_JOB MAKES A SOLEMN PROTESTATION OF HIS INTEGRITY, AND CONCLUDES WITH A PRAYER THAT HIS DEFENCE MIGHT BE HEARD AND RECORDED._ _Before Christ 1645._ _JOB 31:1. WHY THEN SHOULD I THINK UPON A MAID?_— This has been generally understood to mean the great care and circumspection which Job had used to a... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I HAVE WALKED WITH VANITY— _If I have followed after a lie, or my foot hath hastened to fraud._ Houbigant.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MINE HEART WALKED AFTER MINE EYES— The expression is strong and beautiful. The meaning of this latter clause is, "If my eyes have seduced my heart, or any corruption have defiled my hands.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN LET MY WIFE GRIND UNTO ANOTHER— _May my wife be defiled by another._... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I DID DESPISE, &C.— See on chap. Job 19:25. The 14th verse should be rendered in the future, agreeably to the Hebrew; _what shall I do, when God shall arise; and when he shall visit, what shall I answer him?_ Job here plainly speaks of something which he was infallibly to expect, had he behaved u... [ Continue Reading ]
OR HAVE EATEN MY MORSEL MYSELF ALONE— This is agreeable to the early ideas of hospitality, and is as strong an expression of benevolence as can be conceived. The Arabs practise it to this very day in its greatest extent. On a journey, after they have prepared their food, they go to the highest groun... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR FROM MY YOUTH, &C.— Houbigant renders this most beautifully: how far it may be agreeable to the Hebrew, I take not upon me to determine. _For compassion educated me from a child; she brought me up, even from my mother's womb._ Heath reads the passage thus; _If from his youth I brought him not up... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN I SAW MY HELP IN THE GATE— _When I saw myself superior in the gate._ Houbigant. That is, superior in authority, sufficient to influence those judges, whose usual place of hearing causes was in the gates of cities, as we have often had occasion to observe.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN LET MINE ARM FALL FROM MY SHOULDER-BLADE— _May my shoulder-blade fall from my shoulder, and my arm be broken from my elbow._ Heath and Houbigant.... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS ALSO WERE AN INIQUITY TO BE PUNISHED BY THE JUDGE— The Hebrew of this passage is only two words, פלילי עון _avon pelili,_ which Schultens renders _iniquitas arbitratoria;_ meaning, as he explains it, such an iniquity as any one must judge to be so; and he confirms his interpretation by the use... [ Continue Reading ]
IF THE MEN OF MY TABERNACLE SAID NOT— _If the men of my dwelling had not said, Who can shew the man who hath not filled himself with his victuals?_ Heath and Schultens.... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I COVERED MY TRANSGRESSIONS AS ADAM— This passage contains an allusion to one circumstance in the history of the fall. Among the particulars wherein Job vindicates his integrity, one is, that he was ever ready to acknowledge his errors. The allusion to Adam's hiding himself is proper and apposite... [ Continue Reading ]
DID I FEAR A GREAT MULTITUDE— _Then may I be afraid of the great multitude, and may the contempt of kindred terrify me. May I even be silent, and not go out of my door._ Heath.... [ Continue Reading ]
OH THAT ONE WOULD HEAR ME, &C.— The clause, _behold, my desire is,_ &c. might be better rendered, _Lo, here my sign or pledge, let the Almighty question me:_ for the Hebrew word signifies, equally, _let him answer me,_ or _let him make me to answer._ Job here, as in other places, shews a great earne... [ Continue Reading ]