VII. In this chapter Job turns away from his friends to God, to whom he appeals for compassion (Job 7:1). He asks whether man hath not a campaign to serve upon earth. The English Version suggests a limited period; but it is apparently not so much that as what is required to be done in the period. “... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN I LIE DOWN, I SAY. — Or, _When I lie down, then I say, When shall I arise? But the night is long, and I am filled with tossings to and fro till the morning twilight. _... [ Continue Reading ]
WITH WORMS AND CLODS OF DUST. — It is characteristic of Elephantiasis that the skin becomes hard and rugous, and then cracks and becomes ulcerated.... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL SEE ME NO MORE. — That is, _thine own eyes shall look for me, but I shall be no more._ So LXX. and Vulg.... [ Continue Reading ]
AS THE CLOUD IS CONSUMED. — It is a fine simile that man is as evanescent as a cloud; and very apt is the figure, because, whether it vanishes on the surface of the sky or is distributed in rain, nothing more completely passes away than the summer cloud. It is an appearance only, which comes to noug... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER SHALL HIS PLACE... — This language is imitated in Psalms 103:16. We need not force these words too much, as though they forbad our ascribing to Job any belief in a future life or in the resurrection, because, under any circumstances, they are evidently and accurately true of man as we know h... [ Continue Reading ]
AM I A SEA, OR A WHALE...? — This very hard verse it seems most reasonable to explain, if we can, from Scripture itself: _e.g.,_ in Jeremiah 5:22 we read, “Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea?" The writer was probabl... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THAT MY SOUL MAKETH choice of strangling and death rather than a life like this. Literally, _than these my bones,_ or, as some take it, _a death by these my members:_ a death inflicted by myself, suicide.... [ Continue Reading ]
I LOATHE IT — _i.e.,_ the thought of self-destruction; or, _I loathe my life;_ or, according to others (see the margin), _I waste away:_ this, however, is perhaps less probable. Then the thought comes with a ray of comfort, “I shall not live for ever;” for this seems more in accordance with the cont... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT IS MAN...? — Here is another point of contact with Psalms 8:5; but the spirit of the Psalmist was one of devout adoration, whereas that of Job is one of agony and desperation.... [ Continue Reading ]
TILL I SWALLOW DOWN MY SPITTLE. — This is doubtless a proverbial expression, like “the twinkling of an eye,” or “while I fetch a breath.”... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE SINNED — _i.e._, “Putting the case that I have sinned, yet what then can I do unto Thee, O thou keeper of men? “with a possible allusion to Job 7:12, though the verb is not the same. O THOU PRESERVER OF MEN. — “Why hast Thou set me as a mark for Thee to expend all Thine arrows upon?” or, “Wh... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHY DOST THOU NOT PARDON MY TRANSGRESSION? — In Job’s belief, sin was the origin of all disaster, and so he thinks that if he were but pardoned his sorrows would pass away. Our Lord has not discouraged the belief when He has taught us that His miracle of healing the paralytic was accompanied wit... [ Continue Reading ]