The graves — He speaks of the sepulchres of his fathers, to which he
must be gathered. The graves where they are laid, are ready for me
also. Whatever is unready, the grave is ready for us: it is a bed soon
made. And if the grave be ready for us, it concerns us, to be ready
for the grave.... [ Continue Reading ]
Are not — Do not my friends, instead of comforting, mock me? Thus he
returns to what he had said, Job 16:20, and intimates the justice of
his following appeal.... [ Continue Reading ]
Surety — These words contain, an humble desire to God that he would
be his surety, or appoint him a surety who should maintain his
righteous cause against his opposers. Strike hands — Be surety to
me; whereof that was the usual gesture.... [ Continue Reading ]
Hid — Thou hast blinded the minds of my friends: therefore I desire
a more wise and able judge. Therefore — Thou wilt not give them the
victory over me in this contest, but wilt make them ashamed of their
confidence.... [ Continue Reading ]
As a shadow — I am grown so poor and thin, that I am not to be
called a man, but the shadow of a man.... [ Continue Reading ]
Astonied — At the depth and mysteriousness of God's judgments, which
fall on innocent men, while the worst of men prosper. Yet —
Notwithstanding all these sufferings of good men, and the astonishment
which they cause, he shall the more zealously oppose those hypocrites,
who make these strange provid... [ Continue Reading ]
Come — And renew the debate, as I see you are resolved to do.... [ Continue Reading ]
My days — The days of my life. I am a dying man, and therefore the
hopes you give me of the bettering of my condition, are vain. Purposes
— Which I had in my prosperous days, concerning myself and children.... [ Continue Reading ]
They — My thoughts so incessantly pursue and disturb me, that I can
no more sleep in the night, than in the day. The light — The day —
light, which often gives some comfort to men in misery, seems to be
gone as soon as it is begun. Darkness — Because of my grievous pains
and torments which follow me... [ Continue Reading ]
Wait — For deliverance, I should be disappointed; for I am upon the
borders of the grave, I expect no rest but in the dark grave, for
which therefore I prepare myself. I endeavour to make it easy, by
keeping my conscience pure, by seeing Christ lying in this bed, (so
turning it into a bed of spices)... [ Continue Reading ]
Corruption — Heb. to the pit of corruption, the grave. Father — I
am near a — kin to thee, and thou wilt receive and keep me in thy
house, as parents do their children.... [ Continue Reading ]
Hope — The happiness you would have me expect.... [ Continue Reading ]
They — My hopes, of which he spake in the singular number, Job
17:15, which he here changes into the plural, as is usual in these
poetical books. Bars — Into the innermost parts of the pit: my hopes
are dying, and will be buried in my grave. We must shortly be in the
dust, under the bars of the pit,... [ Continue Reading ]