Job 9:13

Second division, Job 9:13-35. First section: three strophes of four verses each THE DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE IS NOT ONLY IRRESISTIBLE, OVERBEARING THE CAUSE OF THE CREATURE, BUT IT INVOLVES THE WICKED AND THE GOOD IN ONE COMMON FATE, Job 9:13-24.

Strophe a A fortiori application to Job himself; the mightiest bend beneath His almightiness, much more suffering Job, notwithstanding his case be urgent and just, Job 9:13-16.

13. If God will not withdraw, etc. God withdraws not his anger: literally, Does not cause it to return. The if vitiates the sense. “He takes his anger not back till it has accomplished its work.” Dillmann. His anger is irresistible.

Proud helpers Literally, Helpers of Rahab, tumultuous helpers. (Furst.) The Septuagint renders it, “Sea monsters under heaven.” Rahab was the poetical name for Egypt. Egypt, in the later books of the Bible, typified tumultuous violence, and was called sea monster and leviathan. Psalms 87:4; Psalms 89:10; Isaiah 30:7; Isaiah 51:9, etc. Olshausen suggests that Rahab’s helpers may be the hosts of Egypt overwhelmed in the sea. Ewald, Hirtzel, and others conjecture, (but without ground, though seemingly justified by the Septuagint,) that Job had in mind some legend of a sea monster that revolted against heaven, and was subdued with all his helpers, and chained to the sky in the form of a constellation either the Balena, Bellua, or Pistrix, to each of which there is some similar tradition attached. The Babylonian legends abound in allusions to the great dragon, Tiamat, who was finally destroyed by the god Bel. “And the gods, her helpers, who went beside her, trembled, feared, and broke up themselves.” GEO. SMITH’S Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 98. For the supposed connexion between turbuhtu, the place or den of the monster, and Rahab, see Ibid., p. 90. The view of Schmidt and Dr. Tayler Lewis accords with the Introduction and several passages of the book, to wit, that Rahab may mean Satan, of whom Job seems to have had some idea as his great enemy. The argument of Job shows that he speaks of infinitely powerful beings, (which is the idea of the Vulgate, qui portant orbem;) but whether from among the gigantic creations of the primitive world, either land or sea, or from the fallen magnates of the superhuman world, does not so readily appear. See note on Job 26:12.