to surround · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
power
כֹ֑חַKho.ach
H3581
vigor · noun, common masculine singular absolute
savest
ה֝וֹשַׁ֗עְתָּho.Sha'.ta
H3467
properly · verb, hiphil perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
arm
זְר֣וֹעַze.Ro.a'
H2220
the arm (as stretched out) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
no
לְלֹאle.lo'-
H3808
not (the simple or abs. negation) · preposition + negative particle
strength
עֹֽז'Oz
H5797
strength in various applications (force · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 4:3-4 Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
Isaiah 35:3-4 Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
1 Kings 18:27 And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he i…
Job 6:12 Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?
Job 6:25 How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?
Job 12:2 No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
Job 16:4-5 I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.
Psalms 71:9 Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 26:1-4
One would not have thought that Job, when he was in so much pain and misery, could banter his friend as he does here and make himself merry with the impertinency of his discourse. Bildad thought that he had made a fine speech, that the matter was so weighty, and the language so fine, that he had gained the reputation both of an oracle and of an orator; but Job peevishly enough shows that his performance was not so valuable as he thought it and ridicules him for it. He shows,
I. That there was no great matter to be found in it (Job 26:3): How hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is? This is spoken ironically, upbraiding Bildad with the good conceit he himself had of what he had said…
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? God" (r)? a fine advocate for him thou art, representing him as if he was without power, and could not help himself, but stood in need of another; as if he had no arm, and could not save and protect himself, but needed one to rise and stand up in his behalf, when he is God omnipotent, and has an arm strong and mighty, and there is none like his; and as if he wanted wisdom, and one to counsel him, when he is the all wise God, and never consults with any of his creatures, or admits them to be of his council; and as if his "esse…
Job’s friends had not helped him (12:2; 16:4). Bildad’s denial that acquittal was possible hit Job’s most sensitive nerve (10:1-7; 13:3, 13-19; 16:18-21; 19:23-27; 23:2-7).
"Who do you come to, and who do you want to help? Believing them unjust, he was indignant against them and wanted God to punish them; but reflecting in himself, he returns to better thoughts and leaves it to God to judge them. He does not pretend to help or help him, as if he were too weak to stop punishing the guilty; He does not wish to trace his conduct to him, nor to follow him, and to inquire why he allows the deceivers to live; for the secrets of his power are impenetrable to all the pursuits of our intelligence. He wishes even less to teach him what these men are, for it is from him that man holds his breath, when he expresses some thought.
But 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. To help one that is weak is an act of charity, to wish to help one that is powerful, of Pride; and so because his friends, whilst bearing the likeness of heretics, on the plea of helping God, endeavoured to make a display of their own wisdom, Bildad is justly found fault with, that it should be 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? As if he said in plain words; 'While thou settest thyself to help Him, under Whose greatness thou dost sink to the earth, all the encouragement which thou affordest comes of ostentation, not of piety.' But herein it is requisite to be known, that even God, Who surely is not 'powerless,' we help whilst acting with humility. And hence it is said by Paul, For we are helpers of God. For when to him, whom He doth Himself by interior grace pervade, we by the voice of exhortation contribute, this which He through the Spirit brings to pass within, we outwardly by the office of the voice do assist, and then only is our exhortation brought to completion, when God was in the heart, to be aided. Hence He saith elsewhere; So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. For to 'plant' and 'water' is to 'help,' both which will be but a void ministration, if in the heart God 'giveth not the increase.' But they who have high thoughts of their own power of mind, will not be helpers of God with humility; because whilst they reckon themselves to be of use to God, they are making themselves strangers to the fruit of usefulness. And hence it is said to the disciples by the voice of Truth, When ye shall have done all those things that are commanded you say, We are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).