3 How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom,
And fully declared the essence of the matter!
4 To whom hast thou uttered words,
And whose breath proceeded from thee?
Bildad is the person addressed, and the exclamations in Job 26:2, Job 26:3 are ironical: how thy speech contains nothing whatever that might help me, the supposedly feeble one, in conquering my affliction and my temptation; me, the supposedly ignorant one, in comprehending man's mysterious lot, and mine! ללא־כח , according to the idea, is only equivalent to כח לו ( אין ) לאשׁר לא , and זרוע לא־עז equivalent to זרוע בלא־עז ( לא עז לו ); the former is the abstr. pro concreto, the latter the genitival connection - the arm of the no-power, i.e., powerless (Ges. §152, 1). The powerless one is Job himself, not God (Merc., Schlottm.), as even the choice of the verbs, Job 26:2 , Job 26:3 , shows. Respecting תּוּשׁיּה , which we have translated essentiality, duration, completion, we said, on Job 5:12, that it is formed from ישׁ (vid., Proverbs 8:21), not directly indeed, but by means of a verb ושׁי brev a fo ( ושׁה ), in the signification subsistere (comp. Arab. kân , and Syriac קום );
(Note: Comp. also Spiegel, Grammatik der Huzväresch-Sprache, S. 103.)
it is a Hophal -formation (like תּוּגה ), and signifies, so to speak, durability, subsistentia, substantia, ὑπόστασις , so that the comparison of ושׁי with אשׁשׁ , Arab. 'ss (whence אשׁישׁ , Arab. ası̂s , asâs , etc., fundamentum ) is forced upon one, and the relationship to the Sanskrit as ( asmi = εἰμὶ ) can remain undecided. The observation of J. D. Michaelis
(Note: Against the comparison of the Arab. wâsâ , solari , by Michaelis, Ges., and others (who assume the primary significations solatium , auxilium ), Lagarde ( Anmerkungen zur griech. Uebersetzung der Proverbien, 1863, S. 57f.) correctly remarks that Arab. wâsâ , is only a change of letters of the common language for Arab. âsâ ; but Arab. wâšâ , to finish painting (whence Arab. twšyt , decoration), or ושׁה as a transposition from שׁוה , to be level, simple (Hitzig on Proverbs 3:21), leads to no suitable sense.)
to the contrary, Supplem . p. 1167: non placent in linguis ejusmodi etyma metaphysica nimis a vulgari sensu remota; philosophi in scholis ejusmodi vocabula condunt, non plebs , is removed by the consideration that תושׁיה , which out of Prov. and Job occurs only in Isaiah 28:29, Mich. Job 6:9, is a Chokma-word: it signifies here, as frequently, vera et realis sapientia (J. H. Michaelis). The speech of Bildad is a proof of poverty of thought, of which he himself gives the evidence. His words - such is the thought of Job 26:4 - are altogether inappropriate, inasmuch as they have no reference whatever to the chief point of Job's speech; and they are, moreover, not his own, but the suggestion of another, and that not God, but Eliphaz, from whom Bildad has borrowed the substance of his brief declamation. Since this is the meaning of Job 26:4 , it might seem as though את־מי were intended to signify by whose assistance (Arnh., Hahn); but as the poet also, in Job 31:37, comp. Ezekiel 43:10, uses הגּיד seq. acc., in the sense of explaining anything to any one, to instruct him concerning anything, it is to be interpreted: to whom hast thou divulged the words (lxx, τίνι ἀνήγγειλας ῥήματα ), i.e., thinking and designing thereby to affect him?
In what follows, Job now continues the description of God's exalted rule, which Bildad had attempted, by tracing it through every department of creation; and thus proves by fact, that he is wanting neither in a recognition nor reverence of God the almighty Ruler.
Verses 5-7
5 - The shades are put to pain
Deep under the waters and their inhabitants.
6 Sheפl is naked before him,
And the abyss hath no covering.
7 He stretched the northern sky over the emptiness;
He hung the earth upon nothing.
Bildad has extolled God's majestic, awe-inspiring rule in the heights of heaven, His immediate surrounding; Job continues the strain, and celebrates the extension of this rule, even to the depths of the lower world. The operation of the majesty of the heavenly Ruler extends even to the realm of shades; the sea with the multitude of its inhabitants forms no barrier between God and the realm of shades; the marrowless, bloodless phantoms or shades below writhe like a woman in travail as often as this majesty is felt by them, as, perhaps, by the raging of the sea or the quaking of the earth. On רפאים , which also occurs in Phoenician inscriptions, vid., Psychol . S. 409; the book of Job corresponds with Psalms 88:11 in the use of this appellation. The sing . is not רפאי (whence רפאים , as the name of a people), but רפא ( רפה ), which signifies both giants or heroes of colossal stature (from רפה = Arab. rafu‛a , to be high), and the relaxed (from רפה , to be loose, like Arab. rafa'a , to soften, to soothe), i.e., those who are bodiless in the state after death (comp. חלּה , Isaiah 14:10, to be weakened, i.e., placed in the condition of a rapha ). It is a question whether יחוללוּ be Pilel (Ges.) or Pulal (Olsh.); the Pul., indeed, signifies elsewhere to be brought forth with writing (Job 15:7); it can, however, just as well signify to be put in pain. On account of the reference implied in it to a higher causation here at the commencement of the speech, the Pul . is more appropriate than the Pil.; and the pausal â , which is often found elsewhere with Hithpael ( Hithpal .), Psalms 88:14; Job 33:5, but never with Piel ( Pil .), proves that the form is intended to be regarded as passive.
