Which removeth the mountains
This and what follow are instances of the power of God, and are
full proofs of his being mighty in strength; and may be
understood, either literally, not only of what God is able to do
if he will, but of what he has done; and history F25
furnishes us with instances of mountains being removed from one
place to another; and Scheuchzer F26 makes mention of a village
in Helvetia, called Plurium, which, in 1618, was covered with the
sudden fall of a mountain, and swallowed up in the earth, with
1800 inhabitants, and not the least trace of it to be seen any
more; and in the sacred Scriptures is a prediction of the mount
of Olives being removed from its place, one half to the north and
the other to the south, ( Zechariah
14:4 ) ; and Josephus F1 gives a relation much like
it, as in fact; besides, Job may have respect to what had been
done in his times, or before them, and particularly at the
universal deluge, which covered the tops of the highest mountains
and hills, and very probably washed away some from their places:
or else it may be understood proverbially, of the Lord's doing
things marvellous and surprising, and which are impossible and
impracticable with men; see ( Matthew
17:20 ) ( 1
Corinthians 13:2 ) ; or rather figuratively, of kingdoms and
mighty kings, as the Targum, comparable to mountains for their
height and strength, who yet are removed by God at his pleasure;
see ( Zechariah
4:7 ) ( Revelation
16:20 ) ;
and they know not;
when they are removed, and how it is done; it is imperceptible;
either the mountains are not sensible of it, or the inhabitants
of the mountains, as Bar Tzemach; or men, the common sort of men,
the multitude, as Gersom: R. Saadiah Gaon interprets it of
removing the men of the mountains, and they know it not:
which overturneth them in his anger;
for the sins or men, which was the case of the old world: Mr.
Broughton renders it, "that men cannot mark how he hath removed
them out of their place in his anger".