Job 40:12 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.

Look on everyone that is proud, and bring him low,.... As the Lord often does; see Isa 2:11; this is the same as before; and tread down the wicked in their place; the same with the proud, for pride makes men wicked; it is a sin, and very odious in the sight of God, and is highly resented by him; he resists the proud: now Job is bid, when he has brought proud men low, and laid their honour in the dust, to keep them there, to trample upon them, and tread them as mire in the street; and that in their own place, or wherever he should find them; the Septuagint render it "immediately"; see Isa 28:3.

These words are not spoken with an offended mind but with zealous affection, so that they may be useful in consoling and instructing him and that he may understand that to perform such a great judgment is beyond human strength. “Then I will also acknowledge you that your own right hand can give you victory.” If you could play the role of such a judge, as I described it in my speech, evidently you would not need any further help.

Look on all the proud, and confound them, and tread down the wicked in their place. 11. Thou understandest, As I. For the proud are confounded at the look of the Lord, either here, by His mercy, when acknowledging and condemning their faults, or there, by suffering punishments from His justice. But pride itself is the place of the wicked; for, since it is written, Pride is the beginning of all sin, [Ecclus. 10, 13] it is comprised in that place, whence impiety arises; although impiety hardly differs from pride. For to be very proud is to think impiety of our Maker. The impious then is trodden down in his place, because he is crushed by that very pride, by which he is raised up; and when by boasting he raises himself in his thoughts, he hides from himself the light of righteousness, which he ought to find. But frequently when he is outwardly advancing his false glory against God, he is inwardly wasting away in real misery. Whence the Prophet says; Thou castedst them down while they were being raised up. [Ps. 73, 18] For he says not, Thou castedst them down after they were raised up, but while they were being raised up; because the very fact, that the proud happen to be exalted outwardly by false glory, is their being cast down within. For in the course of the divine judgment here, one thing is not their fault, and another their punishment; but their very fault is to them converted into punishment, so that when they are exalted with the haughtiness of pride, that which appears outwardly their progress, is itself in truth their inward fall.

The first punishment common to both of these types of proud men is confusion. Since when they could not attain the height to which they pretended, they are apparently confounded by their failure, and so he says, "Consider all the proud and confound them," and he also said already, "If his pride should ascend up to heaven, he will be thrown out like dung in the end." (20:6) The second punishment is their destruction, which he shows saying, "and destroy the wicked in their place." He calls the proud wicked because, as Sirach says, "The beginning of the pride of man is to apostatize from God," (10:14) which is repugnant to divine worship and regards piety. The fitting punishment of the proud is that they are ground up because what is ground up is shattered by the shocks of some stronger body into its smallest parts. It is just that the proud who think themselves inordinately great, are reduced to the least by a stronger, a divine power. He clearly says, "in their place" so that he might show that what they confide in cannot free them. For each one is conserved in his own place, and so the greatness of riches or the state of dignity or whatever other thing of this kind man confides in, can be said to be his place. Notwithstanding these things, the proud man is ground down by God, so that he seems ground up in his place.

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.

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

proud--high (Dan 4:37). in their place--on the spot; suddenly, before they can move from their place. (See on Job 34:26; Job 36:20).