Job 38:2

_WHO IS THIS THAT DARKENETH COUNSEL BY WORDS WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE?_ This - Job. COUNSEL - impugning my divine wisdom in the providential arrangements of the universe. Such "words" (including those of the friends) rather obscure than throw light on my ways. God is about to be Job's vindicator; but must first bring him to a right state of mind for receiving relief....

1-3 Job had silenced, but had not convinced his friends. Elihu had silenced Job, but had not brought him to admit his guilt before God. It pleased the Lord to interpose. The Lord, in this discourse, humbles Job, and brings him to repent of his passionate expressions concerning God's providential dealings with him; and this he does, by calling upon Job to compare God's being from everlasting to everlasting, with his own time; God's knowledge of all things, with his own ignorance; and God's almighty power, with his own weakness. Our darkening the counsels of God's wisdom with our folly, is a great provocation to God. Humble faith and sincere obedience see farthest and best into the will of the Lord....

Verse Job 38:2. _WHO_ IS _THIS THAT DARKENETH COUNSEL_] As if he had said, Who art _thou_ who pretendest to speak on the deep things of God, and the administration of his justice and providence, which thou canst not comprehend; and leavest my counsels and designs the darker for thy explanation?...

WHO IS THIS - Referring doubtless to Job, for he is specified in the previous verse. Some have understood it of Elihu (see Schultens), but the connection evidently demands that it should be understood as referring to Job. The object was, to reprove him for the presumptuous manner in which he had spoken of God and of his government. It was important before God manifested his approval of Job, that he should declare his sense of what he had said, and show him how improper it was to indulge in language such as he had used. THAT DARKENETH COUNSEL - That makes the subject darker. Instead of explaining the reason of the divine dealings, and vindicating God from the objections alleged against him and his government, the only tendency of what he had said had been to make his government appear dark, and severe, and unjust in the view of his friends. It might have been expected of Job, being a frie...

CLOSE OF THE CONTROVERSY BY THE INTERFERENCE OF THE ALMIGHTY. EXPOSITION The discourse, by which the Almighty answers Job and rebukes his "friends," occupies four chapters (ch. 38-41.). It is broken into two parts by the interposition of a-short confession on Job's part (Job 40:3). Job 38:1 and Job 39:1 are closely connected, and form a single appeal—a sort of _argumentum ad verecundiam—_to_ _Job's profound ignorance of God's natural government, which incapacitates him from passing judgment upon what is far more incomprehensible and myste

WHO [IS] THIS,.... Meaning not Elihu the last speaker, as some think; and there are some who suppose not only that these words are directed to him, but all that is said in this and the following chapter: but it was Job the Lord spoke to and answered, as expressed in Job 38:1; and these words are taken by Job to himself, Job 42:3. Concerning whom the Lord inquires, not as ignorant of him, who he was; but wondering that such a man as he should talk as he did; and as angry with him, and rebuking him for it; THAT DARKENETH COUNSEL BY WORDS WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE? either his own counsel, his sense and sentiments of things, which were delivered in such an obscure manner as not to be intelligible by those that heard them; whereby they were led, as Job's friends were, into some mistaken notions of him: or

V. THE LORD'S TESTIMONY TO JOB AND CONTROVERSY WITH HIM CHAPTER 38:1-38 _ 1. The Lord speaks to Job (Job 38:1)_ 2. The questions of the Lord (Job 38:4) Job 38:1. The voice of man is hushed; the voice of the Lord begins to speak. The Almighty, the Creator, the Lord of All comes now upon the scene. He too, like Elihu, had been the silent listener; He heard Job's complaint and wailing and the babblings of his friends. Elihu's wonderful utterance, inspired by the Lord, was ended. The thunderstorm is on, no doubt a literal storm, the dark clouds gather-- _ Then from the North there comes a golden light._ God appears in wondrous Majesty ...

Yahweh, speaking to Job out of the storm, challenges him to the contest, which he has so often demanded....

WHO IS THIS... ? Figure of speech _Erotesis._ App-6. DARKENETH. Hebrew. _hashak._ See note on Job 3:6....

_who is this that darkeneth counsel_ lit. _who then is darkening counsel_? The word _then_merely adds the emphasis of impatience or astonishment to the question, _who_…? The expression _counsel_suggests that the Lord had a plan or meaning in Job's afflictions, which the perverse and ignorant construction put on them by Job obscured. The word might have a wider sense and refer to sound wisdom in general in reference to man's life, which Job, by his particular utterances on God's providence, only darkened. The participle _darkening_is thought by many to imply that the Divine Speaker broke in upon Job when in the act of darkening, that is, when speaking. If so, the speeches of Elihu are an interpolation. If is rather to strain the argument from the use of the participle to say that this _must_be the meaning....