Job · Chapter 10

V. 1. Shall I-Shall I give over complaining?

Verse 1. My soul is weary of my life] Here is a proof that vpn nephesh does not signify the animal life, but the soul or immortal mind, as distinguished from yj chai, that animal life; and is a strong proof that Job believed in the distinction between these two principles; was no materialist; but, on the contrary, credited the proper immortality of the soul. This is worthy of observation. See Job 12:10.

I will leave my complaint] I still charge myself with the cause of my own calamities; and shall not charge my Maker foolishly: but I must deplore my wretched and forlorn state.

Verse 1. My soul is weary of my life — My soul is weary of dwelling in this rotten and miserable body; or, I am, from my heart or soul, weary of my life. Sol. Jarchi’s comment is, My soul loathes itself because I am alive. The Hebrew, however, yyjb yvpn htqn, naketa napshi bechaji, may be properly rendered, My soul is cut off while I live; that is, I am dead while I live; I am in a manner buried alive. I will leave my complaint upon myself — I will continue to complain: and will take upon my self the hazard of so doing, and be willing to bear it. Let what will come on me, I must give my sorrows vent. Thus Ab. Ezra, “I will not restrain my grief, but leave or suffer it to take its course.” I will speak in the bitterness of my soul — My extreme misery forceth my complaints from me.

Verse 1. I will leave my complaint upon myself. These words seem to imply, that he would bear his complaint in silence; but it immediately follows, I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. Ostervald, in his treatise on the sacred ministry, has remarked that the book of Job, the Psalms, and the Proverbs are ill translated. Here indeed the versions seem to err by following the Vulgate; but the LXX admirably relieve this passage. “My soul being weary of life, I will bring my complaints before him; being oppressed, I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.”

Verse 1 expresses itself “in three convulsive sobs, like the sparse, large drops before the storm, excusing and introducing the pathetic wail of a crushed heart.” — Davidson.

1. Upon myself — Rather, with myself. He will give free course to his complaint.

a. Oppressive and precipitate dealing with his creatures is not becoming their Creator, who is himself not subject to human infirmities, such as limited knowledge and shortness of life, 2-7.

V. 2. Condemn-Or, pronounce me not to be a wicked man, neither deal with me as such, as I confess thou mightest do in rigorous justice: O discover my integrity by removing this stroke, for which my friends condemn me. Wherefore-For what ends and reasons, and for what sins; for I am not conscious to myself of any peculiar sins by which I have deserved to be made the most miserable of all men. When God afflicts, he contends with us: when he contends with us, there is always a reason for it. And it is desirable to know, what that reason is, that we may forsake whatever he has a controversy with us for.

Verse 2. Do not condemn me] Let me not be afflicted in thy wrath. Show me wherefore thou contendest] If I am afflicted because of my sins, show me what that sin is. God never afflicts but for past sin, or to try his followers; or for the greater manifestation of his grace in their support and deliverance.

Verse 2. I will say unto God, Do not condemn me — Hebrew, yn[yvrt la, al tarshigneeni, Do not pronounce me to be a wicked man; as my friends do; neither deal with me as such, as I confess thou mightest do, by thy sovereign power, and in rigorous justice: O discover my integrity by removing this stroke, for which my friends condemn me. Wherefore — For what ends and reasons, and for what sins; for I am not conscious to myself of any peculiar sins by which I have deserved to be made the most miserable of all men. When God afflicts, he contends with us: when he contends with us, there is always a reason for it. And it is desirable to know what that reason is, that we may forsake whatever he has a controversy with us for.

2. Do not condemn me — In the preceding chapter (verse 20) Job had charged Deity with a disposition to assume that he was guilty, and to condemn him unheard. He now prays God — fasten not guilt upon me.

V. 3. Good-Dost thou take any pleasure in it? Far be it from Job, to think that God did him wrong. But he is at a loss to reconcile his providences with his justice. And so other good men have often been, and will be, until the day shall declare it.

Verse 3. Is it good unto thee] Surely it can be no gratification to thee to distress the children of men, as if thou didst despise the work of thy own hands.

And shine upon the counsel] For by my afflictions the harsh judgments of the wicked will appear to be confirmed: viz., that God regards not his most fervent worshippers; and it is no benefit to lead a religious life.

Verse 3. Is it good unto thee? — Dost thou take any pleasure in it, that those shouldest oppress? — By thy absolute and irresistible power, without regard to that justice and clemency by which thou usest to govern mankind. Shouldest despise the work of thy hands — Show thy contempt of thy creatures, either by denying them protection, or by destroying them. And shine upon the counsel of the wicked — That is, by the methods of thy providence seem to favour the practices of wicked men, to whom thou givest prosperity and success, while thou frownest upon me and other good men. Far be it from Job to think that God did him wrong. But he is at a loss to reconcile his providences with his justice. And so other good men have often been, and will be, until the day shall declare it.

3. Is it good — bwch: Is it becoming thee? — Thus Dillmann and others. The first reason why God should not treat men as he does — for instance, in the threefold way disclosed in this verse: 1. Oppression in general; 2. The oppression of the just, “the work of his hands;” 3. The showing of favour to the wicked — is, that such a course does not comport with the nature of God.

V. 4. Eyes of faith-No. Eyes of flesh cannot see in the dark: but darkness hideth not from God. Eyes of flesh are but in one place at a time, and can see but a little way. But the eyes of the Lord are in every place, and run to and fro thro’ the whole earth. Eyes of flesh will shortly be darkened by age, and shut up by death. But the eyes of God are ever the same, nor does his sight ever decay. As man-Man sees the outside only, and judges by appearances: but thou seest mine heart.

Verse 4. Hast thou eyes of flesh!] Dost thou judge as man judges? Illustrated by the next clause, Seest thou as man seeth?

