BUT NOW THEY THAT ARE YOUNGER THAN I - Margin, “of fewer days.” It is not probable that Job here refers to his three friends. It is not possible to determine their age with accuracy, but in Job 15:10, they claim that there were with them old and very aged men, much older than the father of Job. Thou... [ Continue Reading ]
YEA, WHERETO MIGHT THE STRENGTH OF THEIR HANDS PROFIT ME - There has been much difference of opinion respecting the meaning of this passage. The general sense is clear. Job means to describe those who were reduced by poverty and want, and who were without respectability or home, and who had no power... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WANT AND FAMINE - By hunger and poverty their strength is wholly exhausted, and they are among the miserable outcasts of society. In order to show the depth to which he himself was sunk in public estimation, Job goes into a description of the state of these miserable wretches, and says that he w... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO CUT UP MALLOWS - For the purpose of eating. Mallows are common medicinal plants, famous for their emollient or softening properties, and the size and brilliancy of their flowers. It is not probable, however, that Job referred to what we commonly understand by the word mallows. It has been common... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY WERE DRIVEN FORTH FROM AMONG MEN - As vagabonds and outcasts. They were regarded as unfit to live among the civilized and the orderly, and were expelled as nuisances. (THEY CRIED AFTER THEM AS AFTER A THIEF.) - The inhabitants of the place where they lived drove them out with a loud outcry, as... [ Continue Reading ]
TO DWELL IN THE CLIFFS OF THE VALLEYS - The word here rendered “cliffs” (ערוץ _‛__ârûts_) denotes rather “horror,” or something “horrid,” and the sense here is, that they dwelt in “the horrer of valleys;” that is, in horrid valleys. The idea is that of deep and frightful glens, where wild beasts r... [ Continue Reading ]
AMONG THE BUSHES - Coverdale, “Upon the dry heath went they about crying.” The Hebrew word is the same which occurs in Job 30:4, and means bushes in general. They were heard in the shrubbery that grew in the desert. THEY BRAYED - ינהקו _yinâhaqû_. The Vulgate renders this, “They were concealed.”... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY WERE CHILDREN OF FOOLS - The word rendered “fools” נבל _nâbâl_, means, (1) stupid, foolish; and (2) abandoned, impious; compare 1 Samuel 25:3, 1 Samuel 25:25. Here it means the worthless, the refuse of society, the abandoned. They had no respectable parentage. Umbreit, “A brood of infamy.”... [ Continue Reading ]
AND NOW AM I THEIR SONG - See Job 17:6; compare Psalms 69:12, “I was the song of the drunkards;” Lamentations 3:14, “I was a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.” The sense is, that they made Job and his calamities the subject of low jesting, and treated him with contempt. His name... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY ABHOR ME - Hebrew, They regard me as abominable. THEY FLEE FAR FROM ME - Even such an impious and low born race now will have nothing to do with me. They would consider it no honor to be associated with me, but keep as far from me as possible. AND SPARE NOT TO SPIT IN MY FACE - Margin, “withho... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE HE HATH LOOSED MY CORD - According to this translation, the reference here is to God, and the sense is, that the reason why he was thus derided and contemned by such a worthless race was, that God had unloosened his cord. That is, God had rendered him incapable of vindicating himself, or of... [ Continue Reading ]
UPON MY RIGHT HAND RISE THE YOUTH - The right hand is the place of honor, and therefore it was felt to be a greater insult that they should occupy even that place. The word rendered “youth” (פרחח _pirchach_) occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is probably from פרח _pârach_, “to sprout,... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY MAR MY PATH - They break up all my plans. Perhaps here, also, the image is taken from war, and Job may represent himself as on a line of march, and he says that this rabble comes and breaks up his path altogether. They break down the bridges, and tear up the way, so that it is impossible to pas... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY CAME UPON ME AS A WIDE BREAKING-IN OF WATERS - The Hebrew here is simply, “Like a wide breach they came,” and the reference may be, not to an inundation, as our translators supposed, but to an irruption made by a foe through a breach made in a wall. When such a wall fell, or when a breach was m... [ Continue Reading ]
TERRORS ARE TURNED UPON ME - As if they were all turned upon him, or made to converge toward him. Everything suited to produce terror seemed to have a direction given it toward him. Umbreit, and some others, however, suppose that God is here referred to, and that the meaning is,” God is turned again... [ Continue Reading ]
