water those parts by art and industry, as is usual in cultivated and inhabited places. Which makes this work of Divine Providence more necessary, and more remarkable, as hereby provision is made for the relief of the wild beasts, and plants, and other fruits of those forsaken lands, which otherwise would perish with drought. To satisfy the desolate and waste ground — By raining not sparingly, but liberally and abundantly upon it. To cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth — There being many excellent and useful herbs found in desert places, for the growth of which the rain is absolutely necessary. Thus, as God had before put such questions to Job as were proper to convince him of his ignorance; so he now puts such to him as were calculated to convince him of his impotence. As it was but little that he could know, and therefore he ought not to have arraigned the divine counsels, so it was but little he could do, and therefore he ought not to oppose the divine providence.

27. To satisfy the desolate and waste ground — As if it lifted an imploring voice to God, and he sent down the rain to satisfy it. The desert is thus like a thirsty pilgrim. (Barnes.)

Third long strophe — MORTIFYING QUESTIONS AS TO THE ORIGIN OF METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA, THE CONSTITUTION AND CONTROL OF MIGHTY CONSTELLATIONS, AND THE CREATIVE

V. 28. Father-Is there any man that can beget or produce rain at his pleasure?

Verse 28. Hath the rain a father?] Or, Who is the father of the rain? We have seen above one part of the apparatus by which God produces it; other causes have been mentioned on Job 36:27, &c.

The drops of dew?] ylga egley, the sphericles, the small round drops or globules. Dew is a dense moist vapour, found on the earth in spring and summer mornings, in the form of a mizzling rain. Dr. Hutton defines it, “a thin, light, insensible mist or rain, descending with a slow motion, and falling while the sun is below the horizon. It appears to differ from rain as less from more. Its origin and matter are doubtless from the vapours and exhalations that rise from the earth and water.” Various experiments have been instituted to ascertain whether dew arises from the earth, or descends from the atmosphere; and those pro and con have alternately preponderated. The question is not yet decided; and we cannot yet tell any more than Job which hath begotten the drops of dew, the atmosphere or the earth. Is it water deposited from the atmosphere, when the surface of the ground is colder than the air?

Verses 28-30. Hath the rain a father? — Is there any man that can beget or produce rain at his pleasure? No; this is my peculiar work. The hoary frost, who hath gendered it? — What man can either produce, or doth fully understand where or how it is generated? The waters are hid as with a stone — That is, with ice as hard as a stone. And the face of the deep is frozen — Of the great sea, which is often called the deep, and which in some parts is frozen, so that its surface grows solid. The ice and the frost are very common things, and therefore do not appear to us remarkable; but considering what a mighty change is made by them in a little time, and how the waters of rivers, lakes, and oceans, are hid by them, as though a grave-stone were laid upon them, we may well ask, Out of whose womb came the ice? What created power could produce such a wonderful work?

COMMAND OF SO INSIGNIFICANT PHENOMENA AS THE CLOUDS OF JOB’S OWN SKY, 28-38. Predominant in this strophe is the twofold conception of power and wisdom which leads more particularly to questions as to the source of wisdom in man, (Job 5:36,) the boasted counterpart of God. a. Perhaps a human parentage may be found for the rain, the dew, the ice, and the hoar frost, and Job may be able to produce them at pleasure! 28-30.

28. The rain… the drops of dew — The parentage of the rain and the dew is not with man, but with God. Jablonski declares that the enlightened Egyptian considered the moon to be the parent of dew — a fact which gives emphasis to the question of the Almighty. Begotten — “The figure of generation,” as Dr. T. Lewis remarks, “is kept up in dylwh, ‘begotten.’ There has been a great lack of attention to the momentous fact that so much of this language of generation, or of evolution, or production by birth, (one thing coming out of another,) is employed in Scripture, not only in the poetical parts, such as Psalm 90:2, 104, Proverbs 8:22, and here in Job; but in the prose account of Genesis 1, ‘The earth bringing forth;’ ‘the waters swarming with life;’ ‘the Spirit brooding upon them;’ ‘the generations, twdlwt, of the heavens and the earth.’” The questions of these two verses intimate that nature has within herself no life, or potency of life, except such as God himself imparts. Nor is matter the universal mother “who brings forth all things as the fruit of her own womb,” as Bruno (cited by Prof. Tyndall) would say, but rather a capacity for the evolving of life, and the various forms and qualities of life, either directly, by the creative will of God, or indirectly, according to divinely-devised laws, to which God originally imparted, or continues still to impart, life-giving power. The questions of these verses spring from the remarkable generalization, which true science now justifies, that there can be no life without semination. This thought the text transfers in figure to the formation of the rain and the dew, the ice and the hoar frost; even these dead forms or products of nature must have had an author. Verse 29 is an enlargement of the thought of the preceding verse. The variation in gender is accommodated to the idea that the ice and frost come forth from the earth, (see note, Job 1:21,) while the rain and drops of dew take their rise in heaven.

Verse 29. Out of whose womb came the ice?] ICE is a solid, transparent, and brittle body, formed of water by means of cold. Some philosophers suppose that ice is only the re-establishment of water in its natural state; that the mere absence of fire is sufficient to account for this re-establishment; and that the fluidity of water is a real fusion, like that of metals exposed to the action of fire; and differing only in this, that a greater portion of fire is necessary to one than the other. Ice, therefore, is supposed to be the natural state of water; so that in its natural state water is solid, and becomes fluid only by the action of fire, as solid metallic bodies are brought into a state of fusion by the same means. Ice is lighter than water, its specific gravity being to that of water as eight to nine. This rarefaction of ice is supposed to be owing to the air-bubbles produced in water by freezing, and which, being considerably larger in proportion to the water frozen, render the body so much specifically lighter; hence ice always floats on water. The air-bubbles, during their production, acquire a great expansive power, so as to burst the containing vessels, be they ever so strong. See examples in Clarke’s note on “Job 37:10”.

The hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?] Hoar-frost is the congelation of dew, in frosty mornings, on the grass. It consists of an assemblage of little crystals of ice, which are of various figures, according to the different disposition of the vapours when met and condensed by the cold. Its production is owing to some laws with which we are not yet acquainted. Of this subject, after the lapse and experience of between two and three thousand years, we know about as much as Job did. And the question, What hath engendered the hoar-frost of heaven! is, to this hour, nearly as inexplicable to us as it was to him! Is it enough to say that hoar-frost is water deposited from the atmosphere at a low temperature, so as to produce congelation?

Verses 28-30. Hath the rain a father? — Is there any man that can beget or produce rain at his pleasure? No; this is my peculiar work. The hoary frost, who hath gendered it? — What man can either produce, or doth fully understand where or how it is generated? The waters are hid as with a stone — That is, with ice as hard as a stone. And the face of the deep is frozen — Of the great sea, which is often called the deep, and which in some parts is frozen, so that its surface grows solid. The ice and the frost are very common things, and therefore do not appear to us remarkable; but considering what a mighty change is made by them in a little time, and how the waters of rivers, lakes, and oceans, are hid by them, as though a grave-stone were laid upon them, we may well ask, Out of whose womb came the ice? What created power could produce such a wonderful work?

COMMAND OF SO INSIGNIFICANT PHENOMENA AS THE CLOUDS OF JOB’S OWN SKY, 28-38. Predominant in this strophe is the twofold conception of power and wisdom which leads more particularly to questions as to the source of wisdom in man, (Job 5:36,) the boasted counterpart of God. a. Perhaps a human parentage may be found for the rain, the dew, the ice, and the hoar frost, and Job may be able to produce them at pleasure! 28-30.

28. The rain… the drops of dew — The parentage of the rain and the dew is not with man, but with God. Jablonski declares that the enlightened Egyptian considered the moon to be the parent of dew — a fact which gives emphasis to the question of the Almighty. Begotten — “The figure of generation,” as Dr. T. Lewis remarks, “is kept up in dylwh, ‘begotten.’ There has been a great lack of attention to the momentous fact that so much of this language of generation, or of evolution, or production by birth, (one thing coming out of another,) is employed in Scripture, not only in the poetical parts, such as Psalm 90:2, 104, Proverbs 8:22, and here in Job; but in the prose account of Genesis 1, ‘The earth bringing forth;’ ‘the waters swarming with life;’ ‘the Spirit brooding upon them;’ ‘the generations, twdlwt, of the heavens and the earth.’” The questions of these two verses intimate that nature has within herself no life, or potency of life, except such as God himself imparts. Nor is matter the universal mother “who brings forth all things as the fruit of her own womb,” as Bruno (cited by Prof. Tyndall) would say, but rather a capacity for the evolving of life, and the various forms and qualities of life, either directly, by the creative will of God, or indirectly, according to divinely-devised laws, to which God originally imparted, or continues still to impart, life-giving power. The questions of these verses spring from the remarkable generalization, which true science now justifies, that there can be no life without semination. This thought the text transfers in figure to the formation of the rain and the dew, the ice and the hoar frost; even these dead forms or products of nature must have had an author. Verse 29 is an enlargement of the thought of the preceding verse. The variation in gender is accommodated to the idea that the ice and frost come forth from the earth, (see note, Job 1:21,) while the rain and drops of dew take their rise in heaven.

Verse 30. The waters are hid as with a stone] Here is a reference to freezing in the winter, as we may learn from some of the constellations mentioned below, which arise above our horizon, in the winter months. The word wabjty yithchabbau is understood by the versions in general as implying hardening or congelation; and we know in some intense frosts the ice becomes as hard as a stone; and even the face of the deep-the very seas themselves, not only in the polar circles, but even in northern countries, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and parts of Germany, are really frozen, and locked up from all the purposes of navigation for several months in winter.

Verses 28-30. Hath the rain a father? — Is there any man that can beget or produce rain at his pleasure? No; this is my peculiar work. The hoary frost, who hath gendered it? — What man can either produce, or doth fully understand where or how it is generated? The waters are hid as with a stone — That is, with ice as hard as a stone. And the face of the deep is frozen — Of the great sea, which is often called the deep, and which in some parts is frozen, so that its surface grows solid. The ice and the frost are very common things, and therefore do not appear to us remarkable; but considering what a mighty change is made by them in a little time, and how the waters of rivers, lakes, and oceans, are hid by them, as though a grave-stone were laid upon them, we may well ask, Out of whose womb came the ice? What created power could produce such a wonderful work?

