Job 13 - Introduction
_A.M. 2484. B.C. 1520._ Job sharply reproves his friends, Job 13:1. Professes his faith, Job 13:14. Desires to be heard, Job 13:17. Expostulates with God, Job 13:20.... [ Continue Reading ]
_A.M. 2484. B.C. 1520._ Job sharply reproves his friends, Job 13:1. Professes his faith, Job 13:14. Desires to be heard, Job 13:17. Expostulates with God, Job 13:20.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Lo, mine eye hath seen all this_ All this which either you or I have discoursed concerning the infinite power and wisdom of God, I know, both by seeing it, by my own observation and experience, and by hearing it from my ancestors.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Surely I would speak to the Almighty_ I had rather debate the matter with God than with you. I am not afraid of presenting my person and cause before him, who is a witness of my integrity, and would not deal so unmercifully with me as you do.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye are forgers of lies_ That is, authors of false doctrine, namely, that great afflictions are peculiar to hypocrites and wicked men. _All physicians of no value_ Unfaithful and unskilful; prescribing bad remedies: and misapplying good ones. _O that ye would altogether hold your peace_ The best pro... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hear now my reasoning_ Attend to it, and consider it more seriously than you have done; _and hearken to the pleadings of my lips_ That is, to the arguments which I shall produce. _Will ye speak wickedly for God?_ Will you utter falsehoods upon pretence of pleasing God, or of maintaining God's honou... [ Continue Reading ]
_Is it good that he should search you out?_ Will it be to your credit and comfort, that he should narrowly examine your hearts and discourses, whether you have uttered truth or falsehood, and whether your speeches have proceeded from true zeal for the glory of God, or from your own prejudices and pa... [ Continue Reading ]
_Shall not his excellency_ His infinite wisdom, which sees your secret falsehood, and his justice and power, which can and will punish you for it; _make you afraid?_ Of speaking rashly or falsely of his ways and counsels. _Your remembrances_ Hebrew, זכרניכם, _zichronechem_, your _memorials;_ or, as... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hold your peace_ Do not now interrupt me in my discourse; which, peradventure, he observed by their gestures, some of them were now attempting; _let me alone, that I may speak_ That I may freely utter my whole mind; _let come on me what will_ Whatever the event may be, I am determined to speak in m... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth_, &c. The sense, according to some commentators, is, Why do I torment myself? Why do I grieve so immoderately, like those persons who, in their afflictions, rend their garments, and are ready to tear their very flesh? But Bishop Patrick's paraphrase seems to... [ Continue Reading ]
_Though he slay me_ But though God should yet more and more increase my torments, so that I could bear them no longer, but should perceive myself to be at the point of death, without any hope of recovery; _yet will I trust in him_ Or, more exactly according to the Hebrew text, _Shall I not trust in... [ Continue Reading ]
_He also shall be my salvation_ I rest assured that he will save me out of these miseries, sooner or later, one way or other, if not with a temporal, yet with an eternal salvation after death; of which he speaks Job 19:25. _For a hypocrite_ Or, rather, _But a hypocrite shall not come before him_ If... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hear diligently my speech_ This he desired before, (Job 13:6,) and now repeats, either, because they manifested some dislike of his speech, and some desire to interrupt him; or, because he now comes more closely to the question; the foregoing verses being mostly in the way of preface to it. _And my... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold, now, I have ordered my cause_ Namely, in my own mind. I have seriously considered the state of my case, what can be said, either for me or against me, and am ready to plead my cause. _I know that I shall be justified_ Acquitted by God of that hypocrisy and wickedness wherewith you charge me... [ Continue Reading ]
Let me only beg, O great Judge of all, that thou wilt forbear to make use of _two things_ against _me. Then will I not hide myself from thee_ Then will I appear confidently to plead my cause before thee. _Withdraw thy hand from me_ Suspend my torments during the time of my pleading with thee, that m... [ Continue Reading ]
_How many are my sins?_ That I am a sinner, I confess; but not that I am guilty of such crimes as my friends suppose; if it be so, do thou, O Lord, discover it. _Wherefore hidest thou thy face?_ Withdrawest thy favour and help, which thou hast been wont to afford me; _and holdest me for thine enemy?... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wilt thou break a leaf?_ &c. Doth it become thy infinite and excellent majesty to use thy might to crush such a poor, impotent, and frail creature as I am, that can no more resist thy power than a leaf or a little dry straw can resist the fury of the wind or fire? Thus, whatever was irreverent or u... [ Continue Reading ]
_For thou writest_ That is, thou appointest; _bitter things against me_ A terrible sentence, or most grievous punishments. It is a metaphor taken from the custom of princes or judges, who anciently used to write their sentences, or decrees, concerning persons or causes brought before them. _And make... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks_ Thou encompassest me with thy judgments, so that I have no way or possibility to escape. _And lookest narrowly unto all my paths_ Makest a strict and diligent search into all the actions of my life, that thou mayest find matter for which to condemn me. _Thou... [ Continue Reading ]
_And he, as a rotten thing_ That is, man, as some commentators suppose, thinking that Job speaks of himself in the third person, and that the sense is, this poor frail creature, this carcass, or body of mine; _consumeth_ Or wasteth away, and is destroyed; _as a garment eaten by moths_ Others, howeve... [ Continue Reading ]