AND NOW MY SOUL IS POURED OUT UPON ME - So in Psalms 42:4, “I pour out my soul in me.” We say that one is dissolved in grief. The language is derived from the fact that the soul in grief seems to lose all firmness or consistence. The Arabs style a fearful person, one who has a watery heart, or whose... [ Continue Reading ]
MY BONES ARE PIERCED IN ME - The bones are often represented in the Scriptures as the seat of acute pain; Psalms 6:2; Psalms 22:14; Psalms 31:10; Psalms 38:3; Psalms 42:10; Proverbs 14:30; compare Job 20:11. The meaning here is, that he had had shooting or piercing pains in the night, which disturbe... [ Continue Reading ]
BY THE GREAT FORCE OF MY DISEASE - The words “of my disease” are not in the Hebrew. The usual interpretation of the passage is, that in consequence of the foul and offensive nature of his malady, his garment had become discolored or defiled - changed from being white and clear to filthiness and offe... [ Continue Reading ]
HE HATH CAST ME INTO THE MIRE - That is, God has done it. In this book the name of God is often understood where the speaker seems to avoid it, in order that it may not be needlessly repeated. On the meaning of the expression here, see the notes at Job 9:31. AND I AM BECOME LIKE DUST AND ASHES - Ei... [ Continue Reading ]
I CRY UNTO THEE, AND THOU DOST NOT HEAR ME - This was a complaint which Job often made, that he could not get the ear of God; that his prayer was not regarded, and that he could not get his cause before him; compare Job 13:3, Job 13:19 ff, and Job 27:9. I STAND UP - Standing was a common posture of... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU ART BECOME CRUEL TO ME - Margin, turned to be. This language, applied to God, seems to be harsh and irreverent, and it may well be inquired whether the word cruel does not express an idea which Job did not intend. The Hebrew word אכזר _'akzâr_, is from an obsolete root כזר - not found in Hebre... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU LIFTEST ME UP TO THE WIND - The sense here is, that he was lifted up as stubble is by a tempest, and driven mercilessly along. The figure of riding upon the wind or the whirlwind, is common in Oriental writers, and indeed elsewhere. So Milton says, “They ride the air in whirlwind.” So Addison... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I KNOW THAT THOU WILT BRING ME TO DEATH - This is the language of despair. Occasionally Job seems to have had an assurance that his calamities would pass by, and that God would show himself to be his friend on earth (compare the notes at Job 19:25), and at other times he utters the language of d... [ Continue Reading ]
HOWBEIT HE WILL NOT STRETCH OUT HIS HAND TO THE GRAVE - Margin, heap. In our common version this verse conveys no very clear idea, and it is quite evident that our translators despaired of giving it a consistent sense, and attempted merely to translate it literally. The verse has been rendered by ev... [ Continue Reading ]
DID NOT I WEEP ... - Job here appeals to his former life, and says that it had been a characteristic of his life to manifest compassion to the afflicted and the poor. His object in doing this is, evidently, to show how remarkable it was that he was so much afflicted. “Did I deserve,” the sense is, “... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN I LOOKED FOR GOOD - When I supposed that respect would be shown me; or when I looked forward to an honored old age. I expected to be made happy and prosperous through life, as the result of my uprightness and benevolence; but, instead of that, calamity came and swept all my comforts away. He ex... [ Continue Reading ]
MY BOWELS BOILED - Or rather, My bowels boil - for he refers to his present circumstances, and not to the past. It is clear that by this phrase he designs to describe deep affliction. The bowels, in the Scriptures, are represented as the seat of the affections. By this is meant the upper bowels, or... [ Continue Reading ]
I WENT MOURNING - Or rather, “I go,” in the present tense, for he is now referring to his present calamities, and not to what was past. The word rendered “mourning,” however (קדר _qâdar_), means here rather to be dark, dingy, tanned. It literally means to be foul or turbid, like a torrent, Job 6:16... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM A BROTHER TO DRAGONS - That is, my loud complaints and cries resemble the doleful screams of wild animals, or of the most frightful monsters. The word “brother” is often used in this sense, to denote similarity in any respect. The word “dragons” here (תנין _tannı̂yn_), denotes properly a sea-mo... [ Continue Reading ]
MY SKIN IS BLACK UPON ME; - see Job 30:28. It had become black by the force of the disease. MY BONES ARE BURNT WITH HEAT - The bones, in the Scriptures, are often represented as the seat of pain. The disease of Job seems to have pervaded the whole body. If it was the elephantiasis (see the notes at... [ Continue Reading ]
MY HARP ALSO IS TURNED TO MOURNING - What formerly gave cheerful sounds, now gives only notes of plaintiveness and lamentation. The harp was probably an instrument originally designed to give sounds of joy. For a description of it, see the notes at Isaiah 5:12. AND MY ORGAN - The form of what is her... [ Continue Reading ]