INTRODUCTION TO JOB 19 This chapter contains Job's reply to Bildad's second speech, in which he complains of the ill usage of his friends, of their continuing to vex him, and to beat, and bruise, and break him in pieces with their hard words, and to reproach him, and carry it strange to him, Job 1... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN JOB ANSWERED AND SAID. Having heard Bildad out, without giving him any interruption; and when he had finished his oration, he rose up in his own defence, and put in his answer as follows.... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW LONG WILL YE VEX MY SOUL,.... Which of all vexation is the worst; not only his bones were vexed, but his soul also, as David's was, Psalms 6:2. His body was vexed with boils from head to feet; but now his soul was vexed by his friends, and which denotes extreme vexation, a man's being vexed to h... [ Continue Reading ]
THESE TEN TIMES HAVE YE REPROACHED ME,.... Referring not to ten sections or paragraphs, in which they had done it, as Jarchi; or to the five speeches his friends, in which their reproaches were doubled; or to Job's words, and their answer, as Saadiah; for it does not denote an exact number of their... [ Continue Reading ]
AND BE IT INDEED [THAT] I HAVE ERRED,.... Which is a concession for argument's sake, but not an acknowledgment that he had erred; though it is possible he might have erred, and it is certain he did in some things, though not in that respect with which he was charged; "humanum est errare", all men ar... [ Continue Reading ]
IF INDEED YE WILL MAGNIFY [YOURSELVES] AGAINST ME,.... Look and talk big, set up themselves for great folk, and resolve to run him down; open their mouths wide against him and speak great swelling words in a blustering manner; or magnify what they called an error in him, and set it out in the worst... [ Continue Reading ]
KNOW NOW THAT GOD HATH OVERTHROWN ME,.... He would have them take notice that all his afflictions were from the hand of God; and therefore should take care to what they imputed any acts of his, whose ways are unsearchable, and the reasons of them not to be found out; and therefore, if a wrong constr... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, I CRY OUT OF WRONG,.... Or of "violence" m, or injury done him by the Sabeans and Chaldeans upon his substance, and by Satan upon his health; this he cried out and complained of in prayer to God, and of it as it were in open court, as a violation of justice, and as being dealt very unjustly... [ Continue Reading ]
HE HATH FENCED UP MY WAY THAT I CANNOT PASS,.... A metaphor taken from travellers, who not only meet with obstacles and obstructions in their way, which make it difficult; but sometimes with such enclosures and fences, that they are at a full stop, and cannot pass on, and know not what course to ste... [ Continue Reading ]
HE HATH STRIPPED ME OF MY GLORY,.... The metaphor of a traveller may be still continued, who falling among thieves is stripped of his clothes, to which the allusion may be: Job was not stripped of his glory in a spiritual sense, not of the glorious robe of Christ's righteousness, nor of the graces o... [ Continue Reading ]
HE HATH DESTROYED ME ON EVERY SIDE,.... To be "troubled on every side" is much, as the apostles were, 2 Corinthians 4:8; but to be destroyed on every side, and all around, is more, and denotes utter destruction; it may have respect to the rein of his substance and family, which were all demolished a... [ Continue Reading ]
HE HATH ALSO KINDLED HIS WRATH AGAINST ME,.... In this and some following verses the metaphor is taken from a state of warfare, in which enemies are engaged in an hostile way, Job 19:12; in which way Job apprehended God was come forth against him; he imagined that the wrath of God, which is comparab... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS TROOPS COME TOGETHER,.... Afflictions which are many, and of which it may be said, as was at the birth of God, who had his name from the word here used, "a troop cometh": Genesis 30:11; and these sometimes come together, or follow so quick one upon another, that there is scarce any interval betw... [ Continue Reading ]
HE HATH PUT MY BRETHREN FAR FROM ME,.... As it is one part of business in war to cut off all communication between the enemy and their confederates and auxiliaries, and to hinder them of all the help and assistance from them they can; so Job here represents God dealing with him as with an enemy, and... [ Continue Reading ]
MY KINSFOLK HAVE FAILED,.... Or "ceased" a, not to be, or that they were dead, which is sometimes the sense of the word; but they ceased from visiting him, or doing any good office for him; those that were "near" b him, as the word used signifies; that were near him in relation, and were often near... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY THAT DWELL IN MINE HOUSE,.... Not his neighbours, as the Septuagint; for though they dwelt near his house, they did not dwell in it; nor inmates and sojourners, lodgers with him, to whom he let out apartments in his house; this cannot be supposed to have been his case, who was the greatest man... [ Continue Reading ]
