Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Job 38:1

Clarke's Commentary

CHAPTER XXXVIII

The Lord answers Job out of a whirlwind, and challenges him to

answer, 1-3.

He convinces him of ignorance and weakness, by an enumeration

of some of his mighty works; particularly of the creation of

the earth, 4-7.

The sea and the deeps, 8-18.

The light, 19-21.

Snow, hail, thunder, lightning, rain, dew, ice, and hoar-frost,

22-30.

Different constellations, and the ordinances of heaven

influencing the earth, 31-33.

Shows his own power and wisdom in the atmosphere, particularly

in the thunder, lightnings, and rain, 34-38.

His providence in reference to the brute creation, 39-41.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXXVIII

Verse Job 38:1. The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind — It is not סופה suphah, as in the preceding chapter, Job 37:9; but סורה searah, which signifies something turbulent, tumultuous, or violently agitated; and here may signify what we call a tempest, and was intended to fill Job's mind with solemnity, and an awful sense of the majesty of God. The Chaldee has, a whirlwind of grief, making the whole rather allegorical than real; impressing the scene on Job's imagination.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

38:1-42:17

GOD’S ANSWER

Control of the natural world (38:1-38)

Possibly an approaching storm was what prompted Elihu’s poetic praise of the God of nature (see 36:27-37:5). If so, that storm now broke, and through it the voice of God spoke to Job. Job had repeatedly challenged God to a contest. God now accepts (38:1-3).
In his reply, God asks Job questions that he cannot answer, in order to show him how little he knows of the mind and activity of the Almighty. God begins his ironical questioning of Job with a poetic description of his work in creating the world, something that he did long before Job or any other human being was born. Only angels witnessed his work (4-7). God separated the waters in the atmosphere from the waters on the earth and caused dry land to appear (8-11).
God asks Job if he is able to make the sun rise, so that those who rely on darkness to do evil are exposed. They are ‘shaken’ out of their hiding places as insects are shaken out of clothing (12-13). Can Job use the rays of the rising sun to create beautiful patterns and colours on the earth’s surface (14-15)? Has Job been to the depths of the sea or the ends of the earth? Does he know where the sun dwells so that he can make it rise each morning and take it to its resting place each evening? He should, if he has such great knowledge as he claims (16-21).
Does Job know how God controls the weather (22-24)? Who is it that makes snow, hail, wind, rain and lightning (25-30)? Can Job control the stars (31-33)? Can he send floods or create drought as he wishes (34-38)?

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

GOD ANSWERS JOB FROM THE WHIRLWIND (Job 38-41)
THE FIRST PORTION OF GOD'S RESPONSE: THE PROBLEM

GOD ANSWERS JOB

"Then Jehovah answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel By words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; And I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding. Who determined the measurements thereof, if thou knowest? Or who stretched the line upon it? Whereupon were the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof? When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy."

The most perplexing problem in the whole book of Job is in these two verses. Of whom is God speaking in Job 38:2? The question is not, "To whom does God speak"? That is clear enough. He spoke to Job. But the question is, "Of whom does he speak"? Scholars are sharply divided on the question. "Some commentators have applied Job 38:2 to Job, others to Elihu."The New Bible Commentary, Revised, p. 441. It is the conviction of this writer that the words cannot possibly apply to anyone other than Elihu. The reasons behind this conviction are:

(1)    Applying the words to Job is a contradiction of Job 42:7-8. The advocates of that interpretation, however, are not bothered by the contradiction, "Because they assign the entire Epilogue to a different author from the poetic Dialogue, making it an argument for multiple authorship of Job."Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, Vol. 13, p. 273 (footnote). Although we have interpreted the Epilogue and the Prologue as the work of Moses, who was inspired of God, we cannot believe that his inspired approval of Job's words regarding God would have been given if God indeed had said in Job 38:2, here, that those words were `without knowledge.'

(2)    The verse is profoundly true as an evaluation of the Elihu speeches, as we have frequently noted in the preceding notes.

(3)    The application of these words to Job leaves the entire six chapters of the Elihu speeches dangling without any response whatever from any person whomsoever, thus supporting the affirmation that the six chapters are an interpolation. Our acceptance of the unity of Job, as regards the whole of it, except the Prologue and the Epilogue forbids that explanation.