שׁאול is seemingly used as fem., as in Isaiah 14:9; but in reality the adj . precedes in the primitive form, without being changed by the gender of שׁאול . אבדּון alternates with שׁאול , like קבר in Psalms 88:12. As Psalms 139:8 testifies to the presence of God in Sheôl, so here Job (comp. Job 38:17, and especially Proverbs 15:11) that Sheôl is present to God, that He possesses a knowledge which extends into the depths of the realm of the dead, before whom all things are γυμνὰ καὶ τετραχηλισμένα (Hebrews 4:13). The following partt ., Job 26:7, depending logically upon the chief subject which precedes, are to be determined according to Job 25:2; they are conceived as present, and indeed of God's primeval act of creation, but intended of the acts which continue by virtue of His creative power.
By צפון many modern expositors understand the northern part of the earth, where the highest mountains and rocks rise aloft (accordingly, in Isaiah 14:13, ירכתי צפון are mentioned parallel with the starry heights), and consequently the earth is the heaviest (Hirz., Ew., Hlgst., Welte, Schlottm., and others). But (1) it is not probable that the poet would first have mentioned the northern part of the earth, and then in Job 26:7 the earth itself - first the part, and then the whole; (2) נטה is never said of the earth, always of the heavens, for the expansion of which it is the stereotype word ( נטה , Job 9:8; Isaiah 40:22; Isaiah 44:24; Isaiah 51:13; Zechariah 14:1; Psalms 104:2; נוטיהם , Isaiah 42:5; נטה , Jeremiah 10:12; Jeremiah 51:15; ידי נטו , Isaiah 45:12); (3) one expects some mention of the sky in connection with the mention of the earth; and thus is צפון ,
(Note: The name צפון signifies the northern sky as it appears by day, from its beclouded side in contrast with the brighter and more rainless south; comp. old Persian apâkhtara , if this name of the north really denotes the “starless” region, Greek ζόφος , the north-west, from the root skap , σκεπᾶν , σκεπανός (Curtius, Griech. Etymologie, ii. 274), aquilo , the north wind, as that which brings black clouds with it.)
with Rosenm., Ges., Umbr., Vaih., Hahn, and Olsh., to be understood of the northern sky, which is prominently mentioned, because there is the pole of the vault of heaven, which is marked by the Pole-star, there the constellation of the greater Bear ( עשׁ , Job 9:9) formed by the seven bright stars, there (in the back of the bull, one of the northern constellations of the ecliptic) the group of the Pleiades ( כּימה ), there also, below the bull and the twins, Orion ( כּסיל ). On the derivation, notion, and synonyms of תּהוּ , vid., Genesis , S. 93; here (where it may be compared with the Arab. theı̂j - un , empty, and tı̂h , desert) it signifies nothing more than the unmeasurable vacuum of space, parall. בּלימה , not anything = nothing (comp. modern Arabic lâsh , or even mâsh , compounded of Arab. lâ or mâ and šâ , a thing, e.g., bilâs , for nothing, ragul mâsh , useless men). The sky which vaults the earth from the arctic pole, and the earth itself, hang free without support in space. That which is elsewhere (e.g., Job 9:6) said of the pillars and foundations of the earth, is intended of the internal support of the body of the earth, which is, as it were, fastened together by the mountains, with their roots extending into the innermost part of the earth; for the idea that the earth rests upon the bases of the mountains would be, indeed, as Löwenthal correctly observes, an absurd inversion. On the other side, we are also not justified in inferring from Job's expression the laws of the mechanism of the heavens, which were unknown to the ancients, especially the law of attraction or gravitation. The knowledge of nature on the part of the Israelitish Chokma, expressed in Job 26:7, however, remains still worthy of respect. On the ground of similar passages of the book of Job, Keppler says of the yet unsolved problems of astronomy: Haec et cetera hujusmodi latent in Pandectis aevi sequentis, non antea discenda, quam librum hunc Deus arbiter seculorum recluserit mortalibus . From the starry heavens and the earth Job turns to the celestial and sub-celestial waters.