Verse 4. Hast thou eyes of flesh? — No. Eyes of flesh cannot see in the dark: but darkness hideth not from God. Eyes of flesh are but in one place at a time, and can see but a little way. But the eyes of the Lord are in every place, and run to and fro through the whole earth. Eyes of flesh will shortly be darkened by age, and shut up by death. But the eyes of God are ever the same, nor does his sight ever decay. Or seest thou as man — Man sees the outside only, and judges by appearances: but thou seest my heart.

4. Eyes of flesh — A second reason is, that God is not limited by human faculties. He sees not through the external sense but by intuition. He has not to reason, as man does, from what appears. His sight is thwarted by no dimming veil of sense, but He at once comprehends the heart.

V. 5. Man’s-Man’s time is short and uncertain, and therefore he must improve it, and diligently search out the crimes of malefactors, lest by death he lose the opportunity of doing justice: but thou art eternal, and seest at one view all mens hearts, and all their actions present and to come; and therefore thou dost not need to proceed with me in this manner, by making so long a scrutiny into my heart and life.

Verse 5. Are thy days as the days of man] vwna enosh, wretched, miserable man. Thy years as man’s days; rbg gaber, the strong man. Thou art not short-lived, like man in his present imperfect state; nor can the years of the long-lived patriarchs be compared with thine. The difference of the phraseology in the original justifies this view of the subject. Man in his low estate cannot be likened unto thee; nor can he in his greatest excellence, though made in thy own image and likeness, be compared to thee.

Verse 5. Are thy days as the days of man? — Man’s time is short and uncertain, and therefore he must improve it, and diligently search out the crimes of malefactors, lest by death he lose the opportunity of doing justice: but thou art eternal, and seest at one view all men’s hearts, and all their actions, present and to come; and therefore thou dost not need to proceed with me in this manner, by making so long a scrutiny into my heart and life.

5. As man’s days — The third reason Job gives is, that God’s years are not limited like the days of men. There is, therefore, no danger that man should outlive Deity, and thus escape his just deserts. Consequently hurried judgment is unworthy an eternal God.

V. 6. Searchest-Keeping me so long upon the rack, to compel me to accuse myself.

Verse 6. That thou inquirest] Is it becoming thy infinite dignity to concern thyself so much with the affairs or transgressions of a despicable mortal? A word spoken in the heart of most sinners.

Verses 6, 7. That thou inquirest, &c., and searchest after my sin — Keeping me so long upon the rack, to compel me to accuse myself. Thou knowest I am not wicked — That is a hypocrite, or an ungodly man, as my friends account me. There is none that can deliver, &c. — Thou art the supreme ruler of the world; therefore I must wait thy time, and throw myself on thy mercy, in submission to thy sovereign will. “It would be injurious to the character of Job,” says Mr. Peters, “should we interpret in a severe and rigorous sense, as it is certain his friends too often did, his frequent protestations of his innocence, and his bold appeals to the supreme Judge to prove and try him; for where he is thus strenuous in asserting his integrity, it is only in opposition to the notion which those mistaken friends had entertained of him, namely, that he had been guilty of some gross sins, which he had the art to hide from the world, but that he was in reality a wicked man, and a hypocrite in his behaviour. This is what Job utterly denies and disclaims, though he nowhere arrogates to himself perfect innocence or freedom from sin.”

6. Thou inquirest — The idea of Ewald, that Job conceives of God as some mighty monarch who, like those on earth, puts the unhappy one to the rack that he may constrain a confession, is not justified by the text. The real idea is not so high-coloured. Job means, if there be insufficient time to leave sin to its own development, then God is right in making such hasty inquisition after man’s iniquity; otherwise there is no need of seeking occasion against him and slaying him before his time.

V. 7. Wicked-An hypocrite, as my friends account me. Deliver-But thou art the supreme ruler of the world; therefore I must wait thy time, and throw myself on thy mercy, in submission to thy sovereign will.

Verse 7. Thou knowest that I am not wicked] While thou hast this knowledge of me and my conduct, why appear to be sifting me as if in order to find out sin; and though none can be found, treating me as though I were a transgressor?

Verses 6, 7. That thou inquirest, &c., and searchest after my sin — Keeping me so long upon the rack, to compel me to accuse myself. Thou knowest I am not wicked — That is a hypocrite, or an ungodly man, as my friends account me. There is none that can deliver, &c. — Thou art the supreme ruler of the world; therefore I must wait thy time, and throw myself on thy mercy, in submission to thy sovereign will. “It would be injurious to the character of Job,” says Mr. Peters, “should we interpret in a severe and rigorous sense, as it is certain his friends too often did, his frequent protestations of his innocence, and his bold appeals to the supreme Judge to prove and try him; for where he is thus strenuous in asserting his integrity, it is only in opposition to the notion which those mistaken friends had entertained of him, namely, that he had been guilty of some gross sins, which he had the art to hide from the world, but that he was in reality a wicked man, and a hypocrite in his behaviour. This is what Job utterly denies and disclaims, though he nowhere arrogates to himself perfect innocence or freedom from sin.”

7. Thou knowest — Literally, upon (that is, notwithstanding) thy knowledge. Read, although thou knowest. I am not wicked — Job had before confessed himself a sinner. He must mean here, either some specific heinous sin, or the more gross overt life, such as marks those technically called the wicked.

b. Such hostile procedure of God toward Job is in contradiction to the blended love and wisdom displayed in the creation of man, seeing that God ruthlessly destroys what he has lovingly and artistically formed, 8-12.

Verse 8. Thine hands have made me] Thou art well acquainted with human nature, for thou art its author.

And fashioned me together round about] All my powers and faculties have been planned and executed by thyself. It is thou who hast refined the materials out of which I have been formed, and modified them into that excellent symmetry and order in which they are now found; so that the union and harmony of the different parts, (djy yachad,) and their arrangement and completion, (bybs sabib,) proclaim equally thy wisdom, skill, power, and goodness.

Yet thou dost destroy me.] ותבלעני vatteballeeni, “and thou wilt swallow me up.” Men generally care for and prize those works on which they have spent most time, skill, and pains: but, although thou hast formed me with such incredible skill and labour, yet thou art about to destroy me! How dreadful an evil must sin be, when, on its account, God has pronounced the sentence of death on all mankind; and that body, so curiously and skilfully formed, must be decomposed, and reduced to dust!

