_BILDAD ACCUSES JOB OF PRESUMPTION AND IMPATIENCE: HE SHEWS THAT THE LIGHT OF THE WICKED SHALL BE PUT OUT; THAT BRIMSTONE SHALL BE SCATTERED UPON HIS HABITATION, AND THAT NONE OF HIS POSTERITY SHALL SURVIVE._ _Before Christ 1645._ _JOB 18:1. THEN ANSWERED BILDAD THE SHUHITE_— Bildad, irritated to... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW LONG, &C.— _How long will you hunt after cavils against established maxims? speak your meaning plainly, and we will reply._ The sense is, that it was in vain to puzzle the cause with cavils and exceptions; that he should give a plain instance where a righteous man was ever known to have had puni... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE ARE WE COUNTED AS BEASTS? &C.— This refers to the 10th verse in the former chapter, where Job had, indeed, treated them very freely.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE TEARETH HIMSELF IN HIS ANGER— _Thou sayest, he collects all his fury against me. But shall the earth be forsaken,_ &c.? Houbigant. See the introductory note on the first verse, and ch. Job 16:9.... [ Continue Reading ]
YEA, THE LIGHT OF THE WICKED— _Rather let the light of the wicked be put out._ Heath.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HE IS CAST INTO A NET— The metaphor is taken from a beast, which the hunters have driven into the toils. He runs here and there, striving to find a way out; but the net entangles him more and more, till at length it fastens upon him. Heath: who translates the last clause, _he runneth to and fro... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SHALL DRIVE HIM TO HIS FEET— _And shall be spread around at his feet_] Houbigant. The same metaphor seems to be continued.... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS STRENGTH SHALL BE HUNGER-BITTEN— The Vulgate renders this, _His strength shall be eaten by famine;_ which appears to be a good translation, and still keeps up the image in the former verses: as does the next clause, _Destruction shall be ready at,_ or _for his side,_ alluding to the arrow which... [ Continue Reading ]
IT SHALL DEVOUR, &C.— _Filthy ulcers shall consume his skin; an untimely death shall destroy his children._ Heath and Houbigant. This sarcasm was peculiarly adapted to the case of Job, whose skin was thus consumed, and whose children had been destroyed in this manner. The reader must have had occasi... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT SHALL BRING HIM TO THE KING OF TERRORS— _Horrors shall attack him, like a king._ Heath.... [ Continue Reading ]
IT SHALL DWELL IN HIS TABERNACLE— _They shall take up their habitation in his tent, because he hath no survivor: brimstone shall be sprinkled upon his habitation._ As much as to say, "Since he hath no one to survive him, his posterity is utterly exterminated: horror takes possession of his habitatio... [ Continue Reading ]
AS THEY THAT WENT BEFORE WERE AFFRIGHTED— _As his elders were seized with horror._ The plain meaning of the verse seems to be, "His elders, who saw so signal an instance of divine vengeance, were seized with horror; and whoever, in after-times, should hear his history related, would be in amazement... [ Continue Reading ]