Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds [which] are higher than thou.
Ver. 5. Look unto the heavens and see] Yea, look into them, if thou couldst, as did Stephen the proto-martyr, Acts 7:56, and as our Saviour Christ, as man, could do (say some) with his bodily eyes; and as a believer by the eye of his faith, through the perspective glass of the promises, may do, doubtless. The further we can look unto heaven (or into it) the better shall we conceive of that infinite distance that is between God in heaven and men on earth. God is far above the highest heavens, therefore higher than any mortal can attain to him, much less contribute anything unto him by his righteousness, or assault him by his wickedness. Herodotus writeth, That the Thracians once were so mad against their god Jupiter, for raining down upon them when ready to join battle with the enemy, that they threw up their darts against heaven, which shortly returned upon their own heads. And of Caligula, the emperor, the story is told, that he thundered and lightened with certain engines he had; and if at any time a thunderbolt fell from heaven, ipse contra iaeiebat lapidem, he on the other side threw up a stone, and used that hemistich a in Horner, η μ αναειρ ηεγω σε, Either do thou kill me, or I will kill thee if I can, (Dio in Vit. Calig.). And what less than this upon the matter do those monsters and miscreants among us, who set their mouths against heaven when things go cross with them especially; and their "tongues walk through the earth?" Psalms 73:9. As Hacker did, who lifting up his eyes to heaven, and grinning against God, blasphemed him, and threatened him, even when he had the rope about his neck, A. D. 1591. Now, as in the water face answereth to face, so doth the face of a man to a man. And as there were many Marii in one Caesar, so there are many Caligulas and Hackets in the best of us all, if God restrain us not from such horrid outrages. But Elihu would have us here to know, that God is far above our reach, neither can we throw this high and lofty one out of his throne, utcunque fremamus et ferociamus; for how should anything that we silly creatures can do reach to God, when as we cannot reach up to the visible heavens?
And behold the clouds which are higher than thou] Eminent prae te. The clouds are God's chariot whereon he rideth, and wherein he manifesteth much of his majesty. These Elihu would have Job to contemplate in their height, even superiores nubes, as Tremellius rendereth it, the upper clouds; or, as others, the starry heaven, Heb. The thin of heavens. So Bildad before had called upon him to behold the moon and the stars, Job 25:5. And surely the very sight of heaven over us (to the which all that we are or can can bring no help or hurt at all), should admonish us of our meanness, and make us think most modestly of God, whom we are so infinitely below; and not dare either to complain of him or to boast us before him, &c. For this cause it is that Elihu so presseth Job here with this heap of words, that he may henceforth know and keep his distance; and not so presumptuously call God, as it were, to reckoning, touching expenses and receipts.
a The half or section of a line of verse, as divided by the Caesura or the like; also, a line of less than the usual length. spec. Such a half-line or line in Old English verse.