Verse 8. Thy hands have made me, &c., round about — That is, all of me; all the faculties of my soul, and all the parts of my body, which are now overspread with sores and ulcers; I am wholly thy creature and workmanship, made by thee and for thee. Yet thou dost destroy me — Hebrew, yn[lbt, teballegneeni, swallow me up; namely, without any eminent provocation of mine; as if thou didst delight in doing and undoing, in making and then destroying thy creatures.

8. Made me — bx[, ‘hatsab, primary sense, cut or carve. Hence to elaborate with toil or care. The psalmist (Psalm 139:15) likens the work of God upon our frame to embroidery, curiously wrought. Epictetus, the Stoic, saw in the human body “the symbols of God.” — the clear marks of a divinity working most wisely and most powerfully.

V. 9. Clay-As a potter makes a vessel of clay; so this may note both the frailty of man’s nature, which of itself decays and perishes, and doth not need such violent shocks to overthrow it; and the excellency of the Divine artifice commended from the meanness of the materials; which is an argument why God should not destroy it. Again-I must die by the course of nature, and therefore while I do live, give me some ease and comfort.

Verse 9. Thou hast made me as the clay] Thou hast fashioned me, according to thy own mind, out of a mass of clay: after so much skill and pains expended, men might naturally suppose they were to have a permanent being; but thou hast decreed to turn them into dust!

Verse 9. Remember, thou hast made me as the clay — I was formed by thee as a potter makes a vessel of clay; so this may note both the frailty of man’s nature, which of itself decays and perishes, and doth not need such violent shocks to overthrow it; and the excellence of the divine artifice commended from the meanness of the materials; which is an argument why God should not destroy it. And will thou bring me? &c. — Or, rather, without an interrogation, thou wilt bring me into dust again — Out of which I was made: I must die by the course of nature, and by the sentence of thy law; and, therefore, while I do live, give me some ease and comfort.

9. As the clay — A favourite figure of the Scripture, Job 33:6; Isaiah 29:16; 45:9; Jeremiah 18:6; Romans 9:20, 21. The idea of destroying him naturally calls to the mind of Job the case of a potter, who, after skilfully elaborating some work of beauty, prizes it too highly to dash it wantonly to the earth. The mystery of death evidently presses upon his mind. God has made him out of clay — a masterpiece of skill, wisdom, and power — why should he bring him into dust again? Job recalls the sentence against Adam, and uses substantially the same words — “Unto dust shall thou return.” Genesis 3:19.

V. 10. As milk-Thus he modestly and accurately describes God’s admirable work in making man out of a small and liquid, and as it were milky substance, by degrees congealed and condensed into that exquisite frame of man’s body.

Verse 10. Hast thou not poured me out as milk] After all that some learned men have said on this subject, in order to confine the images here to simple nutrition, I am satisfied that generation is the true notion. Respicit ad fetus in matris utero primam formationem, quum in embryonem ex utriusque parentis semine coalescit.—Exodus semine liquido, lac quodammodo referente, me formasti.—In interpretando, inquit Hieronymus, omnino his accedo qui de genitali semine accipiunt, quod ipsa tanquam natura emulget, ac dein concrescere in utero ad coalescere jubet. I make no apology for leaving this untranslated.

The different expressions in this and the following verse are very appropriate: the pouring out like milk—coagulating, clothing with skin and flesh, fencing with bones and sinews, are well imagined, and delicately, and at the same time forcibly, expressed.

If I believed that Job referred to nutrition, which I do not, I might speak of the chyle, the chylopoietic organs, the lacteal vessels, and the generation of all the solids and fluids from this substance, which itself is derived from the food taken into the stomach. But this process, properly speaking, does not take place till the human being is brought into the world, it being previously nourished by the mother by means of the funis umbilicus, without that action of the stomach by which the chyle is prepared.

Verse 10. Hast thou not poured me out as milk? — Thus he modestly and accurately describes God’s admirable work in forming the fœtus in the womb, out of a small and liquid substance, gradually coagulated and condensed, as milk is curdled into cheese, into the exquisite frame of man’s body.

Ver. 10. Hast thou not poured me out as milk. In employing these figures the inspired writer discovers infinitely more delicacy than most of his commentators.

10. (Compare Psalm 139:15. Koran, Sura 86:5.) In the organization of the body from its rude primordia, the liquid elements assume a more solid consistency, like milk curdling into cheese. (Fausset.) “The development of the embryo was regarded by the Israelitish Hhokmah as one of the greatest mysteries.” — Delitzsch. See Ecclesiastes 11:5; 2 Macc. 7:22.

V. 11. Clothed-Covered my inward and more noble parts; which are first formed. So he proceeds in describing man’s formation gradually. Bones-The stay and strength of the body; and some of them, as the skull and ribs, enclose and defend its vital parts.

Verse 11. Thou hast clothed me with skin — Covered my inward and more noble parts, which are first formed. So he proceeds in describing man’s formation gradually. And fenced me with bones — The stay and strength of the body; and some of them, as the scull and ribs, enclose and defend its vital parts.

11. Fenced me — Interwoven me. Just as we speak of muscular tissues, or the texture (texere, to weave) of a physical organ. The Scriptures ascribe the origin of each individual to the creative work of God, as much so as the existence of Adam. “The order of creative growth is here from soft to hard,” says Grotius. “The Jews hold that a contrary order is to be observed in the resurrection.”

V. 12. Life-Thou didst not only give me a curious body, but also a reasonable soul: thou didst at first give me life, and then maintain it in me; both when I was in the womb (which is a marvellous work of God) and afterward when I was unable to do anything to preserve my own life. Favour-Thou didst not give mere life, but many other favours, such as nourishment by the breast, education, knowledge, and instruction. Visitation-The care of thy providence watching over me for my good, and visiting me in mercy. Preserved-My life, which is liable to manifold dangers, if God did not watch over us every day and moment. Thou hast hitherto done great things for me, given me life, and the blessings of life, and daily deliverances: and wilt thou now undo all that thou hast done? And shall I who have been such an eminent monument of thy mercy, now be a spectacle of thy vengeance.

