Job 25:3

Is there any number of his armies?.... His armies in heaven, the heavenly host of angels, which are innumerable; there are more than twelve legions of them, thousand and ten thousand times ten

Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, He tries to show Job's rashness (Job 23:3), by arguments borrowed from Eliphaz (Job 15:15), with which cf. Job 11:17. Verse 2. Power and terror - i:e., terror-inspiring power.

Of his armies; of the angels, and stars, and other creatures, all which are his hosts, wholly submitting themselves to his will, to be and do what God would have them; and therefore how insolent and unreasonable a thing is it for thee to quarrel with him! He spoke before of God’ s making peace, and here he mentions the armies by which he keeps it. Upon whom doth no his light arise? either, 1. Properly, his sun, which riseth upon all, . Or rather, 2. Metaphorically, all that is in men, which is or may be called light; the light of life, by which men subsist, and are kept out of the state of the dead, called a land of darkness, ; the light of reason and understanding, called. God’ s candle, , by which thou, O Job, art capable of arguing with God and with us; and all that peace, and prosperity, and comfort which thou ever didst enjoy, which oft comes under the name of light, as ,16 Psalms 97:11 ; which being here called light, is, to continue the metaphor, most fitly said to arise upon men: all this is from God, and therefore is wholly at his disposal; he freely gave it all, and he may justly take it away, as thou thyself didst truly observe and confess, , and consequently thou hast no reason to reproach God for disposing of his own as he pleaseth. Thou hast lost nothing which was thine own, and having no propriety, there is no foundation for any judicial contest with God.

Job 25:3 Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise?Ver. 3. Is there any number of his armies?] God is Lord of hosts; and, as the Rabbis well observe, he hath his upper forces and his lower forces, as his horse and foot, ready pressed. The upper are here chiefly meant, viz. the angels and stars, as appeareth by the context. An est numerus expeditorum? so Brentius rendereth it; Tremellius, turmariorum, of his troopers? they are innumerable, and yet no variance among them; this is admirable. The army of Nineveh was quiet, no failing out nor complaining in their hosts, therefore did their king march on, pass through, Nahum 1:12. The Turks’ military discipline at this day is beyond that of all other nations in the world besides; yea, beyond that of the old Greeks or Romans. There is no quarrelling heard at any time among their many soldiers, no, nor any words at all. Perpetuum silentium tenent ut muti, saith Cuspinianus. There is perpetual silence kept, and most ready obedience yielded to the dumb signs and noddings of their officers. But all this is nothing to that in heaven. Of God’ s hosts, together with their number, order, and obedience, see my treatise called The Righteous Man’ s Recompense. And upon whom doth not his light arise?] That is, his sun, that prince of planets, but servant of the saints (as his name importeth), whose "going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof," Psalms 19:6. It is called, His light, because, as he made it, so he gathered into it, as into a vessel, that first light, which before was scattered here and there in the heavens. Some there are that understand this text of the light of God’ s omniscience; others, of his beneficence. Quis est quem non superet luce bonitate sum? (Merlin) Who is it whom he overcometh not with the light of his goodness? Surely all the good that is in the creature is but a spark of his flame, a drop of his ocean.

(3) Is there any number of his armies?—He is also so glorious that He dispenses of His glory to His innumerable hosts of angels. Glorious as they are, they but reflect His glory; and what then must not that be? but if so, how utterly hopeless for man to think he can have any purity to compete with His, or that He will acknowledge to be such. Man also is by nature and birth unclean. (Comp. Psalms 51:5.)

Verse 3. Is there any number of his armies?] He has troops innumerable; he can serve himself of all his creatures; every thing may be a means of help or destruction, according to his Divine will. When he purposes to save, none can destroy; and when he is determined to destroy, none can save. It is vain to trust in his creatures against himself. Upon whom doth not his light arise?] That is, his providence rules over all; he is universal Lord; he causes his sun to arise on the evil and the good, and sends his rain on the just and unjust.

3. his armies] The words still amplify the idea of the “dominion” and omnipotence of God. The armies that obey Him are innumerable. The reference is probably to the phenomena of the heavens by night; comp. Isaiah 40:26, “He bringeth out their host by number, he calleth them all by their names; by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one faileth.” There was a tendency in Oriental thought to identify the angels with the stars, or at least to regard the stars as animated. his light arise] The reference is probably to the heavens or world by day; and the words express the pervading universality of God’s influence and rule. The sun as a body is not directly alluded to, for the word “arise” is not that which ordinarily expresses rising or coming above the horizon; the meaning is rather “on whom doth not his light shine?” By “his light” is not meant the nature of God as essential light; the meaning rather is that by His light which He sends forth God reaches all (Psalms 19:6) and brings all under His sway, though there may be in “his light” a reference to the light of day as symbolizing what He is. It is out of the question to limit the words “upon whom” to the “armies” of the first clause, making the query of Bildad to mean, Which of the bright heavenly hosts does not His light outshine? or, Which of them does not shine with a light which falls on it from Him and reflect not its own but His light? The reference in the words “on whom” is not limited to the heavenly host, but is universal.

Is there any number of his armies? - The armies of heaven; or the hosts of angelic beings, which are often represented as arranged or marshalled into armies; see the notes at Isaiah 1:9.

3. Armies — The idea is not so much of hostile array as of harmony, gradation, discipline, and subjection.