Who hath forwarded the spirit of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor, and hath taught him?
Ibn Ezra
רוח יי The spirit of the Lord. The Gaon says that תוח the wind (air) has not yet been mentioned with the other three elements in the preceding verse, and that יי the Lord is the answer given to the question, and the meaning of the phrase is: Who has directed the wind? The Lord. I do not agree with this explanation, because it is said את רוח, and besides, the second half of the verse has no sense at all if this explanation be adopted. I explain the verse thus: Who has directed the spirit of the Lord: רוח is in the construct state; comp. אלהים רוח (Gen. 1:2); the interrogative pronoun מי who, is to be supplied before the second part of the verse: And who is the man, to whom God communicated His counsel, why He created things in such and such a manner.
Hebrew and Aramaic words are the commentator’s citations of the sacred text; the English translation that follows each is the translator’s.
Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.