Job 16:22

_WHEN A FEW YEARS ARE COME, THEN I SHALL GO THE WAY WHENCE I SHALL NOT RETURN._ Few - literally, 'years of number;' i:e., few, opposed to numberless (Genesis 34:30), "I being few in number"). Remarks: (1) Heartless talk and mere lip-comfort offered to a friend in affliction only aggravate his distress. What is wanting is true sympathy and tenderness of spirit. The wounded spirit is sensitive, and needs to be dealt with gently and considerately. How "miserable" are all earthly "comforters" as compared with the loving High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, in all points having been tempted like as we are yet without sin (Job 16:2;...

17-22 Job's condition was very deplorable; but he had the testimony of his conscience for him, that he never allowed himself in any gross sin. No one was ever more ready to acknowledge sins of infirmity. Eliphaz had charged him with hypocrisy in religion, but he specifies prayer, the great act of religion, and professes that in this he was pure, though not from all infirmity. He had a God to go to, who he doubted not took full notice of all his sorrows. Those who pour out tears before God, though they cannot plead for themselves, by reason of their defects, have a Friend to plead for them, even the Son of man, and on him we must ground all our hopes of acceptance with God. To die, is to go the way whence we shall not return. We must all of us, very certainly, and very shortly, go this journey. Should not then the Saviour be precious to our souls? And ought we not to be ready to obey and...

Verse Job 16:22. _WHEN A FEW YEARS ARE COME_] I prefer Mr. _Good's_ version: - "But the years numbered to me are come. And I must go the way whence I shall not return." Job could not, in his present circumstances, expect _a few years_ _of longer life_; from his own conviction he was expecting death every hour. The next verse, the _first_ of the following chapter, should come in here: _MY BREATH IS CORRUPT, C._] He felt himself as in the arms of death: he saw the grave as already digged which was to receive his dead body. This verse shows that our translation of the _twenty-second_ verse is improper, and vindicates Mr. _Good's_ version. I HAVE said on...

WHEN A FEW YEARS ARE COME - Margin “years of number;” that is, numbered years, or a few years. The same idea is expressed in Job 7:21; see the notes at that place. The idea is, that he must soon die. He desired, therefore, before he went down to the grave, to carry his cause before God, and to have, as he did not doubt he should have, the divine attestation in his favor; compare the notes at Job 19:25. Now he was overwhelmed with calamities and reproaches, and was about to die in this condition. He did not wish to die thus. He wished that the reproaches might be wiped off, and that his character might be cleared up and made fair. He believed assuredly that if he could be permitted to carry his cause directly before God, he might be able to vindicate his character, and to obtain the divine

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...

WHEN A FEW YEARS ARE COME,.... As the years of man's life are but few at most, and Job's years, which were yet to come, still fewer in his apprehension; or "years of number" m, that are numbered by God, fixed and determined by him, Job 14:5; or being few are easily numbered: THEN I SHALL GO THE WAY [WHENCE] I SHALL NOT RETURN; that is, go the way of all flesh, a long journey; death itself is meant, which is a going out of this world into another, from whence there is no return to this again, to the same place, condition, circumstances, estate, and employment as now; otherwise there will be a resurrection from the dead, the bodies will rise out of the earth, and souls will be brought again to be united with them, but not to be in the same situation here as now: this Job observes either as a kind of solace to him under all his afflictions on himself, and from his friends, that in 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 16:22 TO JOB 17:16. Job pleads in favour of his prayer for Divine vindication, that death is before him and he has no hope, if he must now die. JOB 17:2 is obscure; the general sense seems to be that Job complains of the delusive hopes, held out by the friends, of return to health and prosperity (Peake). Job 17:3 continues the idea of Job 16:20 f. God, as Job's advocate, is to give to God as his creditor a pledge that He will in the future vindicate him. Who else will strike hands with Job over such a bargain?...

THE WAY, &C. Figure of speech _Euphemism_ (App-6), for death....

Job 16:18 to Job 17:9. Job, dying a martyr's death, beseeches God that He would uphold his right with God and against men, and give him a pledge that He will make his innocence appear In Job 16:12 Job described the terrible hostility of God, who dashed him to pieces, laid him in ruins and poured out his soul to the ground brought him unto death. Then the other thought rose in his mind that all this befell him though he was innocent both in life and in spirit. Here he comes to the point at which he always loses self-control when he realizes that in spite of his innocence he is held guilty. This is an overwhelming feeling, and under it Job either wildly challenges the rectitude of God, as in the first cycle of speeches; or he flings off from him