(4)    It cannot be denied that God interrupted and terminated Elihu's tirade. God by that action indicated the same evaluation of Elihu's words that Job 38:2 declares; and if Job 38:2 were placed in a parenthesis, that fact would be clearly indicated by the punctuation. The punctuation of the Holy Bible is the work of men, not of God; and where punctuation can be made to harmonize or explain difficult passages, it should be utilized for that purpose.

We shall not take the space to line up scholars on both sides of the question. The alleged problem disappears if we apply the words as God's parenthetical and derogatory dismissal of everything Elihu said.

The big thing here is that Almighty God appeared to Job in one of the most remarkable theophanies in the Bible. What did that mean? It meant that God approved of Job, that Job's integrity was established in the only place where it mattered, namely, with God Himself. In Job 31:5, Job had pleaded with God to answer him; and here God did so. That is the colossal fact of these concluding chapters; and it dramatically establishes the truth that God approved of Job, and that God loved him. God honored him as few men in the history of the world were honored; and the undeniable corollary of this is that Job 38:2 was in no sense whatever addressed to Job, but to Elihu.

May the Almighty answer me (Job 31:35), Job had pleaded; "And now God really answers, and indeed out of a storm."C. F. Keil, Keil-Delitzsch's Old Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company), Vol. 4b, p. 311.

God would at this point speak repeatedly to Job, asking many questions about many different things. The great truth that shines like the sun at perihelion here is not so much related to the particular things about which God questioned Job as it is to the incredible and glorious truth that Almighty God Himself was here carrying on a conversation with a mortal man! How, beyond all imagination, is the character of such a man elevated and glorified by this most astonishing event, unparalleled by anything else in the history of mankind, Jesus Christ himself alone standing any higher in such a relationship than did Job.

"Then Jehovah answered Job" God's answer, however, is a surprise. He did not answer any of Job's questions, except in the implications of this reply. "This was not because the questions have no answers."Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, op. cit., p. 269. He answered Job with a barrage of counter-questions concerning the mysteries of the entire sidereal creation; and it is evident that this brought healing, comfort and satisfaction to Job.

God's not giving specific answers to Job's questions suggests that: (1) It is not possible for man to know all the answers and that, (2) It is enough to know that God loves him (as evidenced to Job in the very fact of God's speaking to him). (3) Also, by God's not giving Job a list of his transgressions, there is the dramatic affirmation that Job's misfortunes did not come as punishment for his wickedness; and yet God did not reveal to Job the real secret of what had happened, namely, that exchange between God and Satan in the Prologue. (4) In this, there is another key discernment, i. e, that it is best for man not to know the reasons why this or that occurs in his life.

"Then Jehovah answered Job out of the whirlwind" Job's troubles started when a great wind killed his children; and now in a whirlwind Job began his return to happiness and prosperity. This is not the storm that might have been described by Elihu in the previous chapter; because the final paragraph there, "Appears to describe the calm as the storm abates."Ibid., p. 273. The glorious light mentioned in that paragraph indicated the cessation of the storm.

The relation between a theophany and violent weather appears often in the Bible, as for example in Psalms 18:8-16, and in Exodus 19:16.

"Gird up now thy loins like a man" The word here rendered 'man' is translated by Pope as `hero.' "Gird your loins like a hero."The Anchor Bible (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1982), Job, p. 247. Here is the true picture of God's estimate of Job. In fact, Job is here invited to do the very thing he had longed to do, that is, to plead his case before God; and there is the implication that God considers Job worthy to do such a thing. This, God would most certainly not have done, if he had just finished saying that Job's words without knowledge were darkening counsel.

All of the questions God asked were not for the purpose of humiliating Job, or mocking him. In this loving and gentle admonition God was leading Job into the knowledge that the specific answers he sought were impossible for mortal men to know. Note also, that God did not criticize Job for his tearful and aggressive search for such answers. The very questions that God asked constitute a heavenly endorsement of humanity's ceaseless and diligent pursuit of every possible answer to the perplexing, nagging questions of all the mysteries that confront mankind in our earthly sojourn.

