The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 421

"He eh'etohee out the heaven without pillan !Ml the tent of the e11rth, ... What doth tho nir be!\r? it bearnth nothing, and 11olhing on nothing, and absolutely nothing." And an Arab poet, "He has made the heaven out or smoke." And in the Komn "It is Allah who has built hlgh the heaven, without supporting it on visible pillars.': The poets say th11t Atlas bore the heaven on his shoulders; but we confess the trne Atlas, tho Lo!'1i our God, who by his word upholds both heaven and earth (Brenz). As the work witnesses of the master, so does the universe testify of its Creator, Bnstainer, and Governor (Ps. xix. 1-6); and no faint-hearted one has conte:nJ.!htcd the eternal order which here confronts him and its secret but ever-blessed sway, and no sinner longing for salvation has tarried in the halls of this great temple of God, without being richly bleesed with heavenly blessings (Wohlfarth). 2. The douds and the heavenly region. (Vers. 8-10.) Waters are firmly bound up in the clouds as in vast water-skins, according to the conception of the poet, without their bursting with the weight, if God wills to retain the rain (ver. 8; Gen. vii. 11; viii. 2). God veils the "outer side" of his heavenly throne, the side turned towards earth, by drawing the olouds between (ver. 9). He has drawn a circling boundary over the water's surface to the crossing of' the light with the darkness (ver. 10; Prov. viii. 27). In both passages the idea is that the earth is surrounded by water (in Homer, by the flowing stream of ocean). Above is the circle of the hemisphere, where sun and stars run their course. Within this circle is the region of the heavenly bodies and of light, and outside it begins the realm of darkneHs. 3. .Mountains; the sea; ccmstellatiO'fls. (Vers. 11-13.) The heaven's pillars-that is, the great mountains, conceived a.s bearing up the firmament-fall into trembling, and the earthquake is represented as caused by their affright at his reproof (var. 11; comp. Ps. nix.; civ. 7; Isa. I. 2; Nab. i. 4; Rev. vi. 12-14; xx; 11). He terrifies the sea by his power, and by his understanding breaks in pieces Rahab (ver. 12). Rahab being here not Egypt, as in other places, but some huge monster of legendary fame. His breath make~ the heaven bright and clear; and his hand has pierced through the flying serpent (ver.13). This may, perhaps, allude to the mythical representation of eclipses of sun or moon 118 the attempt of a. monstrous dragon to swallow up the heavenly bodies. The ceremony is practised, among the Turks and others, of beating off this dragon a.t the time of eclipses by cries and noises. 'l'hese descriptions of the Creation are founded on astronomical myth.'I belonging to the childhood of the world; but our better knowledge of the mechanism of the heavens need not destroy our sense of the reverence and a.we which pervade these descriptions. The wonder of ignorance is replaced by the nobler wonder of intelligence, of reason. CoNcLUSION. (Ver. 14.) 11 Lo, these are ends of his ways "-but the outlines or sketches'-the nearest and most familiar evidences of his government of the worl<l; 11 and what a gently whispering word it is that we hear !-but the thunu.er of his omnipotence who can understand?" The full unfoMing of his power, the thumlering course of the heavenly spheres, what mortal ear could hear? • Ji nature thundered in our opening ears, And stunned us with the music of the spheres, How should we wish that Heaven had left us still The genile zephyr and the purling rill I" The whole contempl9:tion is fitted to teach us our ignorance, and to lead to humility, to wonder, to. ad~ra.hon. We see but a small part of the immeasurable kingdom of God. We play with a fewlpebbles on the verge of the infinite ocean of existence. The knowledge ,of the grea~est philosopher is but the short-sighted glance of a. tiny insect! Our earth lS but a grain of sand m the vast whole, a drop in the bucket. Thus the discoveries made of God ~ead us to the depth and height of the undiscovered and unknown. A modern philosopher says that religion and science find their point of union and reconciliation here -in the recognition of the unknown, unknowa.ble Power µi the universe.. This reougnition stills vain rivalries and idle controversies. "When we have said all we can concerning God, we must, even as St. Paul (Rom. xi. 33), despair to find the bottom; we must sit down at the brink and adore the depth : 'Oh the depth of the riche11 both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!'" (comp.  THE BOOK OF JOB. [oa. nvr. 1-14.