Job 16 commentary

Eliphaz had represented Job's discourses as unprofitable, and nothing to the purpose; Job here gives his the same character. Those who pass censures, must expect to have them retorted; it is easy, it is endless, but what good does it do? Angry answers stir up men's passions, but never convince their judgments, nor set truth in a clear light. What Job says of his friends is true of all creatures, in comparison with God; one time or other we shall be made to see and own that miserable comforters are they all. When under convictions of sin, terrors of conscience, or the arrests of death, only the blessed Spirit can comfort effectually; all others, without him, do it miserably, and to no purpose. Whatever our brethren's sorrows are, we ought by sympathy to make them our own; they may soon be so.

Here is a doleful representation of Job's grievances. What reason we have to bless God, that we are not making such complaints! Even good men, when in great troubles, have much ado not to entertain hard thoughts of God. Eliphaz had represented Job as unhumbled under his affliction: No, says Job, I know better things; the dust is now the fittest place for me. In this he reminds us of Christ, who was a man of sorrows, and pronounced those blessed that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Job's condition was very deplorable; but he had the testimony of his conscience for him, that he never allowed himself in any gross sin. No one was ever more ready to acknowledge sins of infirmity. Eliphaz had charged him with hypocrisy in religion, but he specifies prayer, the great act of religion, and professes that in this he was pure, though not from all infirmity. He had a God to go to, who he doubted not took full notice of all his sorrows. Those who pour out tears before God, though they cannot plead for themselves, by reason of their defects, have a Friend to plead for them, even the Son of man, and on him we must ground all our hopes of acceptance with God. To die, is to go the way whence we shall not return. We must all of us, very certainly, and very shortly, go this journey. Should not then the Saviour be precious to our souls? And ought we not to be ready to obey and to suffer for his sake? If our consciences are sprinkled with his atoning blood, and testify that we are not living in sin or hypocrisy, when we go the way whence we shall not return, it will be a release from prison, and an entrance into everlasting happiness.

CHAPTER 16

SECOND SERIES.

Job 16:1-22. Job's Reply.

2. (Job 13:4).

3. "Words of wind," Hebrew. He retorts upon Eliphaz his reproach (Job 15:2).

emboldeneth--literally, "What wearies you so that ye contradict?" that is, What have I said to provoke you? &c. [Schuttens]. Or, as better accords with the first clause, "Wherefore do ye weary yourselves contradicting?" [Umbreit].

4. heap up--rather, "marshal together (an army of) words against you."

shake ... head--in mockery; it means nodding, rather than shaking; nodding is not with us, as in the East, a gesture of scorn (Is 37:22; Jr 18:16; Mt 27:39).

5. strengthen ... with ... mouth--bitter irony. In allusion to Eliphaz' boasted "consolations" (Job 15:11). Opposed to strengthening with the heart, that is, with real consolation. Translate, "I also (like you) could strengthen with the mouth," that is, with heartless talk: "And the moving of my lips (mere lip comfort) could console (in the same fashion as you do)" [Umbreit]. "Hearty counsel" (Pr 27:9) is the opposite.

6. eased--literally, "What (portion of my sufferings) goes from me?"

7. But now--rather, "ah!"

he--God.

company--rather, "band of witnesses," namely, those who could attest his innocence (his children, servants, &c.). So the same Hebrew is translated in Job 16:8. Umbreit makes his "band of witnesses," himself, for, alas! he had no other witness for him. But this is too recondite.

8. filled ... with wrinkles--Rather (as also the same Hebrew word in Job 22:16; English Version, "cut down"), "thou hast fettered me, thy witness" (besides cutting off my "band of witnesses," Job 16:7), that is, hast disabled me by pains from properly attesting my innocence. But another "witness" arises against him, namely, his "leanness" or wretched state of body, construed by his friends into a proof of his guilt. The radical meaning of the Hebrew is "to draw together," whence flow the double meaning "to bind" or "fetter," and in Syriac, "to wrinkle."

leanness--meaning also "lie"; implying it was a "false witness."

9. Image from a wild beast. So God is represented (Job 10:16).

who hateth me--rather, "and pursues me hard." Job would not ascribe "hatred" to God (Psa 50:22).

mine enemy--rather, "he sharpens, &c., as an enemy" (Psa 7:12). Darts wrathful glances at me, like a foe (Job 13:24).

10. gaped--not in order to devour, but to mock him. To fill his cup of misery, the mockery of his friends (Job 16:10) is added to the hostile treatment from God (Job 16:9).

smitten ... cheek--figurative for contemptuous abuse (La 3:30; Mt 5:39).

gathered themselves--"conspired unanimously" [Schuttens].

11. the ungodly--namely, his professed friends, who persecuted him with unkind speeches.

turned me over--literally, "cast me headlong into the hands of the wicked."

12. I was at ease--in past times (Job 1:1-3).

by my neck--as an animal does its prey (so Job 10:16).

shaken--violently; in contrast to his former "ease" (Psa 102:10). Set me up (again).

mark--(Job 7:20; La 3:12). God lets me always recover strength, so as to torment me ceaselessly.

13. his archers--The image of Job 16:12 is continued. God, in making me His "mark," is accompanied by the three friends, whose words wound like sharp arrows.

gall--put for a vital part; so the liver (La 2:11).

14. The image is from storming a fortress by making breaches in the walls (2Ki 14:13).

a giant--a mighty warrior.

15. sewed--denoting the tight fit of the mourning garment; it was a sack with armholes closely sewed to the body.

horn--image from horned cattle, which when excited tear the earth with their horns. The horn was the emblem of power (1Ki 22:11). Here, it is

in the dust--which as applied to Job denotes his humiliation from former greatness. To throw one's self in the dust was a sign of mourning; this idea is here joined with that of excited despair, depicted by the fury of a horned beast. The Druses of Lebanon still wear horns as an ornament.

16. foul--rather, "is red," that is, flushed and heated [Umbreit and Noyes].

shadow of death--that is, darkening through many tears (La 5:17). Job here refers to Zophar's implied charge (Job 11:14). Nearly the same words occur as to Jesus Christ (Is 53:9). So Job 16:10 above answers to the description of Jesus Christ (Psa 22:13; Is 50:6, and Job 16:4 to Psa 22:7). He alone realized what Job aspired after, namely, outward righteousness of acts and inward purity of devotion. Jesus Christ as the representative man is typified in some degree in every servant of God in the Old Testament.

18. my blood--that is, my undeserved suffering. He compares himself to one murdered, whose blood the earth refuses to drink up until he is avenged (Ge 4:10, 11; Eze 24:1, 8; Is 26:21). The Arabs say that the dew of heaven will not descend on a spot watered with innocent blood (compare 2Sa 1:21).

no place--no resting-place. "May my cry never stop!" May it go abroad! "Earth" in this verse in antithesis to "heaven" (Job 16:19). May my innocence be as well-known to man as it is even now to God!

19. Also now--Even now, when I am so greatly misunderstood on earth, God in heaven is sensible of my innocence.

record--Hebrew, "in the high places"; Hebrew, "my witness." Amidst all his impatience, Job still trusts in God.

20. Hebrew, "are my scorners"; more forcibly, "my mockers--my friends!" A heart-cutting paradox [Umbreit]. God alone remains to whom he can look for attestation of his innocence; plaintively with tearful eye, he supplicates for this.

21. one--rather, "He" (God). "Oh, that He would plead for a man (namely, me) against God." Job quaintly says, "God must support me against God; for He makes me to suffer, and He alone knows me to be innocent" [Umbreit]. So God helped Jacob in wrestling against Himself (compare Job 23:6; Ge 32:25). God in Jesus Christ does plead with God for man (Ro 8:26, 27).

as a man--literally, "the Son of man." A prefiguring of the advocacy of Jesus Christ--a boon longed for by Job (Job 9:33), though the spiritual pregnancy of his own words, designed for all ages, was but little understood by him (Psa 80:17).

for his neighbour--Hebrew, "friend." Job himself (Job 42:8) pleaded as intercessor for his "friends," though "his scorners" (Job 16:20); so Jesus Christ the Son of man (Lu 23:34); "for friends" (Joh 15:13-15).

22. few--literally, "years of number," that is, few, opposed to numberless (Ge 34:30).

I have heard many such things - These sayings of the ancients are not strange to me; but they do not apply to my case: ye see me in affliction; ye should endeavor to console me. This ye do not; and yet ye pretend to do it! Miserable comforters are ye all.

Vain words - Literally, words of air.

What emboldeneth thee - Thou art totally ignorant of the business; what then can induce thee to take part in this discussion?

I also could speak - It is probably better to render some of these permissives or potential verbs literally in the future tense, as in the Hebrew: I also Will speak. Mr. Good has adopted this mode.

If your soul were in my soul's stead - If you were in my place, I also could quote many wise sayings that might tend to show that you were hypocrites and wicked men; but would this be fair? Even when I might not choose to go farther in assertion, I might shake my head by way of insinuation that there was much more behind, of which I did not choose to speak; but would this be right? That such sayings are in memory, is no proof that they were either made for me, or apply to my case.

I would strengthen you with my mouth - Mr. Good translates thus: - "With my own mouth will I overpower you,

Till the quivering of my lips shall fail;" for which rendering he contends in his learned notes. This translation is countenanced by the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions.

Though I speak - But it will be of no avail thus to speak; for reprehensions of your conduct will not serve to mitigate my sufferings.

But now he hath made me weary - The Vulgate translates thus: - Nunc autem oppressit me dolor meus; et in nihilum redacti sunt omnes artus mei; "But now my grief oppresses me, and all my joints are reduced to nothing." Perhaps Job alluded here to his own afflictions, and the desolation of his family. Thou hast made me weary with continual affliction; my strength is quite exhausted; and thou hast made desolate all my company, not leaving me a single child to continue my name, or to comfort me in sickness or old age. Mr. Good translates: - "Here, indeed, hath he distracted me;

Thou hast struck apart all my witnesses."

Thou hast filled me with wrinkles - If Job's disease were the elephantiasis, in which the whole skin is wrinkled as the skin of the elephant, from which this species of leprosy has taken its name, these words would apply most forcibly to it; but the whole passage, through its obscurity, has been variously rendered. Calmet unites it with the preceding, and Houbigant is not very different. He translates thus: - "For my trouble hath now weakened all my frame, and brought wrinkles over me: he is present as a witness, and ariseth against me, who telleth lies concerning me; he openly contradicts me to my face." Mr. Good translates nearly in the same way; others still differently.

He teareth me in his wrath - Who the person is that is spoken of in this verse, and onward to the end of the fourteenth, has been a question on which commentators have greatly differed. Some think God, others Eliphaz, is intended: I think neither. Probably God permitted Satan to show himself to Job, and the horrible form which he and his demons assumed increased the misery under which Job had already suffered so much. All the expressions, from this to the end of the fourteenth verse, may be easily understood on this principle; e.g., Job 16:9 : "He (Satan) gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me." Job 16:10 : "They (demons) have gaped on me with their mouth; - they have gathered themselves together against me." Job 16:11 : "God hath delivered me to the ungodly, (עויל avil, to the Evil One), and turned me over into the hands of the wicked." He hath abandoned me to be tortured by the tempter and his host. If we consider all these expressions as referring to Job's three friends, we must, in that case, acknowledge that the figures are all strained to an insufferable height, so as not to be justified by any figure of speech.

His archers compass me - רביו rabbaiv "his great ones." The Vulgate and Septuagint translate this his spears; the Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldee, his arrows. On this and the following verse Mr. Heath observes: "The metaphor is here taken from huntsmen: first, they surround the beast; then he is shot dead; his entrails are next taken out; and then his body is broken up limb by limb."

I have sewed sackcloth - שק sak, a word that has passed into almost all languages, as I have already had occasion to notice in other parts of this work.

