Job 17 commentary

Job reflects upon the harsh censures his friends had passed upon him, and, looking on himself as a dying man, he appeals to God. Our time is ending. It concerns us carefully to redeem the days of time, and to spend them in getting ready for eternity. We see the good use the righteous should make of Job's afflictions from God, from enemies, and from friends. Instead of being discouraged in the service of God, by the hard usage this faithful servant of God met with, they should be made bold to proceed and persevere therein. Those who keep their eye upon heaven as their end, will keep their feet in the paths of religion as their way, whatever difficulties and discouragements they may meet with.

Job's friends had pretended to comfort him with the hope of his return to a prosperous estate; he here shows that those do not go wisely about the work of comforting the afflicted, who fetch their comforts from the possibility of recovery in this world. It is our wisdom to comfort ourselves, and others, in distress, with that which will not fail; the promise of God, his love and grace, and a well-grounded hope of eternal life. See how Job reconciles himself to the grave. Let this make believers willing to die; it is but going to bed; they are weary, and it is time that they were in their beds. Why should not they go willingly when their Father calls them? Let us remember our bodies are allied to corruption, the worm and the dust; and let us seek for that lively hope which shall be fulfilled, when the hope of the wicked shall be put out in darkness; that when our bodies are in the grave, our souls may enjoy the rest reserved for the people of God.

CHAPTER 17

Job 17:1-16. Job's Answer Continued.

1. breath ... corrupt--result of elephantiasis. But Umbreit, "my strength (spirit) is spent."

extinct--Life is compared to an expiring light. "The light of my day is extinguished."

graves--plural, to heighten the force.

2. Umbreit, more emphatically, "had I only not to endure mockery, in the midst of their contentions I (mine eye) would remain quiet."

eye continue--Hebrew, "tarry all night"; a figure taken from sleep at night, to express undisturbed rest; opposed to (Job 16:20), when the eye of Job is represented as pouring out tears to God without rest.

3. Lay down now--namely, a pledge or security; that is, be my surety; do Thou attest my innocence, since my friends only mock me (Job 17:2). Both litigating parties had to lay down a sum as security before the trial.

put me in a surety--Provide a surety for me (in the trial) with Thee. A presage of the "surety" (He 7:22), or "one Mediator between God and man" (see on Job 16:21).

strike hands--"who else (save God Himself) could strike hands with me?" that is, be my security (Psa 119:122). The Hebrew strikes the hand of him for whom he goes security (Pr 6:1).

4. their heart--The intellect of his friends.

shalt ... exalt--Rather imperative, "exalt them not"; allow them not to conquer [Umbreit], (Is 6:9, 10).

5. The Hebrew for "flattery" is "smoothness"; then it came to mean a prey divided by lot, because a smooth stone was used in casting the lots (De 18:8), "a portion" (Ge 14:24). Therefore translate, "He that delivers up his friend as a prey (which the conduct of my friends implies that they would do), even the eyes," &c. [Noyes] (Job 11:20). Job says this as to the sinner's children, retorting upon their reproach as to the cutting off of his (Job 5:4; 15:30). This accords with the Old Testament dispensation of legal retribution (Ex 20:5).

6. He--God. The poet reverentially suppresses the name of God when speaking of calamities inflicted.

by-word--(De 28:37; Psa 69:11). My awful punishment makes my name execrated everywhere, as if I must have been superlatively bad to have earned it.

aforetime ... tabret--as David was honored (1Sa 18:6). Rather from a different Hebrew root, "I am treated to my face as an object of disgust," literally, "an object to be spit upon in the face" (Nu 12:14). So Raca means (Mt 5:22) [Umbreit].

7. (Psa 6:7; 31:9; De 34:7).

members--literally, "figures"; all the individual members being peculiar forms of the body; opposed to "shadow," which looks like a figure without solidity.

8. astonied--at my unmerited sufferings.

against the hypocrite--The upright shall feel their sense of justice wounded ("will be indignant") because of the prosperity of the wicked. By "hypocrite" or "ungodly," he perhaps glances at his false friends.

9. The strength of religious principle is heightened by misfortune. The pious shall take fresh courage to persevere from the example of suffering Job. The image is from a warrior acquiring new courage in action (Is 40:30, 31; Php 1:14).

10. return--If you have anything to advance really wise, though I doubt it, recommence your speech. For as yet I cannot find one wise man among you all.

11. Only do not vainly speak of the restoration of health to me; for "my days are past."

broken off--as the threads of the web cut off from the loom (Is 38:12).

thoughts--literally, "possessions," that is, all the feelings and fair hopes which my heart once nourished. These belong to the heart, as "purposes" to the understanding; the two together here describe the entire inner man.

12. They--namely, "my friends."

change the night into day--that is, would try to persuade me of the change of my misery into joy, which is impossible [Umbreit] (Job 11:17); (but) the light of prosperity (could it be enjoyed) would be short because of the darkness of adversity. Or better for "short," the Hebrew "near"; "and the light of new prosperity should be near in the face of (before) the darkness of death"; that is, they would persuade me that light is near, even though darkness approaches.

13. Rather, "if I wait for this grave (Sheol, or the unseen world) as my house, and make my bed in the darkness (Job 17:14), and say to corruption," rather, "to the pit" or "grave," &c. (Job 17:15). Where then is my hope? [Umbreit]. The apodosis is at Job 17:15.

14. Thou art my father, &c.--expressing most intimate connection (Pr 7:4). His diseased state made him closely akin to the grave and worm.