I CALLED MY SERVANT,.... His manservant, whom he had hired into his house, and who waited upon his person, and had been his trusty and faithful servant, and was dear unto him, and he had shown him much respect and kindness in the time of his prosperity; him he called to him, to do this and that and... [ Continue Reading ]
MY BREATH IS STRANGE TO MY WIFE,.... Being corrupt and unsavoury, through some internal disorder; see Job 17:1; so that she could not bear to come nigh him, to do any kind deed for him; but if this was his case, and his natural breath was so foul, his friends would not have been able to have been so... [ Continue Reading ]
YEA, YOUNG CHILDREN DESPISED ME,.... Having related what he met with within doors from those in his own house, the strangers and proselytes in it, his maidens and menservants, and even from his own wife, he proceeds to give an account of what befell him without; young children, who had learned of th... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL MY INWARD FRIENDS ABHORRED ME,.... Or "the men of my secret" m; who were so very familiar with him, that he imparted the secrets of his heart, and the most private affairs of life, unto them, placing so much confidence in them, and treating them as his bosom friends; for this is always reckoned... [ Continue Reading ]
MY BONE CLEAVETH TO MY SKIN AND TO MY FLESH,.... Or, "as to my flesh" o, as Mr. Broughton and others render the words; as his bones used to stick to his flesh, and were covered with it, now his flesh being consumed and wasted away with his disease, they stuck to his skin, and were seen through it; h... [ Continue Reading ]
HAVE PITY UPON ME, HAVE PITY UPON ME,.... Instead of calumny and censure, his case called for compassion; and the phrase is doubled, to denote the vehemence of his affliction, the ardency of his soul, the anguish of his spirits, the great distress he was in, and the earnest desire he had to have pit... [ Continue Reading ]
WHY DO YE PERSECUTE ME AS GOD,.... As if they were in his stead, or had the same power and authority over him, who is a sovereign Being, and does what he pleases with his creatures, and is not accountable to any for what he does; but this is not the case of men, nor are they to imitate God in all th... [ Continue Reading ]
O THAT MY WORDS WERE NOW WRITTEN!.... Not his things q, as some render it, his affairs, the transactions of his life; that so it might appear with what uprightness and integrity he had lived, and was not the bad man he was thought to be; nor the words he had delivered already, the apologies and defe... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT THEY WERE GRAVEN WITH AN IRON PEN AND LEAD IN THE ROCK FOR EVER!] Or "that they were written with an iron pen and lead, that they were cut or hewn out in a rock for ever"; not with both an iron and leaden pen, or pencil; for the marks of the latter are not durable, and much less could it be use... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I KNOW,.... The particle ו, which is sometimes rendered by the copulative "and", by an adversative "but", and sometimes as a causal particle "for", should not be rendered here by either; but as an explanative, "to wit", or "namely", as it is by Noldius y; in connection with the preceding words;... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THOUGH AFTER MY SKIN [WORMS] DESTROY THIS [BODY],.... Meaning not, that after his skin was wholly consumed now, which was almost gone, there being scarce any left but the skin of his teeth, Job 19:20; the worms in his ulcers would consume what was left of his body, which scarce deserved the nam... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOM I SHALL SEE FOR MYSELF,.... For his pleasure and profit, to his great advantage and happiness, and to his inexpressible joy and satisfaction, see Psalms 17:15; AND MINE EYES SHALL BEHOLD, AND NOT ANOTHER; or "a stranger" h; these very selfsame eyes of mine I now see with will behold this glori... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT YE SHOULD SAY,.... Here Job directs his friends what use they should make of this confession of his faith; they should upon this say within themselves, and to one another, WHY PERSECUTE WE HIM, SEEING THE ROOT OF THE MATTER IS FOUND IN ME? Why should we pursue him with hard words, and load him... [ Continue Reading ]
BE YE AFRAID OF THE SWORD,.... Not of the civil magistrate, nor of a foreign enemy, but of the avenging sword of divine justice; lest God should whet the glittering sword of his justice, and his hand should take hold of judgment, in order to avenge the wrongs of the innocent; unless the other should... [ Continue Reading ]