Defiled my horn in the dust - The horn was an emblem of power; and the metaphor was originally taken from beasts, such as the urus, wild ox, buffalo, or perhaps the rhinoceros, who were perceived to have so much power in their horns. Hence a horn was frequently worn on crowns and helmets, as is evident on ancient coins; and to this day it is an appendage to the diadem of the kings and chiefs of Abyssinia. In the second edition of Mr. Bruce's Travels in Abyssinia, vol. viii., plates 2 and 3, we have engravings of two chiefs, Kefla Yasous, and Woodage Ashahel, who are represented with this emblem of power on their forehead. Mr. Bruce thus describes it: "One thing remarkable in this cavalcade, which I observed, was the head dress of the governors of provinces. A large broad fillet was bound upon their forehead, and tied behind their head. In the middle of this was a horn, or a conical piece of silver, gilt, about four inches in length, much in the shape of our common candle extinguishers. This is called kirn, or horn; and is only worn in reviews, or parades after victory. This, I apprehend, like all others of their usages is taken from the Hebrews; and the several allusions made in Scripture to it arise from this practice. 'I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly; and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn.' 'Lift not up your horn on high, speak not with a stiff neck; for promotion cometh not,' etc. 'But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn.' 'And the horn of the righteous shall be exalted with honor.' And so in many other places throughout the Psalms." In a note on the same page we have the following observation: "The crooked manner in which they hold their neck when this ornament is on their forehead, for fear it should fall forward, perfectly shows the meaning of 'Speak not with a stiff neck when you hold the horn on high (or erect) like the horn of the unicorn."' - Bruce's Travels, vol. iv., p. 407. Defiling or rolling the horn in the dust, signifies the disgrace or destruction of power, authority, and eminence. Mr. Good translates, I have rolled my turban in the dust, which he endeavors to justify in a long note. But in this, I think, this very learned man is mistaken. The Hebrew קרן keren is the same as the Ethiopic kirn, and both mean exactly, in such connection, what Mr. Bruce has noticed above. The horn on the diadem is the emblem of power, authority, and eminence.

On my eyelids is the shadow of death - Death is now fast approaching me; already his shadow is projected over me.

Not for any injustice - I must assert, even with my last breath, that the charges of my friends against me are groundless. I am afflicted unto death, but not on account of my iniquities.

Also my prayer is pure - I am no hypocrite, God knoweth.

O earth, cover not thou my blood - This is evidently an allusion to the murder of Abel, and the verse has been understood in two different ways:

1. Job here calls for justice against his destroyers. His blood is his life, which he considers as taken away by violence, and therefore calls for vengeance. Let my blood cry against my murderers, as the blood of Abel cried against Cain. My innocent life is taken away by violence, as his innocent life was; as therefore the earth was not permitted to cover his blood, so that his murderer should be concealed, let my death be avenged in the same way.

2. It has been supposed that the passage means that Job considered himself accused of shedding innocent blood; and, conscious of his own perfect innocence, he prays that the earth may not cover any blood shed by him. Thus Mr. Scott: - "O earth, the blood accusing me reveal;

Its piercing voice in no recess conceal."

And this notion is followed by Mr. Good. But, with all deference to these learned men, I do not see that this meaning can be supported by the Hebrew text; nor was the passage so understood by any of the ancient versions. I therefore prefer the first sense, which is sufficiently natural, and quite in the manner of Job in his impassioned querulousness.

My witness is in heaven - I appeal to God for my innocence.

My friends scorn me - They deride and insult me, but my eye is towards God; I look to him to vindicate my cause.

O that one might plead - Let me only have liberty to plead with God, as a man hath with his fellow.

When a few years are come - I prefer Mr. Good's version: - "But the years numbered to me are come.

And I must go the way whence I shall not return."

Job could not, in his present circumstances, expect a few years of longer life; from his own conviction he was expecting death every hour. The next verse, the first of the following chapter, should come in here:

My breath is corrupt, etc. - He felt himself as in the arms of death: he saw the grave as already digged which was to receive his dead body. This verse shows that our translation of the twenty-second verse is improper, and vindicates Mr. Good's version.

I Have said on Job 16:9 that a part of Job's sufferings probably arose from appalling representations made to his eye or to his imagination by Satan and his agents. I think this neither irrational nor improbable. That he and his demons have power to make themselves manifest on especial occasions, has been credited in all ages of the world; not by the weak, credulous, and superstitious only, but also by the wisest, the most learned, and the best of men. I am persuaded that many passages in the Book of Job refer to this, and admit of an easy interpretation on this ground.

Such things - These things are but vulgar and trivial. And so are all creatures, to a soul under deep conviction of sin, or the arrest of death.

End - When wilt thou put an end to these impertinent discourses? He retorts upon him his charge, chap.15:2,3.

He - God, as appears by the following words. Weary - Either of complaining, or, of my life. Desolate - Hast turned my society into desolation, by destroying my children and servants.

Eyes - Looks upon me with a fierce, and sparkling eye, as enraged persons use to do.

They - My friends. Gaped - Opened their mouths wide against me. In all this Job was a type of Christ. These very expressions are used in the predictions of his sufferings, Psal 22:13. They gaped upon me with their mouths, and Mic 5:1. They shall smite the judge of Israel upon the check.

The wicked - And thus Christ was delivered into wicked hands, by the determinate counsel of God.

Shaken - As a mighty man doth with some stripling, when he wrestleth with him. Mark - That he may shoot all his arrows in me.

His archers - Whoever are our enemies, we must look on them as God's archers, and see him directing the arrow.

I have - So far am I from stretching out my hand against God, chap.15:25, that I have humbled myself deeply under his hand. I have not only put on sackcloth, but sewed it on, as being resolved to continue my humiliation, as long as my affliction continues. Defiled my horn - I have willingly parted with all my wealth, and power, and glory (as the horn often signifies in scripture,) and been content to lie in the dust.

Not - And all this is not come upon me for any injurious dealing, but for other reasons known to God only. Pure - I do not cast off God's fear and service, chap.15:4. I do still pray and worship God, and my prayer is accompanied with a sincere heart.

Earth - The earth is said to cover that blood, which lies undiscovered and unrevenged: but saith Job, if I be guilty of destroying any man, let the earth disclose it; let it be brought to light. Cry - Let the cry of my complaints to men, or prayers to God, find no place in the ears or hearts of God or men, if this be true.

Witness - Besides the witness of my conscience, God is witness of my integrity.

Go - To the state and place of the dead, whence men cannot return to this life. The meaning is, my death hastens, and therefore I earnestly desire that the cause depending, between me and my friends, may be determined, that if I be guilty of these things, I may bear the shame of it before all men, and if I be innocent, that I may see my own integrity, and the credit of religion, (which suffers upon this occasion) vindicated. How very certainly, and how very shortly are we likewise to go this journey.

2. I have heard many such things : miserable comforters are ye all.

Both from you, who do so odiously repeat the same things, and from divers others: For these things, though you pride and please your selves in them, as if you had made some great and strange discoveries, are but vulgar and trivial.

In stead of giving me those Comforts which you pretend to do, Chap. 15. 11. and which my Condition loudly calls for, you feed me with terrours, and censures, and scoffs.

Marginal references: Or, [illegible: 1 word].; Chap. 13. 4.

3. Shall vain words have an end ? or what emboldneth thee that thou answerest ?

When wiltst thou put an end to these idle and impertinent discourses? He retorts upon him his Charge against Iob, Ch. 15. 2, 3.

To wit, so, or in such manner, so censoriously, and opprobriously, and peremptorily. What secret grounds hast thou for thy Confidence? Thy Arguments are flashy and weak; if thou hast any stronger produce them.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word] of wi[illegible: 1+ letters].

4. I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my souls stead; I could heap up words against you , and shake mine head at you .

i. e. Your person, as Gen. 12. 5.

i. e. I could multiply Accusations and Reproaches against you, as you do against me.

In way of derision, as this phrase is most commonly used; as 2 Kings 19. 21. Psal. 22. 7. Isa. 37. 22. Matth. 27. 39.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1+ letters]am. 2. 1[illegible: 1+ letters].

5. But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief

i. e. Direct, and support, and comfort you.

i. e. My discourse should comfort you. The words, your grief, are here understood either out of the fore-going Clause, where they are implied: Or out of the next Verse, where they are expressed. Possibly the words may be thus rendred without any Ellipsis, which is most natural, if the Translation be true and suitable; Compassion (for the Hebrew word, nid, comes from nud, which signifies to condole) should restrain or govern my lips, that they should avoid all speeches which may ve[illegible: 1+ letters] you, and speak onely what may be to your comfort and benefit; whereas you let your Tongues loose to speak whatsoever pleaseth you, or tormenteth me.

6. Though I speak , my grief is not asswag[illegible: 1+ letters]d: and though I forbear, what am I eased ?

To God by Prayer; or to you in way of discourse: I find no relief. Iob having reproved his Friends for their unkind carriage towards him, and aggravated it by his resolutions to have dealt more friendl[illegible: 1+ letters]ly with them, if they had been in his case; now he returns to his main business, to describe and aggravate his miseries, if by any means he could move his Friends to pity and help him.

Or, what part or grain of my grief or misery departeth from [illegible: 1 word]? I receive not one jot of ease. Neither speech nor silence do me any good.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 span]

7. But now he hath made me weary ▪ thou hast made desolate all my company .

Or, surely, as this Hebrew Particle most commonly signifies.

i. e. God, as appears by the following Words and Verses.

Either of complaining, or, of my life.

He speaks in the second Person to God, as in the former Clause in the third Person of God: Such change of Persons are very usual in Scripture, and elsewhere.

Hast turned my society into desolation, by destroying my Children and Servants.

8. And thou hast filled me with wrinkles , which is a witness against me : and my leanness rising up in me , beareth witness to my face .

By consuming all my fat and flesh.

Heb. Which is a witness of the reality, and greatness, and just cause of my sorrows. Or, which is become or made a witness; i. e is produced by my Friends as a Witness of Go[illegible: 1+ letters] Wrath and of my Hypocrisie and Impiety,

i. e. Which is in me. Or, rising up a[illegible: 1+ letters]ainst me, as Witnesses use to rise and stand up against a guilty person to accuse him.

As Witnesses are to accuse a person to his [illegible: 1+ letters]ace, openly and evidently, so as any that look on my Face may plainly discern it. But this Clause may be rendred thus, My [illegible: 1 word] in my face; (i. e. which appears in my Face, and causeth the wrinkles which are visible there) riseth up against me, and beareth witness, as before.

9. He teareth me in his wrath , who hateth me : he gnasheth upon me with his teeth ; mine enemy sharpneth his eyes upon me .

Heb. His wrath teareth me in pieces, as a Lion doth his Prey.

Heb. And he hateth me; i. e. He pursueth me with a deadly ha [illegible: 1+ letters]red and rage. Or. And he is become mine enemy; Or, he sets himself against me with all his might: Or, He treats me like an implacable [illegible: 1 word].

Which is a gesture and sign of extream anger and fury; as Psalm 35. 16. & 37. 12. Lament 2. 16. as elsewhere of grievous pain; as Luke 13. 28.

Either 1. God, who of a Friend is now become my implacable Enemy. Or 2. Eliphaz, who deals with me more like an Enemy than a Friend.

i. e. Looks upon me with a fierce and [illegible: 1+ letters]parkling Eye, as enraged persons use to do.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] 10▪ 16, [illegible: 1 word]; [illegible: 1 word] 13▪ [illegible: 1+ letters]4.

10. They have gaped upon me with their mouth , they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully , they have gathered themselves together against me .

The Instruments of God's anger, my Friends, as they are falsly called.

Opened their mouths wide against me; either 1. to devour and destroy me; as a Lion which falls upon h[illegible: 1+ letters]s Prey with open mouth; as this phrase is used, Psalm 22. 13, 14. And this they did aggra ating and encreasing his sorrows, whereby he was well-nigh overwhelmed. Or 2. To [illegible: 1 word] and deride me, as it follows, and as this phrase is most commonly used, as Psalm 22 8. & 35. 21.

Or, by reproach; or in way of scorn and contempt; whereof such smiting was a sign; as 1 Kings 22. 24. Lament. 3. 30. Mich. 5. 1. The sign is here put for the thing signified: They d[illegible: 1+ letters] spised and derided me.

i. e. They are come from several places and met together here, not for me, or to comfort me as they pretended, but really against me, or to torment and gri[illegible: 1+ letters] me. Heb. they have filled themselves, &c. Either 1. they have filled up their numbers, they are all come against me. Or 2. they have filled their minds with evil Opinions of me, and their hearts with courage and resolution to assault me, and their mouths with words and arguments against me. Compare Eccles. 8. 11. Acts. 5 3.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. 3. 30. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1+ letters]. 1.