15. Who shall see it fulfilled? namely, the "hope" (Job 11:18) which they held out to him of restoration.

16. They--namely, my hopes shall be buried with me.

bars--(Is 38:10). Rather, the wastes or solitudes of the pit (sheol, the unseen world).

rest together--the rest of me and my hope is in, &c. Both expire together. The word "rest" implies that man's ceaseless hopes only rob him of rest.

My breath is corrupt - Rather, My spirit is oppressed, רוחי חבלה ruchi chubbalah: My days are extinct, and the sepulchral cells are ready for me - Parkhurst. There is probably a reference here to cemeteries, where were several niches, in Each of which a corpse was deposited. See on Job 17:16 (note). For חבלה chubbalah, corrupted or oppressed, some MSS. have חלה chalah, is made weak; and one has גבלה is worn down, consumed: this is agreeable to the Vulgate, Spiritus meus attenuebatur; "My spirit is exhausted."

Are there not mockers with me? - This has been variously translated. The Vulgate: "I have not sinned, and yet my eye dwells upon afflictions." Septuagint: "I conjure you, laboring under afflictions, what evil have I done? Yet strangers have robbed me of my substance." Mr. Good: "But are not revilers before me? Alas, mine eye penetrateth their rebukes." Calmet thinks the Hebrew might be translated thus: "If I have not been united in friendship with the wicked, why are my eyes in bitterness?" Coverdale translates both verses thus: My breth fayleth, my dayes are shortened, I am harde at deathes dore. I have disceaved no man, yet must myne eye continue in hevynesse. Mr. Heath "Were it not so, I have sarcasms enow in store; and I could spend the whole night unmoved at their aggravations." The general meaning is sufficiently plain, and the reader has got translations enough.

Lay down now - Deposit a pledge; stake your conduct against mine, and your life and soul on the issue; let the cause come before God, let him try it; and see whether any of you shall be justified by him, while I am condemned.

For thou hast hid their heart - This address is to God; and here he is represented as doing that which in the course of his providence he only permits to be done.

Shalt thou not exalt them - This was exactly fulfilled: not one of Job's friends was exalted; on the contrary, God condemned the whole; and they were not received into the Divine favor till Job sacrificed, and made intercession for them.

He that speaketh flattery - There is a great variety of meaning given to the terms in this verse. The general sense is, The man who expects much from his friends will be disappointed: while depending on them his children's eyes may fail in looking for bread.

He hath made me also a by-word - My afflictions and calamities have become a subject of general conversation, so that my poverty and affliction are proverbial. As poor as Job, As afflicted as Job, are proverbs that have even reached our times and are still in use.

Aforetime I was as a tabret - This is not the translation of the Hebrew ותפת לפנים אהיה vethopheth lephanim eheyeh. Instead of לפנים lephanim, I would read לפניהם liphneghem, and then the clause might be translated thus: I shall be as a furnace, or consuming fire (Topheth) before them. They shall have little reason to mock when they see the end of the Lord's dealings with me; my example will be a consuming fire to them, and my false friends will be confounded. Coverdale translates thus: He hath made me as it were a byworde of the comon people. I am his gestinge stocke amonge them.

Mine eye also is dim - Continual weeping impairs the sight; and indeed any affliction that debilitates the frame generally weakens the sight in the same proportion.

All my members are as a shadow - Nothing is left but skin and bone. I am but the shadow of my former self.

Upright men shall be astonied - In several of these verses Job is supposed to speak prophetically of his future restoration, and of the good which religious society should derive from the history of his original affluence, consequent poverty and affliction, and final restoration to health, peace, and prosperity. The upright will receive the account with astonishment, and wonder at the dispensations of the Almighty; while hypocrites, false professors and the sour-headed, godly, shall be unmasked, and innocent men, whether in affliction or affluence, shall be known to be favourites of the Almighty.

The righteous also shall hold on his way - There shall be no doubt concerning the dispensations of the Divine providence. My case shall illustrate all seemingly intricate displays of God's government. None shall be stumbled at seeing a godly man under oppression, knowing that God never permits any thing of the kind but for the good of the subject, and the manifestation of his own mercy, wisdom, and love. Therefore whatever occurs to the righteous man, he will take it for granted that all is well and justly managed, and that the end will be glorious.

Shall be stronger and stronger - He shall take encouragement from my case, stay himself on the Lord, and thus gain strength by every blast of adversity. This is one grand use of the book of Job. It casts much light on seemingly partial displays of Divine providence: and has ever been the great text-book of godly men in a state of persecution and affliction. This is what Job seems prophetically to declare.

But as for you all - Ye are too proud, and too full of self-importance, to profit by what ye see. Return - enter into yourselves, consider your ways, go again to school, get back to your own houses, and endeavor to acquire humility and knowledge; for there is not one wise man among you.

My days are past - Job seems to relapse here into his former state of gloom. These transitions are very frequent in this poem; and they strongly mark the struggle of piety and resignation with continued affliction, violent temptation, and gloomy providences.

The thoughts of my heart - All my purposes are interrupted; and all my schemes and plans, in relation to myself and family, are torn asunder, destroyed, and dissipated.

They change the night into day - These purposes and thoughts are so very gloomy, that they change day into night.

The light is short because of darkness - אור קרוב מפני חשך or karob mippeney choshek, "The light is near from the face of darkness." I have scarcely any light: what is called light is so near akin to darkness, that it is scarcely severed from it. There is either no light, or merely such as is sufficient to render darkness visible. A fine picture of the state of his mind - he was generally in darkness; but had occasional gleams of hope.

The grave is mine house - Let my life be long or short, the grave at last will be my home. I expect soon to lie down in darkness - there is my end: I cannot reasonably hope for any thing else.

