Job 13:27

_THOU PUTTEST MY FEET ALSO IN THE STOCKS, AND LOOKEST NARROWLY UNTO ALL MY PATHS; THOU SETTEST A PRINT UPON THE HEELS OF MY FEET._ Stocks - in which the prisoner's feet were made fast until the time of execution (Jeremiah 20:2). LOOKEST NARROWLY - as an overseer would watch a prisoner. PRINT. Either the stocks or his disease marked his soles (Hebrew, roots), as the bastinado would. Better, thou drawest (or diggest) (Gesenius) for thyself - i:e., to effect thy purpose-a line (or trench) (Gesenius) round my soles, beyond which I must not move (Umbreit). х_ TITCHAQEH_ (H2707) Job 3:23; Job 19:8, "He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass."]...

23-28 Job begs to have his sins discovered to him. A true penitent is willing to know the worst of himself; and we should all desire to know what our transgressions are, that we may confess them, and guard against them for the future. Job complains sorrowfully of God's severe dealings with him. Time does not wear out the guilt of sin. When God writes bitter things against us, his design is to make us bring forgotten sins to mind, and so to bring us to repent of them, as to break us off from them. Let young persons beware of indulging in sin. Even in this world they may so possess the sins of their youth, as to have months of sorrow for moments of pleasure. Their wisdom is to remember their Creator in their early days, that they may have assured hope, and sweet peace of conscience, as the solace of their declining years. Job also complains that his present mistakes are strictly noticed....

Verse Job 13:27. _THOU PUTTEST MY FEET ALSO IN THE STOCKS_] בסד _bassad_, "in a clog," such as was tied to the feet of slaves, to prevent them from running away. This is still used in the West Indies, among _slave-dealers_; and is there called the _pudding_, being a large collar of iron, locked round the ankle of the unfortunate man. Some have had them _twenty_ pounds' weight; and, having been condemned to carry them for several years, when released could not walk without them! A case of this kind I knew: The slave had learned to walk well with his _pudding_, but when taken off, if he attempted to walk, he fell down, and was obliged to resume it occasionally, till practice had taught him the proper centre of gravity, which had been so materially altered by wearing so large a weight; the badge at once of _his oppression_, and of the _cruelty_ of his task-...

THOU PUTTEST MY FEET ALSO IN THE STOCKS - The word rendered “stocks” (סד _sad_), denotes the wooden frame or block in which the feet of a person were confined for punishment. The whole passage here is designed to describe the feet; as so confined in a clog or clogs, as to preclude the power of motion. Stocks or clogs were used often in ancient times as a mode of punishment. Proverbs 7:22. Jeremiah was punished by being confined in the stocks. Jeremiah 20:2; Jeremiah 29:2, Jeremiah 29:6. Paul and Silas were in like manner confined in the prison in stocks;...

EXPOSITION JOB 13:1, JOB 13:2 The first two verses of Job 13:1. are closely connected with Job 12:1; forming the natural termination to the first section of Job's argument, that all results, whether good or evil, must be referred to God. Job 13:1 is little more than a repetition of Job 12:9 and Job 13:2 of...

THOU PUTTEST MY FEET ALSO IN THE STOCKS,.... Which is one kind of punishment of offenders, and a preservation of them from making their escape; and is a security and reservation of them for further punishment sometimes; and so Job looked upon his afflictions as a punishment for he knew not what, and with which he was so surrounded and enclosed, that there was no getting out of them any more than a man can whose feet are set fast in the stocks; and that he was here kept for greater afflictions still, which he dreaded. Aben Ezra interprets it, "thou puttest my feet in lime"; and this is followed by others n, suggesting, as a man's steps in lime are marked and easily discerned, so were his by the Lord; but this seems to be foreign from the mind of Job, who would not make such a concession as this, as if his steps taken amiss were so visible: AND LOOKEST NARROWLY INTO ALL MY PATHS; so that...

CHAPTER S 12-14 JOB'S ANSWER TO ZOPHAR _ 1. His sarcasm (Job 12:1)_ 2. He describes God's power (Job 12:7) 3. He denounces his friends (Job 13:1) 4. He appeals to God (Job 13:14) 5. The brevity and trouble of life (Job 14:1) 6. The ray of light through hope of immortality (Job 14:7) Job 12:1. He answers not only Zophar but the others as well. Before this Job had expressed his

SETTEST. PRINT. they make. print on my feet....

Job 13:22 to Job 14:22. Job pleads his cause before God Having ordered his cause and challenged his friends to observe how he will plead, Job now enters, with the boldness and proud bearing of one assured of victory, upon his plea itself. There is strictly no break between the passage which follows and the foregoing; the division is only made here for convenience" sake. It would scarcely be according to the author's intention to make Job 13:23 the plea, and assume that, as God did not answer the demand there made, Job's plea took another turn. The question whether Job actually did expect that he would be replied to out of heaven can hardly be answered. We must, however, take into account the extreme excitation of his mind, and the vividness

THOU PUTTEST MY FEET ALSO IN THE STOCKS, &C.— _Thou puttest my feet also in a clog; thou watchest all my paths; thou settest a mark on the soles of my feet._ This alludes to the custom of putting a clog on the feet of fugitive slaves with the owner's mark, that they might be tracked and found. Heath. Houbigant renders the next verse, _So that I am become like a thing consumed with rottenness; like a garment eaten up by the moth._ I would just observe, that the dividing these speeches by Chapter s very frequently interrupts the connection; and the reader would do well in his perusal of them to neglect this division, which, though it has its uses, is of very modern date. REFLECTIONS.—1st, In vindicating his cause against his unkind friends, some severity mixes with his just self-defence. 1. He desires them to weigh what he had said, that they might be convinced that he was not so weak as...