Job 26

Verse 4. Life. Septuagint also seem to understand this of God. Calmet.—Job does not blame his friends for undertaking to approve the ways of Providence, but for condemning himself (Saint John Chrysostom) rashly, ( Bible.) and, with an air of haughtiness, endeavouring to restrain him from pleading his cause before the divine tribunal. Menochius.—Hebrew “Whose spirit came from thee?” Prot. ( Bible.) Did I receive my life, or do I seek advice from thee? Calmet.—God stood in no need of Baldad’s wisdom ( Worthington.) no more than Job. Bible.

Verse 5. With them. The less and greater fishes, ( Menochius.) or rather the giants and others who were buried in the waters of the deluge, and are confined in the dungeons of hell. The poets speak in the same manner.

“Hic genus antiquum terræ, Titania pubes,

Fulmine dejecti fundo voluntur in imo.

Aliis sub gurgite vasto,

Infectum eluitur scelus aut exuritur igni.” Æn. vi.

—Homer (Iliad viii.) and Hesiod (Theog.) place the giants at the extremity of the earth, in the utmost darkness. See also Proverbs 9:18. Isaiah 14:9. Calmet.

Verse 6. Hell. The grave.—Destruction. Hebrew abaddon. Bible.—Saint John (Revelation 9:11) styles the bottomless abyss; ( Calmet.) or its angel, ( Bible.) Abaddon, or Apollyon. It may here be called destruction, ( Calmet.) as all its victims are lost for ever to every thing that is good. The obscurity of the grave, and even that of hell, can hide nothing from God.

Sheol is the place of the dead.

Abaddon means Destroyer.

Verse 7. North pole, which alone was visible in Idumea, and continued unmoved, while all the stars performed their revolutions. Calmet.—Nothing. Terra, pilæ similis, nullo fulcimine nixa. Ovid, Fast. vi. Calmet.—All tends to the centre, ( Menochius.) by the laws of attraction. Newton, and so forth Bible.

Verse 8. Clouds, as in a vessel or garment. Proverbs 30:4.

Verse 9. Over it. The firmament, with all its beauty, is but like a cloud, to conceal from our feeble eyes the splendor of God’s throne.

Verse 10. End. Till the end of the world, the ocean will respect these limits. Bible.—The ancients looked upon it as a continual miracle that the world was not deluged, as the waters are higher than the earth. Jeremiah 5:22. Amos 5:8. S. Bas. and Saint Ambrose Hexem. Cicero, Nat. ii.—Philosophers have explained this phenomenon. But it is still certain that the power and wisdom of God preserve the equilibrium, without which all would return to the ancient chaos. Calmet.

Verse 11. Heaven. The mountains are so styled by Pindar; and the poets represent them supporting the heavens. Totum ferre potest humeris minitantibus orbem. Petron.—Yet others understand that power which keeps all things together, ( Calmet.) or the angels, to whose rule the ancients attributed the celestial bodies. Saint Gregory Ven. Bede, and so forth

Verse 12. Together, at the beginning. Genesis 1:9. Hebrew “By his strength he has divided the sea; and by his wisdom he has pierced the proud, or Egypt.” Rahab, ( Bible.) or Rachab, is often put for Egypt; (Psalms 88:11) and all would naturally have concluded that the fall of Pharao was pointed at, if it had not been supposed that Job lived before that event. That is, however, dubious. Isaias (51:9) uses the same terms in describing the fall of this tyrant. Calmet.—Yet the Septuagint translate, “the whale,” ( Bible.) or some sea monster, which God holds in subjection, (Pineda) like the weakest creature. Bible.—The foaming billows ( Menochius.) are likewise subject to his control. Bible.

Verse 13. Heavens, with stars, and so forth Psalms 32:6. Wisd. 1:7. God also sends winds to disperse the clouds, that the heavens may appear. Calmet.—Artful, (obstetricante) “being the midwife.” The least things are ruled by Providence. Worthington.—Serpent; a constellation, lightning, the devil, or rather the leviathan. Isaiah 27:1. Drusius. Calmet.—Septuagint “by his decree, he killed the apostate dragon.” Bible.—But there is no need of having recourse to allegory. Calmet.

Verse 14. Drop. This comparison is often applied to speech. Deuteronomy 32:2. Isaiah 55:10. If the little that we know of God’s works give us such an exalted idea of his greatness, what should we think if we could fully comprehend his mysteries? Calmet.