I have said to corruption - I came from a corrupted stock, and I must go to corruption again. The Hebrew might be thus rendered: To the ditch I have called, Thou art my father. To the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister. I am in the nearest state of affinity to dissolution and corruption: I may well call them my nearest relations, as I shall soon be blended with them.

And where is now my hope? - In the circumstances in which I am found, of what use can hope be? Were I to form the expectation of future good, who could ever see it realized? Is it then any wonder that I should complain and bemoan my wretched lot?

They shall go down to the bars of the pit - All that I have must descend into the depths of the grave. Thither are we all going; and there alone can I rest. בדי baddey, which we translate bars, signifies also branches, distended limbs, or claws, and may here refer either to a personification of the grave, a monster who seizes on human bodies, and keeps them fast in his deadly gripe; or to the different branching-off-alleys in subterranean cemeteries, or catacombs, in which niches are made for the reception of different bodies.

When our rest together is in the dust - That is, according to some critics, My hope and myself shall descend together into the grave. It shall never be realized, for the time of my departure is at hand.

In those times what deep shades hung on the state of man after death, and on every thing pertaining to the eternal world! Perplexity and uncertainty were the consequences; and a corresponding gloom often dwelt on the minds of even the best of the Old Testament believers. Job's friends, though learned in all the wisdom of the Arabians, connected with the advantages derivable from the Mosaic writings, and perhaps those of the earlier prophets, had little clear or distinct in their minds relative to all subjects post mortem, or of the invisible world. Job himself, though sometimes strongly confident, is often harassed with doubts and fears upon the subject, insomuch that his sayings and experience often appear contradictory. Perhaps it could not be otherwise; the true light was not then come: Jesus alone brought life and immortality to light by his Gospel.

The graves - He speaks of the sepulchres of his fathers, to which he must be gathered. The graves where they are laid, are ready for me also. Whatever is unready, the grave is ready for us: it is a bed soon made. And if the grave be ready for us, it concerns us, to be ready for the grave.

Are not - Do not my friends, instead of comforting, mock me? Thus he returns to what he had said, chap.16:20, and intimates the justice of his following appeal.

Surety - These words contain, an humble desire to God that he would be his surety, or appoint him a surety who should maintain his righteous cause against his opposers. Strike hands - Be surety to me; whereof that was the usual gesture.

Hid - Thou hast blinded the minds of my friends: therefore I desire a more wise and able judge. Therefore - Thou wilt not give them the victory over me in this contest, but wilt make them ashamed of their confidence.

As a shadow - I am grown so poor and thin, that I am not to be called a man, but the shadow of a man.

Astonied - At the depth and mysteriousness of God's judgments, which fall on innocent men, while the worst of men prosper. Yet - Notwithstanding all these sufferings of good men, and the astonishment which they cause, he shall the more zealously oppose those hypocrites, who make these strange providences of God an objection to religion.

Come - And renew the debate, as I see you are resolved to do.

My days - The days of my life. I am a dying man, and therefore the hopes you give me of the bettering of my condition, are vain. Purposes - Which I had in my prosperous days, concerning myself and children.

They - My thoughts so incessantly pursue and disturb me, that I can no more sleep in the night, than in the day. The light - The day - light, which often gives some comfort to men in misery, seems to be gone as soon as it is begun. Darkness - Because of my grievous pains and torments which follow me by day as well as by night.

Wait - For deliverance, I should be disappointed; for I am upon the borders of the grave, I expect no rest but in the dark grave, for which therefore I prepare myself. I endeavour to make it easy, by keeping my conscience pure, by seeing Christ lying in this bed, (so turning it into a bed of spices) and by looking beyond it to the resurrection.

Corruption - Heb. to the pit of corruption, the grave. Father - I am near a - kin to thee, and thou wilt receive and keep me in thy house, as parents do their children.

Hope - The happiness you would have me expect.

1. MY ‖ Breath is corrupt , my days are extinct , the Graves are ready for me .

i. e. It stinks, as it doth in dying persons. Or, my Spirit is corrupted, or spent, or lost, i. e. My vital Spirits, and natural Powers are wasted; my Soul is ready to leave the Body.

The lamp of my Life is wasted, and upon the point of going out, and that in a Snuff.

i. e. The Grave; the plural number being put for the singular, as Sepulchres, 2 Chron. 21. 20. Cities, Judg. 12. 7. Asses, Zech. 9. 9. are put for one of each of these.

Open their mouths as ready to receive me. The sense and scope of this Verse is the same with the former.

Marginal references: Or, my Spirit is spent.

2. Are there not Mockers with me ? And doth not mine Eye continue in their provocation?

Do not my Friends, instead of comforting, mock and abuse me, as if I had made use of Religion only as a Cloak to my wickedness. Heb. If there be not mockers with me, understand, let God do so or so to me. It is a form of an Oath, which is defectively expressed after the manner of the Hebrews. Assuredly I am in the midst of cruel Mockers, which is a sore aggravation of my affliction. Thus he returns to what he had said, Ch. 16. 20. and intimates the necessity and justice of his following Appeal, which otherwise might be thought too bold.

Either 1. The Eyes of my Body. Do they not continue to provoke me to my Face? Or rather 2. The Eye of my Mind. Their provoking Scoffs and Reproaches do not only molest me in the day-time when they are with me, but lodge with me in the night, and are continually in my thoughts, and break my sleep, and disturb me in dreams. And therefore if I be a little disordered, I may be excused.

Marginal references: Heb. lodge.

3. Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee , who is he that will strike hands with me ?