Verses 8-10
8 He bindeth up the waters in His clouds,
Without the clouds being rent under their burden.
9 He enshroudeth the face of His throne,
Spreading His clouds upon it.
10 He compasseth the face of the waters with bounds,
To the boundary between light and darkness.
The clouds consist of masses of water rolled together, which, if they were suddenly set free, would deluge the ground; but the omnipotence of God holds the waters together in the hollow of the clouds ( צרר , Milel , according to a recognised law, although it is also found in Codd. accented as Milra , but contrary to the Masora), so that they do not burst asunder under the burden of the waters ( תּחתּם ); by which nothing more nor less is meant, than that the physical and meteorological laws of rain are of God's appointment. Job 26:9 describes the dark and thickly-clouded sky that showers down the rain in the appointed rainy season. אחז signifies to take hold of, in architecture to hold together by means of beams, or to fasten together (vid., Thenius on 1 Kings 6:10, comp. 2 Chronicles 9:18, מאחזים , coagmentata ), then also, as usually in Chald. and Syr., to shut (by means of cross-bars, Nehemiah 7:3), here to shut off by surrounding with clouds: He shuts off פּני־כסּה , the front of God's throne, which is turned towards the earth, so that it is hidden by storm-clouds as by a סכּה , Job 36:29; Psalms 18:12. God's throne, which is here, as in 1 Kings 10:19, written כּסּה instead of כּסּא (comp. Arab. cursi , of the throne of God the Judge, in distinction from Arab. 'l - ‛arš , the throne of God who rules over the world),
(Note: According to the more recent interpretation, under Aristotelian influence, Arab. 'l - ‛rš is the outermost sphere, which God as πρῶτον κινοῦν having set in motion, communicates light, heat, life, and motion to the other revolving spheres; for the causae mediae gradually descend from God the Author of being ( muhejji ) from the highest heaven into the sublunary world.)
is indeed in other respects invisible, but the cloudless blue of heaven is His reflected splendour (Exodus 24:10) which is cast over the earth. God veils this His radiance which shines forth towards the earth, פּרשׁז אליו עננו , by spreading over it the clouds which are led forth by Him. פּרשׁו is commonly regarded as a Chaldaism for פּרשׁז (Ges. §56, Olsh. §276), but without any similar instance in favour of this vocalizaton of the 3 pr. Piel ( Pil .). Although רענן and שׁאנן , Job 15:32; Job 3:18, have given up the i of the Pil., it has been under the influence of the following guttural; and although, moreover, i before Resh sometimes passes into a , e.g., ויּרא , it is more reliable to regard פרשז as inf. absol . (Ew. §141, c ): expandendo . Ges. and others regard this פרשז as a mixed form, composed from פרשׁ and פרז ; but the verb פרשׁ (with Shin ) has not the signification to expand, which is assumed in connection with this derivation; it signifies to separate (also Ezekiel 34:12, vid., Hitzig on that passage), whereas פרשׂ certainly signifies to expand (Job 36:29-30); wherefore the reading פּרשׂז (with Sin ), which some Codd. give, is preferred by Bär, and in agreement with him by Luzzatto (vid., Bär's Leket zebi, p. 244), and it seems to underlie the interpretation where פרשז עליו is translated by עליו ( פּרשׂ ) פרש , He spreadeth over it (e.g., by Aben-Ezra, Kimchi, Ralbag). But the Talmud, b. Sabbath, 88 b ( פירש שדי מזיו שכינתו ועננו עליו , the Almighty separated part of the splendour of His Shechina and His cloud, and laid it upon him, i.e., Moses, as the passage is applied in the Haggada), follows the reading פּרשׁז (with Shin ), which is to be retained on account of the want of naturalness in the consonantal combination שׂז ; but the word is not to be regarded as a mixed formation (although we do not deny the possibility of such forms in themselves, vid., supra , p. 468), but as an intensive form of פרשׂ formed by Prosthesis and an Arabic change of Sin into Shin , like Arab. fršḥ , fršd , fršṭ , which, being formed from Arab. frš = פּרשׂ ( פּרשׂ ), to expand, signifies to spread out (the legs).
Job 26:10 passes from the waters above to the lower waters. תּכלית signifies, as in Job 11:7; Job 28:3; Nehemiah 3:21, the extremity, the extreme boundary; and the connection of תּכלית אור is genitival, as the Tarcha by the first word correctly indicates, whereas אור with Munach , the substitute for Rebia mugrasch In this instance (according to Psalter , ii. 503, §2), is a mistake. God has marked out ( חן , lxx ἐγύρωσεν ) a law, i.e., here according to the sense: a fixed bound (comp. Proverbs 8:29 with Psalms 104:9), over the surface of the waters (i.e., describing a circle over them which defines their circuit) unto the extreme point of light by darkness, i.e., where the light is touched by the darkness. Most expositors (Rosenm., Hirz., Hahn, Schlottm., and others) take עד־תכלית adverbially: most accurately, and refer חג to אור as a second object, which is contrary to the usage of the language, and doubtful and unnecessary. Pareau has correctly interpreted: ad lucis usque tenebrarumque confinia ; עם in the local sense, not aeque ac, although it might also have this meaning, as e.g., Ecclesiastes 2:16. The idea is, that God has appointed a fixed limit to the waters, as far as to the point at which they wash the terra firma of the extreme horizon, and where the boundary line of the realms of light and darkness is; and the basis of the expression, as Bouillier, by reference to Virgil's Georg . i. 240f., has shown, is the conception of the ancients, that the earth is surrounded by the ocean, on the other side of which the region of darkness begins.
