Job 16:12

_I WAS AT EASE, BUT HE HATH BROKEN ME ASUNDER: HE HATH ALSO TAKEN ME BY MY NECK, AND SHAKEN ME TO PIECES, AND SET ME UP FOR HIS MARK._ I was at ease - in past times, (Job 1:1.) BY MY NECK - as an animal doth its prey (so Job 10:16). SHAKEN - violently: in contrast to his former "ease" (Psalms 102:10, "Thou hast lifted me up and cast me down"). Set me up (again). MARK - (Job 7:20; Lamentations 3:12). God lets me always recover strength, so as to torment me ceaselessly....

6-16 Here is a doleful representation of Job's grievances. What reason we have to bless God, that we are not making such complaints! Even good men, when in great troubles, have much ado not to entertain hard thoughts of God. Eliphaz had represented Job as unhumbled under his affliction: No, says Job, I know better things; the dust is now the fittest place for me. In this he reminds us of Christ, who was a man of sorrows, and pronounced those blessed that mourn, for they shall be comforted....

I WAS AT EASE - I was in a state of happiness and security. The word used here (שׁלו _shâlêv_) means sometimes to be “at ease” in an improper sense; that is, to be in a state of “carnal security,” or living unconcerned in sin (Ezekiel 23:42; compare Proverbs 1:32); but here it is used in the sense of comfort. He had everything desirable around him. BUT HE HATH BROKEN ME ASUNDER - He has crushed me. HE HATH ALSO TAKEN, ME BY MY NECK - Perhaps as an animal does his prey. We have all seen dogs seize upon their prey in this manner. AND SET ME UP FOR HIS MARK - Changing the figure, and saying that God had directed

EXPOSITION Job answers the second speech of Eliphaz in a discourse which occupies two (short) chapters, and is thus not much more lengthy than the speech of his antagonist. His tone is very despairing. He finds no help at all in the speeches of the "comforters" (verses 2-6), and turns from them to consider once more the dealings of God with him (verses 7-14). Next, he describes his own proceedings under his afflictions, and appeals to earth and. heaven, and God in heaven, to take up his cause and help him (verses 15-22). In Job 17:1. he continues much in the same-strain, but with an intermixture of the topics, which is somewhat confusing. In Job 17:1, Job 17:2 he bewails himself; in...

I WAS AT EASE, BUT HE HATH BROKEN ME ASUNDER,.... He was in easy and affluent circumstances, abounding with the good things of this life, lay in his nest, as his expression is, Job 29:18; quietly and peaceably, where he expected he should have died; and he was easy in his mind, had peace of conscience, being a good man that feared God, and trusted in his living Redeemer, enjoying the presence of God, the light of his countenance, and the discoveries of his love, see Job 39:2; but now he was broken to pieces, he was stripped of his worldly substance; his family was broken up, and not a child left him; his body broken, and full of ruptures through boils and ulcers; and his spirits were broken with his afflictions, and a sense of divine displeasure; the arrows of God's wrath, in his apprehension, stuck in him, a

CHAPTER S 16-17 JOB'S REPLY TO ELIPHAZ _ 1. Miserable comforters are ye all (Job 16:1)_ 2. Oh God! Thou hast done it! (Job 16:6) 3. Yet I look to Thee (Job 16:15) 4. Trouble upon trouble; self-pity (Job 17:1) 5. Where is now my hope? (Job 17:13) Job 16:1. How masterfully he meets their wrong accusations and how he brings forth his suffering afresh, yet always with that horrible nightmare, God is not for me, but against me! Such things Eliphaz spoke he had h

JOB 16:6 contain a bitter complaint of God's ferocity against Job, in spite of his innocence. The connexion of Job 16:6 with the context is not clear: RV translation is probably, however, correct. With Job 16:7 the enumeration of God's unkindness begins. Davidson explains the change from he to thou by the rise of emotion. God has such hold on Job (Job 16:8) by afflicting him. Job 16:9 compares His onslaught to that of a wild beast. Job 16:10 f. speaks of the hostility of men, not Job's frien

Job realizes to himself his new condition: God and men combine to pursue him with their enmity, though he is innocent of all wrong In Job 16:5 Job flung back with scorn the "comforts of God" which the friends proffered him. And now there seems to occur a pause, and the excited sufferer looks about him and realizes both the extremity of the evil in which he is held, and the new and unexpected trial, added to all others, of the judgment of men being against him. And he hardly knows whether he shall speak or be silent, so overcome is he and so unavailing to help him or make men judge truly of him are both speech and silence _if I speak my grief is not assuaged, and if I forbear what am I eased? Job 16:6_. Yet this new condition in which he realizes that he is, which makes speech useless, forces him to speak, and he

2. Though innocent, he suffers the hostility of God and man. (Job 16:6-17) TEXT 16:6-17 6 THOUGH I SPEAK, MY GRIEF IS NOT ASSUAGED; And though I forbear, what am I eased? 7 But now he hath made me weary: Thou hast made desolate all my company. 8 And thou hast laid fast hold on me, _which_ IS A WITNESS _against me:_ And my leanness riseth up against me, It testifieth to my face. 9 He hath torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me; He hath gnashed upon me with his teeth: Mine adversary sharpeneth his eyes upon me. 10 They have gaped upon me with their mouth; They have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully: They gather themselves together against me. 11 God delivereth me to the ungodly, And casteth me into the hands of the wicked. 12 I was at ease, and he brake me asunder;...

JOB'S FOURTH SPEECH (JOB 16:17) See introductory remarks on Job 15-21. 1-5. Job retorts scornfully that he too could offer such empty 'comfort' if he were in the friends' place....