JOB'S PRESENT MISERY Job bitterly contrasts his present with his past condition, as described in Job 29. It must be borne in mind that Job was now outcast and beggared. 1-8. Job complains that he is insulted by abject outcasts, the class of broken men who are expelled from respectable tribes and l... [ Continue Reading ]
SOLITARY] RV 'gaunt.' FLYING, etc.] render, 'Fugitives in the desert on the eve of want and ruin.'... [ Continue Reading ]
RENDER, 'They pluck salt-wort' (a plant sometimes eaten by the abjectly poor) 'among the bushes, and the roots of the white broom to warm them.' This broom is a distinctive shrub of the southern desert hills: cp. 1 Kings 19:4; RM.... [ Continue Reading ]
Render, 'They snore under bushes and huddle under thorny shrubs.' 8B. RY 'They were scourged out of the land.' 9-14. A description of a poor old man mobbed and worried by the rabble. Or possibly 11-15 refers to God as assailing him with troops of afflictions. The Heb. is very obscure.... [ Continue Reading ]
RV renders, 'For he hath loosed his cord, and afflicted me, and they have cast off the bridle before me.' RM gives another reading, 'my cord (or bowstring).' Perhaps 'loosed my bowstring' is the best of these alternatives: cp. Job 29:20. Conder suggests,' For they spy the (tent) door and insult me,... [ Continue Reading ]
Conder suggests, 'The brood (of boys) stand upon my right hand (an insult, for the place of honour was on the right hand). They trip up my feet and jostle me on the dangerous paths.' They no longer make room for him. The last clause is more usually regarded as a metaphor from a siege; so RV 'And the... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY HAVE NO HELPER] Perhaps we should read, 'There is none to check them.'... [ Continue Reading ]
MY SOUL] RV 'my honour.' 16-31. Job laments his misery of mind and body, and the severity of God.... [ Continue Reading ]
ARE PIERCED] by acute pain. SINEWS] render, 'gnawing pains.'... [ Continue Reading ]
CHANGED] lit. 'disfigured.' His complaint causes painful changes in his appearance.... [ Continue Reading ]
REGARDEST ME _NOT_] rather, 'lookest at me,' with indifference to his sufferings.... [ Continue Reading ]
Figurative of the storm of God's anger. DISSOLVEST MY SUBSTANCE] RV' dissolvest me in the tempest.'... [ Continue Reading ]
HOUSE APPOINTED] RM 'house of meeting.' Job is convinced that his sufferings can only end in death.... [ Continue Reading ]
Render, 'Doth not a sinking man stretch out his hand, and cry out in his calamity?' 27A. Figurative of his agitated condition. 27B. PREVENTED ME] RV 'are come upon me.' 28A. RM 'I go blackened, but not by the sun'; the result perhaps of his disease: see Job 30:30. 28B. RV 'I stand up in the asse... [ Continue Reading ]
DRAGONS] RV 'jackals.' OWLS] lit. 'daughters of screeching.' These are animals associated with desolate places: cp. Isaiah 13:21; Isaiah 13:22. 3OA. RV 'My skin is black, _and falleth_ from.me.'... [ Continue Reading ]
ORGAN] RV 'pipe.' Job's happiness is turned to sorrow. These Chapter s form a section by themselves, in which Job reviews his life. He first of all draws a picture of his past prosperous career, when he was happy and respected (Job 29). With this he contrasts his present condition, when men he once... [ Continue Reading ]