11. God hath delivered me to the ungodly , and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.

either 1. to my Friends, who act the part of the wicked in censuring and condemning the righteous whom God approveth and in pleading for a false and wicked Cause. Or rather 2. to the Chaldeans and Sabeans, who were a most wicked people, living in gross contempt of God, and injuriousness to all sorts of men. For this best suits both with the first Clause of the next Verse, which sheweth that he speaketh of Iob's first Afflictions which befell him when he was at ease; and with Iob's principal scope, which was to prove, that both eminent prosperity and affliction did indifferently happen to good and bad men: and this was evident from this example, because holy Iob was ruined, when these wicked people were most victorious and successful.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. hath [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word].

12. I was at ease , but he hath broken me asunder ; he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces , and set me up for his mark .

I lived in great peace and prosperity, which makes my present miseries more grievous to me: and therefore my Complaints are excusable, and I deserve pity rather than reproach from my friends.

Broken my Spirit with the sense of his anger, and my Body with loathsom Ulcers, as also by destroying my Children, a part of my own flesh or body.

As a mighty man doth with some young Stripling, when he wrestleth with him.

That he may shoot all his Arrows into me, and that with delight, which Archers have in that exercise.

Marginal references: Ch. 7. 20.

13. His archers compass me round about; he cleaveth my reins asunder , and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.

i. e. His Plagues or Judgments elsewhere compared to Arrows, and here to Archers.

With his Arrows i. e. he wounds me inwardly, and mortally, and incurably: which also is noted by pouring out the gall; such wounds being deadly.

Marginal references: Ch. 19. 1[illegible: 1+ letters].

14. He breaketh me with breach upon breach ; he runneth upon me like a giant .

My Calamities have no interruption, but one immediately succeeds another, as it did, Chap. 1.

Who falls upon his Enemy with all his might, that he may overthrow and kill him.

15. I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin , and defiled my horn in the dust .

i. e. I put on sackcloth sowed together, not upon my other garments, but next to my skin, as was done in great Calamities; as 2 Kings 6. 30. So far am I from stretching out my hands against God, whereof I am accused; Chap. 15. 25. that I have humbled my self deeply un[illegible: 1+ letters]er his hand,

I have willingly parted with all my Wealth, and Power, and Glory (as the horn oft signifies in Scripture; as Ps[illegible: 1+ letters]lm 75 5. & 132. 17 Luke 1. 69.) and been contented to lie in the dust, and to endure the contempt which God hath brought upon me.

16 My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death .

i. e. A gross and terrible darkness. My sight is very dim and dark, as is usual in case of fore Diseases, or excessive grief and weeping▪ Lam[illegible: 1+ letters]nt. 2 11. and especially in the approach of death: Compare Psalm 6. 7. & 38. 10. Lament. 5. 17.

17. Not for any injustice in mine hands : also, my prayer is pure .

And all this is not come upon me for any injurious dealing with others by oppression, or deceit, or bribery, wherewith I am implicitely charged; Chap. 15▪ 16, 20, 34. but for other reasons known to God onely, for I cannot discover them.

I do not cast off God's fear and service, as I am accused to do, Ch[illegible: 1+ letters]p. 15. 4. I do still pray and worship God, and my Prayer is accompanied with a sincere Heart, and [illegible: 1+ letters]defiled Conscience: See Psalm 109 7. Prov. 28. 9. 1 Tim. 2. 8. So that I have lived in[illegible: 1+ letters]ffensively towards God and towards men: And therefore your Assertion is both uncharitable and false, that eminent Afflictions are peculiar to ungodly men.

18. O earth, cover not thou my bloud , and let my cry have no place.

So called not actively; to wit, his own blood, but passively or ob[illegible: 1+ letters]ctively; i. e the blood of others shed by him and lying upon his Conscience. The Earth is said to cover that blood which lies undiscovered and unrevenged: Of which see on Gen. 4. 10, 11. Isa. 26 21. But saith Iob. if I be guilty of destroying any one man by Murder or Oppression, as I am traduced; O Lord, let the Earth disclose it, let it be brought to light, that I may suffer condign punishment for it.

Either 1. passively; to wit, the cries and groans which I have forced from others by my Oppressions: Let those Cries have no place to hide them. Or rather 2. actively, the Cry of my Complaints to men, or Prayers to God; let them find no place in the Ears or Hearts of God or men, if this be true: Or, no place; i. e. no regard, or no power or success▪ in which sense God's Word is said not to have place in evil men Iohn 8. 37. And Esa[illegible: 1+ letters] not to find place of repentance, Heb. 12. 17. i. e. All his Intreaties and Tears could not prevail with his Father to repent of and retract the Blessing given from him to Iacob.

19. Also now, behold, my Witness is in Heaven , and my Record is on high.

Besides the Witness of Men, and of my own Conscience, God is Witness of my Integrity.

Marginal references: Heb. in the high places.

20. My Friends † scorn me : but mine Eye poureth out tears unto God .

Who should defend me from the Scorns and Injuries of others.

So this word is used, Psal. 119. 51. Prov. 3. 34. & 19. 28.

I pour forth my Prayers and Tears to God, that he would judge me according to my Innocency, and plead my righteous cause against you.

Marginal references: Heb. are my [illegible: 1+ letters]orners.

21. O that one might plead for a man * with God , as a man pleadeth for his Neighbour!

O that either I or some faithful Advocate might be admitted to plead my Cause, either with God, or rather with you, before God's Tribunal, God being Witness and Judge between us. But this Verse is, and that very agreeably to the Hebrew Text, otherwise translated and Interpreted, either 1. With respect to Christ, And he (i. e. God last mentioned, to wit, God the Son, Christ Jesus) will plead for a man (i. e. for me, against whom you plead. He modestly speaketh of himself in the third Person, as is usual,) with God, (to wit, with God the Father:) and the Son of man (as Christ is oft called) will plead for his Friend, or Companion, or Neighbour, i. e. For a man whom he hath taken into that Relation to himself. It is plain that the mystery of Mans Redemption by Christ was known to the ancient Patriarchs, as hath been oft noted before; and to Iob among others, Ch. 19. 25. Or 2. as the matter for which he prayed, and cried to God; That (so the Hebrew Vau is frequently used) he (i. e. God) would plead or judge or give sentence for a man (i. e. for me, or in my cause) with God, (i. e. with himself, the Noun being put for the Pronoun, as Gen. 2. 20. & 4. 15. Lev. 14. 15, 16. and elsewhere, or at his own Tribunal, to which I have appealed) as a man pleadeth for his Friend or Neighbour, with or before an earthly Judge and Tribunal. This seems most agreeable to the scope of the place, which was to maintain his own Integrity against his Friends before God.

Marginal references: Ch. 31. 35. Eccl. 6. 10. Isa. 45. 9. Rom. 9. 20.; Or, friend.

22. When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return .

i. e. To the state and place of the dead, whence men do not, and cannot return to this Life. The meaning is, my death hastens, and therefore I earnestly desire that the cause depending before God, between me and my Friends, may be searched out and determined, that if I be guilty of these things whereof they accuse me, I may bear the shame and blame of it before all men, and if I be innocent, that I may live to see my own Integrity, and the credit of Religion, (which suffers upon this occasion) vindicated, that so I may die in peace with God, and may leave the favour of a good name behind me.

Marginal references: Heb. years of number.

Job 16:1-5   1  Then began Job, and said:   2  I have now heard such things in abundance,

Troublesome comforters are ye all!   3  Are windy words now at an end,

Or what goadeth thee that thou answerest?   4  I also would speak like you,

If only your soul were in my soul’s stead.

I would weave words against you,

And shake my head at you;   5  I would encourage you with my mouth,

And the solace of my lips should soothe you.

The speech of Eliphaz, as of the other two, is meant to be comforting. It is, however, primarily an accusation; it wounds instead of soothing. Of this kind of speech, says Job, one has now heard רבּות, much, i.e., (in a pregnant sense) amply sufficient, although the word might signify elliptically (Psa 106:43; comp. Neh 9:28) many times (Jer. frequenter); multa (as Job 23:14) is, however, equally suitable, and therefore is to be preferred as the more natural. Job 16:2 shows how כּאלּה is intended; they are altogether עמל מנחמי, consolatores onerosi (Jer.), such as, instead of alleviating, only cause עמל, molestiam (comp. on Job 13:4). In Job 16:3 Job returns their reproach of being windy, i.e., one without any purpose and substance, which they brought against him, Job 15:2.: have windy words an end, or (לו vel  = אם in a disjunctive question, Ges. §155, 2, b) if not, what goads thee on to reply? מרץ has been already discussed on Job 6:25. The Targ. takes it in the sense of מלץ: what makes it sweet to thee, etc.; the Jewish interpreters give it, without any proof, the signification, to be strong; the lxx transl. παρενοχλήσει, which is not transparent. Hirz., Ew., Schlottm., and others, call in the help of the Arabic marida (Aramaic מרע), to be sick, the IV. form of which signifies “to make sick,” not “to injure.”The primary meaning of Arabic marida (root mr, stringere) is maceratum esse, by pressing, rubbing, beating, to be tender, enervated (Germ. dialectic and popul. abmaracht); comp. the nearest related maratsa, then maraza, marasa, maraa, and further, the development of the meaning of morbus and μαλαακία; - originally and first, of bodily sickness, then also of diseased affections and conditions of spirit, as envy, hatred, malice, etc.; vid., Sur. 2, v. 9, and Beidhâwi thereon. - Fl.

We keep to the primary meaning, to pierce, penetrate; Hiph. to goad, bring out, lacessere: what incites thee, that (כי as Job 6:11, quod not quum) thou repliest again? The collective thought of what follows is not that he also, if they were in his place, could do as they have done; that he, however, would not so act (thus e.g., Blumenfeld: with reasons for comfort I would overwhelm you, and sympathizingly shake my head over you, etc.). This rendering is destroyed by the shaking of the head, which is never a gesture of pure compassion, but always of malignant joy, Sir. 12:18; or of mockery at another’s fall, Isa 37:22; and misfortune, Psa 22:8; Jer 18:16; Mat 27:39. Hence Merc. considers the antithesis to begin with Job 16:5, where, however, there is nothing to indicate it: minime id facerem, quin potius vos confirmarem ore meo - rather: that he also could display the same miserable consolation; he represents to them a change of their respective positions, in order that, as in a mirror, they may recognise the hatefulness of their conduct. The negative antecedent clause si essem (with לוּ, according to Ges. §155, 2, f) is surrounded by cohortatives, which (since the interrogative form of interpretation is inadmissible) signify not only loquerer, but loqui possem, or rather loqui vellem (comp. e.g., Psa 51:18, dare vellem). When he says: I would range together, etc. (Carey: I would combine), he gives them to understand that their speeches are more artificial than natural, more declamations than the outgushings of the heart; instead of מלּים, it is בּמלּים, since the object of the action is thought is as the means, as in Job 16:4 ראשׁי במּו, capite meo (for caput meum, Psa 22:8), and בּפיהם, Job 16:10, for פּיּהם, comp. Jer 18:16; Lam 1:17, Ges. §138† ; Ew. takes חהביר by comparison of the Arabic chbr, to know (the IV. form of which, achbara , however, signifies to cause to know, announce), in a sense that belongs neither to the Heb. nor to the Arab.: to affect wisdom. In Job 16:5 the chief stress is upon “with my mouth,” without the heart being there, so also on the word “my lips,” solace (ניד ἅπ. λεγ., recalling Isa 57:19, ניב שׂפתים, offspring or fruit of the lips) of my lips, i.e., dwelling only on the lips, and not coming from the heart. In ''אאמּצכם (Piel, not Hiph.) the Ssere is shortened to Chirek (Ges. §60, rem. 4). According to Job 16:6, כאבכם is to be supplied to יחשׂך. He also could offer such superficial condolence without the sympathy which places itself in the condition and mood of the sufferer, and desires to afford that relief which it cannot. And yet how urgently did he need right and effectual consolation! He is not able to console himself, as the next strophe says: neither by words nor by silence is his pain assuaged.