Verses 11-13
11 The pillars of heaven tremble
And are astonished at His threatening.
12 By His power He rouseth up the sea,
And by His understanding He breaketh Rahab in pieces.
13 By His breath the heavens become cheerful;
His hand hath formed the fugitive dragon.
The mountains towering up to the sky, which seem to support the vault of the sky, are called poetically “the pillars of heaven.” ירופפוּ is Pulal , like יחוללוּ , Job 26:5; the signification of violent and quick motion backwards and forwards is secured to the verb רוּף by the Targ. אתרופף = התפּלּץ , Job 9:6, and the Talm. רפרף of churned milk, blinding eyes (comp. הרף עין , the twinkling of the eye, and Arab. rff , fut. i. o. nictare ), flapping wings (comp. Arab. rff and rfrf , movere , motitare alas ), of wavering thinking. גּערה is the divine command which looses or binds the powers of nature; the astonishment of the supports of heaven is, according to the radical signification of תּמהּ (cogn. שׁמם ), to be conceived of as a torpidity which follows the divine impulse, without offering any resistance whatever. That רגע , Job 26:12 , is to be understood transitively, not like Job 7:5, intransitively, is proved by the dependent (borrowed) passages, Isaiah 51:15; Jeremiah 31:35, from which it is also evident that רגע cannot with the lxx be translated κατέπαυσεν . The verb combines in itself the opposite significations of starting up, i.e., entering into an excited state, and of being startled, from which the significations of stilling ( Niph., Hiph. ), and of standing back or retreat (Arab. rj‛ ), branch off. The conjecture גּער after the Syriac version (which translates, go‛ar b e jamo ) is superfluous. רהב , which here also is translated by the lxx τὸ κῆτος , has been discussed already on Job 9:13. It is not meant of the turbulence of the sea, to which מחץ is not appropriate, but of a sea monster, which, like the crocodile and the dragon, are become an emblem of Pharaoh and his power, as Isaiah 51:9. has applied this primary passage: the writer of the book of Job purposely abstains from such references to the history of Israel. Without doubt, רהב denotes a demoniacal monster, like the demons that shall be destroyed at the end of the world, one of which is called by the Persians akomano , evil thought, another taromaiti , pride. This view is supported by Job 26:13, where one is not at liberty to determine the meaning by Isaiah 51:9, and to understand נחשׁ בּרח , like תּנּין in that passage, of Egypt. But this dependent passage is an important indication for the correct rendering of חללה . One thing is certain at the outset, that שׁפרה is not perf. Piel = שׁפרה , and for this reason, that the Dagesh which characterizes Piel cannot be omitted from any of the six mutae ; the translation of Jerome, spiritus ejus ornavit coelos , and all similar ones, are therefore false. But it is possible to translate: “by His spirit (creative spirit) the heavens are beauty, His hand has formed the flying dragon.” Thus, in the signification to bring forth (as Proverbs 25:23; Proverbs 8:24.), חללה is rendered by Rosenm., Arnh., Vaih., Welte, Renan, and others, of whom Vaih. and Renan, however, do not understand Job 26:13 of the creation of the heavens, but of their illumination. By this rendering Job 26:13 and Job 26:13 are severed, as being without connection; in general, however, the course of thought in the description does not favour the reference of the whole of half of Job 26:13 to the creation. Accordingly, חללה is not to be taken as Pilel from חול ( ליל ), but after Isaiah 57:9, as Poel from חלל , according to which the idea of Job 26:13 is determined, since both lines of the verse are most closely connected.
( בּריח ) נחשׁ בּרח is, to wit, the constellation of the Dragon,
(Note: Ralbag, without any ground for it, understands it of the milky way ( העגול החלבי ), which, according to Rapoport, Pref. to Slonimski's Toledoth ha-schamajim (1838), was already known to the Talmud b. Berachoth , 58 b , under the name of נהר דנוד .)
one of the most straggling constellations, which winds itself between the Greater and Lesser Bears almost half through the polar circle.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Job 26
Commentary on Job 26 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
1 Then Job began, and said:
2 How has thou helped him that is without power,
Raised the arm that hath no strength!