30. The waters are hid as with a stone — The waters harden like stone. Thus Furst, etc. The root idea of abj is that of “hiding,” “concealing:” here used in the Hithpael it signifies “they hide themselves.” in other words, “congeal;” to which Umbreit gives the idea of “hiding under a stone.” The comparison to a stone is introduced rather to show the result of freezing, which is a hardness like that of stone, ˆbak. The son of Sirach speaks of the cold north wind clothing the water as with a breastplate. Ecclus. 43:20. Is frozen — Cleaves together. See note on Job 37:10. The same word, wdklty, is used in Job 41:17 of the joining together of the scales of the leviathan. The face of the deep closes in together after the manner of the human face, (thus Hitzig,) whose lineaments constitute the countenance. Tyndall, in his treatise on “The Structure and Properties of Ice,” describes the transmission, in various directions, of sunbeams, condensed by a lens, through slabs of ice. “The path of every beam was observed to be instantly studded with lustrous spots, which increased in magnitude and number as the action continued. On examining the spots more closely they were found to be flattened spheroids, and around each of them the ice was so liquified as to form a beautiful flower-shaped figure possessing six petals. From this number there was no deviation. At first the edges of the liquid leaves were unindented; but a continuance of the action usually caused the edges to become serrated like those of ferns.” In his work on “Forms of Water,” (pp. 35-38.) the same author says, “In all cases the flowers are formed parallel to the surface of freezing. They are formed when the sun shines upon the ice of every lake; sometimes in myriads, and so small as to require a magnifying glass to see them.… Here we have a reversal of the process of crystallization… In this exquisite way every bit of the ice over which our skaters glide in winter is put together.” b. Perhaps Job can tell who formed the constellations, “Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the South,” — upon which he descanted so sublimely, (Job 9:9,) — and who set them in their lofty places, and ordained and confirmed their influences upon the earth! 31-33.

V. 31. Bind-Restrain or hinder them. Pleiades-The seven stars, which bring in the spring. Bands-By which it binds up the air and earth, by bringing storms of rain and hail or frost and snow. Orion-This constellation rises in November, and brings in winter. Both summer and winter will have their course? God indeed can change them when he pleases, can make the spring cold, and so bind the influences of Pleiades, and the winter warm, and so loose the bands of Orion; but we cannot.

Verse 31. Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades] The Pleiades are a constellation in the sign Taurus. They consist of six stars visible to the naked eye; to a good eye, in a clear night, seven are discernible; but with a telescope ten times the number may be readily counted. They make their appearance in the spring. Orion may be seen in the morning, towards the end of October, and is visible through November, December, and January; and hence, says Mr. Good, it becomes a correct and elegant synecdoche for the winter at large. The Pleiades are elegantly opposed to Orion, as the vernal renovation of nature is opposed to its wintry destruction; the mild and open benignity of spring, to the severe and icy inactivity of winter.

I have already expressed my mind on these supposed constellations, and must refer to my notes on Job 9:9, &c., and to the learned notes of Doctor Hales and Mr. Mason Good on these texts. They appear certain, where I am obliged to doubt; and, from their view of the subject, make very useful and important deductions. I find reluctance in departing from the ancient versions. In this case, these learned men follow them; I cannot, because I do not see the evidence of the groundwork; and I dare not draw conclusions from premises which seem to me precarious, or which I do not understand. I wish, therefore, the reader to examine and judge for himself. Coverdale renders the 31st and 32d verses {Job 38:31, 32} thus: Hast thou brought the VII starres together? Or, Art thou able to breake the circle of heaven? Canst thou bringe forth the morynge starre, or the evenynge starre, at convenient tyme, and conveye them home agayne?

Verse 31. Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades? — Generally understood of the seven stars, which, rising about the time of the vernal equinox, bring in the spring. Canst thou restrain or hinder their influences? Or loose the bands of Orion? — By which it binds up the air and earth, rising in November, and bringing in the winter, attended with storms of rain and hail, or frost and snow. See note on Job 9:9. Whatever be the meaning of the words rendered Pleiades and Orion, the sense of which is disputed among the learned; by the former, hmyk, chimah, we are to understand the sign which appears in the heavens at the spring of the year: and by the latter, lysk, chesil, the sign which presents itself when the season is cold and severe: and the plain interpretation of the passage is, Is it in thy power to hinder either the mild or the rigid seasons of the year from making their regular appearance? Both summer and winter will have their course; God indeed can change them when he pleases, can make the spring cold, and so bind the influences of Pleiades and the winter warm, and so loose the bands of Orion, but we cannot.

Ver. 31. Pleiades. The seven stars; the seventh is not often seen without a glass.—Orion, a brilliant constellation in the southern hemisphere. Orion is represented as a gigantic man, with three stars on the scabbard of his sword, a club in his right hand, and a lion’s skin in his left.

31. Sweet influences — Our Authorized Version is based on the natural derivation of twnd[m from ˆd[, “to be soft” or “tender,” the root idea of the word Eden. According to this rendering the meaning is, as given by Patrick, “Canst thou forbid the sweet flowers to come forth, when the ‘seven stars’ arise in the spring; or open the earth for the husbandman’s labour, when the winter season, at the rising of Orion, ties up their hands;” — an interpretation fanciful and weak. The word is now generally supposed to be, by metathesis, from dn[, “to bind;” hence bands. Furst, Gesenius, etc., follow the Septuagint and Targum in this rendering. The word kimah, rendered PLEIADES, (the seven stars,) signifies heap or group, and naturally suggests the ties that bind it together into its beautiful order, which leads Persian poets to compare it to a bouquet formed of jewels, (see note, Job 9:9,) and one of the Moallakat to say, “It was the hour when the Pleiades appeared in the firmament, like the folds of a silken sash, variously decked with gems.” With Oriental poets “the bands of the Pleiades” is a frequent figure. It will illustrate the Authorized Version to add that Madlar reached the conclusion that Alcyone, the principal star in the group of the Pleiades, now occupies the centre of gravity, and is at present the sun or great centre about which our universe of stars is revolving. This “focal point,” it is proper to add, was conjectured by Struve to lie between p and m, in the group Hercules; while Argelander fixed upon Perseus as “the empire constellation of our astral system.” These “seven stars,” which in unspeakable beauty shine conspicuously forth from a vast throng (heap) of apparently minor stars, out of a distance perhaps forty million times as great as that of our own earth from the sun, send forth tender and as yet unestimated powerful influences, some of which our own earth is not too small to gather up and to feel. The bands of Orion — (See Job 9:9.) twkvwm, signifies also fetters, or its belt of three stars. (Hitzig.) These are the stars by which the giant form seems to be fastened to the heaven. (Hirtzel.) These mighty stars canst thou move from the places God has assigned them? Job can neither place in order the clustering Pleiades nor displace the stars of Orion. There is, possibly, an allusion to the wonderful nebula within this constellation. “Orion and the Pleiades are visible in the Syrian sky longer in the year than with us, and there they come about 17 higher above the horizon than with us.” — Delitzsch.

