Job 3:24

_FOR MY SIGHING COMETH BEFORE I EAT, AND MY ROARINGS ARE POURED OUT LIKE THE WATERS._ My sighing cometh before I eat - i:e., prevents my eating. Before I begin to eat, my sighs interrupt me, so that I cannot take 'my food' (so the Hebrew, cf. margin) - i:e., my necessary food (Umbreit). Maurer translates the same Hebrew here, 'My sighing cometh (not before х_ LIPªNEEY_ (H6440)] I eat, but) in the likeness of' - i:e., as though it were-`my food;' and in Job 4:19, after the manner of the moth (Psalms 80:5; Psalms 42:3). MY ROARING IS POURED OUT LIKE THE WATERS - an image from the rushing sound of water streaming (cf....

20-26 Job was like a man who had lost his way, and had no prospect of escape, or hope of better times. But surely he was in an ill frame for death when so unwilling to live. Let it be our constant care to get ready for another world, and then leave it to God to order our removal thither as he thinks fit. Grace teaches us in the midst of life's greatest comforts, to be willing to die, and in the midst of its greatest crosses, to be willing to live. Job's way was hid; he knew not wherefore God contended with him. The afflicted and tempted Christian knows something of this heaviness; when he has been looking too much at the things that are seen, some chastisement of his heavenly Father will give him a taste of this disgust of life, and a glance at these dark regions of despair. Nor is there any help until God shall restore to him the joys of his salvation. Blessed be God, the earth is full...

Verse Job 3:24. _FOR MY SIGHING COMETH_] Some think that this refers to the _ulcerated state_ of Job's _body, mouth, hands_, c. He longed for food, but was not able to lift it to his mouth with his hands, nor masticate it when brought thither. This is the sense in which _Origen_ has taken the words. But perhaps it is most natural to suppose that he means his sighing took away all appetite, and served him in place of meat. There is the same thought in Psalms 42:3: _My tears have been my meat day and night_ which place is not an imitation of Job, but more likely _Job_ an imitation of it, or, rather, both an imitation of _nature_. _MY ROARINGS ARE POURED OUT_] My lamentations are like the noise of the murmuring stream, or the dashings of the overswollen torr

FOR MY SIGHING COMETH BEFORE I EAT - Margin, “My meat.” Dr. Good renders this,” Behold! my sighing takes the place of my daily food, and refers to Psalms 42:3, as an illustration: My tears are my meat day and night. So substantially Schultens renders it, and explains it as meaning, “My sighing comes in the manner of my food,” _“Suspirium ad modum panis veniens”_ - and supposes it to mean that his sighs and groans were like his daily food; or were constant and unceasing. Dr. Noyes explains it as meaning, “My sighing comes on when I begin to eat, and prevents my taking my daily nourishment;” and appeals to a similar expression in Juvenal. Sat. xiii. 211: _Perpetua anxietas, nec mensae tempore cessat_....

EXPOSITION The "Historical Introduction" ended, we come upon a long colloquy, in which the several _dramatis personae_ speak for themselves, the writer, or compiler, only prefacing each speech with a very few necessary words. The speeches are, one and all of them, metrical; and are well represented in the Revised Version. The first colloquy extends from Job 3:1 to Job 14:22. JOB 3:1 AFTER THIS OPENED JOB HIS MOUTH. The first to take the word is Job, as, indeed, etiquette made necessary, when the visit paid was one of condolence. It can only be conjectured what the feelings were which had kept him silent so long. We may, perhaps, suggest that in the countenances and manner of his fr

FOR MY SIGHING COMETH BEFORE I EAT,.... Or, "before my bread", or "food" g; before he sat down to eat, or had tasted of his food, there were nothing but sighing and sobbing, so that he had no appetite for his food, and could take no delight in it; and, while he was eating, his tears mingled with it, so that these were his meat and his drink continually, and he was fed with the bread and water of affliction; and therefore what were light and life to such a person, who could not have the pleasure of one comfortable meal? AND MY ROARINGS ARE POURED OUT LIKE THE WATERS; he not only wept privately and in secret, and cried more publicly both to God and in the presence of men, but such was the force and weight of his affliction, that he even roared out, and that like a lion; and his afflictions, which were the cause of these roarings, are compared to waters and the pouring of them out; for the...

CHAPTER 3 JOB'S LAMENT _ 1. Job curses the day of his birth (Job 3:1)_ 2. He longs for death (Job 3:10) 3. The reason why (Job 3:24) Job 3:1. The silence is broken by Job. Alas! his lips do not utter praises now, but he cursed the day of his birth. It was a sore trial for Job to look into the faces of these pious friends, in perfect health and strength, and he, even more pious than they, stricken and smitten of God. It was an aggravation of Job's grief and sorrow. But let us notice though Job gives way to his feelings in this passionate outburst, he did not renounce God, nor is there a word of rebellion against Him. All through his a

Why does God continue life to the wretch who longs for death? Job's words again rise to a passionate intensity. The vision of the peacefulness of death vanishes, and he reawakens to the consciousness of his actual state. In Job 3:20 f. Job generalises from his own position, to which he returns in Job 23: he is hedged in like a captive beast. His sighs have become his daily meat (_mg._ like my meat, _cf._ Psalms 42:3), and his roarings resemble an overflowing stream. Let me fear a fear, he says, and it comes upon me. It is a terrible picture of misery....

I EAT. my food....

Why does God continue life to the wretched, who long for death? The vision of the peacefulness of death passes away, and Job awakens again to the consciousness of his real condition, and his words, which had sunk into calmness as he contemplated the peace of death, now seem to rise again like the storm after a lull, Wherefore gives He light to him that is in misery? He does not name though he alludes to God, and the indirect reference though partly due to reverence betrays a rising alienation in his heart. His question is one of anguish and impatience. His own condition throws its gloom over all human life, and he puts the question first generally, Job 3:20; there are many like him seeking death and unable to find it, who would exult for joy if they could find the grave. Then he comes to the individual, Job 3:23, meaning him