Job 6:1
_BUT JOB ANSWERED AND SAID,_ No JFB commentary on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
_BUT JOB ANSWERED AND SAID,_ No JFB commentary on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
_OH THAT MY GRIEF WERE THROUGHLY WEIGHED, AND MY CALAMITY LAID IN THE BALANCES TOGETHER!_ Throughly weighed. Oh that, instead of censuring my complaints, when thou oughtest rather to have sympathized with me, thou wouldest accurately compare together my sorrow and my misfortunes: these latter outwe... [ Continue Reading ]
_FOR NOW IT WOULD BE HEAVIER THAN THE SAND OF THE SEA: THEREFORE MY WORDS ARE SWALLOWED UP._ The sand. "The sand is weighty" (Proverbs 27:3). ARE SWALLOWED UP - See margin. So Psalms 77:4 - "I am so troubled that I cannot speak." But Job plainly is apologizing, not for not having had words enough... [ Continue Reading ]
_FOR THE ARROWS OF THE ALMIGHTY ARE WITHIN ME, THE POISON WHEREOF DRINKETH UP MY SPIRIT: THE TERRORS OF GOD DO SET THEMSELVES IN ARRAY AGAINST ME._ Arrows ... within me - have pierced me. A poetic image, representing the avenging Almighty armed with bow and arrows. "Thine arrows stick fast in me" ... [ Continue Reading ]
_DOTH THE WILD ASS BRAY WHEN HE HATH GRASS? OR LOWETH THE OX OVER HIS FODDER?_ Wild ass bray. Neither wild animals, as the wild donkey, nor tame animals, as the ox, are dissatisfied when well supplied with food. The braying of the one and the lowing of the other prove distress and lack of palatable... [ Continue Reading ]
_CAN THAT WHICH IS UNSAVOURY BE EATEN WITHOUT SALT? OR IS THERE ANY TASTE IN THE WHITE OF AN EGG?_ Unsavoury - tasteless; insipid. Salt is a chief necessary of life to an Eastern, whose food is mostly vegetable. THE WHITE - literally, spittle (1 Samuel 21:13), which the white of an egg resembles.... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE THINGS THAT MY SOUL REFUSED TO TOUCH ARE AS MY SORROWFUL MEAT._ To touch is contrasted with meat. 'My taste refused even to touch it, and yet am I fed with such meat of sickness.' The second clause literally is, 'Such is like the sickness of my food' - i:e., my food exciting sickness or disgus... [ Continue Reading ]
_OH THAT I MIGHT HAVE MY REQUEST; AND THAT GOD WOULD GRANT ME THE THING THAT I LONG FOR!_ Have my request. To desire death is no necessary proof of fitness for death. The ungodly sometimes desire it so as to escape troubles, without thought of the hereafter. The godly desire it in order to be with... [ Continue Reading ]
_EVEN THAT IT WOULD PLEASE GOD TO DESTROY ME; THAT HE WOULD LET LOOSE HIS HAND, AND CUT ME OFF!_ Destroy - literally, grind or crush (Isaiah 3:15). LET LOOSE HIS HAND. God had put forth His hand only so far as to wound the surface of Job's flesh - "Only upon himself put not forth thine hand" (Job... [ Continue Reading ]
_THEN SHOULD I YET HAVE COMFORT; YEA, I WOULD HARDEN MYSELF IN SORROW: LET HIM NOT SPARE; FOR I HAVE NOT CONCEALED THE WORDS OF THE HOLY ONE._ I would harden myself - rather, 'I would exult х_ CAALAD_ (H5539), leap for joy] in the pain,' if I knew that that pain would hasten my death (Gesenius). Um... [ Continue Reading ]
_WHAT IS MY STRENGTH, THAT I SHOULD HOPE? AND WHAT IS MINE END, THAT I SHOULD PROLONG MY LIFE?_ What is my strength - so as to warrant the hope of restoration to health? a hope which Eliphaz had suggested. And what but a miserable end of life is before me, that I should desire to prolong life? (Umb... [ Continue Reading ]
_IS MY STRENGTH THE STRENGTH OF STONES? OR IS MY FLESH OF BRASS?_ My strength. Disease had so attacked him that his strength would need to be hard as a stone, and his flesh like brass, not to sink under it. But he has only flesh like other men. It must, therefore, give way; so that the hope of rest... [ Continue Reading ]
_IS NOT MY HELP IN ME? AND IS WISDOM DRIVEN QUITE FROM ME?_ Is not my help in me? The interrogation is better omitted. 'There is no help in me!' For "wisdom," deliverance х_ TUWSHIYAAH_ (H8454)] is a better rendering. 'And deliverance is driven quite from me.' Or what is tantamount, 'Is it not the... [ Continue Reading ]
_TO HIM THAT IS AFFLICTED PITY SHOULD BE SHEWED FROM HIS FRIEND; BUT HE FORSAKETH THE FEAR OF THE ALMIGHTY._ Pity - a proverb х_ CHECED_ (H2617)]. Checed is the love which judges indulgently of our fellowmen: it is put on a par with truth in Proverbs 3:3. "Mercy and truth," for they together form t... [ Continue Reading ]