Verse 12. Thou hast granted me life and favour] Thou hast brought me from my mother’s womb; given me an actual existence among men; by thy favour or mercy thou hast provided me with the means of life; and thy visitation—thy continual providential care, has preserved me in life—has given me the air I breathe, and furnished me with those powers which enable me to respire it as an agent and preserver of life. It is by God’s continued visitation or influence that the life of any man is preserved; in him we live, move, and have our being.

Verse 12. Thou hast granted me life — Thou didst not only give me a curious body, but also a reasonable soul: thou didst at first give me life, and then maintain it in me: both when I was in the womb, (which is a marvellous work of God,) and afterward, when I was unable to do any thing to preserve my own life. And favour — Thou didst not give mere life, but many other favours, such as nourishment by the breast, education, knowledge, and instruction. Thy visitation — The care of thy providence watching over me for my good, and visiting me in mercy; preserved my spirit — My life, which is liable to manifold dangers, if God did not watch over us every day and moment. Thou hast hitherto done great things for me, given me life, and the blessings of life, and daily deliverances: and wilt thou now undo all that thou hast done? And shall I, who have been such an eminent monument of thy mercy, now be a spectacle of thy vengeance.

12. Granted me life — Science knows as little about the origin of life as about its nature. Job calls it God’s gift. Atheistic philosophy conceives itself competent to dispense with the Infinite Fount of being, but stumbles at the very threshold of ordinary existence. Herbert Spencer accounts for organisms on the ground that “they are highly differentiated portions of the matter forming the earth’s crust and its gaseous envelope,” which is quite equivalent to accounting for the greenness of vegetation by its viridity. Cited in BEALE, Life Theories. Thy visitation — Providence, (Gesenius.)

Second section, double strophe — A LIFE OF MISERY, SPRINGING FROM GOD’S LEONINE HOSTILITY TO MAN, THOUGH DIVINELY PLANNED, IS LESS DESIRABLE THAN THE

V. 13. Hid-Both thy former favours and thy present frowns. Both are according to thy own will, and therefore undoubtedly consistent, however they seem. When God does what we cannot account for, we are bound to believe, there are good reasons for it hid in his heart. It is not with us, or in our reach to assign the cause; but I know this is with thee.

Verse 13. And these things hast thou hid in thine heart] Thou hast had many gracious purposes concerning me which thou hast not made known; but thy visitations and mercy are sufficient proofs of kindness towards me; though for purposes unknown to me thou hast sorely afflicted me, and continuest to treat me as an enemy.

Verse 13. These things hast thou hid in thy heart — Both thy former favours and thy present frowns. Both are according to thy own will, and therefore undoubtedly consistent with each other, however they seem. When God does what we cannot account for, we are bound to believe there are good reasons for it hid in his heart. It is not with us, or in our reach, to assign the cause; but I know this is with thee.

MISERABLE ESTATE OF THE DEAD, 13-22.

a. The relentless assaults of God on man without respect to the life he may lead, betray a hidden purpose or plan inexplicably discordant with all creative evidences of goodness, 13-17.

13. And — But. A glance at the ruin and misery wrought by his loathsome disease (verse 15) causes Job another painful revulsion, startles him out of his pleasant revery over God’s watchful care in the past, and drags him again to the brink of despair. With thee — That is, in thy mind. There is no reference in this verse to “the decrees” of the Almighty, as some suppose. This would not harmonize with the context. “In the present ill treatment of his creature Job believes that he sees the secret plan of God formed at his creation, which he now unfolds to him in detail.” — Hirtzel and Dillman. He who conceived a plan of cosmical creation, and gradually developed it during vast periods of time; who stamped upon the brute creation a prototype pointing forward to man, who in his physical make is the culmination of all vertebrates; who constructed the tabernacle according to a pattern first “showed to Moses in the mount,” (Hebrews 8:5,) — has launched no human being into existence without a plan for his life; and all the discipline of life is intended to develop and perfect this divine design. That plan may be thwarted or sadly distorted by the actions of the free agent, as the blossom or unripened fruit may be cast to the ground by the untimely blast, but the propose stands no less true.

V. 14. Markest-If I am a wicked man, I cannot hide it from thee; and thou wilt punish me for it.

Verse 14. If I sin] From thee nothing can be hidden; if I sin, thou takest account of the transgression, and canst not hold me for innocent when thou knowest I am guilty.

Verse 14. If I sin — If I commit the least sin; then thou markest me — Thou dost not connive at, or pass by my sins, but dost severely and diligently observe them all, that thou mayest punish me. And thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity — Wilt not pardon, pity, and help me, but art resolved to punish me with rigour: words of great impatience and distrust. But he was so oppressed and overwhelmed with his troubles that it seems he could not look up with any comfort or confidence. Without were fightings, within were fears, so that between both he was full of confusion.

14. If I (should) sin — The purpose Job thinks he has discovered, the Almighty carries into execution, whatever may be man’s moral character. He supposes four conditions of life: first, that of the ordinary sinner, (verse 14;) second, that of the gross and willful transgressor, (15 a;) third, that of the righteous, such as Job claimed to be, (15 b;) fourth, that of those consciously proud of guiltlessness, (Pharisaical righteousness,) as seems implied in “the head lift itself up.” Verse 16. The two suppositions of irreligious life are offset to the two of religious life, and make what Ewald truly calls “a horrible tetralemma” — a cruel fourfold net.

V. 15. Wicked-An hypocrite, as my friends esteem me. Righteous-An upright man; so whether good or bad, all comes to one. Yet-Yet I have no comfort, or hopes of any good. Confusion-I am confounded within myself, not knowing what to say or do. Let my extremity move thee to pity, and help me.

