JOB CHAPTER 30 Job's honour is turned into contempt, JOB 30:1; his prosperity into calamity, fears, pains, despicableness, JOB 30:15; notwithstanding his prayer now, and his former charity, and hope, JOB 30:20. His great sorrow, JOB 30:27. _But now my condition_ is sadly changed for the worse. THEY... [ Continue Reading ]
Nor was it strange that I did, or would. or might refuse to take them into any of my meanest services, because they were utterly impotent, and therefore unserviceable. IN WHOM OLD AGE WAS PERISHED; or, lost; either, 1. Because they never attain to it, but are consumed by their lusts or cut off for... [ Continue Reading ]
WANT AND FAMINE, brought upon them either by their own sloth or wickedness, or by God's just judgment. Heb. _In want and famine_, which aggravates their following solitude. Although want commonly drives persons to places of resort and company for relief, yet they were so conscious of their own guilt... [ Continue Reading ]
MALLOWS; or, _purslain_, or _salt_ or _bitter herbs_, as the word seems to import, which shows their extreme necessity. BY THE BUSHES; or, by the shrubs, nigh unto which they grew; or, _with the barks of trees_, as the Vulgar Latin renders it. JUNIPER ROOTS: possibly the word may signify some other... [ Continue Reading ]
Giving one another warning of their danger from them.... [ Continue Reading ]
As unworthy of human society, and for their beggary and dishonesty suspected and avoided of all men.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY BRAYED, like the wild asses, JOB 6:5, for hunger or thirst. UNDER THE NETTLES, which seem not proper for that use. This Hebrew word is used but twice in Scripture, and it is acknowledged both by Jewish and Christian writers, that the signification of the Hebrew words which express plants, or be... [ Continue Reading ]
CHILDREN OF FOOLS; either, 1. The genuine children of foolish parents; their children not only by birth, but by imitation; as they only are esteemed _the children of Abraham_ who _do the works of Abraham_, 1 THESSALONIANS 8:39. Or, 2. Fools, by a common Hebraism, as the _sons of men_ are put for m... [ Continue Reading ]
The matter of their song and derision. They now rejoice in my calamities, because formerly I used my authority to punish such vagrants and miscreants.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY FLEE FAR FROM ME, in contempt of my person, and loathing of my sores. SPARE NOT TO SPIT IN MY FACE; not literally, for they kept far from him, as he now said; but figuratively, i.e. they use all manner of contemptuous and reproachful expressions and carriages towards me, not only behind my back... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE HE, to wit, God, for it follows, _he afflicted me_, which was God's work. HATH LOOSED MY CORD; either, 1. He hath slackened the string (as this word sometimes signifies) of my bow, and so rendered my bow and arrows useless, either to offend others, or to defend myself, i.e. he hath deprived... [ Continue Reading ]
UPON MY RIGHT HAND. This circumstance is noted, either because this was the place of adversaries or accusers in courts of justice, PSALMS 109:6 MALACHI 3:1; or to show their boldness and contempt of him, that they durst oppose him even on that side where his chief strength lay. RISE, to wit, in way... [ Continue Reading ]
As I am in great misery, so they endeavour to stop all my ways out of it, and to frustrate all my counsels and courses of obtaining relief or comfort. And although Job had no hopes of a temporal deliverance or restitution, yet he could not but observe and resent the malice of those who did their utm... [ Continue Reading ]
AS A WIDE BREAKING IN OF WATERS; as fiercely and violently as a river doth when a great breach is made in the bank which kept it in. Heb. _as at a wide breach_; as a besieging army, having made a breach in the walls of the city, do suddenly and forcibly rush into it. _In the desolation_; or, _for_ o... [ Continue Reading ]
TERRORS, to wit, from God, who sets himself against me, and in some sort joins his forces with these miscreants. ARE TURNED UPON ME; are directed against me, to whom they seem not to belong, as being the portion of wicked men. MY SOUL, Heb. _my principal or excellent one_, i.e. my soul, which is fit... [ Continue Reading ]
MY SOUL IS POURED OUT; all the strength and powers of my soul are melted, and fainting, and dying away, through my continued and insupportable sorrows and calamities. UPON ME; or, _within me_, as this Hebrew particle is elsewhere used, as PSALMS 42:5,6 ISA 26:9 HOSEA 11:8.... [ Continue Reading ]
