Job 25:3

_THEN ANSWERED BILDAD THE SHUHITE, AND SAID,_ He tries to show Job's rashness (Job 23:3), by arguments borrowed from Eliphaz (Job 15:15), with which cf. Job 11:17. Verse 2. Power and terror - i:e., terror-inspiring power. PEACE IN HIS HIGH PLACES - implying that His power is such on high as to quell all opposition, not merely there, but on earth also. The Holy Spirit here shadowed forth Gospel truths (Colossians 1:20); Ephesians 1:10). Verse 3. ARMIES - angels and stars ...

Verse Job 25:3. _IS THERE ANY NUMBER OF HIS ARMIES?_] He has _troops_ innumerable; he can serve himself of all his creatures; every thing may be a means of _help_ or _destruction_, according to his Divine will. When he purposes to save, none can destroy; and when he is determined to destroy, none can save. It is vain to trust in his creatures against himself. _UPON WHOM DOTH NOT HIS LIGHT ARISE?_] That is, his providence rules over all; he is universal Lord; he causes his sun to arise on the evil and the good, and sends his rain on the just and unjust....

IS THERE ANY NUMBER OF HIS ARMIES? - The armies of heaven; or the hosts of angelic beings, which are often represented as arranged or marshalled into armies; see the notes at Isaiah 1:9. The word which is used here is not the common one which is rendered “hosts,” (צבא _tsâbâ'_), but is גדוּד _g__e__dûd_ which means properly a troop, band, or army. It may here mean either the constellations often represented as the army which God marshals and commands, or it may mean the angels. AND UPON WHOM DOTH NOT HIS LIGHT ARISE? - This is designed evidently to show the majesty and glory of God. It refers probably to the light of the sun, as the light which he creates and commands. The idea is, that it pervades all things; that, as controlled by h

EXPOSITION JOB 25:1 Far from accepting Job's challenge, and grappling with the difficulty involved in the frequent, if not universal, prosperity of the wicked. Bildad, in his weak reply, entirely avoids the subject, and limits himself to briefly touching two old and well-worn topics—the might of God (verses 2, 3) and the universal sinfulness of men. On neither of these two points does he throw any fresh light. He avoids, however, the reckless charges of Eliphaz (Job 22:5) as well as the coarse menaces of Zophar (Job 20:5). JOB 25:1,...

IS THERE ANY NUMBER OF HIS ARMIES?.... His armies in heaven, the heavenly host of angels, which are innumerable; there are more than twelve legions of them, thousand and ten thousand times ten thousand, employed in a military way, for the safety and preservation of the saints; see Genesis 32:1; and the sun, moon, and stars, often called the host of heaven, the latter of which cannot be numbered, and which fought in their courses against Sisera, Judges 5:20; and his armies on earth, all the inhabitants of it; yea, every creature, even the smallest insect in it, which are without number: thus, frogs, lice, flies, and locusts, were the armies of God, with which he fought against Pharaoh and the Egyptians, see Joel 2:11; an

CHAPTER 25 THE THIRD ADDRESS OF BILDAD _ 1. What God is (Job 25:1)_ 2. What man is (Job 25:4) Job 25:1. Bildad's arguments are exhausted. He has reached the end of his resources and Zophar does not open his lips again. Nevertheless Bildad's final word is of great force and beauty, with deep meaning. He gives a picture of what God is. _ With Him dominion is reverence;_ He maketh peace in His high places. The number of His hosts who can count? And upon whom doth not His light arise? How pregnant with meaning these four sentences! Job 25:4. And what is man, man the creature of the dust, the earthworm.

JOB 25-27. offer a difficult critical problem. The phenomena which excite attention are these: (_a_) Bildad's speech is unusually short; (_b_) Job's reply contains a section (Job 26:5) very like Bildad's speech; (_c_) Zophar fails to speak; (_d_) ch. 27 has a title prefixed, which has no real parallel elsewhere in the middle of a speech belonging to the original poem (ch. 29 forming no real exception); (_e_) the greater part of ch. 27 so completely contradicts Job's views as elsewhere expressed, that it seems very hard to believe that it can have formed part of this speech (Peake). Here what is a very usual rearrangement will be adopted. We shall take Job 25 and Job 26:5 as Bildad's speech, Job 26:1 and...

_his armies_ The words still amplify the idea of the "dominion" and omnipotence of God. The armies that obey Him are innumerable. The reference is probably to the phenomena of the heavens by night; comp. Isaiah 40:26, "He bringeth out their host by number, he calleth them all by their names; by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one faileth." There was a tendency in Oriental thought to identify the angels with the stars, or at least to regard the stars as animated. _his light arise_ The reference is probably to the heavens or world by day; and the words express the pervading universality of God's influence and rule. The sun as a body is not directly alluded to, for the word "arise" is not that which ordinarily expresses rising or coming above the horizon; the meaning is rather "on whom doth not his light shine?" By "his light" is not meant the nature of

AND UPON WHOM DOTH NOT HIS LIGHT ARISE?— _And who is there whom his brightness doth not surpass?_ Heath and Schultens....

C. MANA LITTLE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS (Job 25:1-6) 1. Man cannot argue with God. (Job 25:1-4) TEXT 25:1-4 1 THEN ANSWERED BILDAD THE SHUHITE, AND SAID, 2 Dominion and fear are with him; He maketh peace in his high places. 3 Is there any number of his armies? And upon whom doth not his light arise? 4 How then can man be Just with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? COMMENT 25:1-4 JOB 25:1As with the preceding chapter 24, there are a considerable number of textual problems in the following three Chapter s.[268] The Chapter s 25-27 contain the third speech of Bildad, the eighth response of Job, and the third speech of Zophar. One cannot but be str