He turneth his Speech either to Eliphaz, who spake last; or rather to God, as is evident from the matter and scope of the words, and from the next Verse. These words contain, either 1. An humble desire to God that he would appoint him a Surety, who should undertake for his Friends, that they should refer the cause in difference between them to God, or to some other person who should determine the matter in Gods Name, and according to Gods Will: Or that God would be his Surety, or appoint him a Surety who should maintain his righteous cause against his opposers; for so this Phrase is oft used, as Psal. 119. 121, 122. Isa. 38. 14. And some expound this, as they did, Ch. 16. 21. of Christ Jesus, who was called our Surety, Heb. 7. 22. Appoint, I pray thee, my Surety (i. e. Christ who is now) with thee, to plead my Cause. Or rather 2. An appeal from God unto God, or a kind of challenge or desire of debating [illegible: 1 word] Cause with God. Which, though it favoureth of too much boldness and irreverence to God, yet seeing Iob expresseth the same desire almost in the same manner, Ch. 9. 33, 34. and is sharply reproved by God for contending with him, Ch. 40. 2. I know no Inconvenience of ascribing the same thing to him here. So the sense is, Because I am not able to deal with thee immediately, considering the dread of thy Majesty, my only desire is that thou wouldest deal with me upon fair and equal terms, as if thou were a man like my self, and appoint some man who shall in thy name and stead determine the time and place for the trial of my cause with thee. And this suits well enough with the two following Verses, because his Friends were without Understanding, v. 4. and partial, v. 5. therefore he desires to cease discoursing with them, and to debate his cause with God, who was just and impartial, and also would be favourable to him.

i. e. Agree and promise, or be Surety to me; whereof that was the usual gesture, Prov. 6. 1, 2. & 17. 18. & 22. 26.

4. For thou hast hid their heart from Understanding : therefore shalt thou not exalt them .

Thou hast blinded the minds of my Friends that they cannot see those truths which are most plain and evident to all men of sense and experience: Therefore I desire a more wise and able Judge.

i. e. Thou wiltst not give them the Victory over me in this contest, but wiltst give sentence for me, and disparage them, and make them ashamed of their confidence in affirming falshoods of thee, and punish them severely for this miscarriage. It is an usual figure, whereby much more is understood than is expressed.

5. He that speaketh Flattery to his Friends , even the Eyes of his Children shall fail .

Hereby Iob chargeth them either 1. With flattering him with vain hopes, and Promises of the return of his former prosperity, when he knew that his case was desperate. Or 2. With flattering and befriending God, and giving a partial sentence out of respect to him; for which he reproved and condemned them before, Ch. 13. 7, 8, 9. where see the notes. Some render the words thus, He that uttereth, or declareth his mind or thoughts (as this word signifies, Psal. 139. 2, 17. with flattery, or to flatter or deceive another.

He shall be severely punished, not only in his Person, but even in his Children, whose Eyes shall fail with vain expectations of Relief and deliverance out of those Calamities, which shall come upon them for this sin of their Parents.

6. He hath made me also a by-word of the People, and a foretime , I was as a Tabret .

i. e. God, who is oft designed by this Pronoun in this Book.

Or Proverb, or common talk. My calamities are so great and prodigious, that they fill all people with discourse, and are become proverbial to express extream miseries. Compare Numb. 21. 27, 28. Deut. 28. 37.

Or, but, or although, as this particle is oft used.

So he aggravateth his present misery by the mention of his former prosperity. Or, to their faces: or openly. They do not only reproach me behind my back, but revile and mock me, and make a sport of my calamities even to my face.

i▪ e. I was the Peoples Delight and Darling, and matter of their praise, and entertained by them with applauses, and as it were with Instruments of Musick. Or, I am as a Tabret, i. e. matter of sport and merriment to them.

Marginal references: Chap. 3[illegible: 1+ letters]. 9.; Or, before them.; Heb. [illegible: 1 word] ▪

7. Mine Eye also is dim by reason of sorrow , and all my Members are as a shadow .

Through excessive weeping and decay of Spirits, which cause a dimness in the sight.

My body is so consumed, and my colour so wan and ghastly, that I look more like a Ghost, or a Shadow, than like a Man.

Marginal references: Or, my thoughts.

8. Upright men shall be astonied at this , and the innocent shall stir up himself against the Hypocrite .

Wise and good men, when they shall see and consider my calamities, will not be so forward to censure and condemn me, as you are, but will rather stand and wonder at the depth and mysteriousness of Gods Counsels and Judgments, which fall so heavily upon innocent men, while the worst of men prosper.

But, or Yet, notwithstanding all these sufferings of good men, and the astonishment which they cause, innocent or religious Persons shall be so far from joining their Opinions, and Counsels, and Interests, with Hypocrites, or prophane men, who thence take occasion to censure the afflicted Person, and to reproach, and condemn, and desert the Profession and Practice of Godliness, that they will stir up themselves against them in holy Indignation, and will oppose their wicked courses, and will prefer afflicted Piety before prosperous Iniquity.

9. The righteous also shall hold on his way , and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger .

i. e. Shall persist in that good way into which he hath entred, an[illegible: 1+ letters] not be turned from it by any afflictions, which may befall himself or any other good men, nor by any contempt or reproach cast upon them by the ungodly, by reason thereof.

i. e. Whose life and the course of his Actions is holy and righteous; which is a sign that his heart also is pure and perfect.

Shall not be shaken and discouraged by the grievous afflictions of the godly, nor by the bitter censures and reproaches of Hypocrites, or wicked men, cast upon them for that cause, but will be confirmed thereby, and made more constant and resolute in cleaving to God, and his ways, and People, in spight of all difficulties and miseries.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 span].

