The Pulpit Commentary on Job 38:1-41

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

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 40:3-5). Job 38:1-41 and Job 39:1-30 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 mysterious, God's moral government. The points adduced, in which Job is challenged to claim that be has knowledge, or confess that he is ignorant, are:

The tone of the appeal is sustained at a high pitch, and the entire passage is one of extraordinary force and eloquence.

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