{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"JOB","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Job","commonName":"Job","introduction":"JOB A REAL PERSON.--It has been supposed by some that the book of Job is an allegory, not a real narrative, on account of the artificial character of many of its statements. Thus the sacred numbers, three and seven, often occur. He had seven thousand sheep, seven sons, both before and after his trials; his three friends sit down with him seven days and seven nights; both before and after his trials he had three daughters. So also the number and form of the speeches of the several speakers seem to be artificial. The name of Job, too, is derived from an Arabic word signifying repentance.\n\nBut Eze 14:14 (compare Eze 14:16, Eze 14:20) speaks of \"Job\" in conjunction with \"Noah and Daniel,\" real persons. St. James (Jam 5:11) also refers to Job as an example of \"patience,\" which he would not have been likely to do had Job been only a fictitious person. Also the names of persons and places are specified with a particularity not to be looked for in an allegory. As to the exact doubling of his possessions after his restoration, no doubt the round number is given for the exact number, as the latter approached near the former; this is often done in undoubtedly historical books. As to the studied number and form of the speeches, it seems likely that the arguments were substantially those which appear in the book, but that the studied and poetic form was given by Job himself, guided by the Holy Spirit. He lived one hundred and forty years after his trials, and nothing would be more natural than that he should, at his leisure, mould into a perfect form the arguments used in the momentous debate, for the instruction of the Church in all ages. Probably, too, the debate itself occupied several sittings; and the number of speeches assigned to each was arranged by preconcerted agreement, and each was allowed the interval of a day or more to prepare carefully his speech and replies; this will account for the speakers bringing forward their arguments in regular series, no one speaking out of his turn. As to the name Job--repentance (supposing the derivation correct)--it was common in old times to give a name from circumstances which occurred at an advanced period of life, and this is no argument against the reality of the person.\n\nWHERE JOB LIVED.--\"Uz,\" according to GESENIUS, means a light, sandy soil, and was in the north of Arabia-Deserta, between Palestine and the Euphrates, called by PTOLEMY (Geography, 19) Ausitai or Aisitai. In Gen 10:23; Gen 22:21; Gen 36:28; and Ch1 1:17, Ch1 1:42, it is the name of a man. In Jer 25:20; Lam 4:21; and Job 1:1, it is a country. Uz, in Gen 22:21, is said to be the son of Nahor, brother of Abraham--a different person from the one mentioned (Gen 10:23), a grandson of Shem. The probability is that the country took its name from the latter of the two; for this one was the son of Aram, from whom the Arameans take their name, and these dwelt in Mesopotamia, between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. Compare as to the dwelling of the sons of Shem in Gen 10:30, \"a mount of the East,\" answering to \"men of the East\" (Job 1:3). RAWLINSON, in his deciphering of the Assyrian inscriptions, states that \"Uz is the prevailing name of the country at the mouth of the Euphrates.\" It is probable that Eliphaz the Temanite and the Sabeans dwelt in that quarter; and we know that the Chaldeans resided there, and not near Idumea, which some identify with Uz. The tornado from \"the wilderness\" (Job 1:19) agrees with the view of it being Arabia-Deserta. Job (Job 1:3) is called \"the greatest of the men of the East\"; but Idumea was not east, but south of Palestine: therefore in Scripture language, the phrase cannot apply to that country, but probably refers to the north of Arabia-Deserta, between Palestine, Idumea, and the Euphrates. So the Arabs still show in the Houran a place called Uz as the residence of Job.\n\nTHE AGE WHEN JOB LIVED.--EUSEBIUS fixes it two ages before Moses, that is, about the time of Isaac: eighteen hundred years before Christ, and six hundred after the Deluge. Agreeing with this are the following considerations: 1. Job's length of life is patriarchal, two hundred years. 2. He alludes only to the earliest form of idolatry, namely, the worship of the sun, moon, and heavenly hosts (called Saba, whence arises the title \"Lord of Sabaoth,\" as opposed to Sabeanism) (Job 31:26-28). 3. The number of oxen and rams sacrificed, seven, as in the case of Balaam. God would not have sanctioned this after the giving of the Mosaic law, though He might graciously accommodate Himself to existing customs before the law. 4. The language of Job is Hebrew, interspersed occasionally with Syriac and Arabic expressions, implying a time when all the Shemitic tribes spoke one common tongue and had not branched into different dialects, Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic. 5. He speaks of the most ancient kind of writing, namely, sculpture. Riches also are reckoned by cattle. The Hebrew word, translated \"a piece of money,\" ought rather be rendered \"a lamb.