Job 16:6-9   6  If I speak, my pain is not soothed;

And if I forbear, what alleviation do I experience?   7  Nevertheless now hath He exhausted me;

Thou hast desolated all my household,   8  And Thou filledst me with wrinkles - for a witness was it,

And my leanness rose up against me

Complaining to my face.   9  His wrath tore me, and made war upon me;

He hath gnashed upon me with His teeth,

As mine enemy He sharpeneth His eyes against me. אם stands with the cohortative in the hypothetical antecedent clause Job 16:6, and in 6 b the cohortative stands alone as Job 11:17; Psa 73:16; Psa 139:8, which is more usual, and more in accordance with the meaning which the cohortative has in itself, Nägelsbach, §89, 3. The interrogative, What goes from me? is equivalent to, what (= nothing) of pain forsakes me. The subject of the assertion which follows (Job 16:7) is not the pain - Aben-Ezra thinks even that this is addressed in v. 7 b - still less Eliphaz, whom some think, particularly on account of the sharp expressions which follow, must be understood, but God, whose wrath Job regards as the cause of his suffering, and feels as the most intolerable part of it. A strained connection is obtained by taking אך either in an affirmative sense (Ew.: surely), as Job 18:21, or in a restrictive sense: only (= entirely) He has now exhausted me (Hirz., Hahn, also Schlottm.: only I feel myself oppressed, at least to express this), by which interpretation the עתּה, which stands between אך and the verb, is in the way. We render it therefore in the adversative signification: nevertheless (verum tamen) now he seeks neither by speaking to alleviate his pain, nor by silence to control himself; God has placed him in a condition in which all his strength is exhausted. He is absolutely incapable of offering any resistance to his pain, and care has also been taken that no solacing word shall come to him from any quarter: Thou hast made all my society desolate (Carey: all my clan); עדה of the household, as in Job 15:34. Jerome: in nihilum redacti sunt omnes artus mei (כל אברי, as explained by the Jewish expositors, e.g., Ralbag), as though the human organism could be called עדה. Hahn: Thou hast destroyed all my testimony, which must have been אדתי (from עוּד, whereas עדה, from ועד, has a changeable Ssere). He means to say that he stands entirely alone, and neither sees nor hears anything consolatory, for he does not count his wife. He is therefore completely shut up to himself; God has shrivelled him up; and this suffering form to which God has reduced him, is become an evidence, i.e., for himself and for others, as the three friends, an accusation de facto, which puts him down as a sinner, although his self-consciousness testifies the opposite to him.

Job 16:10-11 10  They have gaped against me with their mouth,

In contempt they smite my cheeks;

They conspire together against me. 11  God left me to the mercy of the ungodly,

And cast me into the hands of the evil-doer.

He does not mean the friends by those who mock and vex him with their contemptuous words, but the men around him who envied his prosperity and now rejoice at his misfortune; those to whom his uprightness was a burden, and who now consider themselves disencumbered of their liege lord, the over-righteous, censorious, godly man. The perfects here also have not a present signification; he depicts his suffering according to the change it has wrought since it came upon him. The verb פּער is used with the instrumental Beth instead of with the acc., as Job 29:23 (comp. on במלים, Job 16:4): they make an opening with their mouth (similar to Psa 22:8, they make an opening with the lips, for diducunt labia). Smiting on the cheeks is in itself an insult (Lam 3:30); the additional בּחרפּה will therefore refer to insulting words which accompany the act. The Hithpa. התמלּא, which occurs only here, signifies not only to gather together a מלא in general, Isa 31:4, but (after the Arab. tamâla'a ‛ala, to conspire against any one)Wetzstein thinks the signification conspirare for יתמלאון poor in this connection, and prefers to translate: All together they eat themselves full upon me, התמלּא as reflexive of מלּא, Job 38:39, synon. of נשׂבע, as in “the Lovers of Amâsiâ,” Ferhhât, after the death of his beloved, cries out: We are not separated! To-morrow (i.e., soon) the All-kind One will unite us in paradise, and we shall satisfy ourselves one with another (Arab. w-ntmll' mn b-'dnâ 'l-b'd). One would, however, expect ממּנּי instead of עלי; but perhaps we may refer to the interchange of התענג על, Job 22:26; Job 27:10, with התענג מן, Isa 66:11. to complete one’s self, to strengthen one’s self (for a like hostile purpose): Reiske correctly: sibi invicem mutuam et auxiliatricem operam contra me simul omnes ferunt.The signification to help, which belongs to the I. form Arab. mala'a, proceeds from malâ'un, to have abundance, to be well off; prop. to be able to furnish any one with the means (opes, copias) for anything, and thereby to place him in a position to accomplish it. Comp. the Lat. ops, opem ferre, opitulari, opes, opulentus (Arab. malâ'un). - Fl.

The meaning of עויל is manifest from Job 21:11; from עוּל, to suckle, alere (Arab. ‛âl med . Wau , whence the inf. ‛aul , ‛uwûl , and ‛ijâle), it signifies boys, knaves; and it is as unnecessary to suppose two forms, עויל and עויל, as two meanings, puer and pravus, since the language and particularly the book of Job has coined עוּל for the latter signification: it signifies in all three passages (here and Job 19:18; Job 21:11) boys, or the boyish, childish, knavish. The Arabic warratta leaves no doubt as to the derivation and meaning of ירטני; it signifies to cast down to destruction (warttah, a precipice, ruin, danger), and so here the fut. Kal ירטני for יירטני (Ges. §69, rem. 3), praecipitem me dabat (lxx ἔῤῥιψε, Symm. ἐνέβαλε), as the praet. Kal, Num 22:32 : praeceps = exitiosa est via. The preformative Jod has Metheg in correct texts, so that we need not suppose, with Ralbag, a רטה, similar in meaning to ירט.

Job 16:12-14 12  I was at ease, but He hath broken me in pieces;

And He hath taken me by the neck and shaken me to pieces,

And set me up for a mark for himself. 13  His arrows whistled about me;

He pierced my reins without sparing;

He poured out my gall upon the ground. 14  He brake through me breach upon breach,

He ran upon me like a mighty warrior.

He was prosperous and contented, when all at once God began to be enraged against him; the intensive form פּרפּר (Arab. farfara) signifies to break up entirely, crush, crumble in pieces (Hithpo. to become fragile, Isa 24:19); the corresponding intensive form פּצפּץ (from פּצץ, Arab. fḍḍ, cogn. נפץ), to beat in pieces (Polel of a hammer, Jer 23:29), to dash to pieces: taking him by the neck, God raised him on high in order to dash him to the ground with all His might. מטּרה (from נטר, τηρεῖν, like σκοπός from σκέπτισθαι) is the target, as in the similar passage, Lam 3:12, distinct from מפגּע, Job 7:20, object of attack and point of attack: God has set me up for a target for himself, in order as it were to try what He and His arrows can do. Accordingly רבּיו (from רבב = רבה, רמה, jacere) signifies not: His archers (although this figure would be admissible after Job 10:17; Job 19:12, and the form after the analogy of רב, רע, etc., is naturally taken as a substantival adj.), but, especially since God appears directly as the actor: His arrows (= הצּיו, Job 6:4), from רב, formed after the analogy of בּז, מס, etc., according to which it is translated by lxx, Targ., Jer., while most of the Jewish expositors, referring to Jer 50:29 (where we need not, with Böttch., point רבים, and here רביו), interpret by מורי החצים. On all sides, whichever way he might turn himself, the arrows of God flew about him, mercilessly piercing his reins, so that his gall-bladder became empty (comp. Lam 2:11, and vid., Psychol. S. 268). It is difficult to conceive what is here said;The emptying of the gall takes place if the gall-bladder or any of its ducts are torn; but how the gall itself (without assuming some morbid condition) can flow outwardly, even with a severe wound, is a difficult question, with which only those who have no appreciation of the standpoint of imagery and poetry will distress themselves. [On the ”spilling of the gall” or “bursting of the gall-bladder” among the Arabs, as the working of violent and painful emotions, vid., Zeitschr. der deutschen morgenländ. Gesellsch. Bd. xvi. S. 586, Z. 16ff. - Fl.] it is, moreover, not meant to be understood strictly according to the sense: the divine arrows, which are only an image for divinely decreed sufferings, pressed into his inward parts, and wounded the noblest organs of his nature. In Job 16:14 follows another figure. He was as a wall which was again and again broken through by the missiles or battering-rams of God, and against which He ran after the manner of besiegers when storming. פּרץ is the proper word for such breaches and holes in a wall generally; here it is connected as obj. with its own verb, according to Ges. §138, rem. 1. The second פרץ (פּרץ with Kametz) has Ssade minusculum, for some reason unknown to us.

The next strophe says what change took place in his own conduct in consequence of this incomprehensible wrathful disposition of God which had vented itself on him.

Job 16:15-17 15  I sewed sackcloth upon my skin,

And defiled my horn with dust. 16  My face is exceeding red with weeping,

And on mine eyelids is the shadow of death, 17  Although there is no wrong in my hand,

And my prayer is pure.

Coarse-haired cloth is the recognised clothing which the deeply sorrowful puts on, ἱμάτιον στενοχωρίας καὶ πένθους, as the Greek expositors remark. Job does not say of it that he put it on or slung it round him, but that he sewed it upon his naked body; and this is to be attributed to the hideous distortion of the body by elephantiasis, which will not admit of the use of the ordinary form of clothes. For the same reason he also uses, not עורי, but גּלדּי, which signifies either the scurfy scaly surface (as גּלד and הנליד in Talmudic of the scab of a healing wound, but also occurring e.g., of the bedaggled edge of clothes when it has become dry), or scornfully describes the skin as already almost dead; for the healthy skin is called עזר, גּלד, on the other hand, βύρσα (lxx), hide (esp. when removed from the body), Talm. e.g., sole-leather. We prefer the former interpretation (adopted by Raschi and others): The crust in which the terrible lepra has clothed his skin (vid., on Job 7:5; Job 30:18-19, Job 30:30) is intended. עללתּי in Job 16:15 is referred by Rosenm., Hirz., Ges., and others (as indeed by Saad. and Gecat., who transl. “I digged into”), to עלל (Arab. gll), to enter, penetrate: “I stuck my horn in the dust;” but this signification of the Hebrew עלל is unknown, it signifies rather to inflict pain, or scorn (e.g., Lam 3:51, mine eye causeth pain to my soul), generally with ל, here with the accusative: I have misused, i.e., injured or defiled (as the Jewish expositors explain), my horn with dust. This is not equivalent to my head (as in the Syr. version), but he calls everything that was hitherto his power and pride קרני (lxx, Targ.); all this he has together at the same time injured, i.e., represented as come to destruction, by covering his head with dust and ashes.

Job 16:18-22 18  Oh earth, cover thou not my blood,

And let my cry find no resting-place!! - 19  Even now behold in heaven is my Witness,

And One who acknowledgeth me is in the heights! 20  Though the mockers of me are my friends -

To Eloah mine eyes pour forth tears, 21  That He may decide for man against Eloah,

And for the son of man against his friend. 22  For the years that may be numbered are coming on,

And I shall go a way without return.

