Bible Commentary (1871–1879 Edition)
Job Curses his Birth, and Wishes for Death. JOB IV. Eliphaz Reproveth him for Want of Rdigian.
(Revelation 14. 13,. is. Tliere the prisoners rest—From their chains. 19. servant—^The slave is there manumitted from slavery.
The words in italics are not in the Hebrew. Night is per Bouified and poetically made to speak. So in v. 7, and Psalm 19. 2. The birth of a male in the East is a matter of joy ; often not so of a female. 4. let not God regard
20-20. He Complains of Like BECArsE or His Anguish, ao. '\\^^erefore giveth He light—r-iz., God. Often omitted revercniially (ch. 24. 'Si; Eeclesiastes 9. 9). Light,
It—Rather, more poetically, Seek it out. " Let not God stoop from his bright throne to raise it up from its dark hiding-place." The curse on the dajj in v. 3, is amplified in V. 4, 5; that on the night, in v. 6-10. 5. let tlie sliadow of death—(deepest darkness, Isaiah 9. 2)—stain It—This i.e., life. The joyful liglit ill suits the mourners. The grave is most in unison with tlieir feelings. 23. whose way Is hid—The picture of Job is drawn from a wanderer who has lost !iis way, and who is hedged in, so as to have no exit of escape (Hosea2. 6; Lamentations 3. 7, 91. a*, my sighing cometh before I eat—i. e., prevents my eating. [Umbkeit.] Or, conscious that the elfort to eat brought on the disease. Job must sigh before eating. [Ro.SEXML'LLER.] Or, sighing takes the place of good (Psalm 42. 3). [Good.] But the first explanation accords best with the text, my roaring Is pourctl out like the waters— An image from the rushing sound of water streaming. 2.5. the thing whleli I . . . feared is come upon me—In the beginning of his trials, when he heard of the loss of one blessing, he feared the lo.>;s of another, and when he heard of the loss of that, be feared the loss of a third, that which I was afral:! of is come unto me viz., the ill-opinion of his friends, as though he were a hypocrite on account of his trials. :itt, 1 was not in safety . . . yet fronble came—Uoferving, not to his former state, but to the beginning ii( his troubles. From that time / had no rest, there was no intermission of sorrows. And (not, yet) A fresh trouble Is coining, uii., my. friends' suspicion of my being a hypocrite. This gives the starting-point to the whole ensuing controversy.
is a later sense of the verb [Gesenics], better the old and more poetic Idea, "Let darkness (the ancient night of chaotic gloom) resume its riglits over light (Genesis I. 2), and claim that day as its own." a cloud—Collectively, a gathered mass of dark clouds, the blac Ujiess of the day terrify it lit., the obscurations; whatever darkens the day. [Gesenius.] The verb in Hebrew expresses sudden terrifying. May it be suddenly affrighted at its own darkness. Umbreit explains it of magical incantations that darken the day, forming the climax to the previous clauses; v. 8 speaks of cursers of the day similarly. But the former view is simpler. Others refer it to the poisonous simoom wind. 6. seize upon it—As its prej-, i. e., utterly dissolve it. Joined unto the days of the year Rather, by poetic personification, "Let it not »-<:;otce in the circle of days and nights and months, which form the circle of years." 7. solitary 'Ra.Vaer, unfruitful. "Would that It had not given birth to me." 8. them . . . that ctirse the day—If mourning be the right rendering in the latter clause of this verse, these words refer to tlie hired mourners of the dead (Jeremiah 9. 17). But the Hebren' for mourning elsewhere always denotes an animal, whether it be the crocodile or some huge serpent (Isaiah 27. 1), that is meant by leviathan. Therefore, the expression, cursers
CHAPTER IV.
of day, refers to magicians, who were believed to be able by charms to make a day one of evil omen. So Balaam, Numbers 22. 5. This accords with Umbkeit's view (v. 7)
Ver. 1-21. First Speech of Ei.ipiiaz. Eliphaz—The mildest of Job's three accusers. The greatness of Job's calamities, and his complaints against Ood, and the opinion that calamities are proofs of guill, led the three to doubt Job's Integrity. 3. If we essay to commune Rather, two questions, "May we attemvt a word with thee? Wilt thou lie grieved at it?" Even pious friends often count that only a touch which we feel as a wound.
