The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 415

eels forth, first or 1111, the mlgM 11ncl majesty addressed to me ?-a. discouree made up or of God (vers. 6-14), 11fter which he proceeds truisms. to de11l with the qneetions which aoncem Ver. 4.-To wb.om hut thou uttered words 1 Whom dirlst thou intend to. ad- hie own Integrity, and God's dealings with dress? Surely not me, aince thy words m11nkind, The former he still m11inlains: touoh none of my arguments. And whose with respect to the l11tler, he rec11nts his spirit oe.me from theel Who prompted tby enrlier 11rgument11tive contention (eh. xxiv. speech? Was it Eliphaz (comp. eh. iv. 2-24), 11.nd 11dmits the.I retribution e.lwe.ys 17-19)? or nlmost alwnye comes upon the wicked at Vera. 5-14.-Job now turns from con- 111st (oh. xxvii.). In eh. xxviii., nfter paying troversy to the realities of the case, and a. deserved tribute of admiration to man's begins with a full aoknowledgment of Intelligence and ingenuity in rcgnrd to Gorl's greatness, might, and inscrutableness. earthly things and physicnl phenomena, he As Bilde.d seemed to have supposed thnt pronounces the spiritual world ond the he needed enlightenment on these points principles of the Divine government to be (eh. xxvi. 2-4), Job may have thought it insorutoble by him, and hie only true wisdom right lo make once more a plain profession to be right conduct. Finally, he returns to of hie belief (comp. eh. ix. 4-13; xii. 9-25, himself, nod having given e. po.tlietic de- etc.). scription of hie old life, with its prosperity e.nd honour (eh. xxix.), and contrasted it Ver. 5.-Dead things a.re formed from with his actue.l life of degre.dation, con- under the waters; rather, the dead from tempt, nnd suffering (eh. xxx.), he concludes under the ioater, tremble. Hebraists gene- with n solemn protestation of hie integrity rally ore agreed that one of the meanings of Rephaim (□'t:t'l)".1) is "the dead" or the in all the various duties e.nd obligations departed, considered espP,·ially as inhn- imposed upon man by ne.tural la.w and bite.nts of Hades (comp. Pa. lxx..xviii. 11; nature.l religion (eh. x:ui.). In this way Prov. ii. 18: Isa. xiv. 9; xxvi. H). And he brings to its termine.tion the colloquy if so, this meaning is certainly appropriate begun with his three friends in oh. iii., and, here. Bildad had illustrated God's domi- emphatically to me.rk the.I here he closes nion from his power in heaven. Job shows that it exists alike in heaven and earth his own part in the debe.te, he winds up (vers. 7-13), and in the region under the with the statement," The words of Job a.re earth (vers. 5, 6). There, in Sheol, under ended" (eh. xxxi. 40). the waters of the ocean, the dead tremble at the thought of the Most High ; they Vera. I, 2,-But lob a.nswered and said, tremble together with other inhabitants How hast thou helped him that is without thereof, as evil spirits, rebel intelligences, power1 Assuming Bildad's benevolent in- cast down to Hades, and there held in tentions towards himself, Job neke, how he durance (Jude 6). oan suppose that what he has said will in Ver. 6.-Hell is naked before him; i.e. any way be helpful to a person in so help- "con hide nothing from his eyes "-shows less e. condition? He had told Job nothing all its inmost recesses. And destruction that Job had not repeatedly allowed. How hath no covering; rather, Abaddon hath no saveet thou the e.rm the.t hath no strength 1 covering ( see the Revised V ersio11 ). A bacldon It oonld not invigorate Job's arm, any more is sometimes "destruction," sornP.timcs "the than it could cheer hie henrt, to be told nngel of the bottomless pit" (Rev. h. 11), the.t mnn was a worm, or thnt he we.s wholly sometimes" the bottomless pit itself" (Prov. unoleon in God's eight (oh. xxv. 4, 6). xv. 11). Here the hist of these three senses Ver. 8.-How hast thou oounaelled him soeme to suit best-" the deepest depth of that bath no wisdom 1 Whnt counsel or the bottomless pit is no secret to God," but advice is there in anything that thou host "nnked and opened unto the eyes of liim ea.id, by following whioh I might be bene- with who1u we havo to do" (Heb iv. 13). fited? Arlmittiug my own want of wisdom, VL•r. 7.-He stretcheth out the ncrth ever how J1ast thou bettered my case? And how the empty place. Over what wo.,i "empty hast thou plenteously declared the thing as space" or "obaos" (1;,n) God stretches it is 1 rather, Hol.D hast thou plenteouBly de- out " tho north "-a portion of hie orderly clared Botmd knowledge? Whal can there creation-perhaps the northern portion of be eaicl to have been in the wny of sound the heavens, where are tho grandest con- knowledge, or good practical common sense stellations visibl1:1 to the inhe.bita.nts of the c;v~1n), in the discourse which thou hast wol'ld's northern half. And hangeth the 430 THE BOOK OF JOB. [on. XXVI, 1-14-.