Job 9:7

_WHICH COMMANDETH THE SUN, AND IT RISETH NOT; AND SEALETH UP THE STARS._ Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not - namely, in an eclipse, or the darkness that accompanies earthquakes (Job 9:6). SEALETH UP - i:e., totally covers, as one would seal up a room, that its contents may not be seen. SEALETH UP - i:e., totally covers, as one would seal up a room, that its contents may not be seen....

1-13 In this answer Job declared that he did not doubt the justice of God, when he denied himself to be a hypocrite; for how should man be just with God? Before him he pleaded guilty of sins more than could be counted; and if God should contend with him in judgment, he could not justify one out of a thousand, of all the thoughts, words, and actions of his life; therefore he deserved worse than all his present sufferings. When Job mentions the wisdom and power of God, he forgets his complaints. We are unfit to judge of God's proceedings, because we know not what he does, or what he designs. God acts with power which no creature can resist. Those who think they have strength enough to help others, will not be able to help themselves against it....

Verse Job 9:7. _WHICH COMMANDETH THE SUN_] Obscures it either with clouds, with thick darkness, or with an eclipse. _SEALETH UP THE STARS._] Like the contents of a letter, wrapped up and sealed, so that it cannot be read. Sometimes the heavens become as black as ebony, and no star, figure, or character, in this great book of God can be read....

WHICH COMMANDETH THE SUN, AND IT RISETH NOT - Schultens supposes that all this is a description of the deluge - when the mountains were removed, when the fountains of the deep were broken up, and when the sun was obscured and seemed not to rise. Others have supposed that it refers to the fact that the sun is darkened by clouds and tempests, and appears not to rise and shine upon the earth. Others suppose that the allusion is to an eclipse; and others, that it is to the power of God, and means that the rising of the sun depends on him, and that if he should choose to give the command, the heavenly bodies would rise and give light no more. It seems probable that the meaning is, that God has power to do this; that the rising of the sun depends on him; and that he could delay it, or prevent it, at his pleasure. His power over the sun was shown in the time of Joshua, when, at his command, it...

EXPOSITION JOB 9:1 Job, in answer to Bildad, admits the truth of his arguments, but declines to attempt the justification which can alone entitle him to accept the favourable side of Bildad's alternative. Man cannot absolutely justify himself before God. It is in vain to attempt to do so. The contest is too unequal. On the one side perfect wisdom and absolute strength (verse 4); on the other, weakness, imperfection, ignorance. guilt (verses 17-20). And no "daysman," or umpire, between them; no third party to hold the balance even, and preside authoritatively over the controversy, and see that justice is done (verses 33-35). Were it otherwise, Job would not shrink from the controversy; but he thinks it ill arguing with omnipotent power. What he seems to lack is the absolute conviction expressed by Abraham in the emphatic words'"_ _Shall not the Judge of al

WHICH COMMANDETH THE SUN, AND IT RISETH NOT,.... Either he could do it if he would, by a word speaking, as he ordered it to stand still in the times of Joshua, Joshua 10:13, and caused the shadow to return ten degrees it had gone back in the dial of Ahaz, in the times of Hezekiah, 2 Kings 20:11; or else the sense is, it rises not at any other time and place but when and where he commands it; or he commands it not to rise in the same place at one time of the year as at another, and it rises not; or this may be understood of eclipses, or of its being covered with clouds in tempestuous weather for a considerable time together, when it seems as if it was not risen: some think this respects the three days' darkness in Egypt, when the Israelites were there,...

CHAPTER S 9-10 JOB ANSWERS BILDAD _ 1. The supremacy and power of God (Job 9:1)_ 2. How then can Job meet Him? (Job 9:11) 3. He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked (Job 9:22) 4. Confession of weakness and the need of a daysman (Job 9:25) 5. Murmuring against God (Job 10:1) 6. Welcoming death (Job 10:18) Job 9:1. The final words of Bildad seemed to have had a momentary soothing

JOB 9:1 is Job's answer to the position taken up by Bildad, viz. that the Almighty cannot judge falsely (Job 8:3). In Job 2 accepts the general principle that God judges according to merit. But of what use is this? Man has no chance of asserting his righteousness before God, of putting in his claim to reward. There is no equality between the Judge and the person judged. If man wishes to maintain an argument with God (Job 9:3 _mg._) God can ask him a thousand questions that will baffle him. God is all-wise and almighty: who can withstand Him? (Job 9:4). He is almighty (Job 9:5 f). There follows a series of

Description of God's omnipotent power as it displays itself in the material world. _they know not_ Suddenly and unexpectedly, Psalms 35:8; Jeremiah 50:24....

WHICH COMMANDETH THE SUN, AND IT RISETH NOT— Bishop Warburton supposes that this alludes to the miraculous history of the people of God; such as the Egyptian darkness, and the stopping of the sun's course by Joshua. But surely there is no necessity, from the words themselves, to suppose any allusion of this kind, or, indeed, any thing miraculous, since God, by throwing a cloud over the sun and stars, can and does obscure them when he pleases; and thus it is that the Chaldee paraphrast understands it; _and seals up the stars with clouds:_ or, if we will take Bishop Patrick's exposition, it is thus, _that the heavens are subject to the power of God, and neither sun nor stars can shine if he forbid it._ There is a beautiful fragment of Pindar preserved to us by Clemens Alexandrinus; where he gives it as an instance of the "power of God," that he can, when he will, cause the pure light to sp...