the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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Job 26:3
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Dictionaries:
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from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
counselled: Job 6:13, Job 12:3, Job 13:5, Job 15:8-10, Job 17:10, Job 32:11-13
plentifully: Job 33:3, Job 33:33, Job 38:2, Psalms 49:1-4, Psalms 71:15-18, Proverbs 8:6-9, Acts 20:20, Acts 20:27
Reciprocal: Job 15:9 - knowest Job 16:2 - heard
Gill's Notes on the Bible
How hast thou counselled [him that hath] no wisdom?.... A man deprived of wisdom has need of counsel, and it should be given him; and he does well both to ask and take it; and be it so, as if Job should say, that I am the foolish and unwise creature you take me to be, what counsel and advice have you given me? what a wise counsellor have you shown yourself to be? or rather, what a miserable part have you acted under this character?
and [how] hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is? the thing in controversy, set it forth in a clear light, and in a copious manner, when he had not said one word about it, namely, concerning the afflictions of the godly, and the prosperity of the wicked; thus jeering at him, and laughing at the short reply he had made, and which was nothing to the purpose.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? - As he had undertaken to give counsel to another, and to suggest views that might be adapted to elevate his mind in his depression, and to console him in his sorrows, he had a right to expect more than he had found in his speech.
And how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is? - The word rendered “the thing as it is” (תשׁיה tûshı̂yâh) denotes properly a setting upright, uprightness - from ישׁה yāshah; then help, deliverance, Job 6:13; purpose, undertaking, enterprise, Job 5:12; then counsel, wisdom, understanding, Job 11:6; Job 12:16. Here it is synonymous with reason, wisdom, or truth. The word rendered “plentifully” (לרב larôb) means “for multitude,” or abundantly, and the sense here is, that Bildad had made extraordinary pretensions to wisdom, and that this was the result. This short, irrelevant speech was all; a speech that communicated nothing new, and that met none of the real difficulties of the case.