In the light of these considerations, we do not think that it is necessary to investigate all of these questions one by one. In the aggregate the answers to all of them were impossible for Job to know; and mankind today is no more able to answer all the questions than was he. Every great mystery that science has solved proves not to be the ultimate reality. Every door which the intelligence of men has unlocked has failed to disclose the Great Truth; but, conversely, has opened upon a corridor reaching into infinity with many doors remaining yet to be unlocked. Indeed, the Great Truth may not be any fact or formula whatever, but the Great Person, God Himself. This was the marvelous answer that came to Job. Knowing God and being loved and known by Him - that is the Great Answer, the Great Truth, the Great Joy, the Great Salvation, Eternal Life!

"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth,… when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" The mysteries of the sidereal creation are the theme here. Not Job, nor any other man, was present when such great things were done. As a matter of fact, man himself was relatively a late-arrival upon earth. "The sons of God" are here the angels, because man was last in the Creation.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Then the Lord answered Job - This speech is addressed particularly to Job, not only because he is the principal personage referred to in the book, but particularly because he had indulged in language of murmuring and complaint. God designed to bring him to a proper state of mind before he appeared openly for his vindication. It is the purpose of God, in his dealings with his people, “to bring them to a proper state of mind” before he appears as their vindicator and friend, and hence, their trials are often prolonged, and when he appears, he seems at first to come only to rebuke them. Job had indulged in very improper feelings, and it was needful that those feelings should be subdued before God would manifest himself as his friend, and address him in words of consolation.

Out of the whirlwind - The tempest; the storm - probably that which Elihu had seen approaching, Job 37:21-24. God is often represented as speaking to people in this manner. He spake amidst lightnings and tempests on Mount Sinai Exodus 19:16-19, and he is frequently represented as appearing amidst the thunders and lightnings of a tempest, as a symbol of his majesty; compare Psalms 18:9-13; Habakkuk 3:3-6. The word here rendered “whirlwind” means rather “a storm, a tempest.” The Septuagint renders this verse, “After Elihu had ceased speaking, the Lord spake to Job from a tempest and clouds.”

Smith's Bible Commentary

Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? tell me, if you have understanding. Who has laid the measures of it, tell me if you know? or who has stretched the line upon it? Where are the foundations fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy? ( Job 38:1-7 )

God is now talking to Job about the creation of the earth, about nature. Pointing out that Job knows so little about nature. "Job, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? What did I fasten the foundations upon? When the morning stars sang together."

Now, the morning stars, the word star oftentimes refers to the angels. You remember in the book of Revelation, chapter 13, when the dragon was cast out of heaven, he took a third part of the stars with him. Referring to the angels that fell with Satan. Now can you let your mind go back and we see God as He is bringing the earth into existence and the angels, the morning stars, are singing together and all the sons of God are shouting for joy. The sons of God referring again to angels. Now Jesus is referred to as the only begotten Son of God. Special classification. But the angels are referred to as sons of God. In the first chapter of Job the sons of God were presenting themselves to God, and Satan also came with them. In the New Testament, we are referred to as sons of God. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God. It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know when He shall appear we will be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" ( 1 John 3:2 ). But Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. What a glorious scene that must have been when God created the earth and the angels, the morning stars, sang together.

Who shut up the sea with the doors, when it broke forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and the thick darkness a swaddlingband for it ( Job 38:8-9 ),

God is talking about the earth now, His creation of the earth. "Who put the bounds for the seas, when I allowed the water to gush forth, as a child out of the womb? When I made the cloud a garment of the earth, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it."

And I broke it up for in my decreed place, I set the bars and doors, and said to the seas, This far you shall come, but no further: and here shall your proud waves be stayed? Have you commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place; That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it? It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment. And from the wicked their light is withheld, and the high arm shall be broken. Have you entered into the springs of the sea? or have you walked in the search of the depth? Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? ( Job 38:10-17 )

Now go back to verse Job 38:2 : "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?" God is rebuking Job for talking about things that he doesn't know anything about. "Have the gates of death been opened to you? Have you been beyond them? Do you know what is there?" You see, Job was saying, "Oh, I wish that I were dead, where all is silent, where there is no memory, where there is no thought. Oh, I wish I were in the oblivion of death. Where man is at rest, where everything is at peace." And God said, "Job, have you been there? Have the gates of death been opened to you? You're talking about these things, Job, but you don't know anything about them."