Blood that is not covered up cries for vengeance, Eze 24:7.; so also blood still unavenged is laid bare that it may find vengeance, Isa 26:21. According to this idea, in the lofty consciousness of his innocence, Job calls upon the earth not to suck in his blood as of one innocently slain, but to let it lie bare, thereby showing that it must be first of all avenged ere the earth can take it up;As, according to the tradition, it is said to have been impossible to remove the stain of the blood of Zachariah the son of Jehoiada, who was murdered in the court of the temple, until it was removed by the destruction of the temple itself. and for his cry, i.e., the cry (זעקתי to be explained according to Gen 4:10) proceeding from his blood as from his poured-out soul, he desires that it may urge its way unhindered and unstilled towards heaven without finding a place of rest (Symm. στάσις). Therefore, in the very God who appears to him to be a blood-thirsty enemy in pursuit of him, Job nevertheless hopes to find a witness of his innocence: He will acknowledge his blood, like that of Abel, to be the blood of an innocent man. It is an inward irresistible demand made by his faith which here brings together two opposite principles - principles which the understanding cannot unite - with bewildering boldness. Job believes that God will even finally avenge the blood which His wrath has shed, as blood that has been innocently shed. This faith, which sends forth beyond death itself the word of absolute command contained in Job 16:18, in Job 16:19 brightens and becomes a certain confidence, which draws from the future into the present that acknowledgment which God afterwards makes of him as innocent. The thought of what is unmerited in that decree of wrath which delivers him over to death, is here forced into the background, and in the front stands only the thought of the exaltation of the God in heaven above human short-sightedness, and the thought that no one else but He is the final refuge of the oppressed: even now (i.e., this side of death)Comp. 1Ki 14:14, where it is probably to be explained: Jehovah shall raise up for himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day, but what? even now (גם עתה), i.e., He hath raised him up (= but no, even now). behold in heaven is my witness (הנּה an expression of the actus directus fidei) and my confessor (שׂהר a poetic Aramaism, similar in meaning to עד, lxx ὁ συνίστωπ μου) in the heights. To whom should he flee from the mockery of his friends, who consider his appeal to the testimony of his conscience as the stratagem of a hypocrite! מליצי from הליץ, Psa 119:51, my mockers, i.e., those mocking me, lascivientes in me (vid., Gesch. der jüd. Poesie, S. 200. The short clause, Job 16:20, is, logically at least, like a disjunctive clause with כי or גם־כי, Ewald, §362, b: if his friends mock him - to Eloah, who is after all the best of friends, his eyes pour forth tears (דּלפה, stillat, comp. דּלּוּ of languishing, Isa 38:14), that He may decide (ויוכח voluntative in a final signification, as Job 9:33) for man (ל here, as Isa 11:4; Isa 2:4, of the client) against (עם, as Psa 55:19; Psa 94:16, of an opponent) Eloah, and for the son of man (ל to be supplied here in a similar sense to Job 16:21, comp. Job 15:3) in relation to (ל as it is used in ל ... בּין, e.g., Eze 34:22) his friend. Job longs and hopes for two things from God: (1) that He would finally decide in favour of גבר, i.e., just himself, the patient sufferer, in opposition to God, that therefore God would acknowledge that Job is not a criminal, nor his suffering a merited punishment; (2) that He would decide in favour of בן־אדם, i.e., himself, who is become an Ecce homo, in relation to his human opponent (רעהוּ, not collective, but individualizing or distributive instead of רעיו), who regards him as a sinner undergoing punishment, and preaches to him the penitence that becomes one who has fallen. ויוכח is purposely only used once, and the expression Job 16:21 is contracted in comparison with 21 a: the one decision includes the other; for when God himself destroys the idea of his lot being merited punishment, He also at the same time delivers judgment against the friends who have zealously defended Him against Job as a just judge.

Olsh. approves Ewald’s translation: “That He allows man to be in the right rather than God, and that He judges man against his friend:” but granted even that הוכיח, like שׁפט followed by an acc., may be used in the signification: to grant any one to be in the right (although, with such a construction, it everywhere signifies ἐλέγχειν), this rendering would still not commend itself, on account of the specific gravity of the hope which is here struggling through the darkness of conflict. Job appeals from God to God; he hopes that truth and love will finally decide against wrath. The meaning of הוכיח has reference to the duty of an arbitrator, as in Job 9:33. Schlottm. aptly recalls the saying of the philosophers, which applies here in a different sense from that in which it is meant, nemo contra Deum, nisi Deus ipse. In Job 16:22 Job now establishes the fact that the heavenly witness will not allow him to die a death that he and others would regard as the death of a sinner, from the brevity of the term of life yet granted him, and the hopelessness of man when he is once dead. מספּר שׁנות are years of number = few years (lxx ἔτη ἀριθμητά); comp. the position of the words as they are to be differently understood, Job 15:20. On the inflexion jeethâju, vid., on Job 12:6. Jerome transl. transeunt, but אתה cannot signify this in any Semitic dialect. But even that Job (though certainly the course of elephantiasis can continue for years) is intended to refer to the prospect of some, although few, years of life (Hirz. and others: the few years which I can still look forward to, are drawing on), does not altogether suit the tragic picture. The approach of the years that can be numbered is rather thought of as the approach of their end; and the few years are not those which still remain, but in general the but short span of life allotted to him (Hahn). The arrangement of the words in Job 16:22 also agrees with this, as not having the form of a conclusion (then shall I go, etc.), but that of an independent co-ordinate clause: and a path, there (whence) I come not back (an attributive relative clause according to Ges. §123, 3, b) I shall go (אהלך poetic, and in order to gain a rhythmical fall at the close, for אלך). Now follow, in the next strophe, short ejaculatory clauses: as Oetinger observes, Job chants his own requiem while living.

The Reply of Job to Eliphaz. (b. c. 1520.)

1 Then Job answered and said, 2 I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all. 3 Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest? 4 I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you. 5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should assuage your grief.

Both Job and his friends took the same way that disputants commonly take, which is to undervalue one another's sense, and wisdom, and management. The longer the saw of contention is drawn the hotter it grows; and the beginning of this sort of strife is as the letting forth of water; therefore leave it off before it be meddled with. Eliphaz had represented Job's discourses as idle, and unprofitable, and nothing to the purpose; and Job here gives his the same character. Those who are free in passing such censures must expect to have them retorted; it is easy, it is endless: but cui bono?—what good does it do? It will stir up men's passions, but will never convince their judgments, nor set truth in a clear light. Job here reproves Eliphaz, 1. For needless repetitions (v. 2): "I have heard many such things. You tell me nothing but what I knew before, nothing but what you yourselves have before said; you offer nothing new; it is the same thing over and over again." This Job thinks as great a trial of his patience as almost any of his troubles. The inculcating of the same things thus by an adversary is indeed provoking and nauseous, but by a teacher it is often necessary, and must not be grievous to the learner, to whom precept must be upon precept, and line upon line. Many things we have heard which it is good for us to hear again, that we may understand and remember them better, and be more affected with them and influenced by them. 2. For unskilful applications. They came with a design to comfort him, but they went about it very awkwardly, and, when they touched Job's case, quite mistook it: "Miserable comforters are you all, who, instead of offering any thing to alleviate the affliction, add affliction to it, and make it yet more grievous." The patient's case is sad indeed when his medicines are poisons and his physicians his worst disease. What Job says here of his friends is true of all creatures, in comparison with God, and, one time or other, we shall be made to see it and own it, that miserable comforters are they all. When we are under convictions of sin, terrors of conscience, and the arrests of death, it is only the blessed Spirit that can comfort effectually; all others, without him, do it miserably, and sing songs to a heavy heart, to no purpose. 3. For endless impertinence. Job wishes that vain words might have an end, v. 3. If vain, it were well that they were never begun, and the sooner they are ended the better. Those who are so wise as to speak to the purpose will be so wise as to know when they have said enough of a thing and when it is time to break off. 4. For causeless obstinacy. What emboldeneth thee, that thou answerest? It is a great piece of confidence, and unaccountable, to charge men with those crimes which we cannot prove upon them, to pass a judgment on men's spiritual state upon the view of their outward condition, and to re-advance those objections which have been again and again answered, as Eliphaz did. 5. For the violation of the sacred laws of friendship, doing by his brother as he would not have been done by and as his brother would not have done by him. This is a cutting reproof, and very affecting, v. 4, 5. (1.) He desires his friends, in imagination, for a little while, to change conditions with him, to put their souls in his soul's stead, to suppose themselves in misery like him and him at ease like them. This was no absurd or foreign supposition, but what might quickly become true in fact. So strange, so sudden, frequently, are the vicissitudes of human affairs, and such the turns of the wheel, that the spokes soon change places. Whatever our brethren's sorrows are, we ought by sympathy to make them our own, because we know not how soon they may be so. (2.) He represents the unkindness of their conduct towards him, by showing what he could do to them if they were in his condition: I could speak as you do. It is an easy thing to trample upon those that are down, and to find fault with what those say that are in extremity of pain and affliction: "I could heap up words against you, as you do against me; and how would you like it? how would you bear it?" (3.) He shows them what they should do, by telling them what in that case he would do (v. 5): "I would strengthen you, and say all I could to assuage your grief, but nothing to aggravate it." It is natural to sufferers to think what they would do if the tables were turned. But perhaps our hearts may deceive us; we know not what we should do. We find it easier to discern the reasonableness and importance of a command when we have occasion to claim the benefit of it than when we have occasion to do the duty of it. See what is the duty we owe to our brethren in their affliction. [1.] We should say and do all we can to strengthen them, suggesting to them such considerations as are proper to encourage their confidence in God and to support their sinking spirits. Faith and patience are the strength of the afflicted; whatever helps these graces confirms the feeble knees. [2.] To assuage their grief—the causes of their grief, if possible, or at least their resentment of those causes. Good words cost nothing; but they may be of good service to those that are in sorrow, not only as it is some comfort to them to see their friends concerned for them, but as they may be so reminded of that which, through the prevalency of grief, was forgotten. Though hard words (we say) break no bones, yet kind words may help to make broken bones rejoice; and those have the tongue of the learned that know how to speak a word in season to the weary.

Grievances of Job. (b. c. 1520.)

6 Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased? 7 But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company. 8 And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face. 9 He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me. 10 They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me. 11 God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked. 12 I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark. 13 His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground. 14 He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant. 15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust. 16 My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

Job's complaint is here as bitter as any where in all his discourses, and he is at a stand whether to smother it or to give it vent. Sometimes the one and sometimes the other is a relief to the afflicted, according as the temper or the circumstances are; but Job found help by neither, v. 6. 1. Sometimes giving vent to grief gives ease; but, "Though I speak" (says Job), "my grief is not assuaged, my spirit is never the lighter for the pouring out of my complaint; nay, what I speak is so misconstrued as to be turned to the aggravation of my grief." 2. At other times keeping silence makes the trouble the easier and the sooner forgotten; but (says Job) though I forbear I am never the nearer; what am I eased? If he complained he was censured as passionate; if not, as sullen. If he maintained his integrity, that was his crime; if he made no answer to their accusations, his silence was taken for a confession of his guilt.

Here is a doleful representation of Job's grievances. O what reason have we to bless God that we are not making such complaints! He complains,

I. That his family was scattered (v. 7): "He hath made me weary, weary of speaking, weary of forbearing, weary of my friends, weary of life itself; my journey through the world proves so very uncomfortable that I am quite tired with it." This made it as tiresome as any thing, that all his company was made desolate, his children and servants being killed and the poor remains of his great household dispersed. The company of good people that used to meet at his house for religious worship, was now scattered, and he spent his sabbaths in silence and solitude. He had company indeed, but such as he would rather have been without, for they seemed to triumph in his desolation. If lovers and friends are put far from us, we must see and own God's hand in it, making our company desolate.

II. That his body was worn away with diseases and pains, so that he had become a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones, v. 8. His face was furrowed, not with age, but sickness: Thou hast filled me with wrinkles. His flesh was wasted with the running of his sore boils, so that his leanness rose up in him, that is, his bones, that before were not seen, stuck out, ch. xxxiii. 21. These are called witnesses against him, witnesses of God's displeasure against him, and such witnesses as his friends produced against him to prove him a wicked man. Or, "They are witnesses for me, that my complaint is not causeless," or "witnesses to me, that I am a dying man, and must be gone shortly."

III. That his enemy was a terror to him, threatened him, frightened him, looked sternly upon him, and gave all the indications of rage against him (v. 9): He tears me in his wrath. But who is this enemy? 1. Eliphaz, who showed himself very much exasperated against him, and perhaps had expressed himself with such marks of indignation as are here mentioned: at least, what he said tore Job's good name and thundered nothing but terror to him; his eyes were sharpened to spy out matter of reproach against Job, and very barbarously both he and the rest of them used him. Or, 2. Satan. He was his enemy that hated him, and perhaps, by the divine permission, terrified him with apparitions, as (some think) he terrified our Saviour, which put him into his agonies in the garden; and thus he aimed to make him curse God. It is not improbable that this is the enemy he means. Or, (3.) God himself. If we understand it of him, the expressions are indeed as rash as any he used. God hates none of his creatures; but Job's melancholy did thus represent to him the terrors of the Almighty: and nothing can be more grievous to a good man than to apprehend God to be his enemy. If the wrath of a king be as messengers of death, what is the wrath of the King of kings!