10. But as for you all, do ye return, and come now : for I cannot find one wise man among you.

i. e. Come now again (as this Phrase is oft used) and renew the Debate, as I see you are prepared and resolved to do; and I am ready to receive you. Or, return into your selves, and consider my cause again; peradventure your second thoughts may be wiser.

To wit, in this matter. None of you speak like wise, or good men, but like rash and heady persons, you censure me as a rotten Hypocrite, and misjudge of Gods waye, and condemn the Generation of Gods Children upon frivolous grounds.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1+ letters]. [illegible: 1+ letters]9.

11. My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my Heart .

The days of my life. I am a lost and dying man, and therefore the hopes you give me of the bettering of my condition, are vain and groundless.

Or, my designs, or thoughts, to wit, which I had in my prosperous days, concerning my self and Children, and the continuance of my happiness.

Heb. the possessions of my Heart, i. e. those thoughts which in a great measure possessed my Heart, which were most natural, and familiar, and delightful to me. All my thoughts, and designs, and hopes are disappointed and come to nothing.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1+ letters]. 6. [illegible: 1 word].; [illegible: 1 span].

12. They change the night into day : the light is short , because of darkness .

Either 1. my Friends. Or 2. my Sorrows, of which he is here speaking. Or 3. my thoughts last mentioned. Possibly these words may be joined with them thus: The thoughts of my heart change the night into day.

They do so uncessantly pursue and disturb me, that I can no more rest and sleep in the dark and silent nights, than in the midst of the light and tumults of the day. Or, they change the day into night, Heb. they put the night for, or instead of (as the Hebrew Lamed is elsewhere used) the day, i. e. They make the day as sad and dark as the night to me. So it seems best to agree with the following branch of the Verse.

i. e. The day-light, which oft times gives some little comfort and refreshment to men in misery, seems to be gone and fled as soon as it is begun.

i. e. Because of my grievous pains and torments which follow me by day as well as by night.

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

13. If I wait , the Grave is mine House : I have made my Bed in darkness .

If I should give way to those hopes of my deliverance and restauration which you suggest to me.

I should be sadly disappointed; for I am upon the borders of the Grave, which is the only House appointed for me, instead of that goodly house which you promise to me here upon condition of my Repentance.

I expect no other rest, but in the dark Grave, for which therefore I prepare my self.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 span].

14. I have said to Corruption , thou art my Father : to the Worm, thou art my Mother, and my Sister .

Heb. To the pit of corruption, the Grave.

I am near a kin to thee, as being taken out of thee, and thou wiltst receive and embrace me, and keep me in thy house, as Parents do their Children.

Because of the same original, and the most strict and intimate Union and Conjunction between me and the Worms.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 span].

15. And where is now my hope ? As for my hope , who shall see it ?

And what then is become of that hope which you advised me to entertain?

i. e. The fulfilling of my hope, or the happiness which you would have me expect. Hope being put for the thing hoped for, as Prov. 13. 12. 1 Cor. 9. 10.

No man shall see it, it shall never be.

16. They shall go down to the bars of the pit , when our rest together is in the dust .

Either 1. They that would see my hope, they must go into the Grave to behold it. Or rather 2. My hopes of which he spake in the singular number, v. 15. which he here changeth into the plural, as is very usual in these Poetical Books.

i. e. Into the closest and innermost parts of the Pit: My hopes are dying, and will be buried in my Grave.

So the sense is, when those Spectators, together with my self shall be in our Graves. Heb. Seeing that (as this Hebrew Particle, im, oft signifies: or, certainly, as it is used Numb. 17. 13. Iob 6. 13. and elsewhere,) our rest shall be together in the dust, i. e. I and my hopes shall be buried together.

Job 17:1-2   1  My breath is corrupt,

My days are extinct,

The graves are ready for me.   2  Truly mockery surrounds me,

And mine eye shall loiter over their disputings.