Verse 15. If I be wicked] I must meet with that punishment that is due to the workers of iniquity.

If I be righteous] I am only in the state which my duty to my Creator requires me to be in; and I cannot therefore suppose that on this account I can deserve any thing by way of favour from the justice of my Maker. I am full of confusion] I am confounded at my state and circumstances. I know that thou art merciful, and dost not afflict willingly the children of men; I know I have not wickedly departed from thee; and yet I am treated by thee as if I were an apostate from every good. I am therefore full of confusion. See thou to my affliction; and bring me out of it in such a way as shall at once prove my innocence, the righteousness of thy ways, and the mercy of thy nature.

Verse 15. If I be wicked — That is, an ungodly hypocrite, as my friends esteem me; wo unto me — I am truly and extremely miserable; and, if I continue wicked, must be eternally so. And if I be righteous — An upright man; yet will I not, or yet can I not, lift up my head — Yet I have no comfort, nor hope of any good: so, whether I am good or bad, all comes to one. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction — I am confounded within myself, not knowing what to say or do. Let my extremity move thee to pity and help me.

15. I am full of confusion, etc. — It may also be rendered, being filled with shame and the sight of my misery.

V. 16. Lion-Which hunteth after his prey with great eagerness, and when he overtakes it, falls upon it with great fury. Returnest-The lion tears its prey speedily, and so ends its torments; but thou renewest my calamities again and again, and makest my plagues wonderful both for kind and extremity, and continuance.

Verse 16. For it increaseth.] Probably this refers to the affliction mentioned above, which is increased in proportion to its duration. Every day made his escape from such a load of evils less and less probable. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion] As the hunters attack the king of beasts in the forest, so my friends attack me. They assail me on every side. Thou showest thyself marvellous] Thy designs, thy ways, thy works, are all incomprehensible to me; thou dost both confound and overpower me. Mr. Good translates thus:—

“For uprousing as a ravenous lion dost thou spring upon me. And again thou showest over me thy vast power.”

Verse 16. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion — Which hunteth after his prey with eagerness, and, when he overtakes it, falls upon it with great fury. Again thou showest — Hebrews yb alptt bvtw, vetashob tithpalla bi, Thou turnest again: Thou art marvellous, or, thou showest thyself marvellous upon, in, or against me. The lion tears its prey speedily, and so ends its torments; but thou renewest my calamities again and again, and makest my plagues wonderful, both for kind, and extremity, and continuance.

Ver. 16. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion, which leaves his lair in the cool of the evening, and runs toward the wind, the better to get a scent of his prey.

16. For it increaseth, etc. — And (if) it (the head) lift itself up, thou huntest me like the lion, (shahhal,) see note, 4:10. This image is of frequent occurrence. (Isaiah 31:4; 38:13; Hosea 5:14; 13:7.) “Good and Boothroyd seem rightly to consider that the fine passage in this and the following verse refers to the sport which lions, and, indeed, all the feline tribe, exercise over their prey before they finally devour it.” — DR. KITTO, Pict. Bible. This painful feature of instinct is relieved by the consideration that the senses of the victim are probably to a good extent paralyzed. Such was the experience of Dr. Livingstone when once in the jaws of a lion. (Travels in South Africa, p. 12.) The figure is one of unspeakable terror, but not necessitated by the text, though the Speaker’s Commentary seems to adopt it. Marvellous upon me — “Mighty against me.” (Furst.) The crude form of the verb is the same as Isaiah 9:6, translated wonderful. God adapts his afflictions to the heart. He shows as marvellous wisdom in the various visitations he makes to the souls of men as he does in the works of creation.

V. 17. Witnesses-Thy judgments, which are the evidences both of my sins, and of thy wrath. Indignation-My miseries are the effects of thine anger. Army-Changes may denote the various kinds, and an army the great number of his afflictions.

Verse 17. Thou renewest thy witnesses] In this speech of Job he is ever referring to trials in courts of judicature, and almost all his terms are forensic. Thou bringest witnesses in continual succession to confound and convict me.

Changes and war] I am as if attacked by successive troops; one company being wearied, another succeeds to the attack, so that I am harassed by continual warfare.

Verse 17. Thou renewest thy witnesses — Thy judgments, which are the evidences both of my sins and of thy wrath; and increasest thine indignation — That is, my miseries, the effects of thine indignation. Changes and war — Or, changes and an army, that is, many miseries succeeding one another, like companies of soldiers successively coming on to the attack in a battle. Or, changes may signify the various kinds, and an army the great number of his afflictions.

17. Thy witnesses — The verbal form of the word in the Arabic also signifies attack, which may have led to the marginal reading, “plagues.” Job here means “afflictions,” “sorrows,” tokens of divine displeasure. Contemplated aright they are, for the good man, witnesses of heavenly love. Changes and war — Literally, Exchanges and an army. He means the re-enforcements of an army — host succeeding host. The singular form of the word twpylj (exchanges) reappears in Job 14:14, for the relief of a sentry. As sentries are relieved in an army, so one host succeeds another against me. In Job 19:12, he compares himself to a fortress which God besieges.

b. Lost in the perplexities of existence, the sole favour he has to ask is a little respite (for reflection) before he descends to the land of deepest darkness, 18-22.

Verse 18. Wherefore then] Why didst thou give me a being, when thou didst foresee I should be exposed to such incredible hardships? See on Job 3:10, &c.

18. O that I had given up the ghost — Rather, I should have died. “If the flesh should murmur and cry out, as Christ even cried out and was feeble,” (says Luther, in one of his consolatory letters,) “the spirit nevertheless is ready and willing, and, with sighings that cannot be uttered, will cry, Abba, Father, is it thou? thy rod is hard, but thou still art Father; I know that of a truth.” — Delitzsch. In sad contrast with this, and in harmony with Job, is the language of Artabanus, the Persian: “Short as our time is, there is no man, whether it be here among this multitude or elsewhere, who is so happy as not to have felt the wish — I will not say once, but full many a time — that he were dead, rather than alive.” — Herodotus, 7:46.