IV. That all about him were abusive to him, v. 10. They came upon him with open mouth to devour him, as if they would swallow him alive, so terrible were their threats and so scornful was their conduct to him. They offered him all the indignities they could invent, and even smote him on the cheek; and herein many were confederate. They gathered themselves together against him, even the abjects, Ps. xxxv. 15. Herein Job was a type of Christ, as many of the ancients make him: these very expressions are used in the predictions of his sufferings, Ps. xxii. 13, They gaped upon me with their mouths; and (Mic. v. 1), They shall smite the Judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek, which was literally fulfilled, Matt. xxvi. 67. How were those increased that troubled him!

V. That God, instead of delivering him out of their hands, as he hoped, delivered him into their hands (v. 11): He hath turned me over into the hands of the wicked. They could have had no power against him if it had not been given them from above. He therefore looks beyond them to God who gave them their commission, as David did when Shimei cursed him; but he thinks it strange, and almost thinks it hard, that those should have power against him who were God's enemies as much as his. God sometimes makes use of wicked men as his sword to one another (Ps. xvii. 13) and his rod to his own children, Isa. x. 5. Herein also Job was a type of Christ, who was delivered into wicked hands, to be crucified and slain, by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God, Acts ii. 23.

VI. That God not only delivered him into the hands of the wicked, but took him into his own hands too, into which it is a fearful thing to fall (v. 12): "I was at ease in the comfortable enjoyment of the gifts of God's bounty, not fretting and uneasy, as some are in the midst of their prosperity, who thereby provoke God to strip them; yet he has broken me asunder, put me upon the rack of pain, and torn me limb from limb." God, in afflicting him, had seemed, 1. As if he were furious. Though fury is not in God, he thought it was, when he took him by the neck (as a strong man in a passion would take a child) and shook him to pieces, triumphing in the irresistible power he had to do what he would with him. 2. As if he were partial. "He has distinguished me from the rest of mankind by this hard usage of me: He has set me up for his mark, the butt at which he is pleased to let fly all his arrows: at me they are directed, and they come not by chance; against me they are levelled, as if I were the greatest sinner of all the men of the east or were singled out to be made an example." When God set him up for a mark his archers presently compassed him round. God has archers at command, who will be sure to hit the mark that he sets up. Whoever are our enemies, we must look upon them as God's archers, and see him directing the arrow. It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good. 3. As if he were cruel, and his wrath as relentless as his power was resistless. As if he contrived to touch him in the tenderest part, cleaving his reins asunder with acute pains; perhaps they were nephritic pains, those of the stone, which lie in the region of the kidneys. As if he had no mercy in reserve for him, he does not spare nor abate any thing of the extremity. And as if he aimed at nothing but his death, and his death in the midst of the most grievous tortures: He pours out my gall upon the ground, as when men have taken a wild beast, and killed it, they open it, and pour out the gall with a loathing of it. He thought his blood was poured out, as if it were not only not precious, but nauseous. 4. As if he were unreasonable and insatiable in his executions (v. 14): "He breaketh me with breach upon breach, follows me with one wound after another." So his troubles came at first; while one messenger of evil tidings was speaking another came: and so it was still; new boils were rising every day, so that he had no prospect of the end of his troubles. Thus he thought that God ran upon him like a giant, whom he could not possibly stand before or confront; as the giants of old ran down all their poor neighbours, and were too hard for them. Note, Even good men, when they are in great and extraordinary troubles, have much ado not to entertain hard thoughts of God.

VII. That he had divested himself of all his honour, and all his comfort, in compliance with the afflicting providences that surrounded him. Some can lessen their own troubles by concealing them, holding their heads as high and putting on as good a face as ever; but Job could not do so: he received the impressions of them, and, as one truly penitent and truly patient, he humbled himself under the mighty hand of God, v. 15, 16. 1. He now laid aside all his ornaments and soft clothing, consulted not either his ease or finery in his dress, but sewed sackcloth upon his skin; that clothing he thought good enough for such a defiled distempered body as he had. Silks upon sores, such sores, he thought, would be unsuitable; sackcloth would be more becoming. Those are fond indeed of gay clothing that will not be weaned from it by sickness and old age, and, as Job was (v. 8), by wrinkles and leanness. He not only put on sackcloth, but sewed it on, as one that resolved to continue his humiliation as long as the affliction continued. 2. He insisted not upon any points of honour, but humbled himself under humbling providences: He defiled his horn in the dust, and refused the respect that used to be paid to his dignity, power, and eminency. Note, When God brings down our condition, that should bring down our spirits. Better lay the horn in the dust than lift it up in contradiction to the designs of Providence and have it broken at last. Eliphaz had represented Job as high and haughty, and unhumbled under his affliction. "No," says Job, "I know better things; the dust is now the fittest place for me." 3. He banished mirth as utterly unseasonable, and set himself to sow in tears (v. 16): "My face is foul with weeping so constantly for my sins, for God's displeasure against me, and for my friends unkindness: this has brought a shadow of death upon my eyelids." He had not only wept away all his beauty, but almost wept his eyes out. In this also he was a type of Christ, who was a man of sorrows, and much in tears, and pronounced those blessed that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Testimony of Conscience; Job's Comfort in Conscious Integrity. (b. c. 1520.)

17 Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure. 18 O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place. 19 Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high. 20 My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God. 21 O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour! 22 When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

Job's condition was very deplorable; but had he nothing to support him, nothing to comfort him? Yes, and he here tells us what it was.

I. He had the testimony of his conscience for him that he had walked uprightly, and had never allowed himself in any gross sin. None was ever more ready than he to acknowledge his sins of infirmity; but, upon search, he could not charge himself with any enormous crime, for which he should be made more miserable than other men, v. 17.

1. He had kept a conscience void of offence, (1.) Towards men: "Not for any injustice in my hands, any wealth that I have unjustly got or kept." Eliphaz had represented him as a tyrant and an oppressor. "No," says he, "I never did any wrong to any man, but always despised the gain of oppression." (2.) Towards God: Also my prayer is pure; but prayer cannot be pure as long as there is injustice in our hands, Isa. i. 15. Eliphaz had charged him with hypocrisy in religion, but he specifies prayer, the great act of religion, and professes that in that he was pure, though not from all infirmity, yet from reigning and allowed guile: it was not like the prayers of the Pharisees, who looked no further than to be seen of men, and to serve a turn.

2. This assertion of his own integrity he backs with a solemn imprecation of shame and confusion to himself if it were not true, v. 18. (1.) If there were any injustice in his hands, he wished it might not be concealed: O earth! cover thou not my blood, that is, "the innocent blood of others, which I am suspected to have shed." Murder will out; and "let it," says Job, "if I have ever been guilty if it," Gen. iv. 10, 11. The day is coming when the earth shall disclose her blood (Isa. xxvi. 21), and a good man as far from dreading that day. (2.) If there were any impurity in his prayers, he wished they might not be accepted: Let my cry have no place. He was willing to be judged by that rule, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me, Ps. lxvi. 18. There is another probable sense of these words, that he does hereby, as it were, lay his death upon his friends, who broke his heart with their harsh censures, and charges the guilt of his blood upon them, begging of God to avenge it and that the cry of his blood might have no place in which to lie hid, but might come up to heaven and be heard by him that makes inquisition for blood.

II. He could appeal to God's omniscience concerning his integrity, v. 19. The witness in our own bosoms for us will stand us in little stead if we have not a witness in heaven for us too; for God is greater than our hearts, and we are not to be our own judges. This therefore is Job's triumph, My witness is in heaven. Note, It is an unspeakable comfort to a good man, when he lies under the censure of his brethren, that there is a God in heaven who knows his integrity and will clear it up sooner or later. See John v. 31, 37. This one witness is instead of a thousand.

III. He had a God to go to before whom he might unbosom himself, v. 20, 21. See here, 1. How the case stood between him and his friends. He knew not how to be free with them, nor could he expect either a fair hearing with them or fair dealing from them. "My friends (so they call themselves) scorn me; they set themselves not only to resist me, but to expose me; they are of counsel against me, and use all their art and eloquence" (so the word signifies) "to run me down." The scorns of friends are more cutting than those of enemies; but we must expect them, and provide accordingly. 2. How it stood between him and God. He doubted not but that, (1.) God did now take cognizance of his sorrows: My eye pours out tears to God. He had said (v. 16) that he wept much; here he tells us in what channel his tears ran, and which way they were directed. His sorrow was not that of the world, but he sorrowed after a godly sort, wept before the Lord, and offered to him the sacrifice of a broken heart. Note, Even tears, when sanctified to God, give ease to troubled spirits; and, if men slight our grief, this may comfort us, that God regards them. (2.) That he would in due time clear up his innocency (v. 21): O that one might plead for a man with God! If he could but now have the same freedom at God's bar that men commonly have at the bar of the civil magistrate, he doubted not but to carry his cause, for the Judge himself was a witness to his integrity. The language of this wish is like that in Isa. l. 7, 8, I know that I shall not be ashamed, for he is near that justifies me. Some give a gospel sense of this verse, and the original will very well bear it; and he will plead (that is, there is one that will plead) for man with God, even the Son of man for his friend, or neighbour. Those who pour out tears before God, though they cannot plead for themselves, by reason of their distance and defects, have a friend to plead for them, even the Son of man, and on this we must bottom all our hopes of acceptance with God.

IV. He had a prospect of death which would put a period to all his troubles. Such confidence had he towards God that he could take pleasure in thinking of the approach of death, when he should be determined to his everlasting state, as one that doubted not but it would be well with him then: When a few years have come (the years of number which are determined and appointed to me) then I shall go the way whence I shall not return. Note, 1. To die is to go the way whence we shall not return. It is to go a journey, a long journey, a journey for good and all, to remove from this to another country, from the world of sense to the world of spirits. It is a journey to our long home; there will be no coming back to out state in this world nor any change of our state in the other world. 2. We must all of us very certainly, and very shortly, go this journey; and it is comfortable to those who keep a good conscience to think of it, for it is the crown of their integrity.

CHAP. XVI. Verſe 1. Then Job anſwered and ſaid.]

ALthough he had little or nothing to anſwer unto but what he had anſwered before, yet that he might not ſay nothing, he replyeth to Eliphaz his painted ſpeech, and giveth him to know, That Prudentibus viris non placent phalerata ſed fortia (as B. Jewel was wont to ſay) that is, that wiſe men look for matter, and not for words only, from thoſe that accoaſt them.

Verſe 2. I have heard many ſuch things] Heard them over and over, till I am even ſated and nauſeated, Vexatus toties rauci; q.d. Your ſayings are ſuperfluous, your proofs inſufficient; you produce nothing new, nothing but what is trivial, and of very common obſervation; Hac ſex centies audivi; Mine eares are grated and grieved with theſe unneceſſary repetitions, only re-inforced with greater bitterneſſe; which as it addeth nothing at all to the weight of your words, ſo it cauſeth me to add this,

Miſerable Comforters are ye all.] Heb. Comforters of miſery, or of moleſtation, onerous and burdenſome (ſo the Vulgar rendreth it) and in that ſenſe, weighty if you will, laying more load upon me who was before in a ſinking condition. You charge me for ſleighting the conſolations of God, and pretend to come purpoſely to comfort me; but ſuch cold comforters I have ſeldome met with; for in ſtead of abating and allaying my ſorrowes, you do all you can to increaſe and heighten them. Is this your kindneſſe to your friend? Calvin noteth upon this Text, That ſome Comforters have but one Song to ſing, and they have no regard to whom they ſing it. But Saint Jude's rule is, Of ſome have compaſſion, making a difference, others ſave with fear, ver. 22, 23. which whiles Jobs friends obſerved not, they were juſtly ſtiled, Miſerable Comforters.