Hirz., Hlgst., and others, wrongly consider the division of the chapter here to be incorrect. The thought in Job 16:22 is really a concluding thought, like Job 10:20., Job 7:21. Then in Job 17:1 another strain is taken up; and as Job 16:22 is related, as a confirmation, to the request expressed in Job 16:19-21, so Job 17:1, Job 17:2 are related to that expressed in Job 17:3. The connection with the conclusion of Job 16 is none the less close: the thoughts move on somewhat crosswise (chiastisch). We do not translate with Ewald: “My spirit is destroyed,” because חבּל (here and Isa 10:27) signifies not, to be destroyed, but, to be corrupted, disturbed, troubled; not the spirit (after Arab. chbl, usually of disturbance of spirit), but the breath is generally meant, which is become short (Job 7:15) and offensive (Job 19:17), announcing suffocation and decay as no longer far distant. In Job 17:1 the ἅπ. γεγρ. נזעכוׁ is equivalent to נדעכו, found elsewhere. In Job 17:1 קברים is used as if the dead were called, Arab. ssâchib el - kubûr, grave-companions. He is indeed one who is dying, from whom the grave is but a step distant, and still the friends promise him long life if he will only repent! This is the mockery which is with him, i.e., surrounds him, as he affirms, Job 17:1. A secondary verb, התל, is formed from the Hiph. התל (of which we had the non-syncopated form of the fut. in Job 13:9), the Piel of which occurs in 1Ki 18:27 of Elijah’s derision of the priests of Baal, and from this is formed the pluralet. התלים (or, according to another reading, התלּים, with the same doubling of the ל as in מהתלּות, deceitful things, Isa 30:10; comp. the same thing in Job 33:7, אראלּם, their lions of God = heroes), which has the meaning foolery, - a meaning questioned by Hirz. without right, - in which the idea of deceit and mockery are united. Gecatilia and Ralbag take it as a part.: mockers; Stick., Wolfson, Hahn: deluded; but the analogy of שׁעשׁעים, תעלולים, and the like, speaks in favour of taking it as a substantive. אם־לא is affirmative (Ges. §155, 2, f). Ewald renders it as expressive of desire: if only not (Hlgst.: dummodo ne); but this signification (Ew. §329, b) cannot be supported. On the other hand, it might be intended interrogatively (as Job 30:25): annon illusiones mecum (Rosenm.); but this אם־לא, corresponding to the second member of a disjunctive question, has no right connection in the preceding. We therefore prefer the affirmative meaning, and explain it like Job 22:20; Job 31:36, comp. Job 2:5. Truly what he continually hears, i.e., from the side of the friends, is only false and delusive utterances, which consequently sound to him like jesting and mockery. The suff. in Job 17:2 refers to them. המּרות (with Dag. dirimens, which renders the sound of the word more pathetic, as Job 9:18; Joe 1:17, and in the Hiph. form כנּלתך, Isa 33:1), elsewhere generally (Jos 1:18 only excepted) of rebellion against God, denotes here the contradictory, quarrelsome bearing of the friends, not the dispute in itself (comp. Arab. mry , III. to attack, VI. to contend with another), but coming forward controversially; only to this is תּלן עיני suitable. הלין must not be taken as = הלּין here; Ewald’s translation, “only let not mine eye come against their irritation,” forces upon this verb, which always signifies to murmur, γογγύζειν, a meaning foreign to it, and one that does not well suit it here. The voluntative form תּלן = תּלן (here not the pausal form, as Jdg 19:20, comp. 2Sa 17:16) quite accords with the sense: mine eye shall linger on their janglings; it shall not look on anything that is cheering, but be held fast by this cheerless spectacle, which increases his bodily suffering and his inward pain. From these comforters, who are become his adversaries, Job turns in supplication to God.

Job 17:3-5   3  Lay down now, be bondsman for me with Thyself;

Who else should furnish surety to me?!   4  For Thou hast closed their heart from understanding,

Therefore wilt Thou not give authority to them.   5  He who giveth his friends for spoil,

The eyes of his children shall languish.

It is unnecessary, with Reiske and Olsh., to read ערבני (pone quaeso arrhabonem meum = pro me) in order that שׂימה may not stand without an object; שׂימה has this meaning included in it, and the ארבני which follows shows that neither לבך (Ralbag) nor ידך (Carey) is to be supplied; accordingly שׂים here, like Arab. wḍ‛ (wâḍ‛), and in the classics both τιθέναι and ponere, signifies alone the laying down of a pledge. Treated by the friends as a criminal justly undergoing punishment, he seeks his refuge in God, who has set the mark of a horrible disease upon him contrary to his desert, as though he were guilty, and implores Him to confirm the reality of his innocence in some way or other by laying down a pledge for him (ὑποθήκη). The further prayer is ערבני, as word of entreaty which occurs also in Hezekiah’s psalm, Isa 38:14, and Psa 119:122; ערב seq. acc. signifies, as noted on the latter passage, to furnish surety for any one, and gen. to take the place of a mediator (comp. also on Heb 7:22, where ἔγγυος is a synon. of μεσίτης). Here, however, the significant עמּך is added: furnish security for me with Thyself; elsewhere the form is ל ערב, to furnish security for (Pro 6:1), or לפני before, any one, here with עם of the person by whom the security is to be accepted. The thought already expressed in Job 16:21 receives a still stronger expression here: God is conceived of as two persons, on the one side as a judge who treats Job as one deserving of punishment, on the other side as a bondsman who pledges himself for the innocence of the sufferer before the judge, and stands as it were as surety against the future. In the question, Job 17:3, the representation is again somewhat changed: Job appears here as the one to whom surety is given. נתקע, described by expositors as reciprocal, is rather reflexive: to give one’s hand (the only instance of the med. form of כּף תּקע) = to give surety by striking hands, dextera data sponsionem in se recipere (Hlgst.). And לידי is not to be explained after the analogy of the passive, as the usual ל of the agents: who would allow himself to be struck by my hand, i.e., who would accept the surety from me (Wolfson), which is unnatural both in representation and expression; but it is, according to Pro 6:1 (vid., Bertheau), intended of the hand of him who receives the stroke of the hand of him who gives the pledge. This is therefore the meaning of the question: who else (הוּא מי), if not God himself, should strike (his hand) to my hand, i.e., should furnish to me a pledge (viz., of my innocence) by joining hands? There is none but God alone who can intercede for him, as a guarantee of his innocence before himself and others. This negative answer: None but Thou alone, is established in Job 17:4. God has closed the heart of the friends against understanding, prop. concealed, i.e., He has fixed a curtain, a wall of partition, between their hearts and the right understanding of the matter; He has smitten them with blindness, therefore He will not (since they are suffering from a want of perception which He has ordained, and which is consequently known to Him) allow them to be exalted, i.e., to conquer and triumph. “The exaltation of the friends,” observes Hirzel rightly, “would be, that God should openly justify their assertion of Job’s guilt.” Löwenthal translates: therefore art thou not honoured; but it is not pointed תּרמם = תּתרמם, but תּרמם, whether it be that אתם is to be supplied, or that it is equivalent to תּרממם (Ew. §62, a, who, however, prefers to take is as n. Hithpa. like תּקמם in the unimproved signification: improvement, since he maintains this affords no right idea), according to the analogy of similar verb-forms (Job 31:15; Isa 64:6), by a resolving of the two similar consonants which occur together.

