Thomas Aquinas Commentary Job 26:1-14

"Then Job answered and said, How hast thou helped him that is without power! How hast thou saved the arm that hath no strength! How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom, And plentifully declared sound knowledge! To whom hast thou uttered words? And whose spirit came forth from thee? They that are deceased tremble Beneath the waters and the inhabitants thereof. Sheol is naked before [God], And Abaddon hath no covering. He stretcheth out the north over empty space, And hangeth the earth upon nothing. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; And the cloud is not rent under them. He incloseth the face of his throne, And spreadeth his cloud upon it. He hath described a boundary upon the face of the waters, Unto the confines of light and darkness. The pillars of heaven tremble And are astonished at his rebuke. He stirreth up the sea with his power, And by his understanding he smiteth through Rahab. By his Spirit the heavens are garnished; His hand hath pierced the swift serpent. Lo, these are but the outskirts of his ways: And how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?" — Job 26:1-14 (ASV)

In his last speech, Bildad wanted to convince Job by considering God's power, which is terrible to all. In light of this power, no one can pretend to be just and innocent, asserting that he has been punished without sin. Job gives three answers to this, the first of which is specifically against Bildad, who had tried to frighten Job by considering divine power.

People who do not use reason against someone who is condemned, but instead cite the judge's power and wisdom, usually do so to show favor to the judge. Favor is shown to someone for two reasons: either because of the favored one's lack of power or lack of wisdom.

Regarding the first reason, Job says, "Whose helper are you? Who is so feeble?" It is as if he is saying: Have you said these things to favor God without relying on reason, as it were? Did you say this to bring help to God, as though He were weak? A person seems to help someone when he defends his action, and so Job continues, "And do you support the arm of someone who is not strong?" This is as if to say: Do you, with these words, want to justify God's action by which I have been punished, as though He were not strong enough to justify Himself?

Next, regarding the favor shown to someone because of a lack of wisdom, we should consider that this favor is twofold. First, one can give counsel to someone about things to be done. Job addresses this theme, saying, "To whom have you given counsel?" Someone seems to give counsel to another when he defends his cause without reason. God, who is perfect in wisdom, does not need counsel, and so Job asks, "Perhaps to someone who has no wisdom?" It is as if to say: Do you doubt that God has wisdom, that you speak so foolishly for Him? One who gives counsel to a wise man seems to do this to show his own wisdom, and so Job then asks, "and have you shown your own great prudence?" In effect, he is saying: Do you want to show the abundance of your own prudence by this?

The second way of showing favor to one who lacks wisdom is to instruct the ignorant person about what he must know. Regarding this, Job says, "Whom do you want to teach?" For you seemed to be teaching God when you brought His power up against me. But He who is the cause of all human knowledge does not need to be taught. And so Job asks, "Was it not He who made the spirit?" He created the human soul, by which a person both understands and breathes. This is the one and the same soul that perceives knowledge through the intellect and gives life to the body through its other powers.

Then, so that he does not seem to detract from the power of God in any way, Job commends it as far more all-encompassing than Bildad did, listing the many effects of divine power. He begins with the effects God powerfully worked on the human race in the time of the flood. For in Genesis we read that there were giants on the earth in those days (Genesis 6:4), and Because God saw that the earth was corrupt, for in fact all flesh had corrupted its way on the earth, he said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before me’ (Genesis 6:12). Later He says, Behold, I will bring the waters of the flood upon the earth and I will kill all flesh (Genesis 6:17).

Job shows this effect of divine power when he says, Behold, the giants moan under the waters—the ancient ones who were drowned in the waters of the flood. Because not only they perished, but many others with them then and later, he continues, and those who live with them moan in the same way by virtue of His power.

One should not believe that divine providence extends only to judging people in this life and not after death, as Job's friends seemed to think. To disprove this, Job then says, Hell is naked before him, as if to say: The things that happen in hell are clearly seen by Him and occur according to His judgment. To explain this, he continues, and there is no hiding place for perdition, meaning that those who have perished in hell cannot be hidden from God's eyes as they are from ours.

Then Job lists the effects of divine providence in natural things, beginning with the two extremes: earth and heaven. In each, something appears to be established by a divine power that exceeds human strength. To our senses, heaven seems to be stretched above the earth like a tent, and the earth seems to be under heaven like the floor of that tent. Whoever sets up a tent uses something to support it, but this does not seem to be the case with heaven. Nothing appears to sustain heaven but divine power, and so Job says, he stretches out the North Wind over the empty air. By "North Wind," he means the upper hemisphere from our point of view, since for us the North Pole is raised above the horizon while the South Pole is below it. Thus, he says the North Wind is extended "over the empty air" because nothing appears to us under the upper hemisphere except a space full of air, which uneducated people consider empty. He speaks according to the thinking of the common person, as is customary in Sacred Scripture.