V. 32. Bring forth-Canst thou make the stars in the southern signs arise and appear? Arcturus-Those in the northern. His sons-The lesser stars, which are placed round about them; and attend upon them, as children upon their parents.

Verse 32. Mazzaroth in his season?] This is generally understood to mean the signs of the zodiac. twrzm Mazzaroth, according to Parkhurst, comes from rzm mazar, to corrupt; and he supposes it to mean that pestilential wind in Arabia, called simoom, the season of which is the summer heats.

Verses 32, 33. Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth? — Namely, into view? Canst thou make the stars in the southern signs arise and appear? Or canst thou guide Arcturus? — A northern constellation; with his sons? — The lesser stars which belong to it, which are placed round about it, and attend upon it as children upon their parents. Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? — The laws which are firmly established concerning their order, motion or rest, and their powerful influences upon this lower world. Didst thou give these laws? Or dost thou perfectly know them? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? — Canst thou manage and overrule their influences, that they shall bring such seasons and such weather as thou wouldest have?

Ver. 32. Mazzaroth in his season. Here the LXX follow the Hebrew. The word is plural, and designates the zodiac, consisting of twelve signs, invented to instruct the husbandman in the seasons of the year. Mr. Lloyd, whose lectures I attended, had an oriental zodiac, which indicates the invention to be of the remotest antiquity.

32. Mazzaroth — Even at the time of the translation made by the Seventy, the meaning of this word was uncertain. It is now generally supposed to be the same as Mazzaloth, (“the planets,” 2 Kings 23:5,) or a mere variant form, and to stand for the (twelve) signs of the zodiac. The supposition that Mazzaloth and Mazzaroth are one word may be argued from the like termination, which is both plural and feminine, and from the interchangeableness of the liquids l and r in most languages; for instance, the Latin Parilia for Palilia, “the festival of Pales;” the Hebrew Tsahar and Tsahal, “to shine;” the Arabic Kalban and the Hebrew Kereb, “heart.” The division of the ecliptic (the apparent path of the sun) into twelve equal signs or constellations, called signs of the zodiac, is generally understood to be of great antiquity. The porticoes of the temples at Denderah and Esne bear representations of the zodiac which so markedly resemble the zodiacal figures of the ancient Hindus, Persians, Chinese, and Japanese, as to indicate that they had one common origin. The Greeks, however, evidently derived their ideas and arrangements of the zodiac from the Chaldees. Other commentators, for instance Zockler (in Lange) and Dillmann, are led by a supposed etymology of the word (Mazzaroth) to fix upon some pre-eminently bright stars (for example, the planets Venus, Jupiter, Mars) which were conspicuous for their change of place in the sky. Canon Cook (Speaker’s Com.) points to a very ancient word Masarati, probably derived from a similar hieroglyphic word, signifying the course or march of the Sun-god — indicating “the milky way,” which was thought by the ancients to have “represented the course of the sun at a remote period — the traces, so to speak, of his footsteps.” (See Rawlinson’s Ancient Mon., 2:574, sec. ed.: Layard’s Nineveh, 2:440; Greswell’s Fasti, 3:252-326; Maurice’s Hindostan, 1:272-359.) Arcturus — See note on Job 9:9. The pregnant question, Canst thou guide? may possibly contain an occult allusion, which none but Jehovah could make, to the diverging movement of these stars, according to which the nearest of “the Pointers” is swiftly approaching our earth, while the other is rapidly receding, in which motion the other five participate — a supposed discovery that science has recently made. Proctor, Expanse, etc.. p. 295. With his sons — The three bright stars that form the tail of the Bear, which in some languages are fancifully deemed to be children following “the bier,” for such was the name the Arabs gave to the four leading stars of this constellation, which constitute a square. “The expression,” (‘hayish or ‘hash,) says Ideler, in his treatise on the names of the stars, “denotes particularly the bier on which the dead are borne, and, taken in this sense, each of the two biers (in the Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) is accompanied by three mourning women. The biers and the mourning women together are called Benat-n’ash, literally, daughters of the bier, that is, those who pertain to the bier.” Hitzig devotes a learned but exceedingly unsatisfactory note to his view that Mazzaroth is the morning star, and ‘hayish, Arcturus, is the evening star, thus adopting the rendering of the Septuagint, esperuv for vy[.

V. 33. Ordinances-The laws which are firmly established concerning their order, motion, or rest, and their powerful influences upon this lower world. Didst thou give these laws? Or dost thou perfectly know them? Canst thou-Manage and over rule their influences.

Verse 33. Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven?] Art thou a thorough astronomer? Art thou acquainted with all the laws of the planetary system? Canst thou account for the difference of their motions, and the influence by which they are retained and revolve in their orbits? And canst thou tell what influence or dominion they exercise on the earth? Sir Isaac Newton has given us much light on many of these things; but to his system, which is most probably the true one, gravity is essential; and yet what this gravity is he could neither explain nor comprehend; and his followers are not one whit wiser than he. No man has ever yet fully found out the ordinances of heaven, and the dominion thereof on the earth.

