5 "Those who are deceased tremble, Those beneath the waters and all that live in them.
The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God's sons came to men's daughters. They bore children to them: the same were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
Do you show wonders to the dead? Do the dead rise up and praise you? Selah.
"Can you draw out Leviathan{Leviathan is a name for a crocodile or similar creature.} with a fishhook? Or press down his tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope into his nose? Or pierce his jaw through with a hook? Will he make many petitions to you? Or will he speak soft words to you? Will he make a covenant with you, That you should take him for a servant forever? Will you play with him as with a bird? Or will you bind him for your girls? Will traders barter for him? Will they part him among the merchants? Can you fill his skin with barbed irons, Or his head with fish-spears? Lay your hand on him. Remember the battle, and do so no more. Behold, the hope of him is in vain. Will not one be cast down even at the sight of him? None is so fierce that he dare stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me? Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine. "I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, Nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame. Who can strip off his outer garment? Who shall come within his jaws? Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror. Strong scales are his pride, Shut up together with a close seal. One is so near to another, That no air can come between them. They are joined one to another; They stick together, so that they can't be pulled apart. His sneezing flashes forth light, His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning torches, Sparks of fire leap forth. Out of his nostrils a smoke goes, As of a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. His breath kindles coals. A flame goes forth from his mouth. In his neck there is strength. Terror dances before him. The flakes of his flesh are joined together. They are firm on him. They can't be moved. His heart is as firm as a stone, Yes, firm as the lower millstone. When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid. They retreat before his thrashing. If one lay at him with the sword, it can't avail; Nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft. He counts iron as straw; And brass as rotten wood. The arrow can't make him flee. Sling stones are like chaff to him. Clubs are counted as stubble. He laughs at the rushing of the javelin. His undersides are like sharp potsherds, Leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge. He makes the deep to boil like a pot. He makes the sea like a pot of ointment. He makes a path to shine after him. One would think the deep had white hair. On earth there is not his equal, That is made without fear. He sees everything that is high: He is king over all the sons of pride."
There is the sea, great and wide, In which are innumerable living things, Both small and large animals. There the ships go, And leviathan, whom you formed to play there.
speak, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lies in the midst of his rivers, that has said, My river is my own, and I have made it for myself. I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will cause the fish of your rivers to stick to your scales; and I will bring you up out of the midst of your rivers, with all the fish of your rivers which stick to your scales. I will cast you forth into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers: you shall fall on the open field; you shall not be brought together, nor gathered; I have given you for food to the animals of the earth and to the birds of the sky.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Job 26
Commentary on Job 26 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 26
THIRD SERIES.
Job 26:1-14. Job's Reply.
2, 3. without power … no strength … no wisdom—The negatives are used instead of the positives, powerlessness, &c., designedly (so Isa 31:8; De 32:21). Granting I am, as you say (Job 18:17; 15:2), powerlessness itself, &c. "How hast thou helped such a one?"
savest—supportest.
3. plentifully … the thing as it is—rather, "abundantly—wisdom." Bildad had made great pretensions to abundant wisdom. How has he shown it?
4. For whose instruction were thy words meant? If for me I know the subject (God's omnipotence) better than my instructor; Job 26:5-14 is a sample of Job's knowledge of it.
whose spirit—not that of God (Job 32:8); nay, rather, the borrowed sentiment of Eliphaz (Job 4:17-19; 15:14-16).
5-14. As before in the ninth and twelfth chapters, Job had shown himself not inferior to the friends' inability to describe God's greatness, so now he describes it as manifested in hell (the world of the dead), Job 26:5, 6; on earth, Job 26:7; in the sky, Job 26:8-11; the sea, Job 26:12; the heavens, Job 26:13.
