Job 40:10 Komentář

Many humbling confounding questions God had put to Job, in the foregoing chapter; now, in this chapter, I. He demands an answer to them (Job 40:1, Job 40:2). II. Job submits in a humble silence (Job 40:3-5). III. God proceeds to reason with him, for his conviction, concerning the infinite distance and disproportion between him and God, showing that he was by no means an equal match for God. He challenges him (Job 40:6, Job 40:7) to vie with him, if he durst, for justice (Job 40:8), power (Job 40:9), majesty (Job 40:10), and dominion over the proud (Job 40:11-14), and he gives an instance of his power in one particular animal, here called "Behemoth," (Job 40:15-24).

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 40 In this chapter Job is called upon to give in his answer, Job 40:1, which he does in the most humble manner, acknowledging his vileness and folly, Job 40:3; and then the Lord proceeds to give him further conviction of his superior justice and power, Job 40:6; and one thing he proposes to him, to humble the proud, if he could, and then he would own his own right hand could save him, Job 40:10; and observes to him another instance of his power in a creature called behemoth, which he had made, and gives a description of, Job 40:15.

Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency,.... With excellent majesty, as I am decked and clothed, Psa 93:1; and array thyself with glory and beauty; appear in the most glorious and splendid manner thou canst, make the best figure thou art able, put on royal robes, and take thy seat and throne, and sit as a king or judge in state and pomp, and exert thyself to do the following things; or take my seat and throne as the judge of the whole earth, and try if thou canst govern the world better than I do; for these and the expressions following are said in an ironic manner.

A slanderer conspired against you. Sometimes he said to me, “Stretch out your hand now.” He said to me, “Touch all that he has,” and he added about you that “you would have cursed me to my face.” But, on the contrary, you were victorious. Therefore I say to you, “Clothe yourself with glory. Abase the slanderer completely. Humiliate his angels. He was arrogant against you, but you destroy the arrogant. He was impious against you, but you strike him by lightning.”

The thunder and all the rest exist not in order to impress but so that God may be known. See with how many arguments he convinces him that his nature is small. He does not say to him, “You are small, but, I am great, and you cannot do what I do.”

Surround thyself with beauty, and raise thyself on high, and be full of glory, and array thyself with beautiful garments. 8. Thou understandest, As I. For He surrounds Himself with beauty, of Whom it is written, The Lord hath reigned, He hath put on beauty. [Ps. 93, 1] He is raised aloft in us, when He is proved to be in His own Nature unsearchable by our minds. But He is glorious, Who while He enjoys Himself, needs not any added praise. He is arrayed in beautiful garments, because He assumed for the service of His beauty, the choirs of the holy Angels, whom He created, and sets forth His Church as a kind of glorious garment, not having wrinkle or spot. Whence it is said to Him by the Prophet, Thou hast put on confession, and beauty, clothed with light as with a garment. [Ps. 104, 1. 2.] For here He puts on confession, there beauty; because those whom He has here made to confess by penitence, He will there set forth refulgent with the beauty of righteousness. He is clothed, therefore, with light as with a garment, because in that eternal glory He will be clothed with all the Saints, to whom it is said, Ye are the light of the world. [Matt. 5, 14] Whence also it is said by the Evangelist, that when the Lord was transfigured in the mountain, His raiment became white as snow. In which transfiguration what else is announced but the glory of the final resurrection? For in the mountain His raiment became as snow, because in the height of heavenly brightness all Saints will be joined to Him, refulgent with the light of righteousness. But since He teaches, under the expression beautiful garments, how He unites the righteous to Himself, He shews also how He separates from Himself the unrighteous.

