What Job sought with tears was that God would cause his innocence to be acknowledged by God, and made manifest against men. Now he adds words in support of his prayer, or gives the reason for it. He so prays, for here in this life he has no hope of restoration. God's anger will pursue him to the gra... [ 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 ]
_my breath_ Rather as margin, MY SPIRIT IS SPENT, i. e. consumed. The "spirit" is the principle of life. _the graves are ready for me_ lit. _graves are mine_; the meaning being: the grave is my portion; cf. Job 17:13 _seq_. Coverdale: I am harde at deathes dore.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Are there not mockers with me_ lit. _mockery_. The interrogative form is possible, but more likely the verse is a strong asseveration, uttered in a tone of indignant impatience. The connexion indicates that the reference is to the illusory hopes and promises of restoration in this life which the fr... [ Continue Reading ]
The verse reads, Give a pledge now! be surety for me with thee! Who is there (else) that will strike hands with me? _Lay down now_ i. e. lay or put in a pledge. _Now_is not temporal, but a particle of importunate entreaty. _put me in a surety_ As above, BE SURETY FOR ME WITH THEE. The first expre... [ Continue Reading ]
New appeal to God that He would undertake for Job or give him a pledge that he would cause his innocence to be acknowledged by God, Job 17:3; with the grounds for this prayer as before, Job 17:4.... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse answers the question in Job 17:3, Who (else) will strike hands with me? None else will, for the hearts of the three friends and all others have been blinded, and can take no true view of the sufferer's cause. _exalt them_ i. e. give them the upper hand or victory; cf. Job 42:7-8. To give... [ Continue Reading ]
These verses support the petition in Job 17:3. If God will not undertake for Job none else will, for the hearts of his friends have been blinded. This thought of the perverse obstinacy and cruelty of his friends leads Job again to a gloomy survey of his whole condition (cf. Job 16:22 to Job 17:2). H... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse is very obscure. In some way or other it must carry on Job's severe reflection on the conduct of his friends (Job 17:4), and express it in a stronger way. The word rendered in A.V. _flattery_usually means a _portion_or share, that which falls to one on a division of land, booty, and the l... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse reads, I am made also a byeword or the peoples, And am become one to be spit on in the face. The words, _I am made_might mean, as A.V., _He hath made me_, the reference being to God. Undoubtedly Job turns away here from men and refers to a broader evil, the inexplicable course of the w... [ Continue Reading ]
The sorrowful condition to which Job was reduced by his afflictions.... [ Continue Reading ]
Effect produced on religious minds by the sight of such sufferings inflicted on the godly. Such moral perversions in the rule of the world "confound" religious men, and rouse their moral indignation against the wicked, who are prosperous; cf. similar thoughts Psalms 37:1 _seq_., Psalms 73:2 _seq_. T... [ Continue Reading ]
_The righteous also shall hold on_ Or, BUT THE RIGHTEOUS SHALL HOLD ON. The righteous will not allow themselves to be misled from the path of rectitude by these moral wrongs which they see prevail in God's rule of the world, they will cling in spite of them to their righteous life. Nay such obscurit... [ Continue Reading ]
_do ye return, and come_ Job bids them renew, if they please, their attempts to solve his problem or deal with his case; as often as they did so they only revealed their incapacity and foolishness. _for I cannot find one wise man_ Rather, I SHALL NOT FIND. Their renewed attempts would have no bette... [ Continue Reading ]
Final repudiation by Job of the false hopes of recovery which the friends held out to him. He knows better, _his_hope is in the grave. Turning with a last word to his friends Job bids them renew as often as they chose their attempts to explain his condition, they should only shew themselves ignoran... [ Continue Reading ]
Very different from their delusive anticipations was the truth in regard to Job's condition. His days were past, and his life with all its cherished purposes cut off. The _thoughts_of his heart is lit. as margin, _the possessions_, i. e. the enterprises and purposes which he cherished and clung to a... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse appears to be a description by Job of the delusive and foolish proceeding of his friends. _They change the night into day_ The night of calamity and death in which Job is enveloped and into which he is entering more deeply they change into the day of life and renewed prosperity. While in... [ Continue Reading ]
_If I wait, the grave_ Rather as above. The _grave_is in Heb. _Sheol_, the place of the departed. The word _wait_is the same as _hope_, Job 17:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
The natural sense and connexion of these verses is as follows: 13. If I wait for the grave as mine house; If I have spread my bed in the darkness; 14. If I have said to the pit, thou art my father, To the worm, thou art my mother, and my sister: 15. Where then is my hope? And as for my hope, w... [ Continue Reading ]
_to corruption_ Rather as above, THE PIT, or grave, Psalms 16:10. The words father, mother and sister, expressing the nearest relationship, indicate how closely Job now feels himself connected with the grave, he wholly belongs to it, and he greets it as taking the place of all related to him on eart... [ Continue Reading ]
If in fact and in his own feeling Job so surely belongs to death, where is the brilliant hope which his friends hold out, and who shall ever see such a hope realized? or, who can perceive a trace of it? His hope in truth is another (Job 17:13).... [ Continue Reading ]
The truth in regard to his hope is this, something different from the tale of his friends, It shall go down to the bars of the pit, When once there is rest in the dust. The _pit_is in Heb. _Sheol_. As a great subterranean prison-house it has bars or bolts, for it has also gates, ch. Job 38:17; cf... [ Continue Reading ]