Verses 32, 33. Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth? — Namely, into view? Canst thou make the stars in the southern signs arise and appear? Or canst thou guide Arcturus? — A northern constellation; with his sons? — The lesser stars which belong to it, which are placed round about it, and attend upon it as children upon their parents. Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? — The laws which are firmly established concerning their order, motion or rest, and their powerful influences upon this lower world. Didst thou give these laws? Or dost thou perfectly know them? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? — Canst thou manage and overrule their influences, that they shall bring such seasons and such weather as thou wouldest have?

33. The ordinances — twqj: meaning here the laws that guide the stars, and control the seasons, etc. The intimate and commanding relationships of the heavenly bodies to our earth are those of a king to his subjects. Hence the immediate reference to “dominion,” — a thought that modern science illustrates and confirms. Dominion thereof — wrcvm, used only here, is a more significant word than the preceding one, (ordinances;) it is derived from shatar, “to cut into,” “write,” metaphorically administer; the art of writing being used in ancient times almost exclusively for legislative and judicial purposes, (Furst;) in accordance with which the word shoter signifies “an overseer,” “an administrator.” This pregnant question of the Almighty, Delitzsch reads, “Dost thou define its influence on the earth?” Hitzig, “Dost thou determine its relation to the earth?” — a question which will ever task to the utmost the resources of science to answer. g. Maybe Job can legislate for the firmament by wielding the thunder, draw down and empty the cloud, or by a word give life to the lightnings, that they may fulfil his behests, 34, 35.

V. 34. Cover thee-Thy land when it needs rain.

Verse 34. Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds] Canst thou produce lightning and thunder, that water may be formed, and poured down upon the earth?

Thunder is called twlq koloth, voices; for it is considered the voice of God: here then Job’s voice, Ëlwq kolecha, is opposed to the voice of JEHOVAH!

Verses 34, 35. Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds? — Either thundering in them, or calling to them with a loud voice, and commanding them to rain. That abundance of waters may cover thee? — That is, may cover thy land, when it needs and requires rain. Canst thou send lightnings that they may go? — At thy pleasure, and upon thy errand? and say, Here we are? — Ready to do thy will, as servants to obey their master. “Nothing can be more elevated and sublime than this verse. How strong the image! How simple the expression! We read of winged lightnings in the heathen poets; but where do they live, and act, and speak, and wait for orders with impatience as here?” See Peters and Dodd.

34. Thy voice to the clouds — Not a rain-drop can the human voice call from the sky, and yet abundance of rain is essential to the weal of our race.

Verse 35. Canst thou send lightnings] We have already seen that the lightning is supposed to be immediately in the hand and under the management of God. The great god of the heathen, Jupiter Brontes, is represented with the forked lightnings and thunderbolt in his hand. He seems so to grasp the bickering flame that, though it struggles for liberty, it cannot escape from his hold. Lightnings-How much like the sound of thunder is the original word: ברכים Berakim! Here are both sense and sound.

Here we are?] Will the winged lightnings be thy messengers, as they are mine?

Verses 34, 35. Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds? — Either thundering in them, or calling to them with a loud voice, and commanding them to rain. That abundance of waters may cover thee? — That is, may cover thy land, when it needs and requires rain. Canst thou send lightnings that they may go? — At thy pleasure, and upon thy errand? and say, Here we are? — Ready to do thy will, as servants to obey their master. “Nothing can be more elevated and sublime than this verse. How strong the image! How simple the expression! We read of winged lightnings in the heathen poets; but where do they live, and act, and speak, and wait for orders with impatience as here?” See Peters and Dodd.

35. Canst thou send lightnings — Electric forces man may wield, but the lightnings, who can send and who control?

d. Job is plied with questions as to the source of wisdom and understanding, on which man (Job) prides himself so highly; and whether, with all his wisdom, he can even number the clouds, or make them to incline, that they may empty themselves upon the earth, 36-38.

Verse 36. Who hath put wisdom in the in ward parts?] Who has given ywkcl lasechvi, to the contemplative person, understanding? Even the most sedulous attention to a subject, and the deepest contemplation, are not sufficient to investigate truth, without the inspiration of the Almighty, which alone can give understanding. But who has given man the power to conceive and understand? A power which he knows he has, but which he cannot comprehend. Man knows nothing of his own mind, nor of the mode of its operations. This mind we possess, these operations we perform;— and of either do we know any thing? If we know not our own spirit, how can we comprehend that SPIRIT which is infinite and eternal? Mr. Good thinks that this verse is a continuation of the subject above, relative to the lightnings, and therefore translates thus:— Who putteth understanding into the vollies?

And who giveth to the shafts discernment?

All the versions, except the Septuagint, which trifles here, understand the place as we do. Either makes a good sense. The Septuagint has, “Who hath given the knowledge of weaving to women; or the science of embroidery?” Instead of understanding to the heart, the Vulgate has, understanding to the cock; that it might be able to distinguish and proclaim the watches of the night.

Verse 36. Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? — Namely, of a man; who gave thee that understanding which thou hast, and which thou now usest so arrogantly as to contend with me, and censure my dispensations? Or who hath given understanding to the heart? — Considered by the Hebrews as the seat of understanding, and commonly put for it in Scripture.

