III. (1) AFTER THIS OPENED JOB HIS MOUTH. — There is a striking similarity between this chapter and Jeremiah 20:14, so much so that one must be borrowed from the other; the question is, which is the original? Is Jeremiah the germ of this? or is this the tree from which a branch has been hewn by Jer... [ Continue Reading ]
REGARD. — Literally, _require, ask for, and so manifest_ _care about._ (Comp. Deuteronomy 11:12.)... [ Continue Reading ]
STAIN. — Literally, _redeem_ — _i.e.,_ claim as their rightful inheritance. The other meaning enters into this word, as in Isaiah 63:3; Malachi 1:7. BLACKNESS OF THE DAY — _i.e.,_ preternatural darkness, inopportune and unexpected darkness, like that of eclipses, &c.... [ Continue Reading ]
LET IT NOT BE JOINED. — Rather, _let it not rejoice among,_ as one of the glorious procession of nights.... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT CURSE THE DAY — i.e., Let those who proclaim days unlucky or accursed curse that day as pre-eminently so; or let them recollect that day as a standard or sample of cursing. “Let it be as cursed as Job’s birth day.” These people are further described as being ready to arouse leviathan (Authoris... [ Continue Reading ]
THE DAWNING... — Literally, _the eyelids of the dawn. _... [ Continue Reading ]
PREVENT — _i.e._, “Why was I nursed with care instead of being allowed to fall to the ground and be killed?”... [ Continue Reading ]
DESOLATE PLACES — i.e., gorgeous tombs and splendid sepulchres, which, being tenanted only by the dead, are desolate; or it may mean that the places so built of old are now ruined and desolate. In the former sense it is possible that the Pyramids may here be hinted at.... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTIMELY BIRTH. — Another condition which would have relieved him from the experience of suffering.... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE — i.e., in the grave, the place indicated, but not distinctly expressed.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE OPPRESSOR. — As this is the word rendered _taskmaster_ in Exodus, some have thought there may be an allusion to that history here.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE IS LIGHT GIVEN. — Comp. the connection between life and light in Psalms 36:9 and John 1:4.... [ Continue Reading ]
HEDGED IN. — The same expression was used in an opposite sense in Job 1:10.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE THING WHICH I GREATLY FEARED... — Comp. Proverbs 28:14. It means that he had always had in remembrance the uncertainty and instability of earthly things, an yet he had been overtaken by a calamity that mocked his carefulness and exceeded his apprehensions.... [ Continue Reading ]