Job 5:1
V. (1) CALL NOW. — The speaker now becomes more personal and direct in his tone and bearing. He insinuates that Job is _“_unwise” and “silly,” and promises swift destruction for all such.... [ Continue Reading ]
V. (1) CALL NOW. — The speaker now becomes more personal and direct in his tone and bearing. He insinuates that Job is _“_unwise” and “silly,” and promises swift destruction for all such.... [ Continue Reading ]
I CURSED. — The word means, “I was able to declare distinctly, and I did declare without hesitation, that his lot would be as follows.” All these general results of experience have the sting of insinuation in them that they contain the key to Job’s unfortunate condition. There is secret unsoundness... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY ARE CRUSHED. — Rather, perhaps, _they crush one another._ Their internal rivalries and dissensions bring them to ruin. They exemplify the house divided against itself.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSE HARVEST THE HUNGRY EATETH UP. — The meaning becomes more pointed if we understand the wicked man himself as the subject whose harvest he shall eat famishing and have to take from among the thorns — there shall be so little, and that little choked with thorns. The word “robber” is perhaps a _tr... [ Continue Reading ]
ALTHOUGH AFFLICTION.... — These two verses are confessedly very difficult. It is hard to see also the connection between sparks flying upwards and man’s being born to trouble. It seems to give better sense if we understand Eliphaz comparing man’s lot as prepared for him by God with his own pride and... [ Continue Reading ]
TO SET UP ON HIGH THOSE THAT BE LOW. — Thus his doctrine is that man’s exaltation must come from God, and not from his own vain strivings. (Comp. Psalms 75:4, and the prayer of Hannah, 1 Samuel 2:6; also Psalms 113:7, &c.)... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THAT THEIR HANDS CANNOT PERFORM THEIR ENTERPRISE. — Or, _so that their hands can do-nothing that is sound or of worth, can accomplish nothing effectual. _... [ Continue Reading ]
HE TAKETH THE WISE. — St. Paul quotes the former half of this verse in his warning to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 3:19): “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.” The word rendered “froward” means _crooked, perverse,_ or _to... [ Continue Reading ]
DARKNESS IN THE DAYTIME. — This is possibly an allusion to the Egyptian plague of darkness “that may be felt” (Exodus 10:21), as the words used are similar. This may be a note of probable date. (Compare Isaiah 59:10, where the thoughts correspond, but the words differ.) This is one of the many passa... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM THE SWORD, FROM THEIR MOUTH. — It is merely a matter of grammatical nicety whether we regard the sword as coming forth from their mouth, or as identical with what comes forth from it, or as the first of three things from which the poor are delivered. It is worthy of special note that the Lord i... [ Continue Reading ]
INIQUITY STOPPETH HER MOUTH. — See Psalms 107:42, where the same phrase occurs.... [ Continue Reading ]
This is probably the original of Proverbs 3:12, which is itself quoted by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Job 12:5), while the spirit of it is expressed by St. James and St. John in the Revelation. (See the margin.) This is the only place in Job in which the word here used for _happy_ — wh... [ Continue Reading ]
HE MAKETH SORE, AND BINDETH UP. — The sentiment here expressed is one of those obvious ones which lose all their force from familiarity with them, but which come home sometimes in sorrow with a power that is boundless, because Divine.... [ Continue Reading ]
IN SIX TROUBLES. — The special form of speech here used is characteristic mainly of the Proverbs (see Job 6:16; Job 30:15; Job 30:18; Job 30:21). Since evil was emphatically _touching_ Job, the actual irony of these words must have been bitter indeed.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SHALL REDEEM THEE. — It is rather, h_e hath redeemed thee,_ as though the speaker could appeal to Job’s own experience in the matter which itself became a ground of confident hope for the future.... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALT THOU BE AFRAID. — Comp. the expression in Job 5:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER SHALT THOU BE AFRAID OF THE BEASTS OF THE EARTH. — Literally, _and of the beasts of the earth be not thou afraid. _... [ Continue Reading ]
_(_23_)_ FOR THOU SHALT BE IN LEAGUE. — Literally, _for with the stones of the field shall thy covenant be, and the beasts of the field shall be made to be at peace with thee. _... [ Continue Reading ]
SIN. — The word rendered “sin” literally means also _to miss the mark,_ as in Judges 20:16, and that is probably its meaning here: _Thou shalt visit thy dwelling-place, and miss nothing,_ since one does not see very clearly why the promise of not sinning is connected with visiting the habitation or... [ Continue Reading ]
GREAT. — The word means also _numerous,_ which seems to suit the parallelism better here. The whole description is a very beautiful and poetical one of the perfect security of faith, though it is to a certain extent vitiated by its want of strict correspondence with facts, of which the very case of... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT COME TO THY GRAVE. — There is not improbably a contrast implied here between _going into_ the grave and _going up_ (see the margin) to the barn. The grave in such a case is not the melancholy end of life, but rather the passage to a higher life for which one is already ripe. “Henceforth t... [ Continue Reading ]
SO IT IS. — It is the boastful confidence of Eliphaz which is so hard to bear. He speaks as though Job’s experience were as nothing to his. “This is mine: take it to thyself, and make it thine.”... [ Continue Reading ]