36. The inward parts — twjc: a word which appears once besides, Psalm 51:6. Its root meaning, covered, hidden, points to the seat of affections, or moral nature, which, of all the elements of our being, is the most concealed. According to the Rabbis, whom Gesenius follows, it means the reins or kidneys, in Hebrew physiology regarded as the abode of instinctive yearnings, and which also were deemed — so Delitzsch thinks — to be the organs of the faculty of foreboding. See note on 16:13. These and similar functions were, according to Plato, discharged by the liver — a fancy which probably gave rise to the prophetic inspection of the liver among the ancient Babylonians, (Ezekiel 21:21,) Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans. See Diodorus Siculus, ii, ch. iii, Booth ed., 1:125. Recent German commentators for the most part regard tuhhoth as phenomenal, in like manner with the corresponding word of the next clause, (sekvi,) and render it “dark clouds,” (Zockler, Dillmann, Hitzig,) on the assumption that it is demanded by the context. The heart — Sekvi. Another rare word, whose meaning also is difficult to determine. Its radical idea, of insight, some of the best critics associate with mind or heart, and it is thus rendered. The context induces others to seek a meaning in the phenomena or powers of nature. The derivation of the word ywkc, heart, from hkc, “to see,” figuratively “to understand,” is now generally admitted, and yet it has led to weak and insipid interpretations: such as, “phenomena caused by light,” (Hahn, Ewald;) “the full moon,” (Dillmann;) “atmospheric phenomena,” (Zockler, Hitzig;) while Conant, Schlottmann, Renan, Hengstenberg, and others, properly render as in the Authorized Version. The word is evidently cognate with twykcm, (Psalm 73:7,) “thoughts,” and seemingly justifies the view of Gesenius, (Thes. 1329,) that it signifies that which sees rather than that which is seen. The mention of the subtle lightning not unnaturally suggests the subtler spiritual nature of man. If the wonderful endowments of a mental and moral being — powers infinitely superior to the brute forces of nature — are not alluded to in this verse, the discourse altogether ignores them; an omission simply incredible. The connexion of thought Schlottmann finds in the mention of the celestial laws and their ruling in the earth, which suggests most naturally that greater work of God, the making and implanting of the faculties which may comprehend his works. Hengstenberg finds the pivot of thought in wisdom, (hhokmah, verses 36 and 37,) of which man is the great embodiment. To say the least, the “putting wisdom (hhokmah) into” the dark clouds, and “the giving intelligence (binah, see note on Job 28:12,) to” fiery meteors, full moons, or atmospheric phenomena of any kind, involves a medley which is no more to be tolerated in the Hebrew use of words or their modes of thought than in our own. The interpretation of the Septuagint, from an apparently corrupted text. “And who has given woman skill in weaving, or knowledge of embroidery,” may be mentioned as one of the many vagaries to which this text has given occasion.

Verse 37. Who can number the clouds] Perhaps the word rps saphar, which is commonly rendered to number, may here mean, as in Arabic, to irradiate, as Mr. Good contends; and may refer to those celestial and inimitable tinges which we sometimes behold in the sky. Bottles of heaven] The clouds: it is an allusion to the girbahs, or bottles made of skin, in which they are accustomed to carry their water from wells and tanks.

Verses 37, 38. Who can number the clouds in wisdom? — Who can wisely search, and exactly find out, the number of the clouds? which are indeed numberless, and filled with water as the next clause implies. Or who can stay the bottles of heaven? — Can prevent the rain from being poured upon the earth out of the clouds, in which it is kept as in bottles; when the dust groweth into hardness — When the earth grows very hard, in the time of a great drought; and the clods cleave fast together — Become close and compact. Or the condition of the earth may be intended presently after a fall of rain, when the ground, which in the time of drought was much of it dissolved into dust, is now, by the rain, cemented or united together.

37. Number the clouds — A metaphor taken from a military enrolment — same word as in 2 Samuel 24:10. Who can stay the bottles of heaven — Rather, the bottles of heaven, who inclines them? as in the margin, with the meaning, “As water is poured from a bottle when inclined, so when the clouds are full of rain they empty themselves upon the earth.” Ecclesiastes 11:3. Sir J. Herschel’s explanation of the formation and descent of rain is as good, perhaps, as any yet proposed. “In whatever part of a cloud the original ascensional movement of the vapour ceases, the elementary globules of which it consists being abandoned to the action of gravity, begin to fall. By the theory of the resistance of fluids, the velocity of descent in air of a given density is as the square root of the diameter of the globule. The larger globules, therefore, fall fastest, and if (as must happen) they overtake the slower ones they incorporate, and, the diameter being thereby increased, the descent becomes more rapid, and the encounters more frequent, till at length the globule emerges from the lower surface of the cloud at the ‘vapour plain,’ as a drop of rain; the size of the drops depending on the thickness of the cloud stratum and its density.” — Meteorology, s.v. Bottles of heaven — “This phrase,” says Dr. Good, “is a direct Arabism for the clouds, and is to be found in every poet.” Among the citations Schultens makes from the Arabic poets is the following translation: —

A broad, deep cloud, that fed the rest, was nigh,

And burst its bottle ‘mid the warring sky.

A figure of the south wind adorns the Temple of Winds at Athens, holding a kind of pitcher (a swelling urceus) in his bared arms, as if it would deluge the earth. (See Wordsworth’s Athens and Attica, p. 153.) Scott observes that this image is similar to the inclined urn which the heathen poets place in the hand of a river god; the urn represents the fountain from which the river flows, and what fountains are to rivers the clouds are to rain. Dr. Hutchinson thinks that there is an allusion to the working of a Persian wheel, “the pitchers or bottles of which, as they come up, lie down or along, and so discharge their contents. As this discharge can only take place at a particular moment, and in consequence of the proper working of the wheel, so the discharge from the clouds can only take place at the proper moment, when allowed by the Creator.”

