Job's reply to Eliphaz Job's reply to the first of his three friends falls into _three_great sections: First, Job 6:1-13. He defends against the remonstrances of Eliphaz the bitterness of his complaining and his despair. Second, Job 6:14-30. He laments with sorrowful disappointment the attitude h... [ Continue Reading ]
Job 6:1-13. Job defends the violence of his complaints and his despair Eliphaz had made no reference directly to sin on Job's part; but he drew dark pictures of the evilness of human nature before the eye of his friend, and for his advantage. Job shews a dislike to touch this point. His dislike is... [ Continue Reading ]
_my grief_ Rather, MY IMPATIENCE (ch. Job 4:2). The word expresses the whole demeanour which in ch. 3, and to the eyes of his friends, he shews under his trouble. He desires that it were weighed and also his calamity. Naturally he wishes them weighed against one another. It is not certain that this... [ Continue Reading ]
_the sand of the sea_ A frequent figure for that which is infinite in weight, Proverbs 27:3, or number, Genesis 32:12, or measure, Jeremiah 33:22. _are swallowed up_ Rather, HAVE BEEN WILD, or perhaps _vain_or idle. Probably the word is allied to an Arabic root that signifies to speak, and also, to... [ Continue Reading ]
_the arrows of the Almighty_ This explains his bearing and excuses it. Everywhere Job says that it is not his afflictions in themselves that terrify him, it is that they come from God; it is the moral problem that lies under his calamities and that God has become his enemy that makes his heart "soft... [ Continue Reading ]
Job's complaints are proof of his pain, for does any creature complain when it has what its nature desires? The "braying" and "lowing" here are those expressing discontent or want. _be eaten without salt_ Rather, CAN THAT BE EATEN WHICH IS UNSAVOURY AND SALTLESS? _the white of an egg_ This is the... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse may be rendered not quite literally, My soul refuseth to touch them! Such things are like loathsome food to me. Literally, _like my corrupted_, or, _diseased food_. Job does not name his afflictions but refers to them indirectly as "they" and "such things." He compared his sufferings t... [ Continue Reading ]
So keenly does Job realize the loathsomeness of his sufferings that he forgets his defence and breaks out into a passionate cry for death, which he calls the thing that he longs for.... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse reads, And I should yet have my comfort, And I would leap (for joy) amidst unsparing pain; For I have not denied the words of the Holy One. His comfort or consolation that he would have is death, the only one he seeks or can receive (Job 6:11). The second clause betrays a rising frenz... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse should read, What is my strength that I should wait? And what is mine end that I should be patient? His impatient cry for death and his despair are justified by his condition. "Mine end" i. e. what can the end of my afflictions be but death? Why then should I wait?... [ Continue Reading ]
With more calmness Job proceeds to describe his hopeless condition, carrying out in this indirect way his defence of his despair.... [ Continue Reading ]
Unless his strength were that of stones or his flesh brass he could not hold out against the exhausting afflictions which he has to bear, or recover from them.... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse reads something as follows, Is not my help within me gone, And recovery driven away from me? Both clauses seem to refer to the exhaustion caused by his disease. He feels that all resource within himself and all possibility of recovery is gone. The word "recovery" is that used in ch. Jo... [ Continue Reading ]
The most probable sense of the verse is this: Kindness from his friend is due to him that is despairing, To him that is forsaking the fear of the Almighty. The sense of the second clause proposed by some, _else he will forsake the fear_, is good in itself, but the language hardly admits it. The w... [ Continue Reading ]
Job's sorrowful disappointment at the position taken up towards him by his three friends Job had freely expressed his misery in ch. 3, believing that the sympathies of his friends were entirely with him. He is a brother noble, Whose nature is so far from doing harms That he suspects none. _Lear... [ Continue Reading ]
_they pass away_ Better, THAT PASS AWAY, cf. ch. Job 11:16. The other sense, _that overflow_(their banks), is improbable.... [ Continue Reading ]
_are blackish_ Rather, ARE BLACK, that is, turbid. _is hid_ lit. _hides itself_, that is, dissolves. Pleasures are like poppies spread, You seize the flower, its bloom is shed; Or like the snow-falls in the river A moment white, then melts for ever.... [ Continue Reading ]
_they go to nothing_ Rather, THEY GO UP INTO THE WASTE. The expression _go up_in Heb. is used when no ascent in the strict sense is meant; it signifies to go inland, into the interior of a region. The streams of these brooks flow out and wind into the desert and are consumed by the heat or lost in t... [ Continue Reading ]
Tema lies in the northern highlands of Arabia, towards the Syrian desert, Isaiah 21:14; Jeremiah 25:33. On Sheba see Job 1:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
_ye are nothing_ Or, _are become nothing_. Job applies his comparison. Another reading is: _ye are become it_, i. e. the deceitful, disappointing brook. The general sense remains the same. _my casting down_ lit. _ye see a terror_. Job's comparison of his friends to the brook is graphic and telling.... [ Continue Reading ]
_a reward_ Rather, A GIFT.... [ Continue Reading ]
He had not asked anything very great from his friends, which would have been too severe a strain on their friendship, only sympathy, and straightforward dealing, and that they should consider him the truthful man whom they knew him to be.... [ Continue Reading ]
_hand of the mighty_ that is, the powerful robber, who held his captives to ransom.... [ Continue Reading ]
In answer to their covert insinuations Job demands that they should bring home to him the sins of which they suspected him.... [ Continue Reading ]
_how forcible are right words_ Or, _words of uprightness_, that is honest, straightforward, close dealing with a man about himself, or his offences, sign of true friendship, Psalms 141:5; cf. ch. Job 33:3, where Elihu claims to speak out of this rectitude of mind. The word rendered _forcible_is of r... [ Continue Reading ]
_do ye imagine_ that is, is it your purpose? think ye? _and the speeches_… which are _as wind_ Rather, THOUGH THE SPEECHES OF ONE THAT IS DESPERATE GO INTO THE WIND.... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse probably reads, Yea, ye would cast lots upon the fatherless, And bargain over your friend. A strong invective against their unfeeling behaviour. The words are severe; the preceding passage, however, in which their refusal of sympathy (Job 6:22), and their petty faultfinding with Job's... [ Continue Reading ]
The verse means as a whole, Now, therefore, be pleased to look upon me, I will not surely lie to your face! "Be pleased," or, as we say, be good enough. "To your face," as in ch. Job 1:11. Job desires that instead of speaking at him with averted faces they would look him in the face, and judge fr... [ Continue Reading ]
_Return, I pray you_ The verse means, Turn, I pray you, let there be no injustice; Turn again, I say; my cause is righteous. The word "turn" appears to mean not "begin anew," but "adopt another course," that is, proceed on other suppositions than that of my guiltiness, and seek another explanatio... [ Continue Reading ]
In Job 6:28 Job asseverated that he spoke truth in affirming his innocence. In Job 6:29 he affirmed that he had right on his side in his plea against God, in other words that he was wrongly afflicted. This verse, therefore, can hardly be a new assertion that he speaks the truth when he affirms his i... [ Continue Reading ]