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Job Chapter
Twenty-five
New King James Version (NKJV)
INTRODUCTION TO JOB 25
This
chapter contains Bildad's reply to Job, such an one as it is; in which,
declining the controversy between them, he endeavours to dissuade him from
attempting to lay his cause before God, and think to justify himself before
him, from the consideration of the majesty of God, described by the dominion he
is possessed of; the fear creatures stand in of him; the peace he makes in his
high places; the number of his armies, and the vast extent of his light, Job 25:1; and from
the impossibility of man's being justified with him, or clean before him,
argued from thence, Job 25:4; and which
is further illustrated by a comparison of the celestial bodies with men, and by
an argument from the greater to the less, that if they lose their lustre and
purity in his sight, much more man, a mean despicable worm, Job 25:5.
Job 25:1 Then
Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
YLT
1And Bildad the Shuhite
answereth and saith: --
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite,.... Not to what Job had
just now delivered, in order to disprove that, that men, guilty of the grossest
crimes, often go unpunished in this life, and prosper and succeed, and die in
peace and quietness, as other men; either because he was convinced of the truth
of what he had said, or else because he thought he was an obstinate man, and
that it was best to let him alone, and say no more to him, since there was no
likelihood of working any conviction on him; wherefore he only tries to possess
his mind of the greatness and majesty of God, in order to deter him from applying
to God in a judicial way, and expecting redress and relief from him;
and said; as follows.
Job 25:2 2 “Dominion and fear belong
to Him; He makes peace in His high places.
YLT
2The rule and fear [are]
with Him, Making peace in His high places.
Dominion and fear are with him,.... Not with
man, as Sephorno interprets it, as that with him is power to rule over the
imagination (the evil figment of his heart) to choose the good, and refuse the
evil; and with him is fear of punishment, and also the fear of God to restrain
him from evil; but with God, as may easily be perceived from the whole context,
though his name is not expressed in this clause, and not till Job 25:4; this
dominion he is possessed of is universal; his kingdom rules over all, over all
the angels, good and bad; over all men, over all the nations of the world, and
the great men in it, the kings and princes of it; and over all, of every age,
sex, and condition; and it is absolute and uncontrollable; he governs according
to his will, and is not to be controlled in his ways; nor is he accountable to
any for what he does, and his kingdom is an everlasting one, and his dominion
for ever and ever: and by the fear that is with him is not meant actively, with
which he fears; for he is afraid of none, be they ever so great and mighty, Job 22:4; but
passively, with which he is feared; for holy and reverend is his name, and so
his nature, and all that belong to him; he is feared by the angels in heaven,
who cover their faces before him, and cast their crowns at his feet; and by the
saints on earth, in whose assemblies he is served with reverence and godly
fear; and should be stood in awe of by all the inhabitants of the world,
because of the glory of his nature, the greatness of his works, and the
goodness of his providence:
he maketh peace in his high places; in the high places of
his earth, and among the great men of it, creating and commanding peace, and
causing war among them to cease, whenever it is his pleasure; and in the
regions of the air, where, though there are often thunder and lightning, storms
and tempests of wind, hail, and rain, yet, when he says, Peace, be still, all
is serene and quiet; and in the orbs of the heaven, the sun, moon, and stars,
which know their appointed times and seasons, and keep their place or course,
and do their work and office in the most easy and cheerful manner; and among
the angels in the highest heaven, which are properly his high places, who,
though their numbers are so great, and they themselves thrones, dominions,
principalities, and powers, and have various offices and different work
assigned them, readily do his will, and are in the utmost harmony and concord
among themselves, show no reluctance to him, nor any discord to each other: now
Bildad would have Job consider whether he could think himself so significant,
that cognizance would be taken of him and his cause by so great, glorious, and
majestic a thing; or that he would suffer his high places, where peace reigned,
to be disturbed by his noise and brawl.
Job 25:3 3 Is there any number to His
armies? Upon whom does His light not rise?
YLT
3Is their [any] number to
His troops? And on whom ariseth not His light?
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;
and upon whom doth not his light arise? either
natural light, that grand luminary the sun, which rises on all, the evil and
the good, nor is anything hid from the light and heat of it; or moral light,
the light of nature, with which everyone that comes into the world is
enlightened by him; or the light of providential goodness, which is unto all,
and over all his creatures; the whole earth is full of it, and all the
inhabitants have a share in it; nor is anything hid from his all piercing, all
penetrating, all seeing eye, who is light itself, and dwells in light
inaccessible, and from which light nothing can be hid.
Job 25:4 4 How then can man be
righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?
YLT
4And what? is man righteous
with God? And what? is he pure -- born of a woman?