That is why it is wrong to use the scriptures out of Job to try to prove the doctrine of soul sleep. That when a person dies he is in an unconscious state of waiting, that there is no consciousness or awareness or anything else. That is wrong to conclude those doctrines out of the book of Job, which they usually find their proof scriptures in Job or in Ecclesiastes. And when we get to Ecclesiastes, we'll show why it's wrong to use Ecclesiastes for proof text. These were things that Job was saying, but God is rebuking him for saying them.

Have you perceived the breadth of the earth? tell it if you know it all. Where is the way where light dwells? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof ( Job 38:18-19 ),

Where does light dwell? Tell me this: where did the darkness go when they turned on the lights tonight? Where is the darkness hiding? Now it's around here someplace. And it's very close. All we have to do is flip off the lights and it moves right back in. But where is it lurking? I don't know. But God is questioning Job and saying, "Where is the place where light dwells? Where is the place where darkness dwells?"

That you should take it to the bound thereof, that you should know the paths to the house thereof? Do you know it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great? Have you entered into the treasures of the snow? or have you seen the treasures of the hail ( Job 38:20-22 ),

Beautiful treasures in every snowflake. Have you seen the pictures of snowflakes magnified? The beautiful geometric designs, and no two of them alike. Talk about a God of variety. You see a snowstorm, I don't know how many flakes of snow fall in a single storm, but it can blanket large areas of the United States. And you take those snowflakes and put them under a microscope and you'll see beautiful treasures of intricate, beautiful, geometric designs. Perfect geometrical patterns, and no two of them alike. Now how did Job know that when this book was written? "Have you entered into the treasures of the snow or the hail?"

But then He says something even more interesting:

Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war? ( Job 38:23 )

What do you mean you've reserved the snow or ice for the day of war? During World War II, as we were seeking to supply the Allies with Trinitrotoluene (TNT), one of our ships was blown up because TNT is a very volatile type of explosive and, jarred, it'll go off. In fact, that's the way you set off TNT is by putting a dynamite cap in it and the dynamite cap, when it explodes, it sets off the whole Trinitrotoluene. But at any rate, Weissman discovered that by packing TNT in ice, they could transport it safely. After some of the ships and all had been blown to smithereens trying to transport TNT, this Jewish scientist discovered that if they would pack it in ice that that way they could transport it, store it and all without any dangers. Here God declared that He had reserved ice for the day of war and trouble. "I've reserved it for that." Man didn't come to the discovery of God's reservation until 1916 or so, but God had reserved it all that time for the day of battle and war.

By what way is the light parted ( Job 38:24 ),

"How is light divided?" God said. Now, we know that now we can divide light. We have developed the spectroscope and we can actually divide light into compartments. God was speaking about the dividing of light before man ever knew that light could be divided. It can be divided into definite areas through the spectroscope. God is challenging Job about this, thousands of years before we even discovered the spectroscopes.

Who hath divided the watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder; To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; or the wilderness, where there is no man; To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth? ( Job 38:25-27 )

God said, "Who waters the wilderness, Job, causing the wilderness to bring forth grass and flowers and all?"

Has the rain a father? or who has begotten the drops of dew? Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of the heaven, who hath gendered it? ( Job 38:28-29 )

How are these things formed, Job?

The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen. Can you bind the sweet influence of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Can you bring forth the Mazzaroth in his season? or can you guide Arcturus with his sons? ( Job 38:30-32 )

The Pleiades is a constellation that is most commonly mistaken by amateur stargazers as the Little Dipper. It is a winter constellation and it comes up just about in the middle of the winter skies. And it's a little cluster of stars that does look something like a dipper, but it is the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters. Now the North Star is actually a part of Little Dipper and the Big Dipper. Of course, the pointer stars always point to the North Star, but it takes a good clear night in the mountains or out in the desert to actually see the Little Dipper, so it is accepted for people to make the mistake and to point at the Pleiades as the Little Dipper, but don't you make that mistake. In the winter constellations, then, of course, you get up early in the morning now and you can see the Pleiades is starting to come up early in the morning as we're moving into the fall equinox. But it is a part of the winter constellations, comes up in the center of the sky, small little cluster, Seven Sisters, the Pleiades.

