The Strand Study Bible

JOB 22:16

JOB 23:8

822

16 Which were cut down 1 out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood: 17 Which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them? 18 Yet he filled their houses with good things: but the counsel of the wicked is far from me. 19 The righteous see it, and are glad: and the innocent laugh them to scorn. 20 Whereas our substance is not cut down, but the remnant of them the fire consumeth. 21 Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee. 22 Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart. 23 If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles. 24 Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks. 25 Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver. 26 For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God. 27 Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows.

28 Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways. 29 When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; 2 and he shall save the humble person. 30 He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands. Job 23 Job’s complaint becomes bitter Date - c. 1625 BC/AM 2375 1 Then Job answered and said, 2 Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning. 3 Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! 4 I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. 5 I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me. 6 Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me. 7 There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge. 8 Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:

1. or, “before Job’s time” - Gen 7:10,11 2. II Chro 33:9-13

22:16 Job, probably the oldest book in the Bible (c. 1625 BC), records for us the event of the Genesis flood (2344 BC). Before the occurrence of the Flood ( Psa 104:6-9 and II Pet 3:3 ), the entire earth’s landmass was all connected and in the form of a single continent. Sir John William Dawson in The Meeting Place of Geology and History notes:

In Europe, the British Isles were connected with the mainland, and Ireland was united with England. The Rhine flowed northward to the Orkneys through a wide plain, probably wooded and swarming with great quadrupeds, now extinct or strange to Europe. The Thames and the Humber were tributaries of the Rhine. The land of France and Spain extended out to one hundredth fathom line. The shallower parts of the Mediterranean were dry land, and that sea was divided into two parts by a land connecting Italy with Africa. Possibly, a portion of the shallower areas of the Atlantic were so elevated to connect Europe and America more closely than at present 1

Secular historians tend to agree. The Columbia History of the World notes:

Land animals could walk from North America to Europe and from South America to Africa, and even into Antarctica and Australia. 2

NOTE - Although secular historians date the dividing of the continents between the Triassic and Jurassic periods ( Columbia - p. 16), at least they are in agreement with the fact that there was some kind of breaking up of the fountains of the great deep. Even the ancient Greeks believed in the single continent idea. They referred to the waters that surrounded the once ancient island as “ocean.” In fact, the ancients had a legend concerning a vanished continent (Atlantis) in the Atlantic Ocean which, according to tradition, had existed somewhere in the great sea west of the “Pillars of Hercules. ” Plato, in his unfinished dialog, called Critias , believed that Atlantis was a prehistoric continent in that area which served as a bridge between Europe, Africa, and America. According to Genesis 7:11 , the fountains of the great deep broke up causing the earth’s foundation to shift ( whose foundation was overthrown ), so much so, that the earth tilted 23 ½ degrees at the time of the Flood out of its original position, bringing about a change in the relation of the earth to the sun and thus creating the climatic zones as they now exist. Out of the upheaval came the seven continents, as we know them today: Asia , Africa , North America , South America , Antarctica , Europe , and Australia (ranked in order of decreasing size). 22:22 See Job 23:12 1 Dawson, Sir John William. The Meeting Place of Geology and History . New York, NY, Fleming H. Revel Company. 1894. Print 2 John A. Garraty and Peter Gay. The Columbia History of the World , New York, NY, Harper & Row. 1972. Print.