Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

that stretcheth … alone] Cf. ch. Isaiah 40:22; Isaiah 42:5; Job 9:8.

by myself] The A.V. here follows the reading presupposed by the vowel-points (Qěrê). The R.V. rightly goes back to the consonantal text (Kĕthîb) which is preserved in the LXX. and Vulg. and some Hebrew MSS. Render accordingly: who was with me? i.e. there was none to help me.

 

Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

That spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.—The Hebrew written text gives the more emphatic reading: that spreadeth forth the earth; who was with me? (Comp. Isaiah 40:13; Isaiah 63:3; and Job 9:8.)

 

Pulpit Commentary

that stretcheth forth the heavens alone (comp. Job 9:8), that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself. God did not delegate the creation of the heaven and the earth to an inferior spirit, a δημιουργός, as the Greeks generally taught. He did not even call in the co-operation of a helper. Singly and solely by his own power he created all things.

 

Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

That spreadeth abroad the earth – Representing the earth, as is often done in the Scriptures, as a plain. God here appeals to the fact that he alone had made the heavens and the earth, as the demonstration that he is able to accomplish what is here said of the deliverance of his people.

 

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

alone—literally, “Who was with Me?” namely, when I did it; answering to “by Myself,” in the parallel clause (compare similar phrases, Ho 8:4; Joh 5:30) [Maurer].