3 How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom,
And fully declared the essence of the matter!
4 To whom hast thou uttered words,
And whose breath proceeded from thee?
Bildad is the person addressed, and the exclamations in Job 26:2, Job 26:3 are ironical: how thy speech contains nothing whatever that might help me, the supposedly feeble one, in conquering my affliction and my temptation; me, the supposedly ignorant one, in comprehending man's mysterious lot, and mine! ללא־כח , according to the idea, is only equivalent to כח לו ( אין ) לאשׁר לא , and זרוע לא־עז equivalent to זרוע בלא־עז ( לא עז לו ); the former is the abstr. pro concreto, the latter the genitival connection - the arm of the no-power, i.e., powerless (Ges. §152, 1). The powerless one is Job himself, not God (Merc., Schlottm.), as even the choice of the verbs, Job 26:2 , Job 26:3 , shows. Respecting תּוּשׁיּה , which we have translated essentiality, duration, completion, we said, on Job 5:12, that it is formed from ישׁ (vid., Proverbs 8:21), not directly indeed, but by means of a verb ושׁי brev a fo ( ושׁה ), in the signification subsistere (comp. Arab. kân , and Syriac קום );
(Note: Comp. also Spiegel, Grammatik der Huzväresch-Sprache, S. 103.)
it is a Hophal -formation (like תּוּגה ), and signifies, so to speak, durability, subsistentia, substantia, ὑπόστασις , so that the comparison of ושׁי with אשׁשׁ , Arab. 'ss (whence אשׁישׁ , Arab. ası̂s , asâs , etc., fundamentum ) is forced upon one, and the relationship to the Sanskrit as ( asmi = εἰμὶ ) can remain undecided. The observation of J. D. Michaelis
(Note: Against the comparison of the Arab. wâsâ , solari , by Michaelis, Ges., and others (who assume the primary significations solatium , auxilium ), Lagarde ( Anmerkungen zur griech. Uebersetzung der Proverbien, 1863, S. 57f.) correctly remarks that Arab. wâsâ , is only a change of letters of the common language for Arab. âsâ ; but Arab. wâšâ , to finish painting (whence Arab. twšyt , decoration), or ושׁה as a transposition from שׁוה , to be level, simple (Hitzig on Proverbs 3:21), leads to no suitable sense.)
to the contrary, Supplem . p. 1167: non placent in linguis ejusmodi etyma metaphysica nimis a vulgari sensu remota; philosophi in scholis ejusmodi vocabula condunt, non plebs , is removed by the consideration that תושׁיה , which out of Prov. and Job occurs only in Isaiah 28:29, Mich. Job 6:9, is a Chokma-word: it signifies here, as frequently, vera et realis sapientia (J. H. Michaelis). The speech of Bildad is a proof of poverty of thought, of which he himself gives the evidence. His words - such is the thought of Job 26:4 - are altogether inappropriate, inasmuch as they have no reference whatever to the chief point of Job's speech; and they are, moreover, not his own, but the suggestion of another, and that not God, but Eliphaz, from whom Bildad has borrowed the substance of his brief declamation. Since this is the meaning of Job 26:4 , it might seem as though את־מי were intended to signify by whose assistance (Arnh., Hahn); but as the poet also, in Job 31:37, comp. Ezekiel 43:10, uses הגּיד seq. acc., in the sense of explaining anything to any one, to instruct him concerning anything, it is to be interpreted: to whom hast thou divulged the words (lxx, τίνι ἀνήγγειλας ῥήματα ), i.e., thinking and designing thereby to affect him?
In what follows, Job now continues the description of God's exalted rule, which Bildad had attempted, by tracing it through every department of creation; and thus proves by fact, that he is wanting neither in a recognition nor reverence of God the almighty Ruler.
5 - The shades are put to pain
Deep under the waters and their inhabitants.
6 Sheפl is naked before him,
And the abyss hath no covering.
7 He stretched the northern sky over the emptiness;
He hung the earth upon nothing.
Bildad has extolled God's majestic, awe-inspiring rule in the heights of heaven, His immediate surrounding; Job continues the strain, and celebrates the extension of this rule, even to the depths of the lower world. The operation of the majesty of the heavenly Ruler extends even to the realm of shades; the sea with the multitude of its inhabitants forms no barrier between God and the realm of shades; the marrowless, bloodless phantoms or shades below writhe like a woman in travail as often as this majesty is felt by them, as, perhaps, by the raging of the sea or the quaking of the earth. On רפאים , which also occurs in Phoenician inscriptions, vid., Psychol . S. 409; the book of Job corresponds with Psalms 88:11 in the use of this appellation. The sing . is not רפאי (whence רפאים , as the name of a people), but רפא ( רפה ), which signifies both giants or heroes of colossal stature (from רפה = Arab. rafu‛a , to be high), and the relaxed (from רפה , to be loose, like Arab. rafa'a , to soften, to soothe), i.e., those who are bodiless in the state after death (comp. חלּה , Isaiah 14:10, to be weakened, i.e., placed in the condition of a rapha ). It is a question whether יחוללוּ be Pilel (Ges.) or Pulal (Olsh.); the Pul., indeed, signifies elsewhere to be brought forth with writing (Job 15:7); it can, however, just as well signify to be put in pain. On account of the reference implied in it to a higher causation here at the commencement of the speech, the Pul . is more appropriate than the Pil.; and the pausal â , which is often found elsewhere with Hithpael ( Hithpal .), Psalms 88:14; Job 33:5, but never with Piel ( Pil .), proves that the form is intended to be regarded as passive.