V. 38. Mire-By reason of much rain.

Verse 38. When the dust groweth into hardness] That is, Who knows how the dust-the elementary particles of matter, were concreted; and how the clods-the several parts of the earth, continue to cohere? What is the principle of cohesion among the different particles of matter, in all metals and minerals? Even water, in a solid form, constitutes a part of several gems, called thence water of crystallization. Who can solve this question? How is it that 90 parts of alumine, 7 of silex, and 1.2 of oxide of iron, constitute the oriental ruby? and that 90 parts of silex and 19 of water, form the precious opal? And how can 46 parts of silex, 14 of alumine, 28 of carbonate of lime, 6.5 of sulphate of lime, 3 of oxide of iron, and 2 of water, enter into the constitution, and form the substance, of the lapis lazuli? How do these solids and fluids of such differing natures grow into hardness, and form this curious mineral?

Take another example from that beautiful precious stone, the emerald. Its analysis shows it to be composed of glucine 13, silex 64.5, alumine 16, lime 1.6, and oxide of chrome 3.25. Now how can these dusts, utterly worthless in themselves, grow into hardness, combine, and form one of the most beautiful, and, next to the diamond, the most precious, of all the gems? The almighty and infinitely wise God has done this in a way only known to and comprehensible by himself.

Verses 37, 38. Who can number the clouds in wisdom? — Who can wisely search, and exactly find out, the number of the clouds? which are indeed numberless, and filled with water as the next clause implies. Or who can stay the bottles of heaven? — Can prevent the rain from being poured upon the earth out of the clouds, in which it is kept as in bottles; when the dust groweth into hardness — When the earth grows very hard, in the time of a great drought; and the clods cleave fast together — Become close and compact. Or the condition of the earth may be intended presently after a fall of rain, when the ground, which in the time of drought was much of it dissolved into dust, is now, by the rain, cemented or united together.

Ver. 38. When the dust groweth into hardness; Without a doubt the laws of gravity are here understood, as well as those of cohesion, though the idea of exsiccation only is conveyed to the English reader.

38. When the dust… hardness — When dust is poured into a molten mass. The rain consolidates the dust.

Second division — JOB IS CONFRONTED WITH THE ANIMAL WORLD, OF WHICH MAN IS THE HEAD AND MONARCH; WITH THE MYSTERY OF LIFE, ITS PROPAGATION AND PRESERVATION; AND WITH THE UNERRING AND INFINITELY VARIED LAWS OF THE WORLD OF INSTINCT, 39-39:30. First long strophe — BEASTS OF THE FIELD AND BIRDS OF THE AIR ARE ALIKE OBJECTS OF GOD’S FATHERLY CARE — A CARE WHICH NOT ONLY PROVIDES THEM WITH FOOD, BUT WATCHES OVER THEM DURING THE WHOLE PERIOD OF GESTATION, 39-39:8.

In the following three long strophes the discussion is directed to the goodness of God.

a. Job is asked whether such as he would ever have provided meat for beasts and birds, for instance, such representatives of the brute world as the greedy lion and the carrion raven, 39-41.

V. 39. Hunt-Is it by thy care that the lions who live in desert places are furnished with necessary provisions? This is another wonderful work of God.

Verse 39. Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion?] Rather the lioness, or strong lion. Hast thou his instinct? Dost thou know the habits and haunts of such animals as he seeks for his food? Thou hast neither his strength, his instinct nor his cunning.

In the best Hebrew Bibles, the thirty-ninth chapter begins with this verse, and begins properly, as a new subject now commences, relating to the natural history of the earth, or the animal kingdom; as the preceding chapter does to astronomy and meteorology.

Verses 39, 40. Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? — Is it by thy care and providence that the lions, who live in desert places, are furnished with necessary provisions? This is justly mentioned as another wonderful work of God. When they couch in their dens — When, through age and infirmity, they cannot range abroad for prey as the young lions do, but lie still in their dens, as it were, expecting their food from God, from whom also they receive it. And abide in the covert, to lie in wait — Watching till some beast comes that way, which they may make their prey.

Ver. 39. Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? In Campbell’s travels in South Africa, we are told that the lions hunt always to windward, by which they can smell their prey at a very great distance. The Hottentot servants therefore always watched leeward of the waggon and the bullocks.

39, 40. As Jehovah now proceeds to speak of the mysteries of the animal kingdom, some (Luther) would make the 39th verse the beginning of a new chapter. The king of beasts is mentioned first. Canst thou comprehend the instinct of the lioness, that guides her in taking prey for her whelps? or instruct the young lions how to provide food for themselves? They are taught like soldiers to “lurk” in ambush. See note 4:11.

Verse 40. When they couch in their dens] Before they are capable of trusting themselves abroad.

Abide in the covert] Before they are able to hunt down the prey by running. It is a fact that the young lions, before they have acquired sufficient strength and swiftness, lie under cover, in order to surprise those animals which they have not fleetness enough to overtake in the forest; and from this circumstance the כפירים kephirim, “young lions, or lions’ whelps,” have their name: the root is rpk caphar, to cover or hide. See Clarke’s note on “Job 4:11”, where six different names are given to the lion, all expressing some distinct quality or state.

Verses 39, 40. Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? — Is it by thy care and providence that the lions, who live in desert places, are furnished with necessary provisions? This is justly mentioned as another wonderful work of God. When they couch in their dens — When, through age and infirmity, they cannot range abroad for prey as the young lions do, but lie still in their dens, as it were, expecting their food from God, from whom also they receive it. And abide in the covert, to lie in wait — Watching till some beast comes that way, which they may make their prey.

39, 40. As Jehovah now proceeds to speak of the mysteries of the animal kingdom, some (Luther) would make the 39th verse the beginning of a new chapter. The king of beasts is mentioned first. Canst thou comprehend the instinct of the lioness, that guides her in taking prey for her whelps? or instruct the young lions how to provide food for themselves? They are taught like soldiers to “lurk” in ambush. See note 4:11.