\" 6. There is no allusion to the exodus from Egypt and to the miracles that accompanied it; nor to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (PATRICK, however, thinks there is); though there is to the Flood (Job 22:17); and these events, happening in Job's vicinity, would have been striking illustrations of the argument for God's interposition in destroying the wicked and vindicating the righteous, had Job and his friends known of them. Nor is there any undoubted reference to the Jewish law, ritual, and priesthood. 7. The religion of Job is that which prevailed among the patriarchs previous to the law; sacrifices performed by the head of the family; no officiating priesthood, temple, or consecrated altar.\n\nTHE WRITER.--All the foregoing facts accord with Job himself having been the author. The style of thought, imagery, and manners, are such as we should look for in the work of an Arabian emir. There is precisely that degree of knowledge of primitive tradition (see Job 31:33, as to Adam) which was universally spread abroad in the days of Noah and Abraham, and which was subsequently embodied in the early chapters of Genesis. Job, in his speeches, shows that he was much more competent to compose the work than Elihu, to whom LIGHTFOOT attributes it. The style forbids its being attributed to Moses, to whom its composition is by some attributed, \"whilst he was among the Midianites, about 1520 B.C.\" But the fact, that it, though not a Jewish book, appears among the Hebrew sacred writings, makes it likely that it came to the knowledge of Moses during the forty years which he passed in parts of Arabia, chiefly near Horeb; and that he, by divine guidance, introduced it as a sacred writing to the Israelites, to whom, in their affliction, the patience and restoration of Job were calculated to be a lesson of especial utility. That it is inspired appears from the fact that Paul (Co1 3:19) quotes it (Job 5:13) with the formula, \"It is written.\" Our Savior, too Mat 24:28), plainly refers to Job 29:30. Compare also Jam 4:10 and Pe1 5:6 with Job 22:29; Rom 11:34-35 with Job 15:8. It is probably the oldest book in the world. It stands among the Hagiographa in the threefold division of Scripture into the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa (\"Psalms,\" Luk 24:44).\n\nDESIGN OF THE BOOK.--It is a public debate in poetic form on an important question concerning the divine government; moreover the prologue and epilogue, which are in prose, shed the interest of a living history over the debate, which would otherwise be but a contest of abstract reasonings. To each speaker of the three friends three speeches are assigned. Job having no one to stand by him is allowed to reply to each speech of each of the three. Eliphaz, as the oldest, leads the way. Zophar, at his third turn, failed to speak, thus virtually owning himself overcome (Job 27:1-23). Therefore Job continued his reply, which forms three speeches (Job 26:1-14; Job 27:1-23; Job 28:1-28; Job 29:1-31:40). Elihu (Job 32:1-37:24) is allowed four speeches. Jehovah makes three addresses (Job 38:1-41:34). Thus, throughout there is a tripartite division. The whole is divided into three parts--the prologue, poem proper, and epilogue. The poem, into three--(1) The dispute of Job and his three friends; (2) The address of Elihu; (3) The address of God. There are three series in the controversy, and in the same order. The epilogue (Job 42:1-17) also is threefold; Job's justification, reconciliation with his friends, restoration. The speakers also in their successive speeches regularly advance from less to greater vehemence. With all this artificial composition, everything seems easy and natural.\n\nThe question to be solved, as exemplified in the case of Job, is, Why are the righteous afflicted consistently with God's justice? The doctrine of retribution after death, no doubt, is the great solution of the difficulty. And to it Job plainly refers in Job 14:14, and Job 19:25. The objection to this, that the explicitness of the language on the resurrection in Job is inconsistent with the obscurity on the subject in the early books of the Old Testament, is answered by the fact that Job enjoyed the divine vision (Job 38:1; Job 42:5), and therefore, by inspiration, foretold these truths. Next, the revelations made outside of Israel being few needed to be the more explicit; thus Balaam's prophecy (Num 24:17) was clear enough to lead the wise men of the East by the star (Mat 2:2); and in the age before the written law, it was the more needful for God not to leave Himself without witness of the truth. Still Job evidently did not fully realize the significance designed by the Spirit in his own words (compare Pe1 1:11-12). The doctrine, though existing, was not plainly revealed or at least understood. Hence he does not mainly refer to this solution. Yes, and even now, we need something in addition to this solution. David, who firmly believed in a future retribution (Psa 16:10; Psa 17:15), still felt the difficulty not entirely solved thereby (Psa. 83:1-18). The solution is not in Job's or in his three friends' speeches. It must, therefore, be in Elihu's. God will hold a final judgment, no doubt, to clear up all that seems dark in His present dealings; but He also now providentially and morally governs the world and all the events of human life. Even the comparatively righteous are not without sin which needs to be corrected. The justice and love of God administer the altogether deserved and merciful correction. Affliction to the godly is thus mercy and justice in disguise. The afflicted believer on repentance sees this. \"Via crucis, via salutis\" [\"The way of the cross, the way of deliverance\"]. Though afflicted, the godly are happier even now than the ungodly, and when affliction has attained its end, it is removed by the Lord. In the Old Testament the consolations are more temporal and outward; in the New Testament, more spiritual; but in neither to the entire exclusion of the other. \"Prosperity,\" says BACON, \"is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity that of the New Testament, which is the mark of God's more especial favor. Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost has labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.\" This solution of Elihu is seconded by the addresses of God, in which it is shown God must be just (because He is God), as Elihu had shown how God can be just, and yet the righteous be afflicted. It is also acquiesced in by Job, who makes no reply. God reprimands the \"three\" friends, but not Elihu. Job's general course is approved; he is directed to intercede for his friends, and is restored to double his former prosperity.\n\nPOETRY.--In all countries poetry is the earliest form of composition as being best retained in the memory. In the East especially it was customary for sentiments to be preserved in a terse, proverbial, and poetic form (called maschal). Hebrew poetry is not constituted by the rhythm or meter, but in a form peculiar to itself: 1. In an alphabetical arrangement somewhat like our acrostic. For instance, Lam. 1:1-22. 2. The same verse repeated at intervals; as in Psa 42:1-11; Psa. 107:1-43. 3. Rhythm of gradation. Psalms of degrees, Psa. 120:1-134:3, in which the expression of the previous verse is resumed and carried forward in the next (Psa 121:1-8). 4. The chief characteristic of Hebrew poetry is parallelism, or the correspondence of the same ideas in the parallel clauses. The earliest instance is Enoch's prophecy (Jde 1:14), and Lamech's parody of it (Gen 4:23). Three kinds occur: (1) The synonymous parallelism, in which the second is a repetition of the first, with or without increase of force (Psa 22:27; Isa 15:1); sometimes with double parallelism (Isa 1:15). (2) The antithetic, in which the idea of the second clause is the converse of that in the first (Pro 10:1). (3) The synthetic, where there is a correspondence between different propositions, noun answering to noun, verb to verb, member to member, the sentiment, moreover, being not merely echoed, or put in contrast, but enforced by accessory ideas (Job 3:3-9). Also alternate (Isa 51:19). \"Desolation and destruction, famine and sword,\" that is, desolation by famine, and destruction by the sword. Introverted; where the fourth answers to the first, and the third to the second (Mat 7:6). Parallelism thus often affords a key to the interpretation. For fuller information, see LOWTH (Introduction to Isaiah, and Lecture on Hebrew Poetry) and HERDER (Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, translated by Marsh). The simpler and less artificial forms of parallelism prevail in Job--a mark of its early age. \n\n\n\nNext: Job Chapter 1\n\n","order":18,"numberOfChapters":42,"sha256":"e28c73d19b068ae7148f623bfa79b3c43dd6e60e7a803672cdd5f8a7d5080b3a","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":42,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/42.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":42},"totalNumberOfVerses":954},"chapter":{"number":38,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["this--Job. \n\ncounsel--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.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["a man--hero, ready for battle (Co1 16:13), as he had wished (Job 9:35; Job 13:22; Job 31:37). The robe, usually worn flowing, was girt up by a girdle when men ran, labored, or fought (Pe1 1:13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["To understand the cause of things, man should have been present at their origin. The finite creature cannot fathom the infinite wisdom of the Creator (Job 28:12; Job 15:7-8). \n\nhast--\"knowest.\" \n\nunderstanding-- (Pro 4:1).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["measures--of its proportions. Image from an architect's plans of a building. \n\nline--of measurement (Isa 28:17). The earth is formed on an all-wise plan.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["foundations--not \"sockets,\" as Margin. \n\nfastened--literally, \"made to sink,\" as a foundation-stone let down till it settles firmly in the clay (Job 26:7). Gravitation makes and keeps the earth a sphere.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["So at the founding of Zerubbabel's temple (Ezr 3:10-13). So hereafter at the completion of the Church, the temple of the Holy Ghost (Zac 4:7); as at its foundation (Luk 2:13-14). \n\nmorning stars--especially beautiful. The creation morn is appropriately associated with these, it being the commencement of this world's day. The stars are figuratively said to sing God's praises, as in Psa 19:1; Psa 148:3. They are symbols of the angels, bearing the same relation to our earth, as angels do to us. Therefore they answer to \"sons of God,\" or angels, in the parallel. See on Job 25:5.