Job 26:6
שׁאול is seemingly used as fem., as in Isaiah 14:9; but in reality the adj . precedes in the primitive form, without being changed by the gender of שׁאול . אבדּון alternates with שׁאול , like קבר in Psalms 88:12. As Psalms 139:8 testifies to the presence of God in Sheôl, so here Job (comp. Job 38:17, and especially Proverbs 15:11) that Sheôl is present to God, that He possesses a knowledge which extends into the depths of the realm of the dead, before whom all things are γυμνὰ καὶ τετραχηλισμένα (Hebrews 4:13). The following partt ., Job 26:7, depending logically upon the chief subject which precedes, are to be determined according to Job 25:2; they are conceived as present, and indeed of God's primeval act of creation, but intended of the acts which continue by virtue of His creative power.
Job 26:7
By צפון many modern expositors understand the northern part of the earth, where the highest mountains and rocks rise aloft (accordingly, in Isaiah 14:13, ירכתי צפון are mentioned parallel with the starry heights), and consequently the earth is the heaviest (Hirz., Ew., Hlgst., Welte, Schlottm., and others). But (1) it is not probable that the poet would first have mentioned the northern part of the earth, and then in Job 26:7 the earth itself - first the part, and then the whole; (2) נטה is never said of the earth, always of the heavens, for the expansion of which it is the stereotype word ( נטה , Job 9:8; Isaiah 40:22; Isaiah 44:24; Isaiah 51:13; Zechariah 14:1; Psalms 104:2; נוטיהם , Isaiah 42:5; נטה , Jeremiah 10:12; Jeremiah 51:15; ידי נטו , Isaiah 45:12); (3) one expects some mention of the sky in connection with the mention of the earth; and thus is צפון ,
(Note: The name צפון signifies the northern sky as it appears by day, from its beclouded side in contrast with the brighter and more rainless south; comp. old Persian apâkhtara , if this name of the north really denotes the “starless” region, Greek ζόφος , the north-west, from the root skap , σκεπᾶν , σκεπανός (Curtius, Griech. Etymologie, ii. 274), aquilo , the north wind, as that which brings black clouds with it.)
with Rosenm., Ges., Umbr., Vaih., Hahn, and Olsh., to be understood of the northern sky, which is prominently mentioned, because there is the pole of the vault of heaven, which is marked by the Pole-star, there the constellation of the greater Bear ( עשׁ , Job 9:9) formed by the seven bright stars, there (in the back of the bull, one of the northern constellations of the ecliptic) the group of the Pleiades ( כּימה ), there also, below the bull and the twins, Orion ( כּסיל ). On the derivation, notion, and synonyms of תּהוּ , vid., Genesis , S. 93; here (where it may be compared with the Arab. theı̂j - un , empty, and tı̂h , desert) it signifies nothing more than the unmeasurable vacuum of space, parall. בּלימה , not anything = nothing (comp. modern Arabic lâsh , or even mâsh , compounded of Arab. lâ or mâ and šâ , a thing, e.g., bilâs , for nothing, ragul mâsh , useless men). The sky which vaults the earth from the arctic pole, and the earth itself, hang free without support in space. That which is elsewhere (e.g., Job 9:6) said of the pillars and foundations of the earth, is intended of the internal support of the body of the earth, which is, as it were, fastened together by the mountains, with their roots extending into the innermost part of the earth; for the idea that the earth rests upon the bases of the mountains would be, indeed, as Löwenthal correctly observes, an absurd inversion. On the other side, we are also not justified in inferring from Job's expression the laws of the mechanism of the heavens, which were unknown to the ancients, especially the law of attraction or gravitation. The knowledge of nature on the part of the Israelitish Chokma, expressed in Job 26:7, however, remains still worthy of respect. On the ground of similar passages of the book of Job, Keppler says of the yet unsolved problems of astronomy: Haec et cetera hujusmodi latent in Pandectis aevi sequentis, non antea discenda, quam librum hunc Deus arbiter seculorum recluserit mortalibus . From the starry heavens and the earth Job turns to the celestial and sub-celestial waters.