Dead things are formed—Rather, "The souls of the dead (Rephaim) tremble." Not only does God's power exist, as Bildad says (Job 25:2), "in high places" (heaven), but reaches to the region of the dead. Rephaim here, and in Pr 21:16 and Isa 14:9, is from a Hebrew root, meaning "to be weak," hence "deceased"; in Ge 14:5 it is applied to the Canaanite giants; perhaps in derision, to express their weakness, in spite of their gigantic size, as compared with Jehovah [Umbreit]; or, as the imagination of the living magnifies apparitions, the term originally was applied to ghosts, and then to giants in general [Magee].
from under—Umbreit joins this with the previous word "tremble from beneath" (so Isa 14:9). But the Masoretic text joins it to "under the waters." Thus the place of the dead will be represented as "under the waters" (Ps 18:4, 5); and the waters as under the earth (Ps 24:2). Magee well translates thus: "The souls of the dead tremble; (the places) under the waters, and their inhabitants." Thus the Masoretic connection is retained; and at the same time the parallel clauses are evenly balanced. "The inhabitants of the places under the waters" are those in Gehenna, the lower of the two parts into which Sheol, according to the Jews, is divided; they answer to "destruction," that is, the place of the wicked in Job 26:6, as "Rephaim" (Job 26:5) to "Hell" (Sheol) (Job 26:6). "Sheol" comes from a Hebrew root—"ask," because it is insatiable (Pr 27:20); or "ask as a loan to be returned," implying Sheol is but a temporary abode, previous to the resurrection; so for English Version "formed," the Septuagint and Chaldee translate; shall be born, or born again, implying the dead are to be given back from Sheol and born again into a new state [Magee].
6. (Job 38:17; Ps 139:8; Pr 5:11).
destruction—the abode of destruction, that is, of lost souls. Hebrew, Abaddon (Re 9:11).
no covering—from God's eyes.
7. Hint of the true theory of the earth. Its suspension in empty space is stated in the second clause. The north in particular is specified in the first, being believed to be the highest part of the earth (Isa 14:13). The northern hemisphere or vault of heaven is included; often compared to a stretched-out canopy (Ps 104:2). The chambers of the south are mentioned (Job 9:9), that is, the southern hemisphere, consistently with the earth's globular form.
8. in … clouds—as if in airy vessels, which, though light, do not burst with the weight of water in them (Pr 30:4).
9. Rather, He encompasseth or closeth. God makes the clouds a veil to screen the glory not only of His person, but even of the exterior of His throne from profane eyes. His agency is everywhere, yet He Himself is invisible (Ps 18:11; 104:3).
10. Rather, "He hath drawn a circular bound round the waters" (Pr 8:27; Ps 104:9). The horizon seems a circle. Indication is given of the globular form of the earth.
until the day, &c.—to the confines of light and darkness. When the light falls on our horizon, the other hemisphere is dark. Umbreit and Maurer translate "He has most perfectly (literally, to perfection) drawn the bound (taken from the first clause) between light and darkness" (compare Ge 1:4, 6, 9): where the bounding of the light from darkness is similarly brought into proximity with the bounding of the waters.
11. pillars—poetically for the mountains which seem to bear up the sky (Ps 104:32).
astonished—namely, from terror. Personification.
his reproof—(Ps 104:7). The thunder, reverberating from cliff to cliff (Hab 3:10; Na 1:5).
12. divideth—(Ps 74:13). Perhaps at creation (Ge 1:9, 10). The parallel clause favors Umbreit, "He stilleth." But the Hebrew means "He moves." Probably such a "moving" is meant as that at the assuaging of the flood by the wind which "God made to pass over" it (Ge 8:1; Ps 104:7).
the proud—rather, "its pride," namely, of the sea (Job 9:13).
13. Umbreit less simply, "By His breath He maketh the heavens to revive": namely, His wind dissipates the clouds, which obscured the shining stars. And so the next clause in contrast, "His hand doth strangle," that is, obscures the north constellation, the dragon. Pagan astronomy typified the flood trying to destroy the ark by the dragon constellation, about to devour the moon in its eclipsed crescent-shape like a boat (Job 3:8, Margin). But better as English Version (Ps 33:6).
crooked—implying the oblique course, of the stars, or the ecliptic. "Fleeing" or "swift" [Umbreit] (Isa 27:1). This particular constellation is made to represent the splendor of all the stars.
14. parts—Rather, "only the extreme boundaries of," &c., and how faint is the whisper that we hear of Him!
thunder—the entire fulness. In antithesis to "whisper" (1Co 13:9, 10, 12).