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["doors--floodgates; these when opened caused the flood (Gen 8:2); or else, the shores. \n\nwomb--of chaos. The bowels of the earth. Image from childbirth (Job 38:8-9; Eze 32:2; Mic 4:10). Ocean at its birth was wrapped in clouds as its swaddling bands.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["brake up for--that is, appointed it. Shores are generally broken and abrupt cliffs. The Greek for \"shore\" means \"a broken place.\" I broke off or measured off for it my limit, that is, the limit which I thought fit (Job 26:10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["stayed--Hebrew, \"a limit shall be set to.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["Passing from creation to phenomena in the existing inanimate world. \n\nHast thou--as God daily does. \n\ncommanded the morning--to rise. \n\nsince thy days--since thou hast come into being. \n\nhis place--It varies in its place of rising from day to day, and yet it has its place each day according to fixed laws.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["take hold of the ends, &c.--spread itself over the earth to its utmost bounds in a moment. \n\nwicked--who hate the light, and do their evil works in the dark (Job 24:13). \n\nshaken out of it--The corners (Hebrew, \"wings\" or \"skirts\") of it, as of a garment, are taken hold of by the dayspring, so as to shake off the wicked.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["Explaining the first clause of Job 38:13, as Job 38:15 does the second clause. As the plastic clay presents the various figures impressed on it by a seal, so the earth, which in the dark was void of all form, when illuminated by the dayspring, presents a variety of forms, hills, valleys, &c. \n\nturned--(Hebrew, \"turns itself\") alludes to the rolling cylinder seal, such as is found in Babylon, which leaves its impressions on the clay, as it is turned about; so the morning light rolling on over the earth. \n\nthey stand--The forms of beauty, unfolded by the dawn, stand forth as a garment, in which the earth is clad.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["their light--by which they work; namely, darkness, which is their day (Job 24:17), is extinguished by daylight. \n\nhigh--Rather, \"The arm uplifted\" for murder or other crime is broken; it falls down suddenly, powerless, through their fear of light.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["springs--fountains beneath the sea (Psa 95:4-5). \n\nsearch--Rather, \"the inmost recesses\"; literally, \"that which is only found by searching,\" the deep caverns of ocean.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["seen--The second clause heightens the thought in the first. Man during life does not even \"see\" the gates of the realm of the dead (\"death,\" Job 10:21); much less are they \"opened\" to him. But those are \"naked before God\" (Job 26:6).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["Hast thou--as God doth (Job 28:24).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["The marvels in heaven. \"What is the way (to the place wherein) light dwelleth?\" The origin of light and darkness. In Gen 1:3-5, Gen 1:14-18, \"light\" is created distinct from, and previous to, light-emitting bodies, the luminaries of heaven.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["Dost thou know its place so well as to be able to guide, (\"take\" as in Isa 36:17) it to (but UMBREIT, \"reach it in\") its own boundary, that is, the limit between light and darkness (Job 26:10)?\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["Or without the interrogation, in an ironical sense [UMBREIT]. \n\nthen--when I created light and darkness (Job 15:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["treasures--storehouses, from which God draws forth snow and hail. Snow is vapor congealed in the air before it is collected in drops large enough to form hail. Its shape is that of a crystal in endless variety of beautiful figures. Hail is formed by rain falling through dry cold air.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["against the time of trouble--the time when I design to chastise men (Exo 9:18; Jos 10:11; Rev 16:21; Isa 28:17; Psa 18:12-13; Hag 2:17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["is . . . parted--parts, so as to diffuse itself over the whole earth, though seeming to come from one point. Light travels from the sun to the earth, ninety millions of miles, in eight minutes. \n\nwhich scattereth--rather, \"And by what way the east wind (personified) spreads (scattereth) itself.\" The light and east wind are associated together, as both come from one quarter, and often arise together (Jon 4:8).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["waters--Rain falls, not in a mass on one spot, but in countless separate canals in the air marked out for them. \n\nway for the lightning-- (Job 28:26).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["Since rain fails also on places uninhabited by man, it cannot be that man guides its course. Such rain, though man cannot explain the reason for it, is not lost. God has some wise design in it.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["As though the desolate ground thirsted for God's showers. Personification. The beauty imparted to the uninhabited desert pleases God, for whom primarily all things exist, and He has ulterior designs in it.