Now, God said, "Can you bind the sweet influence of the Pleiades?" Astronomers now believe that the Pleiades actually is the center of the gravitational forces in our Milky Way Galaxy. Pretty well accepted now that it is the center of the gravity and the gravitational forces within the Milky Way Galaxy. Here God is telling Job, "Can you bind the sweet influence of the Pleiades?" Hinting actually, to what the astronomers have discovered, that this actually is the center of the gravitational forces in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Then God said, "How about, Job, how would you like the job of guiding Arcturus?" Arcturus is known as the runaway star. Now how did Job know this? It travels at about 125,000 miles per second. Now God said to Job, "How would you like the job of steering that thing through the sky?" Get this steering wheel and this large mass. Arcturus is larger than our sun, guiding that thing at 125,000 miles a second through the sky, dodging these stars and so forth so you don't have a major collision in our universe here. No thanks. You go ahead, God, and You keep Your hand on it.

Do you know the ordinances of the heaven? can you set the dominion thereof in the earth? Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that the abundance of water may cover thee? Can you send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are? ( Job 38:33-35 )

Can you order the lightning?

Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? or who has given understanding to the heart? ( Job 38:36 )

Where did you get your knowledge? Where did you get understanding? Where does it come from? Who put it there? Who gave you the capacity? Who put the DNA there? Who created the memory cells? You know, God is just speaking of the marvels of His creation. Pointing to Job the marvels of His creative genius. And surely as David said, "We are fearfully and wonderfully made" ( Psalms 139:14 ), and we live in a marvelous universe.

Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven, When the dust grows into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together? Will you hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions, when they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait? Who provides for the raven his food? ( Job 38:37-41 )

Who is overseeing the universe? Who's taking care of the animals, the ravens?

when the young ones are crying unto God, they wander for the lack of meat ( Job 38:41 ).

Here God saying these little ravens in the nest are squawking, they are actually crying unto Him.

"

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

God’s introductory challenge to Job 38:1-3

God sometimes made His self-revelations to people in a storm, symbolic of the disturbing effects His awesome presence produced (cf. Exodus 19:16-17; 1 Kings 19:11-13; 2 Kings 2:1; 2 Kings 2:11; Isaiah 6:4; Ezekiel 1:4; Zechariah 9:14). One wonders if Job’s friends thought God was about to strike Job dead with a bolt of lightning.

"Job’s troubles began when a great wind killed his children (Job 1:19). The Lord was in that storm, and now He speaks from the tempest (cf. Ezekiel 1:4)." [Note: Andersen, p. 273.]

God began His speech with a challenge to His opponent’s understanding, as the five human debaters on earth had done. He accused Job of clouding the truth about Him by saying things that were not true. Job should have defended God’s justice rather than denying it, since he claimed to be God’s friend. His lack of adequate revelation led to this error. Likewise, every believer should be slow to affirm that he knows God’s will about the affairs of an individual’s life, his own or someone else’s. We still do not know all the facts concerning why God is allowing what takes place. God then told Job to prepare for a difficult job: to explain His ways in nature. If God had done wrong, Job must have known what was right!

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind,.... As soon as Elihu had done speaking, who saw the tempest rising, and gave hints of it, Job 37:2; and hastened to finish his discourse. This was raised to give notice of the Lord being about to appear, and to display his majesty, and to command reverence and attention. The Targum calls it the whirlwind of distress, as it might be to Job; and a representation of the distressed and disturbed state and condition in which he was. The person that spoke out of it is Jehovah the Son of God, the eternal Word, who very probably appeared in an human form; there was an object seen, Job 42:5; and spoke with an articulate voice to Job;

and said; in answer to his frequent wishes and desires that the Lord would appear and take his cause in hand.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,   2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?   3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.

