Job 38:2

Who [is] this,.... Meaning not Elihu the last speaker, as some think; and there are some who suppose not only that these words are directed to him, but all that is said in this and the following

Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? This - Job. Counsel - impugning my divine wisdom in the providential arrangements of the universe.

Who is this? it is a question of admiration and reprehension, What and where is he that presumeth to talk at this rate? this language becomes not a creature, much less a professor of religion. The person here designed is not Elihu, who spoke last; but Job, who had spoken most, as is apparent from , and from , where Job takes the following reproof to himself, and from the following discourse, wherein God convinceth Job by divers of the same kind of arguments which Elihu had used against him. That darkeneth counsel; either, 1. His own counsel, i.e. that expresseth his own mind darkly and doubtfully. But that was not Job’ s fault. He spake his mind too plainly and freely. Or rather, 2. God’ s counsel, which is called simply counsel by way of eminency, as the word and the commandment are oft put for the word and command of God. For the great matter of the dispute between Job and his friends was concerning God’ s counsel, and purpose, and providence in afflicting Job; which being a wise, and just, and glorious action of God, Job had endeavoured to obscure, and misrepresent, and censure. And God’ s decrees and judgments are frequently called his counsels, as . By words; God doth not charge Job, as his three friends had done, with hypocrisy and wickedness in the course of life, nor with atheistical opinions of God or his providence, as some of the Hebrew writers do, but confines his reproof to his hard speeches. Without knowledge; proceeding from ignorance, and mistake, and inconsiderateness; not from malice or rage against God, as his friends accused him.

Job 38:2 Who [is] this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?Ver. 2. Who is this that darkeneth counsel] Who is this that talketh thus? saith God, stepping forth, as it were, from behind the hangings; how now? What is to do here? Some ancients think it meant of Elihu; but Job is the man. See Job 42:3, where he takes it to himself; and it may be God here pointed to him with a Quis est iste Iob? That darkeneth counsel] My counsel, by misconstructions; his own, by rash and unskilful expressions; for which Elihu also rightly blamed him, and his other friends took great offence at him; who should rather have said, as Cruciger did of Luther, Eum commodius sentire quam loquitur, dum effervescit, that he thought not so ill as he spoke in his heat. By words without knowledge] This is the worst that God chargeth Job with; words of folly and ignorance: not with malice, falsehood, blasphemy, &c. Counsel also he attributeth to him, though not wisely managed. If there be any good in us, he noteth and noticeth it; passing by our defects and failings; as when Sarah called her husband lord, she is much commended for it; though there was never another good word in all that sentence, Genesis 18:12 1 Peter 3:6 Job 35:16.

(2) Who is this?—The question may be answered by Job’s own words (Job 14:1). It is a man as so described, a dying and enfeebled man, like Job himself, not even a man in his best estate, but one so persecuted and exhausted as Job: one, therefore, altogether unequal to the task he has undertaken. That darkeneth counsel.—That is, probably, my counsel, which was the matter under debate. The words, however, are often used proverbially in a general sense. Such discussions, carried on, as they cannot but be, in entire ignorance by blind mortals, must to God’s omniscience seem thus, and cannot be otherwise than the darkening of counsel by words without knowledge.

Verse 2. Who is this that darkeneth counsel] As if he had said, Who art thou who pretendest to speak on the deep things of God, and the administration of his justice and providence, which thou canst not comprehend; and leavest my counsels and designs the darker for thy explanation?

2. who is this that darkeneth counsel] lit. who then is darkening counsel? The word then merely adds the emphasis of impatience or astonishment to the question, who …? The expression counsel suggests that the Lord had a plan or meaning in Job’s afflictions, which the perverse and ignorant construction put on them by Job obscured. The word might have a wider sense and refer to sound wisdom in general in reference to man’s life, which Job, by his particular utterances on God’s providence, only darkened. The participle darkening is thought by many to imply that the Divine Speaker broke in upon Job when in the act of darkening, that is, when speaking. If so, the speeches of Elihu are an interpolation. If is rather to strain the argument from the use of the participle to say that this must be the meaning.

Who is this - Referring doubtless to Job, for he is specified in the previous verse. Some have understood it of Elihu (see Schultens), but the connection evidently demands that it should be understood as referring to Job.

Introduction — By a pertinent question Jehovah singles Job out as the object of special address, and recognizes him as the leader in arraigning the divine counsel, and proceeds to summon him to