_IS THERE NOT AN APPOINTED TIME TO MAN UPON EARTH? ARE NOT HIS DAYS ALSO LIKE THE DAYS OF AN HIRELING?_ Appointed time - better, warfare х_ TSAABAA'_ (H6635)], hard conflict with evils (so in Isaiah 40:2); but in Daniel 10:1;14:14, it is translated appointed time (cf. Job 14:5) - 'appoint me a set... [ Continue Reading ]
_AS A SERVANT EARNESTLY DESIRETH THE SHADOW, AND AS AN HIRELING LOOKETH FOR THE REWARD OF HIS WORK:_ Earnestly desireth - Hebrew, pants for the (evening) shadow х_ YISH'AP_ (H7602) _ TSEEL_ (H6738)]. The Orientals measure time by the length of their shadow. If the servant, wearied witch toil and mi... [ Continue Reading ]
_SO AM I MADE TO POSSESS MONTHS OF VANITY, AND WEARISOME NIGHTS ARE APPOINTED TO ME._ Months of vanity - comfortless misfortune. "I am made (obliged against my will) to posses" - literally, to be heir to-irony. To be heir to is usually a matter of joy; but here it is the entail of an involuntary an... [ Continue Reading ]
_WHEN I LIE DOWN, I SAY, WHEN SHALL I ARISE, AND THE NIGHT BE GONE? AND I AM FULL OF TOSSINGS TO AND FRO UNTO THE DAWNING OF THE DAY._ When shall ... the night - literally, 'When shall be the flight of the night?' х_ MIDAD_ (H4059), 'flight,' from _ NAADAD_ (H5074), to fly]. The Hebrew "night" is l... [ Continue Reading ]
_MY FLESH IS CLOTHED WITH WORMS AND CLODS OF DUST; MY SKIN IS BROKEN, AND BECOME LOATHSOME._ Clothed with worms. In elephantiasis maggots are bred in the sores. "Herod was eaten of worms" (Acts 12:23; Isaiah 14:11). CLODS OF DUST - clod-like scales of dirt: a crust of dried filth and accumulated... [ Continue Reading ]
_MY DAYS ARE SWIFTER THAN A WEAVER'S SHUTTLE, AND ARE SPENT WITHOUT HOPE._ Days. "I have cut off like a weaver my life" (Isaiah 38:12). Every day, like the weaver's shuttle, leaves a thread behind; and each shall wear as he weaves. But Job's thought is, that his days must swiftly be cut off as a we... [ Continue Reading ]
_O REMEMBER THAT MY LIFE IS WIND: MINE EYE SHALL NO MORE SEE GOOD._ Address to God. WIND, a picture of evanescence. "He remembered that they were but flesh: a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again" (Psalms 78:39). SHALL NO MORE SEE - literally, 'shall no more return to see good.' This change... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE EYE OF HIM THAT HATH SEEN ME SHALL SEE ME NO MORE: THINE EYES ARE UPON ME, AND I AM NOT._ The eye of him hath seen, who beholds me [present, not past, as English version] - i:e., in the very act of beholding me, seeth me no more. "Thine eyes (are) upon me, and I am not?" He disappears from thi... [ Continue Reading ]
_AS THE CLOUD IS CONSUMED AND VANISHETH AWAY: SO HE THAT GOETH DOWN TO THE GRAVE SHALL COME UP NO MORE._ (2 Samuel 12:23). David as to his child, "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. THE GRAVE - the Sheol, or the place of departed spirits-not disproving Job's belief in the resurrecti... [ Continue Reading ]
_HE SHALL RETURN NO MORE TO HIS HOUSE, NEITHER SHALL HIS PLACE KNOW HIM ANY MORE._ Return to more - (Psalms 103:16). The Oriental keenly loves his dwelling. In Arabian elegies the desertion of abodes by their occupants is often a theme of sorrow. Grace overcomes this also. "As many as were possesso... [ Continue Reading ]
_THEREFORE I WILL NOT REFRAIN MY MOUTH; I WILL SPEAK IN THE ANGUISH OF MY SPIRIT; I WILL COMPLAIN IN THE BITTERNESS OF MY SOUL._ Therefore, as such is may hard lot, I will at least have the melancholy satisfaction of venting my sorrow in words. The Hebrew opening words, therefore I, at all events х... [ Continue Reading ]
_AM I A SEA, OR A WHALE, THAT THOU SETTEST A WATCH OVER ME?_ Why dost thou deny me the comfort of care-assuaging sleep? Why scarest thou me with frightful dreams? AM I, THEN, A SEA - regarded in Old Testament poetry us a violent rebel against God, the Lord of nature, who therefore curbs his viole... [ Continue Reading ]
_SO THAT MY SOUL CHOOSETH STRANGLING, AND DEATH RATHER THAN MY LIFE._ My soul chooseth strangling. Umbreit translate, 'So that I could wish to strangle myself-dead by my own hands.' He softens this idea of Job's harbouring the thought of suicide, by representing it as entertained only in agonizing... [ Continue Reading ]
_I LOATHE IT; I WOULD NOT LIVE ALWAY: LET ME ALONE; FOR MY DAYS ARE VANITY._ I would not live alway - even if I could. A life of misery like mine is, a thing to be loathed, not desired. VANITY. "Let me alone" - i:e., cease to afflict me for the few and vain days still left to me (Job 10:20; Psalm... [ Continue Reading ]
_WHAT IS MAN, THAT THOU SHOULDEST MAGNIFY HIM? AND THAT THOU SHOULDEST SET THINE HEART UPON HIM?_ What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? (cf. Psalms 8:4; Psalms 144:3). Job means, 'What is man that thou shouldest make him of so much importance х_ GIDEEL_ (H1435)], and that thou shouldest exp... [ Continue Reading ]
_AND THAT THOU SHOULDEST VISIT HIM EVERY MORNING, AND TRY HIM EVERY MOMENT?_ Every morning - with each new day: "All the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning." It is rather "the Lord's mercies," not our trials, that are "new every morning" (Lamentations 3:23). The idea is that... [ Continue Reading ]
_HOW LONG WILT THOU NOT DEPART FROM ME, NOR LET ME ALONE TILL I SWALLOW DOWN MY SPITTLE?_ How long (like a jealous keeper) WILT THOU never look away [shaa`aach, for depart] from me, nor let me alone for the briefest respite? -literally, so long as I take to swallow my spittle: an Arabic proverb l... [ Continue Reading ]
_I HAVE SINNED; WHAT SHALL I DO UNTO THEE, O THOU PRESERVER OF MEN? WHY HAST THOU SET ME AS A MARK AGAINST THEE, SO THAT I AM A BURDEN TO MYSELF?_ I have sinned (I grant): yet what sin can I do against (to hurt, Job 35:6) thee of such a nature that thou shouldest jealously watch and deprive me of a... [ Continue Reading ]
_AND WHY DOST THOU NOT PARDON MY TRANSGRESSION, AND TAKE AWAY MINE INIQUITY? FOR NOW SHALL I SLEEP IN THE DUST; AND THOU SHALT SEEK ME IN THE MORNING, BUT I SHALL NOT BE._ For now, х_ `ATAAH_ (H6258)] - very soon. It surely is worthy of thee, the great God, to pardon, rather than relentlessly to pu... [ Continue Reading ]