Verse 19. I should have been as though] Had I given up the ghost as soon as born, as I could not then have been conscious of existence, it would have been, as it respects myself, as though I had never been; being immediately transported from my mother’s womb to the grave.

19. Have… carried — lbwa, borne with solemn funereal pomp, same as in 21:32. A word of honour strangely accorded to nascent humanity, unless it be because of its immortal life. “Here the example of Job teaches us that great and holy men fall easily and sin terribly if God, our Lord, begin a little to withdraw his hand from them.” — H. Weller.

V. 20. Cease-My life is short, and of itself hastens to an end, there is no need that thou shouldest grudge me some ease for so small a moment.

Verse 20. Are not my days few?] My life cannot be long; let me have a little respite before I die.

Verses 20-22. Are not my days few? Cease then, &c. — My life is short, and of itself hastens to an end; there is no need that thou shouldest grudge me some ease for so small a moment. Let me alone — Or lay aside, or remove thy hand or anger from me. That I may take comfort a little — Hebrews hgylba, abligah, et recreabo me, I shall refresh, or strengthen myself: shall have some respite, some remission of my grief and pain, some consolation. Those that are not duly thankful for constant ease should think how welcome one hour’s ease would be if they were in constant pain. Before I go to the place whence I shall not return — Shall not come back into this world and life. At death we must bid a final farewell to this world: the body must then be laid where it will lie long; and the soul appointed to that state where it must be for ever. That had need to be well done which is to be done but once, and done for eternity. Even to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death — That is, a dark and dismal shade. Holy souls at death remove to a land of light, where there is no death; but their bodies they leave to a land of darkness, and the shadow of death. Of darkness, as darkness itself, &c. — He heaps up expressions here to show that he has as dreadful apprehensions of death and the grave as other men naturally have, so that it was only the extreme misery he was in that made him wish for it. Without any order — No order is observed in bringing people to the grave, not the eldest are brought first, not the richest, not the poorest, and yet every one in his own order, the order appointed by the God of life. All lie there on the same level, and there is no distinction between the prince and the peasant; but the servant is there free from his master: and in the grave there is perpetual night, and no succession of day. And where the light is as darkness — Where there is no difference between light and darkness; where the day is as dark as the night; where there is nothing but perpetual and uninterrupted darkness. In the grave there is no knowledge, no comfort, no joy, no praising God, no working out our salvation, for the night is come wherein no man can work. Let us consider this, and therefore walk and work while we have the light with us.

20. Take comfort — Same as 9:27. Cease — Let him cease. “Job at the end of his complaint, not venturing to speak to God, but of him, in the third person.” — Schlottmann.

Verse 21. I shall not return] I shall not return again from the dust to have a dwelling among men.

To the land of darkness] See Clarke’s notes on “Job 3:5”. There are here a crowd of obscure and dislocated terms, admirably expressive of the obscurity and uncertainty of the subject. What do we know of the state of separate spirits? What do we know of the spiritual world? How do souls exist separate from their respective bodies? Of what are they capable and what is their employment? Who can answer these questions? Perhaps nothing can be said much better of the state than is here said, a land of obscurity, like darkness.

The shadow of death] A place where death rules, over which he projects his shadow, intercepting every light of every kind of life. Without any order, µyrds alw velo sedarim, having no arrangements, no distinctions of inhabitants; the poor and the rich are there, the master and his slave, the king and the beggar, their bodies in equal corruption and disgrace, their souls distinguished only by their moral character. Stripped of their flesh, they stand in their naked simplicity before God in that place.

Verses 20-22. Are not my days few? Cease then, &c. — My life is short, and of itself hastens to an end; there is no need that thou shouldest grudge me some ease for so small a moment. Let me alone — Or lay aside, or remove thy hand or anger from me. That I may take comfort a little — Hebrews hgylba, abligah, et recreabo me, I shall refresh, or strengthen myself: shall have some respite, some remission of my grief and pain, some consolation. Those that are not duly thankful for constant ease should think how welcome one hour’s ease would be if they were in constant pain. Before I go to the place whence I shall not return — Shall not come back into this world and life. At death we must bid a final farewell to this world: the body must then be laid where it will lie long; and the soul appointed to that state where it must be for ever. That had need to be well done which is to be done but once, and done for eternity. Even to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death — That is, a dark and dismal shade. Holy souls at death remove to a land of light, where there is no death; but their bodies they leave to a land of darkness, and the shadow of death. Of darkness, as darkness itself, &c. — He heaps up expressions here to show that he has as dreadful apprehensions of death and the grave as other men naturally have, so that it was only the extreme misery he was in that made him wish for it. Without any order — No order is observed in bringing people to the grave, not the eldest are brought first, not the richest, not the poorest, and yet every one in his own order, the order appointed by the God of life. All lie there on the same level, and there is no distinction between the prince and the peasant; but the servant is there free from his master: and in the grave there is perpetual night, and no succession of day. And where the light is as darkness — Where there is no difference between light and darkness; where the day is as dark as the night; where there is nothing but perpetual and uninterrupted darkness. In the grave there is no knowledge, no comfort, no joy, no praising God, no working out our salvation, for the night is come wherein no man can work. Let us consider this, and therefore walk and work while we have the light with us.

21. Whence I shall not return —

The undiscovered country, from whose bourne No traveller returns. — Hamlet, 3:1.