Verſe 3.Ampullatur in arti. Shall vain words have an end?] Heb. Shall there be an end to words of wind? Bubbles of words, big ſwoln ſpeeches, full of pride, void of reaſon: when ſhall we once have an end of them? They that would comfort another indeed, muſt not multiply vain repetition (for theſe are very burdenſome to a ſerious ear, much more to a ſad heart) much leſſe bitter ſpeeches, leaſt of all taunts and buffooneries, as verſ. 4. For, like as if the eye be inflamed, the mildeſt Medicine troubleth it, ſo is it here: how much more when harſh and uncouth?

Or what emboldneth thee that thou anſwereſt?] That thou rejoyneſt, having been ſo fully anſwered before? Some men will never be ſaid or ſet down; ſuch is their pertinacy, they will not lay down the bucklers, though beaten to their heads. Sed praſtas berbam dare, quam turpiter pugnare: Better yeild, then ſtand out with diſhonour.

Verſe 4. I alſo could ſpeak as you do. &c.] Every whit as curiouſly and furiouſly. I could ſcold and ſcoff as freely as you do, but I know no warrant ſo to retort and retaliate; Being reviled we bleſſe, being defamed, we entreat, 1 Corinth. 4.12, 13. To render railing for railing, is to think to waſh off dirt with dirt.

If your ſoul were in my ſouls ſtead] Some read it optatively, as Iſai. 64.1. Would to God your ſoul were in my ſouls ſtead; for then I would heap up words againſt you, and act your part upon you: but Job was not ſo malicious or vindictive, as to think that tallying of injuries, is but juſtice. Hypocritis nihil eſt crudelius, impatientius, & vindictae cupidius, ſaith Luther. Hypocrites are cruel, ſpiteful, and revengeful: but Job was none ſuch. He therefore telleth his friends, that if they were in his condition, he would deal much more mildly with them.

I could heap up words againſt you] I could, but would not. Poſſe & nolle, nobile eſt. Gen. Or thus, Would I heap up, &c. and handle you thus diſcourteouſly by ſpeeches and geſtures, as you do me? It were eaſie to wag a wicked tongue, and to ſhake my head at you in deſpite and mockery: but were this Religion? Doth not moral Philoſophy ſay, If a wiſe man ſpeak evil of thee, endure him: if a fool, pardon him? Vin[illegible: 1 letter]it qui patitur, as David did Saul, overcoming evil with good, though when he marched againſt Nabal, how rough and raſh was he in a reſolution of revenge? 1 Sam. 25.32.

Verſe 5. But I would ſtrengthen you with my mouth] I would ſpeak to your hearts, and raiſe up your drooping ſpirits. True it is, that conſolatiuncula creat[illegible: 1 letter] rulae (as Luther calleth them) creature comforts are poor buſineſſes: nevertheleſſe God conveyeth comfort many times by one man to another, as the aire conveyeth light, or water heat. His comforts are either rational, fetch'd from grounds which faith miniſtreth; or real, from the preſence of any thing that comforteth. as the ſight and diſcourſe of a friend. And herein, how forcible are right words? chap. 6. 25. They are of force. we ſee here, both to ſtrengthen the feeble minded, and to abate the ſtrength of their ſorrowes, to aſſwage the moſt ſwelling floods thereof. And thus one man may be an Angel, nay, a God to another. Now whereas ſome might ſay, You that are ſo good at comforting others, and promiſe ſo fair, Why are you not comfortable? Job anſwereth, in the next verſe, that this was their fault, who had unkindly kept him off from receiving any comfort.

Verſe 6. though I ſpeak, my grief is not aſſ[illegible: 1 letter]agest] Heb. If I ſpeak; ſcil. to bewail my miſery or to maintain mine innocency; ye ſay '[illegible: 1 letter]is good enough for me, and how can I be but wicked, who am ſo puniſhed? As,

If I forbear, what am I eaſed?] Heb. What goeth from me? q.d. Ye conclude me guilty, becauſe ſilent; as if I had nothing to ſay for my ſelf. Some make the words to refer to God; as if Job had ſaid, Whether I ſpeak, or whether I forbear, God doth not come in to my help, I find no comfort from him, &c. and by the next verſe it ſhould ſeem that this is the right ſenſe.

Verſe 7. But now be hath made me weary] i.e. God, whom he acknowledgeth the Author of his afflictions; but he ſhould better have born up under them,Quis cum fatigevis? Dolor, vel Dem ipſe? Lavat. then to faint and fret even unto madneſſe, as the Septuagint here tranſlates. Job was now not only wet to the skin, but his ſoul came into iron, as Joſephs once, Pſal. 105.18. Like Ezekiels book, chap. 2. he was written quite through with woes and lamentations. And he might ſay with heman, Pſal. 88.15. While I ſuffer thy terrors I am diſtracted. The grief which he here deſcribeth, Major erat, quàm ut verbis comprehendi, gravior quàm ut ferri, moleſtior quam ut credi paſſes, ſaith Brentius; i.e. In locum. Was greater then could be uttered, heavier then could be born, more troubleſome then can be believed. He therefore ſets it out as well as he can, and amplifies it by figures and Hyperbolies, to move God and his friends to pity him: and to ſhew that he complained not without cauſe.

Thou haſt made deſolate all my company] Heb. Thou haſt wonderfully deſolated or waſted all my company; that is, all my joynts and members (ſo the Vulgar tranſlateth it;) but they do better that underſtand it of Jobs family and familiar friends,In nibilum redacti ſunt omnes artus mei. who were either deſtroyed, or ſtood amazed at his ſo great affliction, and yeelded him little comfort. Ne te autem turbet enallage perſona, faith Mercer here; the change of perſon need not trouble us: only the troubledneſs and unevenneſſe of Jobs ſpeech ſheweth, that his ſpirit was troubled and unſettled. We meet with the like oft in the Pſalms.

Verſe 8. Thou haſt filled me with wrinkles which is a witneſſe againſt me] viz. that I am an afflicted man, but yet not a wicked man, ſuch as Eliphaz had deſcribed by his pingis aqualiculus, thoſe collops in his flank, chap. 15.27.Perſius. Thou baſt made me all wrinkled (ſo Broughton rendreth it) or, Thou haſt wrinkled me. The Hebrew word is found in Job only: but in the Rabbins more frequently. Grief had made ſurrowes in Jobs face and his tears had often filled them.

And my leanneſſe riſing up in me] ſcil. By the continuance of my ſores and ſorrowes, which have made my body a very bag of bones, and cauſe me to cry out, My leanneſſe, my leanneſſe, wo unto me, Iſai. 24.16. My fleſh, through my grievous anguiſh, being fallen from my bones, which riſe up in a ghaſtly manner.

Beareth witneſſe to my face] ſcil. That I am one of Gods Plagipatidae, poor Afflicted: But what of that? Scourgeth he not every Son whom he receiveth? Heb. 12.7. Others render it, Ium[illegible: 1 letter] face; where my leanneſſe ſitteth, and is moſt conſpicuous: like as it is ſaid of our Saviour, That with faſting and paines taking he had ſo wanzed and macerated himſelf, that at little paſt thirty, he was looked upon as one toward fifty, Mr. Clark in his life. John 8.57. And as Mr. John Fox the Martyrologue, by his exceſſive paines in compiling the Acts and Monuments of the Church in the ſpace of eleven years, grew thereby ſo lean and withered, that his friends hardly knew him to be the ſame man.

Verſe 9. he reareth me in his wrath, &c.] Who did all this to Job? The devil ſay ſome; his Diſeaſe, ſay others: (that was a moſt uncharitable cenſure paſſed by Luther upon Occolampadius, Lib. de Miſſa. prin. Anno Dom. 1533. that he died ſuddenly ignitis Satanae telis confeſſus, ſlain by Satans fiery darts, becauſe he died of a Carbuncle.) But Job ſurely meaneth it of God, upon whom his heart was ſtill, though he ſpeak here ſomewhat unhappily of him, out of the ſenſe of the fleſh, and greatneſs of his grief.

Who hateth me] Heb. He Satanically hateth me. What ſtrange language is this from him who elſewhere calleth God his Salvation, his Redeemer, chap. 13.15, 16, 18. and 19.25. and will by and by call him his witneſſe in heaven, to whom his eye powreth out tears, verſ. 19, 20? How ſhall we reconcile theſe ſo contrary paſſions and paſſages, otherwiſe then by ſaying, that every good man is two men, &c? neither can it poſſibly be expreſſed how deeply ſenſible the Saints are of Gods diſpleaſure, when they are more then ordinarily afflicted by him, and eſpecially when he ſeemeth to fight againſt them with his own hand Hereby (ſaith Ferus) we may eaſily ſee in what a perplexed eſtate wicked Reprobates ſhall be at the laſt day, when God ſhall declare himſelf to be ſuch an enemy to them indeed; for ſo much as one of his Elect, and a moſt rare man, but conceiving him to be againſt him, becauſe hee had no preſent ſenſe of his favour, was thus extremely troubled.

He gnaſheth upon me with his teeth.] as extremely angry, Act. 7.54. and by ſharpning his teeth threatning deſtruction, Pſal. 37.12.

Mine enemy ſharpneth his eyes upon me] which caſt forth as it were ſparkles of fire. An elegant Hypotypoſis, or deſcription of his ſad condition to the life, Ʋt non tam geſtares quam nunc geri videatur, ſaith Brentius, as if we ſaw it even acted before our faces.Brent. in loc.

Verſe 19. they have gaped upon me with their mouth.] They? who? Non ſolum Dens, nec ſolum amici mei, ſed tota rerum machinae mihi adverſa[illegible: 1 letter]ur. Not God only, nor theſe friends of mine; but all the creatures are up in armes againſt me, and threaten to devour me at one morſel.

They have ſmitten me upon the cheek reproachfully] i.e. They have done me all the diſgrace that may be. See Lam 9.30. 2 Cor. 11.20, 21. Mic. 5.1. Act. 23.1, 2 John 18.22. Our Saviour was ſo ſerved according to the Letter; they gaped upon him, mowed at him, buffeted him on the face, gathered themſelves together againſt him, as here. Hence ſome of the Ancients call Job a figure and Type of Chriſt, who was thus dealt with both literally and alſo figuratively.

they have gathered themſelves together againſt me] Or, They have filled themſelves upon me; Tigurin. as Exod. 15.7. They have taken their fill of pleaſure at my miſeries, as one rendreth it: Or, They come upon me by full troops; ſo Broughton. Men are apt to agree for miſchief, Pſa. 35.15. & 83.5, 6, 7.

Verſe 11. God hath delivered me to the ungodly] i.e. To the Devil, and his inſtruments, thoſe Chaldean and Sabean Robbers, Chap. 1.15, 17. together with his hard-hearted friends, who for want of the true fear of God, added to his afflictions, chap. 6.14. See the Note there.

And turned me over, &c.] As a Magiſtrate doth a Malefactor to the Executioner. It is a ſore affliction to be under the rule of wicked men: much more to be under the rage, which yet was the caſe of that noble army of Martyrs, ancient and modern. The comfort is, that although the Lord turn his ſervants over into the hands of the wicked, whoſe tender mercies are meet cruelties, yet he never [illegible: 3 letters]es them out of his Own hand, neither will he ſuffer the rod of the wicked to reſt upon the lot of the righteous. Pſa. 125.3. His conſtant care is, that the choice ſpirits of his afflicted people fail not before him, and therefore he numbreth out their ſtroaks, and if their enemies over do and go beyond their commiſſion, ſo as to help forward the foreappointed affliction, he is ſort diſpleaſed and jealous with a great jealouſie againſt them; Zach. 1.15.

Verſe 12. I was at eaſe, but be hath broken me aſunder] It is no ſmall miſery to have been happy Fuimus Troes & fortis Mileſis Euripides bringeth in Hecuba as aſhamed to look Polymneſtor in the face, becauſe of a Queen ſhe was now a Captive; her former felicity was no ſmall aggravation of her preſent miſery: So was Jobs. Proſper eram, ſed diſrupit me, ſaith he; I was wealthy, but he hath undone me; ſo Broughton rendreth it. The ſame Hebrew word ſignifieth both to be rich, and to be at eaſe; for ſuch commonly ſing Requiems to their ſouls, as he did Luke 12.19. and ſay, I ſhall never be moved, Pſal. 30.6. I ſhall ſee no ſorrow, Rev. 18.7. But God can quickly confute them. Jobs worldly proſperity was quickly daſht and loſt He once hoped to have died in his neſt, but God not only unneſted him, but broke him to ſhivers, yea beat him to duſt and atomes, as the word here ſignifies. Nay more,

He hath alſo taken me by the neck.] As a ſtrong man doth his enemy, daſhing him to the ground, and giving him his Paſport, as we ſay.

