Bible Commentary (1871–1879 Edition)
Job Passes from his Own JOB XIV. to the Common Misery of Mankind.
carries it in his teeth. That in the second refers to men who hold in the liand what tliey want to keep secure. 15. In Kim—So the margin or keri reads. B'l' tne textual reading or cetib is " 7iot," whicli agrees best with the conworked reconciles himself to hts lot by the hope of his rest and reward. [Umbreit.] 7. Man may the more claim a peaceful life, since, when separated from It by death, he never returns to it. This does not deny a future life, but a return to the present condition of Jife. Job plainlj' hopes for a future state {v. 13; eh. 7. 2). Still, it is but vague and trembling /lope, not assurance ; excepting the one bright glimpse in ch. 19. 25. The Gospel revelation was needed to change fears, hopes, and glimpses into clear and deflnite certainties. 9. scent Exhalation, which, rather than the humidity of water, causes the tree to germinate. In the antithesis to man the tree is personified, and volition text, and other passages wherein he says he has no hope
(ch. 6. 11; 7. 21 ; 10. 20; 19. 10). ''Though He slay me, and I dare no more hope, yet I will maintain," &c., i. e., " I desire to vindicate myself before Him," as not a hypocrite. [UmBllEiT and NoYES.] 16. He—Ratlier, " This also already speaks in my behalf {lit., " for my saving acquittal"), for an hypocrite would uot wish to come before Him" (as I do). [Umbreit.] (See last clause of v. 15.) 17. my declaration viz., that I wish to be permitted to justify myself immediately before God. \vltli yonr eai-s— i. e., attentively. 18. ordered—Implying a constant preparation for defence in his confidence of innocence. 19. ifj &c. Rather, TTien would I hold my tongue and give up the ghost, i. e., if any one can contend with me and prove me is poetically ascribed to it. like a plant—"as If newly planted." [Umbreit.] Not as if trees and plants were a different species. 10. man . . . man—Two distinct Hebrew viovAs are here used; Oeber,a, mighty vrnxn; though mighty, he dies: Adam, a man of earth: because earthly, he gives up the ghost, wastetli—is reduced to nothing: he cannot revive in the present state, as the tree does. The cypress and pine, which when cut down do not revive, were the symbols of death among the Romans. 11. sea—i. e., a lake, or pool formed from the outspreading of a river. Job lived near the Euphrates: and "sea" is applied to it (Jeremiah 51.36; Isaiah 27. 1). So of the Nile (Isaiah 19. 5). fall—Utterly disappeared by drying up. The rugged cliannel of the once flowing water answers to the outstretched corpse (" lieth down," i'. 12) of the once living man. 12. Heavens, be no more—This only implies that Job had no hope of living again in the present order of the world, not that he had no hope of life again in a new order of things. Psalm 102. 26 proves that early under the Old Testament the dissolution of the present earth and heavens was expected (cf. Genesis 8. 22). Enoch before Job had implied that the "saints shall live again" (Jude false, I have no more to say. "I will be silent and die." Like our "I would stake my life on it." [Umbreit.J 20. Address to God. not hide—Stand forth boldlj' to maintain my cause. 21. (Note 9. 3t; Psalm 39. 10.) 22. call— challenge to the defendant to answer to the charges, answer—Tlie defence begun, speak—As plaintiff, answer —To the plea of the plaintiff. Expressions from a trial. 23. The catalogue of my sins ought to be great, to judge from tlie severity witli which God ever anew crushes one already bowed down. Would that He would reckon them up ! He then would see how much my calamities outnumber them, sin 1—Singular, "I am unconscious of a single particular sin, much less many." [Umbreit.] 34. hidest . . . face—A figure from the gloomy impression caused by the sudden clouding over of tlie sun. enemy —God treated Job as an enemy who must be robbed of power by ceaseless sufferings (ch. 7. 17, 21). 85. (Leviticus
14; Hebrews 11. 13-10). Even if, by this phrase. Job meant "never" (Psalm 89.29) in his gloomier state of feelings, yet the Holy Ghost has made him unconsciously (1 Peter 1.
