Job 26:2
in Job 26“How you have helped the powerless and saved the arm that is feeble!
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
How hast thou helped him that is without power! How hast thou saved the arm that hath no strength!
KJV
How hast thou helped him that is without power? how savest thou the arm that hath no strength?
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This verse in Job 26
Commentary
9 notes on this verseBut Job answered and said, Of whom art thou the helper? whether of one that is powerless? or dost thou sustain the arm of him that is not strong? Therefore because the words of his friends are concluded, blessed Job sets on with a more penetrating acuteness of the suing, and his words are proportionably strong as they are the last; seeing that even in the same way it is the usage of lawyers, that the argument, by which they beforehand see that they are above their adversaries, they reserve for the conclusion of the suit.
This site's exposition
Then Job answered
on Job 26:1-4
With open sarcasm Job tells Bildad, "How you have helped the powerless". The four questions make one charge, that Bildad brought no counsel and no strength to a man who needed both. Job then answers with a longer account of God's power than any of the three friends has given.
This site's exposition
How you have helped the powerless
Job answers Bildad with irony. Barnes notes the dispute over who is meant by the powerless and the feeble arm: Job, the friends or God, whom Gill says many understand. Barnes refers the words to Job himself, whom Bildad claimed to have helped and saved.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
These words mean, "I do not reprove you for defending the role of God or to say the truth that was needed." However, you should not have condemned me, and, in fact, it is possible to plead in favor of God without allowing, at the same time, Job to be exposed to accusations.
The Medieval Church1 voice
Men who do not use reason against someone condemned, but cite the power and the wisdom of the judge. They usually do this in favor of the judge. Favor is accorded to someone for two reasons: either because of the defect of power of the …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
That it was needless to the person he was discoursing with; for he knew it, and believed it, and could speak of it as well as he and better, and could add to the proofs which he had produced of God's power and greatness, which he does in the rest of his discourse (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
How hast thou helped him that is without power?.... This verse and Job 26:3 either are to be understood of God, as many do, by reading the words, "who hast thou helped?
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
How hast thou helped him - This seems a species of irony. How wonderfully hast thou counselled the unskilful and strengthened the weak! Alas for you! ye could not give what ye did not possess! In this way the Chaldee understood these verses: “Why hast thou pretended to give succor, when thou art without strength? And save, while thy arm is weak? Why hast thou given counsel, when thou art without understanding? And supposest that thou hast shown the very essence of wisdom?”
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
How hast thou helped him that is without power? - It has been doubted whether this refers to Job himself, the two friends of Bildad, or to the Deity. Rosenmuller. The connection, however, seems to demand that it should be referred to Job himself. It is sarcastical. Bildad had come as a friend and comforter. He had, also, in common with Eliphaz and Zophar, taken upon himself the office of teacher and counsellor. He had regarded Job as manifesting great weakness in his views of God and of his government; as destitute of all strength to bear up aright under trials, and now all that he had done to aid one so weak was found in the impertinent and irrelevant generalities of his brief speech. Job is indignant that one with such pretensions should have said nothing more to the purpose. Herder, however, renders this as if it related wholly to God, and it cannot be denied that the Hebrew would bear this: “Whom helpest thou? Him who hath no strength? Whom dost thou vindicate? Him whose arm hath no power? To whom give counsel? One without wisdom? Truly much wisdom hast thou taught him.” How savest thou the arm that hath no strength? - That is, your remarks are not adapted to invigorate the feeble. He had come professedly to comfort and support his afflicted friend in his trials. Yet Job asks what there was in his observations that was fitted to produce this effect? Instead of declaiming on the majesty and greatness of God, he should have said something that was adapted to relieve an afflicted and a troubled soul.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מֶה־ | meh- | how! | H4100 → | 752 times |
| עָזַ֥רְתָּ | ʾazarta | you have helped | H5826 → | 81 times |
| לְלֹא־ | lelo'- | <to> not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| כֹ֑חַ | khoach | power | H3581 → | 126 times |
| ה֝וֹשַׁ֗עְתָּ | hosha'ta | you have saved | H3467 → | 206 times |
| זְר֣וֹעַ | zeroa' | [the] arm | H2220 → | 91 times |
| לֹא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| עֹֽז׃ | ʾoz | strength | H5797 → | 92 times |
מֶה־how!
meh-H4100 →752 times
עָזַ֥רְתָּyou have helped
ʾazartaH5826 →81 times
לְלֹא־<to> not
lelo'-H3808 →5168 times
כֹ֑חַpower
khoachH3581 →126 times
ה֝וֹשַׁ֗עְתָּyou have saved
hosha'taH3467 →206 times
זְר֣וֹעַ[the] arm
zeroa'H2220 →91 times
לֹא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
עֹֽז׃strength
ʾozH5797 →92 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
7 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 71:9Do not discard me in my old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails.
it leads to
- Isaiah 46:4
Even to your old age, I will be the same, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you, and I will carry you; I will sustain you and…
- 2 Timothy 1:12
For this reason, even though I suffer as I do, I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have…
- Psalms 71:18
Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, until I proclaim Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.
- Psalms 90:10
The length of our days is seventy years— or eighty if we are strong— yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
- Psalms 92:13–15
Planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God.
- Isaiah 46:4
Through
Job 6:12Is my strength like that of stone, or my flesh made of bronze?
it leads to
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVII; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 26:1-4; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.