Job 26:2

_HOW HAST THOU HELPED HIM THAT IS WITHOUT POWER? HOW SAVEST THOU THE ARM THAT HATH NO STRENGTH?_ Without power ... no strength ... no wisdom. The negatives are used instead of the positives, powerlessness, etc., designedly (so Isaiah 31:8; Deuteronomy 32:21, "That which is not God ... those which are not a people"): Granting I am, as you say (Job 18:17; Job 15:2). powerlessness itself, etc. How hast thou helped such a one? SAVEST - helpest, supportest. PLENTIFULLY ... THE THING AS IT IS - rather, 'abundantly-wisdom' х_ TUWSHIYAAH_ (H8454)]. Bildad had m

1-4 Job derided Bildad's answer; his words were a mixture of peevishness and self-preference. Bildad ought to have laid before Job the consolations, rather than the terrors of the Almighty. Christ knows how to speak what is proper for the weary, Isaiah 50:4; and his ministers should not grieve those whom God would not have made sad. We are often disappointed in our expectations from our friends who should comfort us; but the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, never mistakes, nor fails of his end....

Verse Job 26:2. _HOW HAST THOU HELPED_ HIM] This seems a species of irony. How wonderfully hast thou counselled the unskilful and strengthened the weak! Alas for you! ye could not give what ye did not possess! In this way the _Chaldee_ understood these verses: "Why hast thou pretended to give succour, when _thou art_ without strength? And save, while thy arm is weak? Why hast thou given counsel, when _thou art_ without understanding? And supposest that thou hast shown the very essence of wisdom?...

HOW HAST THOU HELPED HIM THAT IS WITHOUT POWER? - It has been doubted whether this refers to Job himself, the two friends of Bildad, or to the Deity. Rosenmuller. The connection, however, seems to demand that it should be referred to Job himself. It is sarcastical. Bildad had come as a friend and comforter. He had, also, in common with Eliphaz and Zophar, taken upon himself the office of teacher and counsellor. He had regarded Job as manifesting great weakness in his views of God and of his government; as destitute of all strength to bear up aright under trials, and now all that he had done to aid one so weak was found in the impertinent and irrelevant generalities of his brief speech. Job is indignant that one with such pretensions should have said nothing more to the purpose. Herder, however, renders this as if it related wholly to God, and it cannot be denied that the Hebrew would bea...

EXPOSITION The long discourse of Job now begins, which forms the central and most solid mass of the book. It continues through six chapters (Job 26-31.). In it Job, after hastily brushing aside Bildad's last speech as superfluous and out of place (verses 1-4), proceeds to deliver his real sentiments apart from controversial issues. He sets forth, first of all, the might and majesty of God (verses 5-14), after which he proceeds to deal with the questions which concern his own integrity, and God's dealings with mankind. The former he still maintains; with respect to the latter, he recants his earlier argumentative contention (Job 24:2), and admits that retribution always or almost always comes upon the wicked at last (Job 27:1.). In...

HOW HAST THOU HELPED [HIM THAT IS] WITHOUT POWER?.... This verse and Job 26:3 either are to be understood of God, as many do, by reading the words, "who hast thou helped? God" r? a fine advocate for him thou art, representing him as if he was without power, and could not help himself, but stood in need of another; as if he had no arm, and could not save and protect himself, but needed one to rise and stand up in his behalf, when he is God omnipotent, and has an arm strong and mighty, and there is none like his; and as if he wanted wisdom, and one to counsel him, when he is the all wise God, and never consults with any of his creatures, or admits them to be of his council; and as if his "essence" s, or "what he is", as he is, had been very copiously and plentifully declared in a few words by him; in supposing which he must be guilty of the greatest arrogance, stupidity, and folly; and the...

CHAPTER 26JOB'S REPLY _ 1. A sarcastic beginning (Job 26:1)_ 2. Job also knows and can speak of the greatness of God (Job 26:5) Job 26:1. You have helped me greatly, Bildad, me, who am without power. Whom dost thou instruct anyway? And what kind of a spirit is it which speaks through thee? In other words he means to say, I have no more use for your argument at all. Job 26:5. But let me, Bildad, tell you something about the greatness of God before which your words pale into nothing. And so he utters a description of God's greatness which is indeed greater than Bildad's. And after this sublime unfolding of God's greatness and power, he

BEGINNING OF JOB'S REPLY TO BILDAD. He speaks sarcastically of the helpfulness and instructiveness of Bildad's speech. He must have been inspired (Job 26:4)!...

_how savest thou_?] Rather, how HAST THOU SAVED? i. e. succoured....

HOW HAST THOU HELPED HIM, &C.— _Whom hast thou been helping? him who hast no power: For whom hast thou gotten a victory? the arm which hath no strength,_ Job 26:3. _To whom hast thou been giving counsel? him who hath no wisdom: verily, thou hast been teaching learning to the master._ Heath. The latter clause of the 3rd verse, which is literally rendered, was, most probably, a proverbial expression....