Job 9:5

Which removeth the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Job 9:5-6. Which removeth the mountains — He proceeds to give particular evidences of the divine power and wisdom, which he mentioned Job 9:4. And they — That is, the mountains, to which he figuratively ascribes sense and knowledge; know not — He removes them suddenly and unexpectedly ere they are aware of it. Which overturneth them in his anger — In token of his displeasure with men, that lived upon or near them. Which shaketh the earth — Great portions of it by earthquakes, or by removing islands. And the pillars thereof tremble — The deep and inward parts of it, which, like pillars, support those parts which appear to our view.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:1-13 In this answer Job declared that he did not doubt the justice of God, when he denied himself to be a hypocrite; for how should man be just with God? Before him he pleaded guilty of sins more than could be counted; and if God should contend with him in judgment, he could not justify one out of a thousand, of all the thoughts, words, and actions of his life; therefore he deserved worse than all his present sufferings. When Job mentions the wisdom and power of God, he forgets his complaints. We are unfit to judge of God's proceedings, because we know not what he does, or what he designs. God acts with power which no creature can resist. Those who think they have strength enough to help others, will not be able to help themselves against it.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Which removeth the mountains - In order to show how vain it was to contend with God, Job refers to some exhibitions of his power and greatness. The "removal of the mountains" here denotes the changes which occur in earthquakes and other violent convulsions of nature. This illustration of the power of God is often referred to in the Scriptures; compare Judges 5:5; 1 Kings 19:11; Psalm 65:6; Psalm 114:4; Psalm 144:5; Isaiah 40:12; Jeremiah 4:24.

And they know not - This is evidently a Hebraism, meaning suddenly, or unexpectedly. He does it, as it were, before they are aware of it. A similar expression occurs in the Koran, "God overturns them, and they do not know it;" that is, he does it without their suspecting any such thing; compare Psalm 35:8. "Let destruction come upon him at unawares," or, as it is in the Hebrew and in the margin, "which he knoweth not of." Tindal renders this, "He translatethe the mountaynes or ever they be aware."

Which overturneth them in his anger - As if he were enraged. There could scarcely be any more terrific exhibition of the wrath of God than the sudden and tremendous violence of an earthquake.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. and they know not—Hebrew for "suddenly, unexpectedly, before they are aware of it" (Ps 35:8); "at unawares"; Hebrew, which "he knoweth not of" (Joe 2:14; Pr 5:6).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He proccedeth to give particular evidences of the Divine power and wisdom, which he mentioned Job 9:4.

And they know not, i.e. suddenly and unexpectedly, ere they were aware of it. They, i.e. the mountains, to which he ascribes sense and knowledge figuratively, as hath been oft noted. In his anger; in token of his displeasure with men that lived upon them, or near them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Which removeth the mountains,.... This and what follow are instances of the power of God, and are full proofs of his being mighty in strength; and may be understood, either literally, not only of what God is able to do if he will, but of what he has done; and history (y) furnishes us with instances of mountains being removed from one place to another; and Scheuchzer (z) makes mention of a village in Helvetia, called Plurium, which, in 1618, was covered with the sudden fall of a mountain, and swallowed up in the earth, with 1800 inhabitants, and not the least trace of it to be seen any more; and in the sacred Scriptures is a prediction of the mount of Olives being removed from its place, one half to the north and the other to the south, Zechariah 14:4; and Josephus (a) gives a relation much like it, as in fact; besides, Job may have respect to what had been done in his times, or before them, and particularly at the universal deluge, which covered the tops of the highest mountains and hills, and very probably washed away some from their places: or else it may be understood proverbially, of the Lord's doing things marvellous and surprising, and which are impossible and impracticable with men; see Matthew 17:20; or rather figuratively, of kingdoms and mighty kings, as the Targum, comparable to mountains for their height and strength, who yet are removed by God at his pleasure; see Zechariah 4:7,

and they know not; when they are removed, and how it is done; it is imperceptible; either the mountains are not sensible of it, or the inhabitants of the mountains, as Bar Tzemach; or men, the common sort of men, the multitude, as Gersom: R. Saadiah Gaon interprets it of removing the men of the mountains, and they know it not:

which overturneth them in his anger; for the sins or men, which was the case of the old world: Mr. Broughton renders it, "that men cannot mark how he hath removed them out of their place in his anger".