_MY BRETHREN HAVE DEALT DECEITFULLY AS A BROOK, AND AS THE STREAM OF BROOKS THEY PASS AWAY;_ My brethren, Those whom I regarded as my brethren, from whom I looked for faithfulness in my adversity, have disappointed me, as the streams failing from drought-wadys of Arabia, filled in the winter and sp... [ Continue Reading ]
_WHICH ARE BLACKISH BY REASON OF THE ICE, AND WHEREIN THE SNOW IS HID:_ Blackish - literally, Go as a mourner in black clothing (Psalms 35:14, end). A vivid and poetic image to picture the stream, turbid and black with melted ice and snow descending from the mountains into the valley. In the next c... [ Continue Reading ]
_WHAT TIME THEY WAX WARM, THEY VANISH: WHEN IT IS HOT, THEY ARE CONSUMED OUT OF THEIR PLACE._ Wax warm - rather, 'At the time when (But they soon, Umbreit) they become narrower (flow in a narrower bed-literally, are bound: akin to a Syriac root), they are silent (cease to flow noisily); in the heat... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE PATHS OF THEIR WAY ARE TURNED ASIDE; THEY GO TO NOTHING, AND PERISH._ The paths of their way are turned aside. Caravans (Hebrew, travelers) turn aside from their way (Umbreit). But Maurer supports the English version, the paths of their (the travelers) 'way turn aside' - i:e., travelers turn a... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE TROOPS OF TEMA LOOKED, THE COMPANIES OF SHEBA WAITED FOR THEM._ The troops - i:e., caravans. Tema, north of Arabia Deserta, near the Syrian desert, called from Tema son of Ishmael (Genesis 25:15; Isaiah 21:14; Jeremiah 25:23). Still so called by the Arabs. Job 6:19 give another picture of the... [ Continue Reading ]
_THEY WERE CONFOUNDED BECAUSE THEY HAD HOPED; THEY CAME THITHER, AND WERE ASHAMED._ They had hoped - literally, each had hoped-namely, that their companions would find water. The greater had been their hopes the more bitter now their disappointment; they came there to the place and were ashamed;-li... [ Continue Reading ]
_DID I SAY, BRING UNTO ME? OR, GIVE A REWARD FOR ME OF YOUR SUBSTANCE?_ Bring unto me. And yet I did not ask you to bring me a gift, or to pay for me out of your substance a reward (to the Judge, to redeem me from my punishment); all I asked from you was affectionate treatment.... [ Continue Reading ]
_OR, DELIVER ME FROM THE ENEMY'S HAND? OR, REDEEM ME FROM THE HAND OF THE MIGHTY?_ The mighty - the oppressor, or creditor in whose power the debtor was (Umbreit).... [ Continue Reading ]
_TEACH ME, AND I WILL HOLD MY TONGUE: AND CAUSE ME TO UNDERSTAND WHEREIN I HAVE ERRED._ Irony. If you can teach me the right view, I am willing to be set right and hold my tongue, and to be made to see my error. But then, if your words be really the right words, how is it that they are so feeble? х_... [ Continue Reading ]
_DO YE IMAGINE TO REPROVE WORDS, AND THE SPEECHES OF ONE THAT IS DESPERATE, WHICH ARE AS WIND?_ Do ye imagine, or mean, to reprove words, and (to reprove) the speeches of one desperate, (which are) as wind (cf. Job 6:3, remark at end) mere nothings, not to be so narrowly taken, to task? or, as Maur... [ Continue Reading ]
_YEA, YE OVERWHELM THE FATHERLESS, AND YE DIG A PIT FOR YOUR FRIEND._ Ye overwhelm: - literally, 'ye cause (supply, your anger, Umbreit) a net'-namely, of sophistry (Noyes and Schuttens) - 'to fall upon the desolate (one bereft of help, like the fatherless orphan); and ye dig (a pit) for your frien... [ Continue Reading ]
_NOW THEREFORE BE CONTENT, LOOK UPON ME; FOR IT IS EVIDENT UNTO YOU IF I LIE._ Be content - rather, be pleased to-look. Since you have so falsely judged my words, look upon me - i:e., upon my countenance: for it is evident (before your faces) if I lie; my countenance will betray me if I be the hypo... [ Continue Reading ]
_RETURN, I PRAY YOU, LET IT NOT BE INIQUITY; YEA, RETURN AGAIN, MY RIGHTEOUSNESS IS IN IT._ Return - namely, from the wrong course which ye have entered on in your conference with me - i:e., retract your charges. LET IT NOT BE INIQUITY - i:e., (retract) that injustice-literally, injustice before... [ Continue Reading ]
_IS THERE INIQUITY IN MY TONGUE? CANNOT MY TASTE DISCERN PERVERSE THINGS?_ INIQUITY IN MY TONGUE. Will you say that my guilt lies in the organ of speech, and will you call it to account? or is it that my taste (palate) or discernment is not capable to form a judgment of perverse things? Is it thus y... [ Continue Reading ]