V. 41. Raven-Having mentioned the noblest of brute creatures, he now mentions one of the most contemptible; to shew the care of God’s providence over all creatures, both great and small. Their young ones are so soon forsaken by their dams, that if God did not provide for them in a more than ordinary manner, they would be starved to death. And will he that provides for the young ravens, fail to provide for his own children.

Verse 41. Who provideth for the raven] This bird is chosen, perhaps, for his voracious appetite, and general hunger for prey, beyond most other fowls. He makes a continual cry, and the cry is that of hunger. He dares not frequent the habitations of men, as he is considered a bird of ill omen, and hated by all.

This verse is finely paraphrased by Dr. YOUNG:—

“Fond man! the vision of a moment made!

Dream of a dream, and shadow of a shade!

What worlds hast thou produced, what creatures framed, What insects cherish’d, that thy God is blamed?

When pain’d with hunger, the wild raven’s brood

Calls upon God, importunate for food,

Who hears their cry? Who grants their hoarse request, And stills the glamours of the craving nest?”

On which he has this note:—”The reason given why the raven is particularly mentioned as the care of Providence is, because by her clamorous and importunate voice she particularly seems always calling upon it; thence korassw, a korax, is to ask earnestly.—Ælian. lib. ii., c.

48. And since there were ravens on the banks of the Nile, more clamorous than the rest of that species, those probably are meant in this place.” THE commencement of Cicero’s oration against Catiline, to which I have referred on Job 38:3, is the following:—

Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? Quamdiu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? Quem ad finem sese effrenata jactabit audacia? Nihilne te nocturnum præsidium palatii-nihil urbis vigiliæ,—nihil timor popuii,—nihii concursus bonorum omnium,— nihil hic munitissimus habendi senatus locus-nihil horum ora, vultusque moverunt? Patere tua consilia nan sentis? Constrictam jam omnium horum conscientia teneri conjurationem tuam non vides? Quid proxima, quid superiore nocte egeris,—ubi fueris, quos convocaveris,—quid consilii ceperis, quem nostrum ignorare arbitraris? O tempora! O mores! Senatus haec intelligit,—consul videt; hic tamen vivit! Vivit? immo vero eitam in senatum venit; fit publici consilii particeps; notat et designat oculis ad cædem unumquemque nostrum! Nos autem, viri fortes, satisfacere reipublicæ videmur, si istius furorem ac tela vitemus! “How long wilt thou, O Catiline, abuse our patience? How long shall thy madness out-brave our justice? To what extremities art thou resolved to push thy unbridled insolence of guilt? Canst thou behold the nocturnal arms that watch the palatium,—the guards of the city,—the consternation of the citizens,—all the wise and worthy clustering into consultation,—the impregnable situation of the seat of the senate,—and the reproachful looks of the fathers of Rome? Canst thou behold all this, and yet remain undaunted and unabashed? Art thou insensible that thy measures are detected? Art thou insensible that this senate, now thoroughly informed, comprehend the whole extent of thy guilt? Show me the senator ignorant of thy practices during the last and preceding night, of the place where you met, the company you summoned, and the crime you concerted. The senate is conscious,—the consul is witness to all this; yet, O how mean and degenerate! the traitor lives! Lives? he mixes with the senate; he shares in our counsels; with a steady eye he surveys us; he anticipates his guilt; he enjoys the murderous thought, and coolly marks us to bleed! Yet we, boldly passive in our country’s cause, think we act like Romans, if we can escape his frantic rage!”

The reader will perceive how finely Cicero rushes into this invective, as if the danger had been too immediate to give him leisure for the formality of address and introduction. See Guthrie’s Orations of Cicero. Here is eloquence! Here is nature! And in thus speaking her language, the true orator pierces with his lightnings the deepest recesses of the heart. The success of this species of oratory is infallible in the pulpit, when the preacher understands how to manage it.

JOB

Verse 41. Who provideth for the raven his food? — Having mentioned the noblest of brute creatures, he now mentions one of the most contemptible; to show the care of God’s providence over all creatures, both great and small. Their young ones are so soon forsaken by their dams, that if God did not provide for them in a more than ordinary manner, they would be starved to death. And will He that provides for the young ravens fail to provide for his own children?

Ver. 41. The raven—wander for lack of meat. In 1827, abundance of fish were thrown on the western shores of some parts of Scotland, and left to putrefy. In a few days, so great a multitude of ravens came as to alarm the inhabitants, because they remained covering the rocks. It is not doubted, but the offensive effluvia had attracted them from the Norwegian shores. After awhile, hunger induced them to take their flight. Is it credible that the effluvia had blown a thousand miles!

41. They wander for lack of meat — Better, (and) wander without food. The question includes the whole verse. “Of the raven,” says Dr. Tristram, (Natural History,) “there are eight species found in Palestine. In no country are the species more numerous in individuals. Of all the birds of Jerusalem the raven tribe are the most characteristic and conspicuous, though the larger species is quite outnumbered by its smaller companion. They are present everywhere to eye and ear, and the odours that float around remind us of their use. The raven is a bird of almost world-wide distribution. It is found from Iceland to Japan.”… In turning to the kingdom of birds we should have expected the mention of their king, the eagle; but instead, it is, as in Luke 12:24, the clamorous raven, with its hoarse croaking, that is singled out. Even this bird, filthy and ceremonially unclean, serves as an emblem of God’s protecting care and goodness. It was an olden belief, as appears in the works of Aristotle, AElian, and Philo, that the raven was cruel to its young, “driving them from the nest and compelling them to fly.” (Pliny.) Even such ugly, raven-ous waifs God takes care of; he hears their hateful cry and gives them food. Psalm 147:9. “Do not therefore, O Job, imagine that because I afflict thee, therefore I do not love thee.” — Chrysostom.