Job's Reply to Eliphaz Job's appeal to God (ch. Job 13:23 _seq_.) remained unanswered. God is resolved to hide His face from him. His friends, instead of seeing in his appeal to Heaven and his protestations of innocence proof that he is innocent, regard these as but a crafty attempt to hide his gui... [ Continue Reading ]
Job 16:1-5. Job expresses his weariness of the monotony of his friends'speeches, and rejects their consolation, which is only that of the lip... [ Continue Reading ]
_many such things_ Job cannot help expressing his impatience of the sameness and the amount of his friends" talk, and its uselessness or even worse. _miserable comforters_ The margin is, _troublesome comforters_, lit. comforters of trouble, whose comfort brings no ease but only more trouble. The wo... [ Continue Reading ]
_Shall vain words have an end_ lit. _is there any end to words of wind?_To retort their charge of "windy knowledge" (ch. Job 15:2), Job cannot help fearing that there is no end to such empty harangues on their side, though he cannot imagine what provokes them to reply instead of letting the controve... [ Continue Reading ]
_I could heap up words_ Rather, I COULD COMPOSE WORDS. By "composing" or joining together words Job means making formal, artificial and heartless speeches; cf. the string of traditional sayings put together by Eliphaz, ch. Job 15:20 _seq_. _shake mine head at you_ "A gesture of astonishment, as muc... [ Continue Reading ]
Job then, with the supercilious contempt peculiar to him and in justification of his rejection of their "comfort," holds up a picture of it before them: their method is not a difficult one, he also could adopt it, if his case were theirs; he could shake his head over them and give them lip-comfort e... [ Continue Reading ]
The verse no doubt carries on the idea of the preceding: I could strengthen you with my mouth, And the condolence of my lips could assuage your grief. The emphasis falls on _mouth_and _lips_. Job could give them lip-comfort enough, pour out abundance of words in which lay no power to uphold the h... [ Continue Reading ]
_my grief_ i. e. _my pain_; see on ch. Job 2:13. _what am I eased_ lit. as margin, _what_(of my pain or trouble) _goeth from me?_... [ Continue Reading ]
Job realizes to himself his new condition: God and men combine to pursue him with their enmity, though he is innocent of all wrong In Job 16:5 Job flung back with scorn the "comforts of God" which the friends proffered him. And now there seems to occur a pause, and the excited sufferer looks about... [ Continue Reading ]
_made me weary_ i. e. _exhausted_me; and _now_describes the new situation which he realizes. The second clause indicates in what way he had been wearied or exhausted, all his "company," his familiar friends, all on whom he could rely, or hope in, had been removed from him, and turned into his enemie... [ Continue Reading ]
The verse reads, Thou hast laid hold of me, and it is become a witness against me; And my leanness riseth up against me; it beareth witness to my face. By God's seizing or laying hold of him Job means his afflictions. These afflictions sent by God were assumed by all to be witnesses of his guilt;... [ Continue Reading ]
Picture of God's hostility to him. The figure is that of a beast of prey. _who hateth me_ lit. _and hateth me_, or, and is hostile to me, i. e. _assaileth me_. The picture of the lion-like assailant, his rending fury, and gnashing teeth, and flashing eyes, is graphic.... [ Continue Reading ]
Picture of the hostility of men the pack of petty foes that howl at the heels of his greater enemy. _have gaped_ Rather, THEY GAPE. Similarly, THEY SMITE. The figure of wild beasts is not strictly maintained, but passes in the second clause into the reality. The gestures described are those of conte... [ Continue Reading ]
_hath delivered_ DELIVERETH. Similarly, _turneth_or CASTETH me into. By the "ungodly" Job does not mean his friends, but the low rabble of men, such as are described in ch. 30.... [ Continue Reading ]
The figure of a man seized by another of overwhelming strength and dashed to pieces. This attack was sudden and unexpected, when Job was at ease and in security cf. ch. Job 29:2 _seq_. This meets what Eliphaz said of the forebodings of conscience, ch. Job 15:20 _seq_.... [ Continue Reading ]
More particular description of the hostile attack of God, its unexpectedness and destructiveness.... [ Continue Reading ]
The second figure Job has been set up by God as a mark for His arrows. _his archers_ Rather, HIS ARROWS, cf. ch. Job 6:4. These arrows fly about him and cleave his vital parts and pour out his life to the ground. The Oriental speaks of the gall and gall-bladder where we might refer to the blood and... [ Continue Reading ]
Another figure, that of an edifice or fort overthrown by repeated breaches, and stormed by warriors. _Giant_is a mighty man, or warrior, Isaiah 42:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
Putting on sackcloth was the sign of mourning; it was worn next the skin, 2 Kings 6:30. By _sewing_it on Job indicates that it is his habitual garment, which he never puts off; though the word may also suggest the closeness with which it adheres to his shrunk and emaciated frame. _defiled my horn_ T... [ Continue Reading ]
Condition to which the sufferer was brought by these destructive attacks of God in His hostility.... [ Continue Reading ]
_My face is foul_ The word may mean _inflamed_, from a root signifying to be red; or the root of the word may mean to ferment, and the reference be to the swollen and blurred appearance of the face from excessive weeping. Involuntary weeping is said to be a symptom of Elephantiasis. The second claus... [ Continue Reading ]
_Not for any injustice_ i. e. _though there is no wrong in my hands_, cf. Isaiah 53:9. The first clause denies that he had done anything amiss in action; and the second affirms that his "prayer," i. e. his whole religious walk with God, was pure. The last words give a reply to the insinuations of El... [ Continue Reading ]
God's destructive enmity will bring Job to death, though there is no wrong in his hands and his prayer is pure (Job 16:17). This feeling makes him appeal to the earth not to cover his innocent blood. He shall die, but it is an unjust death, and his blood shall lie on the bosom of the earth open, app... [ Continue Reading ]
Job 16:18 to Job 17:9. Job, dying a martyr's death, beseeches God that He would uphold his right with God and against men, and give him a pledge that He will make his innocence appear In Job 16:12 Job described the terrible hostility of God, who dashed him to pieces, laid him in ruins and poured ou... [ Continue Reading ]
If his blood is to cry with an unceasing voice for reparation until it find it, there must be some one to take up the cry and see reparation made. Job is assured that already he has such a Witness and sponsor in heaven. The verse reads, Even now, behold my witness is in heaven, And he that vouchet... [ Continue Reading ]
My friends scorn me: Mine eye poureth out tears unto God, _scorn me_ lit. _are my scorners_, or, mockers instead of being my witnesses, cf. Job 12:4; Job 16:4-5. Because his friends mock him and no sympathy or insight is to be looked for from them (Job 16:7; Job 17:4), his eye _droppeth_he appeals... [ Continue Reading ]
Job now names his Witness and states what he hopes for from Him.... [ Continue Reading ]
That he would maintain the right of a man with God, And of a son of man against his neighbour.... [ Continue Reading ]
It is doubtful whether Job means by "a few years" his whole life, or the years that are still to run of it. The last sense is fairest to the language. His disease though mortal was not immediately fatal; but at least his days were consumed "without hope.... [ Continue Reading ]