Verse 22. Where the light is as darkness.] A palpable obscure: it is space and place, and has only such light or capability of distinction as renders “darkness visible.” The following words of Sophocles convey the same idea: iw skotov emoi faov; “Thou darkness be my light.” It is, as the Vulgate expresses it, Terra tenebrosa, et operta mortis caligine: Terra miseriæ et tenebrarum, ubi umbra mortis, et nullus ordo, sed sempiternus horror inhabitat: “A murky land, covered with the thick darkness of death: a land of wretchedness and obscurities, where is the shadow of death, and no order, but sempiternal horror dwells everywhere.” Or, as Coverdale expresses this last clause, Wheras is no ordre but terrible feare as in the darknesse. A duration not characterized or measured by any of the attributes of time; where there is no order of darkness and light, night and day, heat and cold, summer and winter. It is the state of the dead! The place of separate spirits! It is out of time, out of probation, beyond change or mutability. It is on the confines of eternity! But what is THIS? and where? Eternity! how can I form any conception of thee? In thee there is no order, no bounds, no substance, no progression, no change, no past, no present, no future! Thou art an indescribable something, to which there is no analogy in the compass of creation. Thou art infinity and incomprehensibility to all finite beings. Thou art what, living, I know not, and what I must die to know; and even then I shall apprehend no more of thee than merely that thou art E-T-E-R-N-I-T-Y!

JOB

Verses 20-22. Are not my days few? Cease then, &c. — My life is short, and of itself hastens to an end; there is no need that thou shouldest grudge me some ease for so small a moment. Let me alone — Or lay aside, or remove thy hand or anger from me. That I may take comfort a little — Hebrews hgylba, abligah, et recreabo me, I shall refresh, or strengthen myself: shall have some respite, some remission of my grief and pain, some consolation. Those that are not duly thankful for constant ease should think how welcome one hour’s ease would be if they were in constant pain. Before I go to the place whence I shall not return — Shall not come back into this world and life. At death we must bid a final farewell to this world: the body must then be laid where it will lie long; and the soul appointed to that state where it must be for ever. That had need to be well done which is to be done but once, and done for eternity. Even to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death — That is, a dark and dismal shade. Holy souls at death remove to a land of light, where there is no death; but their bodies they leave to a land of darkness, and the shadow of death. Of darkness, as darkness itself, &c. — He heaps up expressions here to show that he has as dreadful apprehensions of death and the grave as other men naturally have, so that it was only the extreme misery he was in that made him wish for it. Without any order — No order is observed in bringing people to the grave, not the eldest are brought first, not the richest, not the poorest, and yet every one in his own order, the order appointed by the God of life. All lie there on the same level, and there is no distinction between the prince and the peasant; but the servant is there free from his master: and in the grave there is perpetual night, and no succession of day. And where the light is as darkness — Where there is no difference between light and darkness; where the day is as dark as the night; where there is nothing but perpetual and uninterrupted darkness. In the grave there is no knowledge, no comfort, no joy, no praising God, no working out our salvation, for the night is come wherein no man can work. Let us consider this, and therefore walk and work while we have the light with us.

Ver. 22. A land of darkness. The sepulchre, as all interpret.—The shadow of death, the densest darkness; without any order. The foolish and the wise, the vicious and the virtuous, the beggar and the prince there meet together. Job alludes to the veil which covers futurity; and that if his case were not cleared up in the present life, he would not till “the set time” be allowed to return.

22. Darkness itself — Ophel. Darkness particularly thick. (Furst.) The spectacle that the interior of the dark and gloomy sepulchre presented, evidently tinged Job’s views of the state of the dead. The vivid imagination of the Arab, notwithstanding the teaching of the Koran, still sees in the tomb the real, conscious home of the dead. “I have read some poems of the Arabians in which they are represented as visiting the graves of their friends like dwelling places, conversing with them, and watching the dust of their dwellings.… The dead were held so dear that one could not, must not, think of them as dead, even in the grave, and thus they were represented there as still having an animate, though shadowy, existence.” — Herder. (See further, Hebrew Poetry, 1:173.) Without any order — “Where all is confused, like unto a chaos.” — GESENIUS, Thesaurus. The light is as darkness — It shines as thick darkness. Such darkness reigns there that their broad daylight is as dark as midnight on earth. (Hirtzel.) Thus Milton: —

Yet from those flames

No light, but rather darkness visible.

Dr. Clarke cites Sophocles: “Thou, darkness, be my light.” This “bold and tremendous” description of the underworld of the dead is not surpassed in any language, and forcibly recalls the conclusion to a similar, but vastly inferior, one by Seneca: —

Ipsaque morte pejor est mortis locus, etc.,

And death’s abode is worse than death itself.

— Hercules Furens.

The description Job gives of the underworld bears some points of resemblance to that recovered from the Assyrian tablets, supposed to have been made at least twenty centuries before Christ. It appears in the account of the descent of the goddess Ishtar to the infernal regions. To “the house of the departed, the seat of the god Iskalla; to the house from within which there is no exit; to the road the course of which never returns; to the place within which they long for light; the place where dust is their nourishment, and their food mud; light is never seen, in the darkness they dwell; its chiefs, also, like birds, are clothed with wings; over the door and its bolts is scattered dust.” — GEORGE SMITH, Assyrian Discov., p. 220. EXCURSUS IV

THE DAYSMAN.