26. 36; Psalm 1. 4.) Job compares himself to a leaf already fallen, which the storm still chases hither and thither, break—lit., shake with (thy) terrors. Jesus Christ does not " break the bruised reed " (Isaiali 42. 3 ; 27. 8). 26. wrltest —A judicial phrase, to note down the determined punishment. The sentence of the condemned used to be written down (Isaiah 10. 1; Jeremiah 22. 30; Psalm 149. 9). [Umbreit.] bitter tilings—Bitter punishments, makest me to possess—Or inherit. In old age he receives pos.session of tlie inlieritance of sin thoughtlessly acquired in youth. " To inherit sins" is to Inherit the punishments Insepai'ably connected with them in Hebrew ideas (Psalm 2.5. 7). 27. stocks-In which the prisoner's feet were made fast until the time of execution (Jeremiah 20. 2). lookest narrowly —As an overseer would watch a prisoner, print—Eitlier the stocks, or Ids disease, marked his soles (Hebrew, roots) as the bastinado would. Better, thou drawest (or diggesl) [Gesenius] a line (or trench) [Gesenius] round my soles, beyond which I must not move. [Umbreit.] 28. Job speaks of himself in the third person, thus formhig the transition to the genei-al lot of man (ch. 14. 1 ; Psalm 39. 11
11, 12) use language expressing the truth, that the resurrection is to be preceded by the dissolution of the heavens. In i'.13-15 he plainly passes tobrighter hopes of aworld to come. 13. Job wishes to be kept hidden in the grave, until God's wrath against him shall have passed away. So whilst God's wrath Is visiting tlio earth for the abounding apostasy which is to precede the second coming, God's people shall be hidden against the resurrectionglory (Isaiah '20. 19-21). set time—A decreed time (Acts 1,
7). 14. shall he llvel—The answer implied is, There is a hope that he sJiall, though not in the p^-esenl order of life, as Is shown by the words following. Job had denied (v. 10-12) that man shall live again in this present world. lUit hoping for a "set time," when God shall remember and raise him out of the " hiding"-place of the grave {v. 13), he declares himself willing to "wait all the days of his appointed time" of continuance in the grave, however long and hard that may be. "Appointed tlnu-," lit., tvarfnre, hard service : Implying the hardship of being shutout from the realms of life, light and God for the time he shall be in the grave (cli. 7. 1). change—My release, as a soldier at his post released from duty by the relieving guard (note 10.
Hosea 5. 12).
CHAPTER XIV.
Ver. 1-22. Job Passes from his Own to the Common Misery op Mankind. 1. woman—Feeble, and In the East looked down upon (Genesis 2. 21). Man being l)orn of one so frail must be frail himself (Mattliew 11. 11). few days—(Genesis 47. 9; Psalm 90. 10). Lit., .ihort of days. Alan is tlie reverse of fidl of days and short of troxdde. 2. (Psalm 90. 0; Note ch. 8. 9.) 3. open . . . eyes upon—Not In graeiousness ; but, "Dost thou sharply IIx tliine eyes upon (Note 7. 20; also 1. 7). Is one so frail as man worthy of such constant watching on the part of God ? (Zecharlali 12. 4). ine—So frail, tliec—So almighty. 4. A plea In mitigation. The doctrine of original sin was held from the first. "Man Is unclean from his birth, how then can God expect perfect cleanness from such a oik; and deal so 8cv<n'cly with mo?" 5. determined— (ch. 7. 1 ; Isaiah 10.
17) [Umhreit and Gksenius), but elsewhere Gesenius explains it, renovation, as of plants In spring (r. 7), but this does not accord so well with the metaphor In " appointed time" or " ivarfare." 15—viz., at the resurrection (John 5
28; Psalm 17. 15). have a desire to—lit., become pale xvith. anxious desire : the same word Is translated "sore longedst after" (Genesis 31. 30; I'salin 81. 2); implying the utter unlikelihood that God would leave in oblivion tlie"('ieature of His own hands so fearfully and wonderfully made." It Is objected that If Job knew of a future retribution, he would make It the leading topic in solving the pi'oblem of the permitted al Ulctlons of the righteous.
lUit 1. "He did not intend to exceed the limits of what was clearly reve<Ued; the doctrine was tlu-n In a vague form only. '2. The doctrine of Uod's moral government In tins life, even independently of the future, needed vindication. 10. Uatber, Yea, thou wilt number, Ac, and wUt not (as now) jealously watch over iny sin." Thenceforward, Instead of severe watching for every slu of Job,
2:i; Daniel 9.27; 11. 30). O. Turn—viz., thine eyes from watching lilm so Jealously (t). 3). hireling—(ch. 7. 1). accomp Usli-Uather, "enjoy." That he may at least enjoy the measure of rest of the lilreling who though hard