or to the Ethiopians and Atlantes, who "used to curse the sun at his rising for burning up tliem and their country." [Herodotus.] Necromancers claimed power to control or rouse wild beasts at will, as the Indian serpentcharmers at this day (Psalm 58. 5). Job does not say tliey had the power they claimed; but, supposing they had, may they curse the day. Schuttens renders it by supplying words (?) Let those that are ready /or anything, call
3. weak hands—Isaiah ;i5. 3; 2 Samuel 4. 1. .I. thou art troubled—Rather, unhinged, hast lost thy si ll'-eominaiul
(1 Thessiilonians 3. .3). G. Is not t!>ls thy fear, thy contld«'nee, Ac—Poes thy fear, tli.v confideiue, Ac, come to notlilng? Does It come only to this, that thou lUinlest now? Rather, by transposition, "Is not thy tear (of God) thy hope? and the uprightness of thy ways thy conftdence? If so, bethink tliee, who ever perished being innocent?" [ll MiutErr.] But Luke 13. 2, 3 shows that, though there i.v a retributive divine government oven in this life, yet we cannot judge by the mere outward appearance. "One event Is oulwardly to the righteous ami to the wicked" (Eeclesiastes 9. 2); but yet we must take it on ^»«^, that (5<)(1 deals righteously even xotc (I'salm .'i7. 2.5; Isaiah IK. 1(>). Judge not by n part, but by the whole of a godly man's life, anil hy his enii,\y\pn here (James 5. U), The one and tlu' same outward even I Is altogether a dill'erenl thing In Its Inward Ix'arings on the godl.v and on the ungodly even here. I '.veii prosperity, much inorecalaniily, it ithe day) the raiser up of leviathan, i. e., of a host of evils. 9. dawning of the day lit., eyelashes of morning. The Arab poets call the sun the eye of day. His early rays, therefore, breaking forth before sunrise, arc tlie opening eyelids or cyclaslics of morning. Vi. AVhy did the knees prevent ine 1—Old English for anticipate my wants. The reference is to the solemn recognition of a new-born child by the father, who used to place it on his knees as his own, whom he was bound to rear (Genesis 30. 3; 50.23; Isaiah (W. 12). 13. lain ... . quiet . . . slept—A gradation.
I should not only have lain, but been quirt, and not only been quiet, but slept. Death in Scripture Is called sleep (Psalm 13. '!); especially in the New Testament, where the resurrection-awakening Is more clearly set forth (1 Corinthians lo. 51 ; 1 Thcssalonlans 4.11; 5.10.) 11. With kings . . . which built flesolale places for themselves —Who built up for themselves what proved to be (not palaces, but) ruins! The wounded spirit of .lol), once a great emir himself, sick of the vain struggles of mortal great men, after grandeur, contemplates the palaces of kings, now desolate heaps of ruins. His regarding the repose of death the most desirable end of t he great ones of earth, wearied with heaping up perishable treasures, marlts the irony that breaks out from the black clouds of melancholy. [Umbrkit.] The for themselves marks their
Is a 3)i/»i.sVrmr/»y lo the wicked (I'rovi'rbs 1.32). Trials iire c/lf^^/^.w»»c;l^^ lor llii ir good (b> the righteous) (Psalm 119.;
(57, 71, 75l. See Pn lare on the J>(sign of tliLs lu Mik. they that plough lnl<iul<y . . . reap the same—(Proverbs '2'2. K ; llosea 8.7; 10. 13; (lalallaiis (i. 7, 8). «. breath of Ills nostrils— (iixl's anger. A figure from tlut tlery winds of the K:ist (eh. 1. Iti; Isaiah 5. '2.'); Psalin IK. 8, 15). 10. lion— I. e.. Wicked men, upon whom Kllphaz wished selfishness. MicHAEM.s explains it weakly of mausoleums, sucli as are found still, of stupendous proportions, in the ruins of Pelraof Idumea. tilled their hnuscH with sliver—Some take this of the treasures which the ancleiils used to bury with their dead. But see last verse. 10. untimely birth—(Psalin .5.S. H). Pref(!rable to the life of the restless miser (Kccleslastes p. 3-5). 17. the wicked—The OBVgliial meaning, </»ft»e ever restless, full of desires [InnUih to show thai cal.amitle.s couk In spite of their various resources. Just as desi ruction eonies on the Hon In s)>ite of his Htrengtli (Psalm "xS. (>; '2 Timothy 4. 17). Five dift'erent Hebrew leriiis hiTe occur lor /lo/i. The raging of lion (the tearcr), the roaring of tlir hi lluwing lion ;»iul th(! teeth of the young lions, not irhrlps, but grown up enough to hunt for prey. The ,s7ron.f/ lion (A,'ii,(//i.s7» \>rsion, old), iki:, the whelps of the lioness 'not the stout lion, t\» English Version). [liARNi« and UMiuimT.j The various
S7. 20, 21). weary lit., those ivhosc strength is wearied out 312