In the judicial language of the Middle Ages, the word day was specially applied to the day appointed for hearing a cause. (Wedgwood.) Hence our English word daysman denoted the judge who presided at the day fixed, for he was the man of the day. No better word could have been selected to express the faith of our translators, that this daysman is Christ, who will judge the world on the day which God hath appointed. Acts 17:31. The word jykwm, mokiahh, daysman, which Furst renders “mediator,” “umpire,” is used in the Hiphil form with the idea of judging or deciding between two parties. The Septuagint version gives as the equivalent of mokiahh, mesithv hmwn, the same term (mesites) that is employed by the apostle (Galatians 3:19, 20; 1 Timothy 2:5, and Hebrews 8:6) for Mediator. The Septuagint also adds, “and a reprover, and one who should hear (through) in the midst of both,” diakouwn anameson, etc. Many manuscripts, (Dr. Clarke speaks of fifteen,) and the ancient versions, the Septuagint, Arabic, and Syriac,. read wl, lou, “would that,” in place of al, lo, “not;” thus, “Would that there were a days-man,” etc. This passage has given rise to extreme views. On the one side is that of the Fathers: thus St. Gregory — “The holy patriarch Job, contemplating the sins of man and the wrath of God against sin, prays for a mediator who is both God and man. He beholds him from afar, and longs for a redeemer who may lay his hands on both.” St. Augustine (Psalm ciii) also writes: “Job desired to see Christ; he desired a mediator. What is a mediator? One who stands in the midst in order to adjust a cause. Were we not the enemies of God, and had we not a bad cause toward God? Who could put an end to that bad cause but He (medius arbiter) concerning whom the apostle says,” etc., 1 Timothy 2:5. At the other extreme is the view of the Rationalists, thus expressed by Dr. Noyes: “An arbiter who may have authority to control either of us who shall exceed the limits of propriety in the controversy, and also oblige us to stand to his decision.” Job had been but just before (verse 31) treating of moral defilement that had stained the soul beyond all human power of removal. Such was this defilement that even after man’s utmost cleansing of himself, his own unclean garments would abhor contact with so filthy a being. Though there be the intervention of a verse, (32,) yet such a degrading transition as would be implied in the rationalistic interpretation of this verse is unworthy of Job. It means a descent from the profoundest and most momentous question that can conceivably engage the mind of man, to the platitude of a super-divine umpire, (pedagogue,) whose duty it should be to hold in restraint two quarrelsome disputants, God and man. Its absurdity is stamped upon its face.

Nor are we inclined with the Fathers to attribute to Job too great a knowledge of divine truth. His moral needs unquestionably led him to think of and desire superhuman help — the intervention of some being who should assist in the adjudication of the cause at issue between man and God. He sighed for some one to stand between, and not as the Rationalists say, above, both. With Job the real knowledge of a mediator was more of the heart than of the head — more a feeling than a mental conception. The heart’s wants belong to the race, and to every age; clear perception of truth to but few. In the fulness of time, meridian knowledge of a mediator should come with the mediator himself. “Job, out of his religious entanglement, proclaimed the necessity of a mediator to humanize God two thousand years before he came.” — Davidson. An exceedingly ancient custom of the Arabs certainly favours the evangelical view. “The Arabs,” says Herodotus, (iii, 8,) “plight faith with the forms following. When two men would swear a friendship, they stand on each side of a third; he, with a sharp stone, makes a cut on the inside of the hand of each, near the middle finger, and taking a piece from their dress, dips it in the blood of each, and moistens therewith seven stones lying in the midst, calling the while on Bacchus and Urania. After this the man who makes the pledge commends the stranger (or the citizen, if citizen he be) to all his friends, and they deem themselves bound to stand to the engagement.” A like custom is perpetuated to the present day among the Arabs. “When any one commits an offence against another individual,” says Sir J.G. Wilkinson, (ibid.,) “he endeavors to find a mediator to intercede in his behalf, and the tent of that person becomes an asylum (like the refuge city of the Jews, Numbers 35:11) until the compact has been settled.” Some such Semitic custom of mediation Job probably had in mind. The old Accadian faith, as we now learn from Assyrian tablets, embraced an idea of divine mediation for the benefit of men. The primitive Accad (see note on Job 1:17) worshipped a God, (Silik-moulou khi,) “him who orders what is good for man,” the eldest son of Hea, through whom the will of his father, Hea, was communicated to men; “him, the command of whose mouth is propitious, the sublime judge of heaven.” The early Accadian hymns recognise the great power he had with his father, Hea, in averting evils from men. — LENORMANT, la Magie, 346, 7. See further, Speaker’s Com., vol. vi, p. 266, Excursus on Chaldee Magic.

In the presence of such light from the not far distant land of Chaldea, into contact with which our history brings us closely, (Job 1:17,) we are not to suppose an inadvertent use of words on the part of Job when he speaks of “a daysman;” but rather, that he may have possessed at least as enlightened views as those of the Chaldeans, from whose land it will be remembered Abraham had early migrated. But of Abraham, Christ says he “rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” John 8:56. This anticipatory knowledge of Christ may have been vouchsafed to him before he left Ur of the Chaldees, (Genesis 11:31,) and have been communicated by him to his Chaldaean countrymen, and preserved in tradition, which, after the lapse of so many centuries, has been marvellously brought to light. The most ancient false religions were burdened with the momentous problem of Job — How shall the evil of sin be compounded, and man made pure? On a point of so much interest we adduce a few illustrations: “What shall I do,” cried Zoroaster, “O Ormazd, steeped in brightness, in order to battle with Daroodj-Ahriman, father of the evil law, how shall I make men pure and holy?” Ormazd answered and said, “Invoke, O Zoroaster, the pure law of the servants of Ormazd;… invoke my spirit, me, who am Ahura-Mazda, the purest, strongest, wisest, best of beings; me, who have the most majestic body; who, through purity, am supreme, whose soul is the excellent word, and ye, all people, invoke me as I have commanded Zoroaster.” — KLEUKER’S Avesta Vendidad Farg.,

19. See HARDWICK, ibid., ii, pp. 392-395.

The later literature of the Brahman frequently intimates that deliverance is secured by a son. Of such a one the Rig Veda, (vii, 56, 24,) translated by Max Muller, early speaks: “O, Maruts, may there be to us a strong son, who is a living ruler of men, through whom we may cross the waters on our way to the happy abode; then may we come to your own house.” Buddha himself confessed his own age to be irremediably corrupt, and prophesied of a Buddha to be called Mait-reya, the loving, the merciful, who will cause justice to reign over the earth. See further, on Buddha, BUNSEN, God in History, 1:371. “For we ought,” says Plato, describing the last scenes in the life of Socrates, “with respect to these things, either to learn from others how they stand, or to discover them for one’s self; or, if both these are impossible, then, taking the best of human reasonings, and that which is most difficult to be refitted, and embarking on this as one who risks himself on a raft, so to sail through life, UNLESS one could be carried more safely, and with less risk, on a surer conveyance, or SOME DIVINE REASON (logou qeiou tinov). — Phaedo, section 78. See also Socrates, in Plato, Second Alcibiades, section 23.