My soul is (a) weary of my life; I will leave my (b) complaint upon
myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
(a) I am more like a dead man, than to one that lives.
(b) I will make an ample declaration of my torments, accusing myself
and not God.... [ Continue Reading ]
I will say unto God, Do not (c) condemn me; shew me wherefore thou
contendest with me.
(c) He would not that God would proceed against him by his secret
justice, but by the ordinary means that he punishes others.... [ Continue Reading ]
[Is it] (d) good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou
shouldest despise the (e) work of thine hands, and shine upon the (f)
counsel of the wicked?
(d) Is it agreeable to your justice to do me wrong?
(e) Will you be without compassions?
(f) Will you gratify the wicked and condemn me?... [ Continue Reading ]
Hast thou eyes of (g) flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?
(g) Do you do this of ignorance.... [ Continue Reading ]
[Are] thy days as the (h) days of man? [are] thy years as man's days,
(h) Are you inconstant and changeable as the times, today a friend,
tomorrow an enemy?... [ Continue Reading ]
Thou knowest that I am not (i) wicked; and [there is] none that can
deliver out of thine hand.
(i) By affliction you keep me as in a prison, and restrain me from
doing evil, neither can any set me free.... [ Continue Reading ]
Thine (k) hands have made me and fashioned me together round about;
yet thou dost destroy me.
(k) In these eight verses following he describes the mercy of God, in
the wonderful creation of man: and on it grounds that God should not
show himself rigorous against him.... [ Continue Reading ]
Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as (l) the clay; and
wilt thou bring me into dust again?
(l) As brittle as a pot of clay.... [ Continue Reading ]
Thou hast granted me life and (m) favour, and thy (n) visitation hath
preserved my spirit.
(m) That is, reason and understanding, and many other gifts, by which
man excels all earthly creatures.
(n) That is, the fatherly care and providence by which you preserved
me, and without which I would peri... [ Continue Reading ]
And these [things] hast thou hid in thine heart: I know (o) that this
[is] with thee.
(o) Though I am not fully able to comprehend these things, yet I must
confess that it is so.... [ Continue Reading ]
If I be wicked, woe unto me; and [if] I be righteous, [yet] will I not
(p) lift up my head. [I am] full of confusion; therefore see thou mine
affliction;
(p) I will always walk in fear and humility, knowing that no one is
just before you.... [ Continue Reading ]
For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou
shewest thyself (q) marvellous upon me.
(q) Job being sore assaulted in this battle between the flesh and the
spirit, breaks out into these affections, wishing rather for short
days than long pain.... [ Continue Reading ]
Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine
indignation upon me; (r) changes and war [are] against me.
(r) That is, diversity of diseases and in great abundance; showing
that God has infinite means to punish man.... [ Continue Reading ]
[Are] not my days few? (s) cease [then, and] let me alone, that I may
take comfort a little,
(s) He wishes that God would leave off his affliction, considering his
great misery and the shortness of his life.... [ Continue Reading ]
Before I go [whence] I shall not (t) return, [even] to the land of
darkness and the shadow of death;
(t) He speaks this in the person of a sinner, that is overcome with
passions and with the feeling of God's judgments and therefore cannot
apprehend in that state the mercies of God, and the comfort... [ Continue Reading ]
A land of darkness, as darkness [itself; and] of the shadow of death,
without any (u) order, and [where] the light [is] as darkness.
(u) No distinction between light and darkness but where there is very
darkness itself.... [ Continue Reading ]