Likewise, one who lays a floor puts it on something firm. However, the earth, which is like the floor of heaven, does not appear to have anything firm to sustain it; it is sustained only by the power of God. And so he says, and he hangs the earth upon nothing. This does not mean that heaven is heavy and needs to be held up so it does not fall, or that the earth can fall from its center. Rather, he means that the natural powers themselves, by which bodies are naturally contained in their places, proceed from divine power. For just as violent motion comes from human force, so the natural inclination of things proceeds from divine power, which is the principle of nature.

Next, Job lists the effects of divine power in the middle space between heaven and earth. First, in the air, we find the wondrous fact that water is lifted up as vapor, suspended in the air, and does not fall all at once, but drop by drop. We see this in the rain, and so he says, He binds up the waters in his thick clouds—in clouds caused by His power—so that the clouds do not break and fall all at once. Instead, the rain falls drop by drop to keep the earth at a moderate temperature. It is as though what remains in the clouds has been bound together by God's power to keep it from falling immediately. By divine power, vapors do not all condense at the same time, which would cause them to fall together after being converted into water.

After rain falls, some remnants of vapor remain, from which clouds are formed. These clouds conceal heaven from our view, and heaven is like the throne of God, according to the prophet Isaiah: Heaven is my throne (Isaiah 66:1). Expressing this, Job continues, He keeps hidden the face of his throne; that is, He holds back or hides the face of heaven, which is His throne. He does this with the clouds, which prevent us from seeing heaven, and so he says, and he expands his cloud over it—a cloud produced by His power.

Then Job shows the effect of divine power on the waters when he says, He has circumscribed a limit on the waters. According to the natural order of the elements, the waters should cover the entire earth. The fact that some part of the earth remains uncovered is due to divine power, which has set a boundary for the water. This pertains particularly to the ocean, which surrounds the land everywhere. Because of this, he continues, at the boundary between light and darkness. For us, the light of day and the dark of night are bounded by the sun rising and setting over the upper hemisphere, which is placed over the habitable land enclosed by the ocean. Alternatively, this can be understood to mean that the boundary of the waters will remain unchangeable as long as the world's present state, with its succession of light and darkness, remains.

After listing the effects of divine power on physical creatures, Job shows its effect on spiritual creatures, which he calls the pillars of heaven because their duty is to preside over the movements of the heavens. So he says, The pillars of heaven—the angels—tremble and quake with fear at his nod. That is, they obey His command. He speaks using the metaphor of a slave obeying his master's nod in fear and trembling, with fear referring to the soul and trembling to the body. We should not think that there is fear of punishment in the holy angels; their fear here is reverential fear of God. Therefore, their fear refers to an inner disposition, while trembling refers to the outward effect.

Since some angels fell away from the reverence due to God—about whom Job had already spoken, In his angels he found wickedness (Job 4:18)—he consequently adds a remark distinguishing between the good and evil angels. We must suppose that the distinction of spiritual creatures was made at the same time as the distinction of physical creatures. To suggest this, Job begins with physical creation, saying, "By his power the seas are suddenly assembled," according to Genesis: Let the waters that are on the earth be collected into one place, and let dry land appear (Genesis 1:9). Spiritual creatures are distinguished by divine power just as physical creatures are, and so he then says, and his prudence smote the proud. That is, by the power of His providence, the devil, who is proud, has been deprived of his glory.

Therefore, as the devil fell, the spiritual gifts for the good angels were increased. And so Job says, his spirit has adorned the heavens; that is, He has adorned the heavenly spirits with spiritual gifts. It was not fitting that he who had fallen by the loss of his glory should remain endowed with gifts through the Holy Spirit. And so he says that by his hand he has played midwife and he drew out the coiled serpent. The devil is compared to a serpent because of the poison of evil and is said to be coiled because he is clever. Job clearly says he was drawn out by the hand of God assisting at a birth, just as a midwife sometimes draws out a dead child so that the mother is not injured. In this way, God has drawn the devil out from the midst of the angels so that the society of good angels would not suffer any harm.

So that no one thinks that these effects, although great, are equal to divine power, Job says, Lo, these things have been said about his ways. These are the works by which we ascend to the knowledge of God and by which God communicates Himself to us in some way. And so that these works should not seem to come close to equaling the whole of divine power, he adds, and when we have scarcely heard a small whisper of his speeches, who can look on the thunder of his greatness? He means that all that has been said about the effects of divine power is less, in proportion to God's full power, than a small, quiet whisper is to the loudest clap of thunder.