(y) Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 2. c. 83. Wernerus, Palmerius, Theophanes "a aurus", in Bolduc. in loc. (z) Physic. Sacr. vol. 4. p. 673. (a) Antiqu. l. 9. c. 10. sect. 4.

Geneva Study Bible

Which removeth the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5–10. Description of God’s omnipotent power as it displays itself in the material world.

they know not] Suddenly and unexpectedly, Psalm 35:8; Jeremiah 50:24.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 5-13. - A magnificent description of the might and majesty of God, transcending anything in the Psalms, and comparable to the grandest passages of Isaiah (see especially Isaiah 40:21-24; Isaiah 43:15-20). Verse 5. - Which removeth the mountains, and they know not; which overturneth them in his anger. Earthquakes are common in all the countries adjoining Syria and Palestine, and must always have been among the most striking manifestations of God's power. There are several allusions to them in the Psalms (Psalm 8:8, 104:32). and historical mention of them in Numbers 16:32; 1 Kings 19:1; Amos 1:1; Zechariah 14:4, 5; Matthew 24:7. Josephus speaks of one which desolated Judaea in the reign of Herod the Great, and destroyed ten thousand people ('Ant. Jud.,' 15:5. § 2). There was another in 1181, which was felt over the whole of the Hauran, and did great damage. A still more violent convulsion occurred in 1837, when the area affected extended five hundred miles from north to south, and from eighty to a hundred miles east and west. Tiberias and Safed were overthrown. The earth gaped in various places, and closed again. Fearful oscillations were felt. The hot springs of Tiberias mounted up to a temperature that ordinary thermometers could not mark, and the loss of life was considerable (see the account given by Dr. Cunningham Geikie, in 'The Holy Land and the Bible,' vol. 2. pp. 317, 318). The phrases used by Job are, of course, poetical. Earthquakes do not literally "remove" mountains, nor "overturn" them. They produce fissures, elevations, depressions, and the like; but they rarely much alter local features or the general configuration of a district. Job 9:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

5 Who removeth mountains without their knowing,

That He hath overturned them in His wrath;

6 Who causeth the earth to shake out of its place,

And its pillars to tremble;

7 Who commandeth the sun, and it riseth not,

And sealeth up the stars.

ידעוּ ולא (Job 9:5) may also be translated: without one's perceiving it or knowing why; but it is more natural to take the mountains as the subject. אשׁר, quod, that (not "as," Ewald, 333, a), after ידע, as Ezekiel 20:26; Ecclesiastes 8:12. Even the lofty mountains are quite unconscious of the change which He effects on them in a moment. Before they are aware that it is being done, it is over, as the praet. implies; the destructive power of His anger is irresistible, and effects its purpose suddenly. He causes the earth to start up from its place (comp. Isaiah 13:13) which it occupies in space (Job 26:7); and by being thus set in motion by Him, its pillars tremble, i.e., its internal foundations (Psalm 104:5), which are removed from human perception (Job 38:6). It is not the highest mountains, which are rather called the pillars, as it were the supports, of heaven (Job 26:11), that are meant. By the same almighty will He disposes of the sun and stars. The sun is here called חרס (as in Judges 14:18 חרסה with unaccented ah, and as Isaiah 19:18 ‛Ir ha-Heres is a play upon החרס עיר, Ἡλιούπολις), perhaps from the same root as חרוּץ, one of the poetical names of gold. At His command the sun rises not, and He seals up the stars, i.e., conceals them behind thick clouds, so that the day becomes dark, and the night is not made bright. One may with Schultens think of the Flood, or with Warburton of the Egyptian darkness, and the standing still of the sun at the word of Joshua; but these are only single historical instances of a fact here affirmed as a universal experience of the divine power.