8 He bindeth up the waters in His clouds,
Without the clouds being rent under their burden.
9 He enshroudeth the face of His throne,
Spreading His clouds upon it.
10 He compasseth the face of the waters with bounds,
To the boundary between light and darkness.
The clouds consist of masses of water rolled together, which, if they were suddenly set free, would deluge the ground; but the omnipotence of God holds the waters together in the hollow of the clouds ( צרר , Milel , according to a recognised law, although it is also found in Codd. accented as Milra , but contrary to the Masora), so that they do not burst asunder under the burden of the waters ( תּחתּם ); by which nothing more nor less is meant, than that the physical and meteorological laws of rain are of God's appointment. Job 26:9 describes the dark and thickly-clouded sky that showers down the rain in the appointed rainy season. אחז signifies to take hold of, in architecture to hold together by means of beams, or to fasten together (vid., Thenius on 1 Kings 6:10, comp. 2 Chronicles 9:18, מאחזים , coagmentata ), then also, as usually in Chald. and Syr., to shut (by means of cross-bars, Nehemiah 7:3), here to shut off by surrounding with clouds: He shuts off פּני־כסּה , the front of God's throne, which is turned towards the earth, so that it is hidden by storm-clouds as by a סכּה , Job 36:29; Psalms 18:12. God's throne, which is here, as in 1 Kings 10:19, written כּסּה instead of כּסּא (comp. Arab. cursi , of the throne of God the Judge, in distinction from Arab. 'l - ‛arš , the throne of God who rules over the world),
(Note: According to the more recent interpretation, under Aristotelian influence, Arab. 'l - ‛rš is the outermost sphere, which God as πρῶτον κινοῦν having set in motion, communicates light, heat, life, and motion to the other revolving spheres; for the causae mediae gradually descend from God the Author of being ( muhejji ) from the highest heaven into the sublunary world.)
is indeed in other respects invisible, but the cloudless blue of heaven is His reflected splendour (Exodus 24:10) which is cast over the earth. God veils this His radiance which shines forth towards the earth, פּרשׁז אליו עננו , by spreading over it the clouds which are led forth by Him. פּרשׁו is commonly regarded as a Chaldaism for פּרשׁז (Ges. §56, Olsh. §276), but without any similar instance in favour of this vocalizaton of the 3 pr. Piel ( Pil .). Although רענן and שׁאנן , Job 15:32; Job 3:18, have given up the i of the Pil., it has been under the influence of the following guttural; and although, moreover, i before Resh sometimes passes into a , e.g., ויּרא , it is more reliable to regard פרשז as inf. absol . (Ew. §141, c ): expandendo . Ges. and others regard this פרשז as a mixed form, composed from פרשׁ and פרז ; but the verb פרשׁ (with Shin ) has not the signification to expand, which is assumed in connection with this derivation; it signifies to separate (also Ezekiel 34:12, vid., Hitzig on that passage), whereas פרשׂ certainly signifies to expand (Job 36:29-30); wherefore the reading פּרשׂז (with Sin ), which some Codd. give, is preferred by Bär, and in agreement with him by Luzzatto (vid., Bär's Leket zebi, p. 244), and it seems to underlie the interpretation where פרשז עליו is translated by עליו ( פּרשׂ ) פרש , He spreadeth over it (e.g., by Aben-Ezra, Kimchi, Ralbag). But the Talmud, b. Sabbath, 88 b ( פירש שדי מזיו שכינתו ועננו עליו , the Almighty separated part of the splendour of His Shechina and His cloud, and laid it upon him, i.e., Moses, as the passage is applied in the Haggada), follows the reading פּרשׁז (with Shin ), which is to be retained on account of the want of naturalness in the consonantal combination שׂז ; but the word is not to be regarded as a mixed formation (although we do not deny the possibility of such forms in themselves, vid., supra , p. 468), but as an intensive form of פרשׂ formed by Prosthesis and an Arabic change of Sin into Shin , like Arab. fršḥ , fršd , fršṭ , which, being formed from Arab. frš = פּרשׂ ( פּרשׂ ), to expand, signifies to spread out (the legs).
