Job 28:26

_WHEN HE MADE A DECREE FOR THE RAIN, AND A WAY FOR THE LIGHTNING OF THE THUNDER:_ The decree regulating at what time and place, and in what quantity, the rain should fall. A WAY - through the parted clouds (Job 38:25; Zechariah 10:1)....

20-28 There is a two-fold wisdom; one hid in God, which is secret, and belongs not to us; the other made known by him, and revealed to man. One day's events, and one man's affairs, have such reference to, and so hang one upon another, that He only, to whom all is open, and who sees the whole at one view, can rightly judge of every part. But the knowledge of God's revealed will is within our reach, and will do us good. Let man look upon this as his wisdom, To fear the Lord, and to depart from evil. Let him learn that, and he is learned enough. Where is this wisdom to be found? The treasures of it are hid in Christ, revealed by the word, received by faith, through the Holy Ghost. It will not feed pride or vanity, or amuse our vain curiosity. It teaches and encourages sinners to fear the Lord, and to depart from evil, in the exercise of repentance and faith, without desiring to solve all di...

Verse Job 28:26. _WHEN HE MADE A DECREE FOR THE RAIN_] When he determined how that should be _generated_, viz., By the _heat_ of the sun _evaporation_ is produced: the particles of vapour being lighter than the air on the surface, ascend into the atmosphere, till they come to a region where the air is of their own _density_; there they are formed into _thin clouds_, and become suspended. When, by the sudden passages of _lightning_, or by _winds_ strongly _agitating_ these clouds, the particles are driven together and condensed so as to be _weightier_ than the _air_ in which they float, then they fall down in the form of _rain_; the drops being greater or less according to the _force_ or _momentum_, or suddenness, of the agitation by which they are driven together as well as to the _degree_ of _rarity_ in the lower reg...

WHEN HE MADE A DECREE FOR THE RAIN - A statute or law (חק _chôq_) by which the rain is regulated. It is not sent by chance or hap-hazard. It is under the operation of regular and settled laws. We cannot suppose that those laws were understood in the time of Job, but the fact might be understood that the rain was regulated by laws, and that fact would show that God was qualified to impart wisdom. His kingdom was a kingdom of settled law and not of chance or caprice, and if the rain was regulated by statute, it was fair to presume that he did not deal with his people by chance, and that afflictions were not sent without rule; compare the notes at Job 5:6. AND A WAY - A path through which the rapid lightning should pass - referring, perhaps, to the apparent “opening” in the clouds in which the light

EXPOSITION JOB 28:1 The connection of this chapter with the preceding is somewhat obscure. Probably we are to regard Job as led to see, even while he is justifying God's ways with sinners (Job 27:8), how many and how great are the difficulties in the way of forming a single consistent theory of the Divine action, which shall be applicable to all cases. Hence he comes to the conclusion that God is incomprehensible by man and inscrutable; and that it is only given to man to know him sufficiently for his practical guidance. To impress this on his hearers is his main object (verses 12-28); and, to impress it the more, he introduces it by a sharp contrast. Wonderful as is man's cleverness and ingenuity in respect of earthly things and physical phenomena (verses 1-11), with respect to h

WHEN HE MADE A DECREE FOR THE RAIN, AND A WAY FOR THE LIGHTNING OF THE THUNDER. Decreed within himself that he would give it; for rain is his gift alone, and which none of the vanities of the Gentiles can give, and a wonderful blessing to the earth it is; and which God bestows on all sorts of men, both good and bad, and causes it to fall sometimes on one place and sometimes on another, sometimes in greater, sometimes in lesser showers; and according to his sovereign pleasure he gives or withholds it; the effects of which are quickly seen. Mr. Broughton renders the clause, "he made a bound for the rain, and a way for the lightning of thunder", or "the lightning and the thunder", as Ben Gersom, who thinks the copulative ו, "and", is wanting. Thunder is from God, it is his voice, and the word here used is in the plural number, "voices" m, signifying various claps of thunder; and lightning g...

CHAPTER 28 _ 1. The treasures of the earth (Job 28:1)_ 2. The better treasures (Job 28:7) 3. God knoweth the way and the true wisdom (Job 28:23) Job 28:1. This part of the monologue of Job does not seem to have much relation, if any, to the controversial matter of the previous Chapter s. He speaks first of the treasures of the earth, the riches which man seeks after, but which do not last, and are so often man's undoing. Job shows that he had a good knowledge of mining operations. He knows of veins of silver and how gold is refined. Iron is taken out of the earth and copper molten out of stone. Then he describes how the miner with

JOB 28. Here again we come to a critical question. It is difficult to fit this chapter into the argument, whether Job 27:7 is given to Job or to Zophar. It is a widely accepted conclusion of scholars that the chapter is an independent poem on Wisdom (a very fine one) which has somehow found its way into the text of the Book of Job. In its present form it opens with the word For, marking a connexion with something that has gone before; so that the beginning appears to be lost. Duhm has suggested that since the word whence cometh wisdom (or where shall wisdom be found) and where is the place of understanding? occur as a refrain in the poem, it probably also began with them. The poem has a parallel in Proverbs 8. JOB 28:1. THE FIRST STROPHE. (Where shall wisdom be found?) For silver, gold, iron, and copper c

Wisdom can nowhere be found either by man or by any creature (Job 28:21), only by the Creator. _God_knoweth the place of it and is in possession of it, for He is the maker and upholder of the universe with all its agencies. And He has assigned to man as _his_wisdom the fear of the Lord....

GOD UNDERSTANDETH THE WAY THEREOF— Job having observed, that the generations of men who had lived in former ages had said, concerning wisdom, _we have heard the fame thereof with our ears,_ adds, that tradition had delivered to them some further particulars respecting this important subject; as, that _God alone_ (Job 28:23.) _understands the way thereof, and knoweth the place thereof;_ for his knowledge reacheth to all things and places, Job 28:24. _For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven;_ and that with a wisdom so infallible, and a power so uncontroulable, as to give a certain weight and measure to things the most uncertain and inconstant with respect to us, the _winds_ and the _waters,_...