From effects of this kind he demonstrates the divine excellence as to three things. First, as to beauty when he says, "Deck yourself with beauty," as if to say: If you were as powerful in your works as God is, attribute his beauty to yourself, and so he clearly says, "Deck yourself," for God does not surround himself with beauty as something added beyond his essence but his essence itself is beauty. By this beauty one understands his clarity or truth, his purity or simplicity and the perfection of his essence. But man cannot have beauty unless he is decked with it, by participating in it from God as something added beyond his essence. Second, he treats the divine majesty when he says, "and lift yourself on high." The divine majesty is not in a place because God is not comprehended by place but consists in his perfection and power because whatever is said about him is fitting to him in the highest degree. Majesty befits God essentially, and so he is not raised up to it, but remains immovably in it. Man is in a weak condition according to his nature and so he cannot arrive at that divine majesty by lifting himself up above himself, and so he clearly says, "lift yourself on high." Third, he treats his glory when he says, "and be glorious." Glory includes the knowledge of another's goodness, and so Ambrose says that glory is "fame known with praise." However, the goodness of God is infinite, but there is no perfect knowledge of it except with God, and therefore glory is in God alone inasmuch as he knows himself. Man cannot arrive at this glory except by participation in divine knowledge, as Jeremiah says, "But he who is glorious will be glorified in this, that he knows and understands me," (9:24) and so he clearly says, "be glorious" because man does not essentially have this glory. When he has explained what pertains to the excellence of divine power and nature, he proceeds further to call to mind the divine effects in rational creatures both to good and wicked men. Understand that the effects which God works in raising up the just are more attributed to his mercy, whereas those he works in the punishment of evildoers is properly attributed to justice. Thus since the subject now is justice, first he briefly treats the effect which God works in the good when he says, "and clothe yourself with splendid clothing." For finally all the good, angels and men, are splendid from their participation in divine wisdom and justice, and so just as a man is adorned with splendid garments, so every beauty of holy angels and holy men returns to the adornment of God because the goodness of God is commended by it, as Isaiah says, "In all these you will vest yourself as with a jewel." (49:18) Consider that it is characteristic of the mercy of God to make his saints splendid; but the fact that he uses their beauty for his own glory is characteristic of his justice about which he now speaks. So he does not say, "make yourself splendid garments, but "clothe yourself in splendid garments."

Job humbles himself before the Lord, Job 40:1-5. And God again challenges him by a display of his power and judgments, Job 40:6-14. A description of behemoth, Job 40:15-24.

Deck thyself now with majesty - Act like God, seeing thou hast been assuming to thyself perfections that belong to him alone.

GOD'S SECOND ADDRESS. (Job 40:1-24) the Lord--Hebrew, "JEHOVAH."

See, hast thou power and majesty like God's, to enable thee to judge and govern the world?

10 Deck thyself then with pomp and dignity, And in glory and majesty clothe thyself! 11 Let the overflowings of thy wrath pour forth, And behold all pride, and abase it! 12 Behold all pride, bring it low, And cast down the evil-doers in their place; 13 Hide them in the dust together, Bind their faces in secret: 14 Then I also will praise thee, That thy right hand obtaineth thee help. He is for once to put on the robes of the King of kings (עדה, comp. עטח, to wrap round, Psa 104:2), and send forth his wrath over pride and evil-doing, for their complete removal. הפיץ, effundere, diffundere, as Arab. afâda, vid., Job 37:11. עברות, or rather, according to the reading of Ben-Ascher, עברות ,rehcsA, in its prop. signif. oversteppings, i.e., overflowings. In connection with Job 40:11, one is directly reminded of the judgment on everything that is high and exalted in Isa 2, where beטמנם בּעפר also has its parallel (Isa 2:10). Not less, however, does Job 40:14 recall Isa 59:16; Isa 63:5 (comp. Psa 98:1); Isaiah I and II have similar descriptions to the book of Job. The ἁπ. λεγ. הדך is Hebraeo-Arab.; hadaka signifies, like hadama, to tear, pull to the ground. In connection with תמוּן (from טמן; Aram., Arab., טמר), the lower world, including the grave, is thought of (comp. Arab. mat-murât, subterranean places); חבשׁ signifies, like Arab. ḥbs IV, to chain and to imprison. Try it only for once - this is the collective thought - to act like Me in the execution of penal justice, I would praise thee. That he cannot do it, and yet venture with his short-sightedness and feebleness to charge God's rule with injustice, the following pictures of foreign animals are now further intended to make evident to him: -