How then can man be justified with God? Since he sees
all his ways and works, his secret as well as open sins; either be more just
than he, as Eliphaz expresses it, Job 4:17; which no
man in his senses will say; or just as he is, and upon a level with him, or in
comparison of him, or before him, and in his sight: and this is what Job
himself denies, Job 9:2; for
however righteous a man may be in his own sight, or in the sight of others, he
cannot of himself be justified in the sight of God; nor can any be justified
with him by his own righteousness, because the best righteousness of man is
imperfect; and, if Bildad thought this was the sentiment of Job, he mistook
him; for, what he meant by coming to the seat of God, and ordering his cause
before him, Job 23:2; to which
Bildad seems to refer, and being judged by him, when he doubted not but he
should be acquitted, was no other than the justification of his cause, and not
of his person before God; or that he should be cleared of the imputation of
hypocrisy, and of being the sinner and wicked man, and guilty of very bad
things, though secret and private, for which he was afflicted; for otherwise
Job knew full well that he could not be justified with God by his own personal
righteousness, for he knew himself to be a sinner, and owns it; nor did he
think himself perfect, and his righteousness a complete one; and therefore he
expected not to be justified by it; he knew his living Redeemer, and believed
in him for righteousness, and expected the justification of his person, and his
acceptance with God, only by him; and in this way there are many that are
justified with God secretly, "in foro Dei", in the court of God, and
in his sight, who always beholds his people as righteous in Christ, and openly,
"in foro conscientiae", in the court of conscience, when they believe
in him; and who will be publicly justified, and declared righteous, at the day
of judgment:
or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? which
suggests a doctrine that Job as firmly believed as Bildad did, that all men are
unclean by natural generation, or as they are born into the world; their
ancestors being such, the more immediate, and the more remote, which may be
traced back to the first man and woman, Job 14:4; so that
as no man is clean and pure as God is, or in comparison of him, or in his
sight; they can neither be naturally clean, nor so of themselves, by any means
or methods they can make use of; but then they may be, as many are, clean by
the blood of Christ, and grace of God, through which his people are cleansed from
all their sins, and all their iniquities, and are without spot before the
throne and in the sight of God.
Job 25:5 5 If even the moon does not
shine, And the stars are not pure in His sight,
YLT
5Lo -- unto the moon, and it
shineth not, And stars have not been pure in His eyes.
Behold, even to the moon,.... If all things that
are glorious and illustrious in the lower world, and which are between that and
the region of the moon, are beheld; or all from the seat of the Divine Majesty,
down to that glorious luminary, are viewed, they lose all their lustre and
brightness, when compared with the Divine Being;
and it, even that itself
shineth not; it is darkened, confounded, and ashamed; it hides its beautiful
face, and draws in its borrowed and useful light, at the approach of him, who
is light itself, and in whom is no darkness at all: or it tabernacles notF14ולא יאהיל "et non ponet
tabernaculum", Montanus, Bolducius; so Schmidt, Schultens. ; has no
tabernacle to abide in, as is said of the sun, Psalm 19:4; or does
not expand and spread its light, as a tentF15"Non expandet
lumen suum in modum tentorii", Complutenses apud Bolduc. or tabernacle is
spread; it does not diffuse, but contracts it. No mention is made of the sun,
not because that shines in its own light, which the moon does not; but perhaps
because the controversy between Job and his friends was held in the night, when
the moon and the stars were only seen, and therefore only mentioned; otherwise,
what is here observed equally holds good of the sun as of the moon; see Isaiah 24:23;
yea, the stars are not pure in his sight; as there are
spots in the sun and in the moon, seen by the eye of man, aided and assisted,
so such may be seen by God in the stars also, and in these, both in a natural
and in a mystical sense; as by them may be meant the angels of heaven, even
those are not pure in the sight of God, and in comparison of him, the most
perfectly pure and holy Being; see Job 4:18.
Job 25:6 6 How much less man, who
is a maggot, And a son of man, who is a worm?”
YLT
6How much less man -- a
grub, And the son of man -- a worm!
How much less man, that is a worm?.... Whose
original is of the earth, dwells in it, and is supported by it, and creeps into
it again; who is impure by nature and by practice, weak and impotent to do
anything that is spiritually good, or to defend himself from his spiritual
enemies; and is mean and despicable, as even the best of men are, in their own
eyes, and in the eyes of the world: and, if the best of men are comparable to
such creatures, and our Lord himself, in human nature, was content to be called
a worm, and no man; what must the worst of men be, or man be in and of himself,
without the grace of God and righteousness of Christ, by which he can be only
clean and righteous? see Isaiah 41:14; and,
if the celestial bodies above mentioned are eclipsed of all their brightness
and glory, in the presence of God; what a contemptible figure must man make in
the court of heaven, who, in comparison of them, is but a worm, and much more
so, as appearing before God?
and the son of man, which is a worm; which is
repeated with a little variation for the confirmation of it; or it may signify,
that even the first man was no other than of the earth, earthy, and so are all
his sons. The Targum is,
"how
much more man, who in his life is a reptile, and the son of man, who in his
death is a worm?'
to
which may be added, that he is in his grave a companion for the worms; and
indeed it appears by the observations made through microscopes, that man, in
his first state of generation, is really a wormF16Lewenhoeck apud
Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. vol. 4. p. 721. Vid. Philosoph. Transact. abridged,
vol. 2. p. 912, 913. ; so that, as Pliny saysF17Nat. Hist. l. 7. c.
7. , one that is a judge of things may pity and be ashamed of the sorry
original of the proudest of animals. By this short reply of Bildad, and which
contains little more than what had been before said, it is plain that he was
tired of the controversy, and glad to give out.
──《John Gill’s
Exposition of the Bible》