Job 26:10 passes from the waters above to the lower waters. תּכלית signifies, as in Job 11:7; Job 28:3; Nehemiah 3:21, the extremity, the extreme boundary; and the connection of תּכלית אור is genitival, as the Tarcha by the first word correctly indicates, whereas אור with Munach , the substitute for Rebia mugrasch In this instance (according to Psalter , ii. 503, §2), is a mistake. God has marked out ( חן , lxx ἐγύρωσεν ) a law, i.e., here according to the sense: a fixed bound (comp. Proverbs 8:29 with Psalms 104:9), over the surface of the waters (i.e., describing a circle over them which defines their circuit) unto the extreme point of light by darkness, i.e., where the light is touched by the darkness. Most expositors (Rosenm., Hirz., Hahn, Schlottm., and others) take עד־תכלית adverbially: most accurately, and refer חג to אור as a second object, which is contrary to the usage of the language, and doubtful and unnecessary. Pareau has correctly interpreted: ad lucis usque tenebrarumque confinia ; עם in the local sense, not aeque ac, although it might also have this meaning, as e.g., Ecclesiastes 2:16. The idea is, that God has appointed a fixed limit to the waters, as far as to the point at which they wash the terra firma of the extreme horizon, and where the boundary line of the realms of light and darkness is; and the basis of the expression, as Bouillier, by reference to Virgil's Georg . i. 240f., has shown, is the conception of the ancients, that the earth is surrounded by the ocean, on the other side of which the region of darkness begins.
11 The pillars of heaven tremble
And are astonished at His threatening.
12 By His power He rouseth up the sea,
And by His understanding He breaketh Rahab in pieces.
13 By His breath the heavens become cheerful;
His hand hath formed the fugitive dragon.
The mountains towering up to the sky, which seem to support the vault of the sky, are called poetically “the pillars of heaven.” ירופפוּ is Pulal , like יחוללוּ , Job 26:5; the signification of violent and quick motion backwards and forwards is secured to the verb רוּף by the Targ. אתרופף = התפּלּץ , Job 9:6, and the Talm. רפרף of churned milk, blinding eyes (comp. הרף עין , the twinkling of the eye, and Arab. rff , fut. i. o. nictare ), flapping wings (comp. Arab. rff and rfrf , movere , motitare alas ), of wavering thinking. גּערה is the divine command which looses or binds the powers of nature; the astonishment of the supports of heaven is, according to the radical signification of תּמהּ (cogn. שׁמם ), to be conceived of as a torpidity which follows the divine impulse, without offering any resistance whatever. That רגע , Job 26:12 , is to be understood transitively, not like Job 7:5, intransitively, is proved by the dependent (borrowed) passages, Isaiah 51:15; Jeremiah 31:35, from which it is also evident that רגע cannot with the lxx be translated κατέπαυσεν . The verb combines in itself the opposite significations of starting up, i.e., entering into an excited state, and of being startled, from which the significations of stilling ( Niph., Hiph. ), and of standing back or retreat (Arab. rj‛ ), branch off. The conjecture גּער after the Syriac version (which translates, go‛ar b e jamo ) is superfluous. רהב , which here also is translated by the lxx τὸ κῆτος , has been discussed already on Job 9:13. It is not meant of the turbulence of the sea, to which מחץ is not appropriate, but of a sea monster, which, like the crocodile and the dragon, are become an emblem of Pharaoh and his power, as Isaiah 51:9. has applied this primary passage: the writer of the book of Job purposely abstains from such references to the history of Israel. Without doubt, רהב denotes a demoniacal monster, like the demons that shall be destroyed at the end of the world, one of which is called by the Persians akomano , evil thought, another taromaiti , pride. This view is supported by Job 26:13, where one is not at liberty to determine the meaning by Isaiah 51:9, and to understand נחשׁ בּרח , like תּנּין in that passage, of Egypt. But this dependent passage is an important indication for the correct rendering of חללה . One thing is certain at the outset, that שׁפרה is not perf. Piel = שׁפרה , and for this reason, that the Dagesh which characterizes Piel cannot be omitted from any of the six mutae ; the translation of Jerome, spiritus ejus ornavit coelos , and all similar ones, are therefore false. But it is possible to translate: “by His spirit (creative spirit) the heavens are beauty, His hand has formed the flying dragon.” Thus, in the signification to bring forth (as Proverbs 25:23; Proverbs 8:24.), חללה is rendered by Rosenm., Arnh., Vaih., Welte, Renan, and others, of whom Vaih. and Renan, however, do not understand Job 26:13 of the creation of the heavens, but of their illumination. By this rendering Job 26:13 and Job 26:13 are severed, as being without connection; in general, however, the course of thought in the description does not favour the reference of the whole of half of Job 26:13 to the creation. Accordingly, חללה is not to be taken as Pilel from חול ( ליל ), but after Isaiah 57:9, as Poel from חלל , according to which the idea of Job 26:13 is determined, since both lines of the verse are most closely connected.
( בּריח ) נחשׁ בּרח is, to wit, the constellation of the Dragon,
(Note: Ralbag, without any ground for it, understands it of the milky way ( העגול החלבי ), which, according to Rapoport, Pref. to Slonimski's Toledoth ha-schamajim (1838), was already known to the Talmud b. Berachoth , 58 b , under the name of נהר דנוד .)
one of the most straggling constellations, which winds itself between the Greater and Lesser Bears almost half through the polar circle.
“ Maximus hic plexu sinuoso elabitur Anguis
Circum perque duas in morem fluminis Arctos