Job 26 Job’s reply: this toucheth not Job, Job 26:1–4; who acknowledgeth God’ power and providence to be infinite and unsearchable, of which we have but small knowledge Job 26:5–14.

How hast thou helped? thou hast helped egregiously. It is an ironical expression, implying the quite contrary, that he had not at all helped. See the like, Gen. 3:22, 1 Kings 18:27, 1 Cor. 4:8, 1 Cor. 4:10. Him that is without power; either, 1.

Him that hath no wisdom; either, 1. God: thou hast in effect undertaken to teach God how to govern the world. Or rather, 2. Me, whom you take to be a man void of understanding, Job 11:2–3, whom therefore you should have instructed with wholesome counsels, instead of these impertinent discourses;…

For whose instruction hast thou uttered these things? For mine? Dost thou think me to be so ignorant, that I do not know that which the meanest persons are not unacquainted with, to wit, that God is incomparably greater and better than his creatures? Whose spirit came from thee? so the sense is,…

Job having censured Bildad’s discourse concerning God’s dominion and power, as insignificant and impertinent to their question, he here proceedeth to show how little he needed his information in that point, and that he was able to instruct him in that doctrine, of which accordingly he gives divers…

Hell, as this word is frequently used, as Job 11:8, Isa. 57:9;c. And so it seems to be explained by the following word, destruction, i.e. the place of destruction, which interpreters generally understand of hell, or the place of the damned.

The north, i.e. the northern pole, or part of the heavens, which he particularly mentions, and puts for the whole visible heaven, because Job and his friends lived in a northern climate, and were acquainted only with that part of the heavens, the southern pole and parts near it being wholly unknown…

This also is a miraculous work of God, considering the nature of these waters, which are fluid and heavy, and pressing downward, especially being ofttimes there in great abundance; and withal, the quality of the clouds, which are thin and loose bodies of the same nature with fogs and mists upon the…

He holdeth back, i.e. to wit, from our view, that its lustre and glory should not reach us, and so dazzle our sight; he covereth it with a cloud, as the next words explain it. Or, he holdeth fast, or binds together, or strengthens it, that it may be able to bear that burden.

The waters, to wit, of the sea; for of the upper waters coming out of the clouds he spoke before. With bounds; which are partly the rocks and shores, and principally God’s appointment, made at the first creation, and renewed after the deluge, Gen. 9:11, Gen.

The pillars of heaven; either, 1. Those mountains which by their height and strength may seem to reach and support the heavens, as the poets said of Atlas; for this is a poetical book, and there are many poetical expressions in it.

He speaks either, 1. Of God’s dividing the Red Sea for the Israelites to pass over; and consequently the Hebrew word rahab, which here follows, and is translated pride, or the proud, is meant of Egypt, which is oft called Rahab, as Ps. 87:4, Ps. 89:10, Isa. 51:9.

By his spirit; either, 1. By his Divine virtue or power, which is sometimes called his spirit, as Zech. 4:6, Matt. 12:28. Or, 2. By his Holy Spirit, to which the creation of the world is ascribed, Gen. 1:2, Job 33:4, Ps. 33:6.

These are parts, or, the extremities, but small parcels, the outside and visible work. How glorious then are his visible and more inward perfections and operations! Of his ways, i.e. of his works. Of him, i.e. of his power, and wisdom, and providence, and actions.