MY BONES ARE PIERCED: Heb. _It_, to wit, the terror or affliction last mentioned; or, _He_, i.e. God, _hath pierced my bones_. This is no slight and superficial, but a most deep wound, that reacheth to my very heart, and bones, and marrow. Nothing in me is so secret but it reacheth it, nothing so ha... [ Continue Reading ]
My disease is so strong and prevalent, that it breaks forth every where in my body, in such plenty of purulent and filthy matter, that it infects and discolours my very garments. Others, _By the great power_ of God MY GARMENT IS CHANGED. In both these translations the words, _of disease_, and _of Go... [ Continue Reading ]
He hath made me contemptible and filthy, and loathsome for my sores, my whole body being a kind of quagmire, in regard of the filth breaking forth in all its parts; AND I AM BECOME LIKE DUST AND ASHES, like one dead and turned to dust; more like a rotten carcass than a living man.... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU DOST NOT HEAR ME, to wit, so as to answer or help me. I STAND UP, or, _I stand_, to wit, before thee, i.e. I pray, as this phrase signifies, JEREMIAH 15:1, JEREMIAH 18:20, this being a gesture of prayer, MATTHEW 6:5. And so the same thing is here repeated in other words, after the manner. Or, _... [ Continue Reading ]
BECOME CRUEL, Heb. _turned to be cruel_; as if thou hadst changed thy very nature, which is kind, and merciful, and gracious; and such thou hast been formerly in thy carriage to me; but now thou art grown severe, and rigorous, and inexorable. THOU OPPOSEST THYSELF AGAINST ME; thy power wherewith I h... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU LIFTEST ME UP TO THE WIND; thou dost not suffer me to rest or lie still for a moment, but disquietest me, and exposest me to all sorts of storms and calamities; so that I am like chaff or stubble lifted up to the wind, and violently tossed hither and thither in the air, without the least stop o... [ Continue Reading ]
I see nothing will satisfy thee but my death, which thou art bringing upon me in a lingering and dismal manner. TO THE HOUSE APPOINTED FOR ALL LIVING; to the grave, to which all living men are coming and hastening.... [ Continue Reading ]
There is great variety and difficulty in the sense and connexion of these words. They may be joined either, 1. With the following verse, as describing Job's compassion to others in affliction, which by the principles of reason and religion should have procured him some pity from God and men in his a... [ Continue Reading ]
Whence is it that neither God nor man show any compassion to me, but both conspire to afflict me, and increase my torments? Doth God now mete out to me the same measure which I meted out to others? Have I now judgment without mercy, because I afforded no mercy nor pity to others in misery? No, my co... [ Continue Reading ]
Instead of the return of the like pity to me, which I might justly challenge and expect whensoever I should stand in need of it, I meet with a sad disappointment, and my pity is recompensed with others cruelty to me.... [ Continue Reading ]
My inward parts boiled without ceasing. The bowels are the seat of passion and of compassion; and therefore this may be understood, either, 1. Of his compassionate and deep sense of others miseries; which is oft expressed by bowels, as ISAIAH 16:11 COLOSSIANS 3:12, and elsewhere, of which he spoke J... [ Continue Reading ]
I WENT, or, _I walked_ hither and thither as I could. Or, _I converse_ or _appear_ among others. MOURNING WITHOUT THE SUN; spending my days in mourning, without any sun-light or comfort; or so oppressed with sadness, that I did not care nor desire to see the light of the sun. Heb. _black not by the... [ Continue Reading ]
A BROTHER, to wit, by imitation of their cries: persons of like qualities are oft called brethren, as GENESIS 49:5 PROVERBS 18:9. TO DRAGONS; which howl and wail mournfully in the deserts, MICAH 1:8, either through hunger or thirst, or when he fights with and is beaten by the elephant. _To owls_; wh... [ Continue Reading ]
MY SKIN IS BLACK UPON ME; either by his dark-coloured scabs, wherewith his body was in a manner wholly overspread; or by grief, as before. MY BONES ARE BURNED WITH HEAT; the effect of his fever and sorrow, which dried up all his moisture, and caused great inflammations and burning heats within him.... [ Continue Reading ]
Either, 1. I have now nothing but bitter lamentations instead of my former expressions of joy. Or, 2. Those very things which formerly were occasions and instruments of my delight, do now renew and aggravate my sorrows.... [ Continue Reading ]