_A.M. 2484. B.C. 1520._ Job's honour is turned into contempt, Job 30:1. His prosperity into fears, pains, and a sense of the wrath of God, Job 30:15. He looks for nothing but death, Job 30:23. And rest therein, Job 30:24. Reflects on his former sympathy with the afflicted, Job 30:25. And describes... [ Continue Reading ]
_But now_, &c. Job having, in the foregoing chapter, described the honour of his former condition, goes on here, by way of contrast, to describe the vileness of his present state. _They that are younger than I_ Whom both universal custom and the light of nature taught to reverence their elders and b... [ Continue Reading ]
_Yea, whereto might their hands profit me?_ Nor was it strange that I did, or might refuse to take them into any of my meanest services, being utterly impotent and unfit for any business; _in whom old age was perished_ Who were grown no wiser for being old. Or, rather, who had so wasted their streng... [ Continue Reading ]
_For want and famine_ Brought upon them either by their own sloth or wickedness, or by God's just judgment. Hebrew, בחסר, _becheser, In want and famine_, which aggravates their following solitude. _They were solitary_, &c. Although want commonly draws persons to places of resort and company for reli... [ Continue Reading ]
_Who cut up mallows_ 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 bark of trees_, as the Vulgate Latin renders it; _and juniper-roots_ Possibly the word may signify some other plant... [ Continue Reading ]
_They were driven forth from among men_ As unworthy of human society; and for their beggary and dishonesty, suspected and avoided of all men; _they cried after them as after a thief_ Giving one another warning of their danger from them.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Among the bushes they brayed_ Like the wild asses, (Job 6:5,) for hunger or thirst. _They brayed_, seems to be an improper translation here; because, though נהק, _nahak_, signifies _to bray_, when applied to an _ass_, yet when spoken of men in difficult circumstances, as in this verse, we should ra... [ Continue Reading ]
_They were children of fools_, &c. They were children of base, obscure parents; viler than the earth upon which they trod. Houbigant translates the verse: _Foolish men and inglorious, they were driven out of the country in which they lived. And now am I their song_ The matter of their song and deris... [ Continue Reading ]
_Because he_ That is, God; _hath loosed my cord_ Hath slackened the string of my bow, and so rendered it and my arrows useless; that is, he hath deprived me of my strength and defence: so understood, this expression is opposed to that used Job 29:20, _My bow is renewed,_ &c. But the phrase may mean,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Upon my right hand_ The place of adversaries or accusers in courts of justice, Psalms 109:6; Zechariah 3:1. Or this may be observed to show their boldness and contempt of him, in that they dared to place themselves on his right hand; _rise the youth_ Hebrew, _young striplings._ Those who formerly h... [ Continue Reading ]
_They mar my path_ Or, rather, _dig up my path._ As I am in great misery, so they endeavour to stop all my ways out of it, and to frustrate all my counsels and methods for obtaining relief and comfort. The allusion to a place besieged is still carried on; the besiegers of which strive to cut off all... [ Continue Reading ]
_They came 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. Hebrew, כפרצ רחב, _cheperetz rachab, as at a wide breach_, as a besieging army, having made a breach in the walls of the city, do suddenly and forcibly rush... [ Continue Reading ]
_Terrors are turned upon me_ Many terrible things from God, who sets himself against me, and in some sort joins his forces with these miscreants, are directed against me, to whom they seem not to belong, as being the portion of wicked men. _They pursue my soul_ Hebrew, נדבתי, _nedibathi, my principa... [ Continue Reading ]
_My soul is poured out upon me_ Or within me, as the particle עלי, _gnali_, is elsewhere used. All the strength and powers of my soul are melted, faint, and die away. _My bones are pierced_ Or rather, _it_, namely, the terrors or affliction last mentioned, _hath pierced my bones._ This is no slight... [ Continue Reading ]
_By the great force of my disease_, &c. The words, _of my disease_, are not in the Hebrew, neither do they seem to be rightly supplied, but rather to obscure the sense of the clause, which, without any supplement, is literally rendered, _With great force my garment is changed_, for so this verb יתחפ... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou dost not hear me_ Namely, so as to answer or help me. _I stand up_ Namely, before thee: I pray importunately and continually, as thou requirest; _and thou regardest me not_ Notwithstanding all my griefs and cries, thou dost not pity and help me, but rather seemest to take pleasure in beholding... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou liftest me up to the wind_ Thou 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. _And dissolvest my substance_ By which my body is almost consumed, and my heart is melted within me.... [ Continue Reading ]
_He will not stretch out his hand to the grave_ This verse is judged by commentators to be very obscure. The sense of it probably is, Notwithstanding I earnestly wished for the grave as a place of rest, thou wilt not indulge me so far as to stretch out thy hand and give me my death- wound: or, thy h... [ Continue Reading ]
_Did not I weep for him that was in trouble_ Have I now judgment without mercy, because I afforded no mercy or pity to others in misery? No; my conscience acquits me from this inhumanity: I did mourn over others in their misery. _Was not my soul grieved for the poor?_ The negative particle _not_, wh... [ Continue Reading ]
_My bowels boiled_ Namely, with the violence of my disorder; _and rested not_ Hebrew, ולא דמו, _velo damu_, and were not silent. _The days of affliction prevented me_ Came upon me suddenly and unexpectedly, when I promised myself peace and prosperity. _I went mourning without the sun_ Hebrew, קדר הל... [ Continue Reading ]
_I am a brother_ By imitation of their cries; _to dragons_ Which howl and wail mournfully in the deserts, (Micah 1:8,) either through hunger and thirst, or when they fight with, and are beaten by, the elephant. Persons of like qualities are often called brethren. _And a companion to owls_ Whose dole... [ Continue Reading ]
_My skin is black upon me_, &c. “The boiling heat of my body hath so parched me that my skin looks black, and the marrow in my bones, and all my vital moisture, are dried up.” _My harp also is turned to mourning_ “To say no more, all mirth is banished my house: the musical instruments are laid aside... [ Continue Reading ]