The hope thus expressed Job establishes (Job 17:5) by a principle from general experience, that he who offers his friends as spoil for distribution will be punished most severely for the same upon his children: he shall not escape the divine retribution which visits him, upon his own children, for the wrong done to his friends. Almost all modern expositors are agreed in this rendering of לחלק as regards Job 17:5; but חלק must not be translated “lot” (Ewald), which it never means; it signifies a share of spoil, as e.g., Num 31:36 (Jerome praedam), or even with a verbal force: plundering (from חלק,   2Ch 28:21), or even in antithesis to entering into bond for a friend with all that one possesses (Stick., Schlottm.), a dividing (of one’s property) = distraining, as a result of the surrender to the creditor, to which the verb הגּיד is appropriate, which would then denote denouncing before a court of justice, as Jer 20:10, not merely proclaiming openly, as Isa 3:9. We have translated “spoil,” which admits of all these modifications and excludes none; the general meaning is certainly: one deserts (instead of shielding as an intercessor) his friends and delivers them up; יגּיד with a general subj., as Job 4:2 (if any one attempts), Job 15:3; Job 27:23. With respect to the other half of the verse, Job 17:5, the optative rendering: may they languish (Vaih.), to the adoption of which the old expositors have been misled by parallels like Psa 109:9., is to be rejected; it is contrary to the character of Job (Job 31:30). We agree with Mercerus: Nequaquam hoc per imprecationem, sed ut consequentis justissimae poenae denunciationem ab Iobo dictum putamus. For v. 5 b is also not to be taken as a circumstantial clause: even if the eyes of his children languish (Ew., Hlgst. Stick., Hahn, Schl.). It is not רעהוּ, but רעים; and before supposing here a Synallage num. so liable to be misunderstood, one must try to get over the difficulty without it, which is here easy enough. Hence Job is made, in the intended application of the general principle, to allude to his own children, and Ewald really considers him the father of infant children, which, however, as may be seen from the prologue, is nothing but an invention unsupported by the history. Since it is בניו and not בניהם, we refer the suff. to the subj. of יגיד. The Waw of ועיני Mich. calls Waw consecutivum; it, however, rather combines things that are inseparable (certainly as cause and effect, sin and punishment). And it is יגיד, not הגיד, because the perf. would describe the fact as past, while the fut. places us in the midst of this faithless conduct. Job says God cannot possibly allow these, his three friends, the upper hand. One proclaims his friends as spoil (comp. Job 6:27), and the eyes of his children languish (comp. Job 11:20), i.e., he who so faithlessly disowns the claims of affection, is punished for it on that which he holds most dear. But this uncharitableness which he experiences is also a visitation of God. In the next strophe he refers all that he meets with from man to Him as the final cause, but not without a presage of the purpose for which it is designed.

Job 17:6-9   6  And He hath made me a proverb to the world,

And I became as one in whose face they spit.   7  Then mine eye became dim with grief,

And all my members were like a shadow.   8  The upright were astonished at it,

And the innocent is stirred up over the godless;   9  Nevertheless the righteous holdeth fast on his way,

And he that hath clean hands waxeth stronger and stronger.

Without a question, the subj. of Job 17:6 is God. It is the same thing whether משׁל is taken as inf. followed by the subject in the nominative (Ges. §133, 2), or as a subst. (lxx θρύλλημα; Aq., Symm., Theod., παραβολήν), like שׂחוק, Job 12:4, followed by the gen. subjectivus. משׁל is the usual word for ridicule, expressed in parables of a satirical character, e.g., Joe 2:17 (according to which, if משׁל were intended as inf., משׁל־בּי עמּים might have been expected); עמּים signifies both nations and races, and tribes or people, i.e., members of this and that nation, or in gen. of mankind (Job 12:2). We have intentionally chosen an ambiguous expression in the translation, for what Job says can be meant of a wide range of people (comp. on Job 2:11 ad fin.), as well as of those in the immediate neighbourhood; the friends themselves represent different tribes; and a perishable gipsy-like troglodyte race, to whom Job is become a derision, is specially described further on (Job 24, 30). Job 17:6

By תּפת (translated by Jer. exemplum, and consequently mistaken for מופת) the older expositors are reminded of the name of the place where the sacrifices were offered to Moloch in the valley of the sons of Hinnom (whence גּיהנּם, γέεννα, hell), since they explain it by “the fire of hell,” but only from want of a right perception; the לפנים standing with it, which nowhere signifies palam, and cannot here (where אהיה, although in the signification ἐγενόμην, follows) signify a multo tempore, shows that תפת here is to be derived from תּוּף, to spit out (as נפת, gum, from נוּף). This verb certainly cannot be supported in Hebr. and Aram. (since רקק is the commoner word), except two passages in the Talmud (Nidda 42 a, comp. Sabbath 99 b, and Chethuboth 61 b); but it is confirmed by the Aethiopic and Coptic and an onomatopoetic origin, as the words πτύειν, ψύειν, spuere, Germ. speien, etc., show.תוף is related to the Sanskrit root shttı̂v, as τέγη, τρύχους, τρύζω, and the like, to στέγη, στρύχνος, στρύζω,, vid., Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, Bd. iv. Abh. i. (the falling away of s before mutes).