      Let us observe here, 1. Who speaks--The Lord, Jehovah, not a created angel, but the eternal Word himself, the second person in the blessed Trinity, for it is he by whom the worlds were made, and that was no other than the Son of God. The same speaks here that afterwards spoke from Mount Sinai. Here he begins with the creation of the world, there with the redemption of Israel out of Egypt, and from both is inferred the necessity of our subjection to him. Elihu had said, God speaks to men and they do not perceive it (Job 33:14; Job 33:14); but this they could not but perceive, and yet we have a more sure word of prophecy,2 Peter 1:19. 2. When he spoke--Then. When they had all had their saying, and yet had not gained their point, then it was time for God to interpose, whose judgment is according to truth. When we know not who is in the right, and perhaps are doubtful whether we ourselves are, this may satisfy us, That God will determine shortly in the valley of decision,Joel 3:14. Job had silenced his three friends, and yet could not convince them of his integrity in the main. Elihu had silenced Job, and yet could not bring him to acknowledge his mismanagement of this dispute. But now God comes, and does both, convinces Job first of his unadvised speaking and makes him cry, Peccavi--I have done wrong; and, having humbled him, he puts honour upon him, by convincing his three friends that they had done him wrong. These two things God will, sooner or later, do for his people: he will show them their faults, that they may be themselves ashamed of them, and he will show others their righteousness, and bring it forth as the light, that they may be ashamed of their unjust censures of them. 3. How he spoke--Out of the whirlwind, the rolling and involving cloud, which Elihu took notice of, Job 37:1; Job 37:2; Job 37:9. A whirlwind prefaced Ezekiel's vision (Ezekiel 1:4), and Elijah's, 1 Kings 19:11. God is said to have his way in the whirlwind (Nahum 1:3), and, to show that even the stormy wind fulfils his word, here it was made the vehicle of it. This shows what a mighty voice God's is, that is was not lost, but perfectly audible, even in the noise of a whirlwind. Thus God designed to startled Job, and to command his attention. Sometimes God answers his own people in terrible corrections, as out of the whirlwind, but always in righteousness. 4. To whom he spoke: He answered Job, directed his speech to him, to convince him of what was amiss, before he cleared him from the unjust aspersions cast upon him. It is God only that can effectually convince of sin, and those shall so be humbled whom he designs to exalt. Those that desire to hear from God, as Job did, shall certainly hear from him at length. 5. What he said. We may conjecture that Elihu, or some other of the auditory, wrote down verbatim what was delivered out of the whirlwind, for we find (Revelation 10:4) that, when the thunders uttered their voices, John was prepared to write. Or, if it was not written then, yet, the penman of the book being inspired by the Holy Ghost, we are sure that we have here a very true and exact report of what was said. The Spirit (says Christ) shall bring to your remembrance, as he did here, what I have said to you. The preface is very searching. (1.) God charges him with ignorance and presumption in what he had said (Job 38:2; Job 38:2): "Who is this that talks at this rate? Is it Job? What! a man? That weak, foolish, despicable, creature--shall he pretend to prescribe to me what I must do or to quarrel with me for what I have done? Is it Job? What! my servant Job, a perfect and an upright man? Can he so far forget himself, and act unlike himself? Who, where, is he that darkens counsel thus by words without knowledge? Let him show his face if he dare, and stand to what he has said." Note, Darkening the counsels of God's wisdom with our folly is a great affront and provocation to God. Concerning God's counsels we must own that we are without knowledge. They are a deep which we cannot fathom; we are quite out of our element, out of our aim, when we pretend to account for them. Yet we are too apt to talk of them as if we understood them, with a great deal of niceness and boldness; but, alas! we do but darken them, instead of explaining them. We confound and perplex ourselves and one another when we dispute of the order of God's decrees, and the designs, and reasons, and methods, of his operations of providence and grace. A humble faith and sincere obedience shall see further and better into the secret of the Lord than all the philosophy of the schools, and the searches of science, so called. This first word which God spoke is the more observable because Job, in his repentance, fastens upon it as that which silenced and humbled him, Job 42:3; Job 42:3. This he repeated and echoed as the arrow that stuck fast in him: "I am the fool that has darkened counsel." There was some colour to have turned it upon Elihu, as if God meant him, for he spoke last, and was speaking when the whirlwind began; but Job applied it to himself, as it becomes us to do when faithful reproofs are given, and not (as most do) to billet them upon other people. (2.) He challenges him to give such proofs of his knowledge as would serve to justify his enquiries into the divine counsels (Job 38:3; Job 38:3): "Gird up now thy loins like a stout man; prepare thyself for the encounter; I will demand of thee, will put some questions to thee, and answer me if thou canst, before I answer thine." Those that go about to call God to an account must expect to be catechised and called to an account themselves, that they may be made sensible of their ignorance and arrogance. God here puts Job in mind of what he had said, Job 13:22; Job 13:22. Call thou, and I will answer. "Now make thy words good."