By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.
Ver. 9. By the blast of God they perish] He puts himself to no great pain to punish them; but blows them away as so many dust heaps; he nods them to destruction, saith the psalmist, Psalms 80:16; he can as easily do it as bid it to be done. So Caesar Metellus. If the Lord do but arise, his enemies shall be scattered; and all that hate him fly before him, Psalms 64:1. If he but put his head out of the windows of heaven, as it were, and say, Who is on my side; who? all the creatures (who for fear of him had hid themselves, as worms wriggle into their holes in time of thunder) shall look out presently, and offer him their service; so that he cannot possibly want a weapon to tame his rebels, or a way to bring the wicked to condign punishment. He is Eloah, as he is here called; that is, The powerful One, the mighty strong God, as Isaiah 9:6, before whom all nations are as the drop of a bucket, or as the dust of the balance, Isaiah 40:15; no more able to stand against him than is the glass bottle against a cannon shot, or downny thistle before a whirlwind. Behold, I will send a blast upon him (saith God concerning Sennacherib, 2Ki 19:7), and so set him going. So, elsewhere, he threateneth to tread down his stoutest enemies as straw is trodden down to the dunghill. Neither shall he much trouble himself in doing this: for he shall only spread forth his hands in the midst of them, "as he that swimmeth, spreadeth forth his hands to swim," &c., Isaiah 25:11,12, to signify that he shall do it with greatest facility. The motion in swimming is easy, not strong; for strong violent strokes in the water would rather sink than support. It is said, that by a look of his out of the pillar of fire and of the cloud he troubled the host of the Egyptians, Exodus 14:24, and as the rocks repelled the boisterous waves, - Conantia frangere frangunt, so did he the enemies of his people.
By the breath of his nostrils are they consumed] Heb. By the wind of his nostrils. This is the same with the former. Only it is conceived that Eliphaz here alludeth to the manner of the death of Job s children by a mighty wind, so strong as if God himself had breathed it out. By the breath of his mouth he made the world, Psalms 32:6, and by the same breath can he as soon and as easily unmake it again, as he did in the general deluge, whereunto the Chaldee paraphrast holdeth that Eliphaz here referreth; the remembrance of which standing monument of God's wrath was fresh and well known when this was spoken.