And hath ſhaken me to pieces.] Heb. He hath ſcattered and ſcattered me. as a ſtone crumbled to crattle, or a pitcher beaten to powder. Sunt illuſtres figurae & elegantes hyperbolae, ſaith Mercer. here's brave Rhetorick.

And ſet me up for his mark.] Heb. For a mark to him; that I may feel all the arrowes of his judgments. See chap, 7.20. with the Note there. God ſhot ſhowrs of ſhafts at him, and ſeemed to take pleaſure in ſo doing; as a man doth in his ſhooting at a mark.

Verſe 13. His Archers compaſſe me round about.] i.e. His Inſtruments of my woe, whether perſons or things, but eſpecially my grievous ſores putting me to intollerable paine: theſe are Gods Arrowes or Archers, and do make my poor body not unlike that ſhield of Sceva at the ſiege of Dyrrachium, Denſamque ferens in pectore ſylvam. Luc. which had two hundred and twenty darts ſticking in it, when Caeſar came to his reſcue.

He cleaveth my reines aſunder] As a skilful Archer, he hits the white, he cleaves the pin, as they call it, he ſhooteth exactly (to the very chining and diſſecting of my back-bone) and ſo putteth me to moſt exquiſite pain and torment, Lam. 3.13.

He poureth out my gall upon the ground.] My bowels, ſaith the Vulgar. The gall is affixed to the liver, and when that is poured out; the man cannot live, becauſe his wound is mortal and incurable. Job held himſelfe ſo, but it proved better: the Lord chaſtened him ſore, but he gave him not over to death, Pſal. 118.18.

Verſe 14. He breaketh me with breach upon breach] So that I have hardly any breathing-while, Quis tot & tantis ferendis ſimul par ſit? Let no man henceforth ſay.Non babet in nobis jam nova plaga locum. Never did any one ſuffer ſuch hard and heavy things as I do. What I did not Job? This ſtory of his is a Book caſe to anſwer ſuch an Objection, ſith never any before, nor ſince his time was ſo handled; witneſſe the lamentable moane he maketh here. And yet to ſhew his equanimity under the hand of God, Buxtorf and Amama have obſerved, that the Hebrew word, Perets, in this Text rendred, breath, Buxtorf. Tiberios 167. Amama in Corand. Diſſert. hath a letter leſſer then ordinary in the beſt Copies. to ſignifie, that Jobs great calamities ſeemed to him to be but little, becauſe he hoped that God would turn them all to the beſt unto his ſoul.

He runneth upon me like a Giant] With ſpeed, ſtrength and courage, fiercely and fearleſly, But now what doth Job? doth he ſtand ſtouting and ſturdying it out with God? No, but in the next words he telleth us how he was affected with theſe afflictions; ſcil. that as Gods hand was heavy upon him ſo he held out all the demonſtrations and emblemes of an heavy heart; and as God had laid him low, ſo he carried his ſoul accordingly. God reined him with a rough bit, and he repented.

Verſe 15. I have ſowed ſackcloth upon my skin] Not Silks. but ſackcloth is now mine immediate cloathing, next my very skin, which muſt needs be troubleſome to a man ſo full of fores and other ſorrowes. So far was poor ulcerous Job from that height and haughtineſſe of ſpirit, wherewith Eliphaz had charged him. chap. 15.12, 23, 25. as if Job had been [illegible: 1 word] indeed, but not lowly; hambled, but not humble. Here was a real Apology, I have ſowed ſackcloth, &c. here was an ocular demonſtration, and ſhould have moved his friends to more moderation: for why ſhould any deale harſhly with him, who dealt ſo courſely with himſelf?

And defiled my horn in the duſt.] My horn, that is, my head, ſay ſome. My ſplendour, ſaith the Chaldee; Omnia quondam magnifica, All that I formerly made any reckoning of, ſaith Brentius; who alſo hath this good Note upon the Text. The ſenſe of Gods wrath and judgements due for ſin, changeth all our gayety, maketh all our coſtly garments be laid aſide, putteth us into the habit of penitent Suppliants, cauſeth us to abhor our ſelves, and repent in duſt and aſhes, which were anciently the ſignes and ſymbols of true contrition. And now ſith Chriſtians ought to repent all their life long, and to grieve for their ſins, let them be alwayes cloathed with ſackcloth, not without, but within; and let them put duſt on their heads, by remembring that they are but duſt, and that they cannot be raiſed out of the duſt, and in ſtead of ſackcloth, be cloathed with the robes of glory, but by the mercy of God, through the merits of Chriſt, &c.

Verſe 16. My face is foule with weeping.] Is ſwelled, ſaith the Vulgar. Is ſhriveled up, ſay the Jew-Doctors: is double dirtied, ſo one rendreth it. So far was Job from ſtretching out his hand againſt God, and ſtrengthing himſelf againſt the Almighty, as Eliphaz h[illegible: 1 letter]d charged him, chap. 15.25. That he lay at Gods feet as a Suppliant with blubbered and beſlubbered cheeks; having furrowes in his face, and Iſickles from his lips with continual weeping, yea, he had wept himſelf blind almoſt, for ſo it followeth;

And on mine eye lids is the ſhadow of death;] i.e. Mine eyes doe fail with teares, as Lum. 2.11.Mercer. Largâ lachry marum copiâ aci[illegible: 3 letters]oculorum obſtruente; they are even waſted away and ſunk into my head, as in a dying man. Much weeping ſpendeth the ſpirits, weakneth the viſive power, and ſometimes blindeth, as it did Fanſtus (the ſon of Vortiger King of this Iſland by his own daughter.) who is ſaid to have wept himſelf blind for the abominations of his parents. See Davids teares and the effects thereof, Pſa 6.7. and 38.10.

Verſe 17. Not for any injuſtice (Heb. violence or wrong doing) in my hands] Job could waſh his hands of that rapine and bribery wherewith they had injuriouſly charged him, 3. Serm. before K. Edw. chap. 15.34. and ſafely ſay of it, as afterwards Father Latimer did of Sedition; As for that ſin, for ought that I know, me thinks I ſhould not need Chriſt, if I might ſo ſay. Some failings there might be in him in doing juſtice, but no intendments of doing injuſtice.

Alſo my prayer is pure] As proceeding from an heart waſht from wickedneſſe, Jer. 4.14. and preſented with holy hands, lifted up without wrath or doubting, 1 Tim. 2.8. That he regarded not iniquity in his heart, he was well aſſured, Pſal, 66.17. Prayer is the powring out of the heart; if iniquity be harboured there, prayer will have the ſent and ſavour, and that incenſe will ſtrike off the hand which offereth it. God requireth, that in every place Incenſe be offered unto his name and a pure Offering, Mal. 1.11. It ſtandeth a man in hand to ſee that though his work be but mean, yet it be clean; though not fine, yet not foule, ſoiled and ſhibbered with the flur of a rotten heart. An upright man in afflictions is not without his cordial, as is to be ſeen in Job here, and 8 Paul, 2 Cor. 1.12.

Verſe 18. O earth cover not thou my blood.] Job had made an high profeſſion of his innocenty and integrity. This he [illegible: 1 word] confirmeth, 1. By an imprecation againſt himſelf. 2. By an appeal to God, ver. 19 in this imprecation or wiſh of his (which Mr. Broughton taketh to be meant by the foregoing words. Alſo my prayer is pure, rendred by him thus, Bar my wiſh is clean, ſaying. Oh earth cover [illegible: 2 letters]t, &c.) he hath an eye, no doubt to the Hiſtory of Abelo blood, ſhed by Cain. Gen 4. and it is as if he ſhould ſay, If I have committed murder or [illegible: 1 letter]hy the like wickedneſſe, cover it not, O earth, but do thy office by crying out againſt me; yea, cry ſo loud to God for vengeance, as to drowne the voice of my ſupplication.

And let my cry have no place.] A moſt pathetical ſpeech, able to [illegible: 1 word] the heart of his friends to relent to hear it, and ſtraightway to [illegible: 1 word] their opinion of him, whiles he thus beſpeaketh the earth, and maketh res [illegible: 1 span], the [illegible: 1 word] and lifeleſſe creatures, his hearers.

Verſe 19. Alſo now behold my witneſſe is on heaven.] Here's his appeal to God ſo great is the confidence of a good conſcience. We alſo may do the like, if there be no other way left of clearing our innocency; provided that we do it with a cleare conſcience, and in a matter of conſequence; not in jeſt but in judgement. Some of the Martyrs appealed thus, and cited their Perſecutors to anſwer at Gods Tribunal. Yea, to help the truth in neceſſity, a private Oath betwixt two or more, may be lawfully taken, ſo it be done ſparingly and warily: for in ſerious affaires and matters of great importance, if it be lawful in private to admit God as a Judge, why ſhould he not as well be called to witheſſe? Again, the examples of holy men ſhew the practiſe of private Oathes as not unlawful, Jacob and Laban confirmed their covenant by a private Oath, ſo did Jonathan and David, &c.

Verſe 20. My friends ſcorn me] Or, Play the Rhetoricians againſt me. David likewiſe complaineth of his Rhetorical mockers at feaſts, that made as it were ſet ſpeeches againſt him. One rendreth it, My friends are Interpreters, or rather miſ-interpreters of my ſpeeches. For my love they are my adverſaries, but I give my ſolf unto prayer, Pſal. 109.4.

But mine eye powres h[illegible: 1 letter]ut tears unto God.] Expletur lachrymis egeriturque dolor. The Hebrew hath it. Mine eye droppeth, or diſtilleth to God. Prayers and tears are the weapons of the Saints, whoſe eyes, glazed with tears, are fitly compared to the Fiſh pools of Heſhbon. Cant. 7.4. Theſe tears have a voice (Pſal. 39.12. Hold not thy peace at my tears,) they are moſt powerful Oratours. Chriſt going to ſuffer on the Croſſe, could not but turn back and comfort thoſe weeping women. God will powre out comforts into their boſomes, who can poure out teares into his: they can never be at any loſſe, who find out God to weep to.

Verſe 21. Oh that one might plead for a man with God] Heb. And he wil plead for a man with God, and the Son of man for his friend; that is, (ſay our late learned Annotators, to whom we are greatly bound for this moſt ſweet and ſpiritual expoſition of the words) Chriſt who is God and man will plead my cauſe with his Father: He can prevaile, becauſe he is God equal to the Father; he will undertake it, becauſe he will be man like to me. This interpretation agreeth beſt with the coherence and the words following. And it ſeemeth that Job knew the myſtery of Chriſts Incarnation, chap. 1.25, 26, 27. where he ſpeaketh of him, both as God, and as a viſible Redeemer. Chriſt is frequently called the Son of man in the New Teſtament, and believers are called his friends, John 15.13, 14, 15. By this Text thus expounded, wee ſee that the Doctrine of a Mediatour betweene God and man was knowne and believed in the world, long before Chriſt came into the world. He is the Lamb of God ſlaine from the foundation of the world. Rev. 13.8. and to the Jewes the Ceremonial Law was in ſtead of a Goſpel.

Verſe 22. When a few years are come, &c.] Heb. years of number; that is, years that may eaſily be counted and caſt up. The years of the longeſt live[illegible: 1 letter] are but few, they may be quickly numbred. This ran much in Jobs mind, and made him very deſirous to be cleared before he dyed, that he might not go out of the world in a ſnuff.

Then ſhall I go the way.] That way of all fleſh, 1 Kin. 2.2. which Job feareth not to do, as knowing whom he had truſted, and that death ſhould be unto him the day break of eternal brightneſſe.

Whence I ſhall not return. See chap. 7.9, 10. and 10.21. with the Notes.