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["Can any visible origin of rain and dew be assigned by man? Dew is moisture, which was suspended in the air, but becomes condensed on reaching the--in the night--lower temperature of objects on the earth.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["job 38:29Job 37:10.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":30,"content":["The unfrozen waters are hid under the frozen, as with a covering of stone. \n\nfrozen--literally, \"is taken\"; the particles take hold of one another so as to cohere.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["sweet influences--the joy diffused by spring, the time when the Pleiades appear. The Eastern poets, Hafiz, Sadi, &c., describe them as \"brilliant rosettes.\" GESENIUS translates: \"bands\" or \"knot,\" which answers better the parallelism. But English Version agrees better with the Hebrew. The seven stars are closely \"bound\" together (see on Job 9:9). \"Canst thou bind or loose the tie?\" \"Canst thou loose the bonds by which the constellation Orion (represented in the East as an impious giant chained to the sky) is held fast?\" (See on Job 9:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":32,"content":["Canst thou bring forth from their places or houses (Mazzaloth, Kg2 23:5, Margin; to which Mazzaroth here is equivalent) into the sky the signs of the Zodiac at their respective seasons--the twelve lodgings in which the sun successively stays, or appears, in the sky? \n\nArcturus--Ursa Major. \n\nhis sons?--the three stars in his tail. Canst thou make them appear in the sky? (Job 9:9). The great and less Bear are called by the Arabs \"Daughters of the Bier,\" the quadrangle being the bier, the three others the mourners.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":33,"content":["ordinances--which regulate the alternations of seasons, &c. (Gen 8:22). \n\ndominion--controlling influence of the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, &c., on the earth (on the tides, weather) (Gen 1:16; Psa 136:7-9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":34,"content":["job 38:34Jer 14:22; above Job 22:11, metaphorically.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":35,"content":["Here we are--at thy disposal (Isa 6:8).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":36,"content":["inward parts . . . heart--But \"dark clouds\" (\"shining phenomena\") [UMBREIT]; \"meteor\" [MAURER], referring to the consultation of these as signs of weather by the husbandman (Ecc 11:4). But Hebrew supports English Version. The connection is, \"Who hath given thee the intelligence to comprehend in any degree the phenomena just specified?\" \n\nheart--not the usual Hebrew word, but one from a root \"to view\"; perception.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":37,"content":["Who appoints by his wisdom the due measure of the clouds? \n\nstay--rather, \"empty\"; literally, \"lay down\" or \"incline\" so as to pour out. \n\nbottles of heaven--rain-filled clouds.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":38,"content":["groweth, &c.--rather, pour itself into a mass by the rain, like molten metal; then translate Job 38:38, \"Who is it that empties,\" &c., \"when,\" &c.? The English Version, however, is tenable: \"Is caked into a mass\" by heat, like molten metal, before the rain falls; \"Who is it that can empty the rain vessels, and bring down rain at such a time?\" (Job 38:38).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":39,"content":["At Job 38:39-39:30, the instincts of animals. Is it thou that givest it the instinct to hunt its prey? (Psa 104:21). \n\nappetite--literally, \"life,\" which depends on the appetite\" (Job 33:20).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":40,"content":["lie in wait?--for their prey (Psa 10:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":41,"content":["job 38:41Luk 12:24. Transition from the noble lioness to the croaking raven. Though man dislikes it, as of ill omen, God cares for it, as for all His creatures.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Job Chapter 39\n\n"]}],"introduction":"(Job 38:1-41)\n\nJehovah appears unexpectedly in a whirlwind (already gathering Job 37:1-2), the symbol of \"judgment\" (Psa 50:3-4, &c.), to which Job had challenged Him. He asks him now to get himself ready for the contest. Can he explain the phenomena of God's natural government? How can he, then, hope to understand the principles of His moral government? God thus confirms Elihu's sentiment, that submission to, not reasonings on, God's ways is man's part. This and the disciplinary design of trial to the godly is the great lesson of this book. He does not solve the difficulty by reference to future retribution: for this was not the immediate question; glimpses of that truth were already given in the fourteenth and nineteenth chapters, the full revelation of it being reserved for Gospel times. Yet even now we need to learn the lesson taught by Elihu and God in Job.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/38.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":38},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/39.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":39},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/37.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":37},"numberOfVerses":39}