Cognate is the Arabic taffafa, to treat with contempt, and the interjection tuffan, fie upon thee,Almost all modern expositors repeat the remark here, that this tuffan is similar in meaning to ῥακά, Mat 5:22, while they might learn from Lightfoot that it has nothing to do with רק, to spit, but is equivalent to ריקא, κενέ. e.g., in the proverb (quoted by Umbreit): ‛aini fihi watuffan ‛aleihi, my eye rests on it wishfully, and yet I feel disgust at it. Therefore לפנים (spitting upon the face) is equivalent to בפנים, Num 12:14; Deu 25:9 (to spit in the face). In consequence of this deep debasement of the object of scorn and spitting, the brightness and vision of his eye (sense of sight) are become dim (comp. Psa 6:8; Psa 31:10) מכּעשׂ (always written with שׂ, not ס, in the book of Job), from grief, and his frames, i.e., bodily frame = members (Jer. membra, Targ. incorrectly: features), are become like a shadow all of them, as fleshless and powerless as a shadow, which is only appearance without substance. His suffering, his miserable form (זאת), is of such a kind that the upright are astonished (שׁמם, to become desolate, silent), and the guiltless (like himself and other innocent sufferers) become excited (here with vexation as in Psa 37:1, as in Job 31:29 with joy) over the godless (who is none the less prosperous); but the righteous holds firm (without allowing himself to be disconcerted by this anomalous condition of things, though impenetrably mysterious) on his way (the way of good to which he has pledged himself), and the pure of hands (וּטהר־ as Pro 22:11, according to another mode of writing וּטהר־ with Chateph-Kametz under the ט and Gaja under the ו; comp. Isa 54:9, where the form of writing וּמגּער־ umiggoor is well authorized) increases (יוסיף, of inward increase, as Ecc 1:18) in strength (אמץ only here in the book of Job); i.e., far from allowing suffering to draw him from God to the side of the godless, he gathers strength thereby only still more perseveringly to pursue righteousness of life and purity of conduct, since suffering, especially in connection with such experiences as Job now has with the three friends, drives him to God and makes his communion with Him closer and firmer. These words of Job (if we may be allowed the figure) are like a rocket which shoots above the tragic darkness of the book, lighting it up suddenly, although only for a short time. The confession which breaks through in lyric form in Ps 73 here finds expression of a more brief, sententious kind. The point of Eliphaz' reproach (Job 15:4), that Job makes void the fear of God, and depreciates communion with God, is destroyed by this confession, and the assurance of Satan (Job 2:5) is confronted by a fact of experience, which, if it should also become manifest in the case of Job, puts to shame and makes void the hope of the evil spirit.

Job 17:10-12 10  But only come again all of you!

I shall not find a wise man among you. - 11  My days are past, My purposes cut off,

The cherished thoughts of my heart, - 12  Ye explain night as day,

Light is near when darkness sets in.

The truly righteous man, even if in the midst of his affliction he should see destruction before him, does not however forsake God. But (nevertheless) ye - he exclaims to the friends, who promise him a long and prosperous life if he will only humble himself as a sinner who is receiving punishment - repeat again and again your hortatory words on penitence! a wise man who might be able to see into my real condition, I shall not find among you. He means that they deceive themselves concerning the actual state of the case before them; for in reality he is meeting death without being deceived, or allowing himself to be deceived, about the matter. His appeal is similar to Job 6:29. Carey translates correctly: Attack me again with another round of arguments, etc. Instead of ואוּלם, as it is written everywhere else (generally when the speech is drawing to a close), we find ואלּם (as the form of writing אלם, אלּם occurs also in the subst. אוּלם), perh. in order to harmonize with כּלּם, which is here according to rule instead of כּלּכם, which corresponds more to our form of a vocative clause, just as in 1Ki 22:28; Mic 1:2 (Ewald, §327, a).Comp. my Anekdota zur Gesch. der mittelalterlichen Scholastik unter Juden und Moslemen (1841), S. 380.

In וּבאוּ תּשׁוּבוּ the jussive and imper. (for the Chethib יבאי, which occurs in some Codd. and editions, is meaningless) are united, the former being occasioned by the arrangement of the words, which is unfavourable to the imper. (comp. Ew. §229); moreover, the first verb gives the adverbial notion iterum, denuo to the second, according to Ges. §142, 3, a.

What follows, Job 17:11, is the confirmation of the fact that there is no wise man among them who might be able to give him efficient solace by a right estimate of the magnitude and undeservedness of his suffering. His life is indeed run out; and the most cherished plans and hopes which he had hedged in and fostered for the future in his heart, he has utterly and long since given up. The plur. (occurring only here) of זמּה, which occurs also sensu malo, signifies projects, as מזמות, Job 21:27; Job 42:2, from זמם, to tie; Aben-Ezra refers to the Arab. zamâm (a thread, band, esp. a rein). These plans which are now become useless, these cherished thoughts, he calls מורשׁי, peculia (from ירשׁ, to take possession of) of his heart. Thus, after Obad. Oba 1:17, Gecatilia (in Aben-Ezra) also explains, while, according to Ewald, Beiträge, S. 98, he understands the heart-strings, i.e., the trunks of the arteries (for thus is Arab. nî't to be explained), and consequently, as Ewald himself, and even Farisol, most improbably combines מורשׁ with מותר (יתר). Similarly the lxx τὰ ἄρθρα τῆς καρδίας, as though the joints (instead of the valves) of the heart were intended; probably with Middeldorpf, after the Syriac Hexapla, ἄκρα is to be read instead of ἄρθρα; this, however, rests upon a mistaking of מורשׁי for ראשׁי. While he is now almost dead, and his life-plans of the future are torn away (נתּקוּ), the friends turn night into day (שׂים, as Isa 5:20); light is (i.e., according to their opinion) nearer than the face of darkness, i.e., than the darkness which is in reality turned to him, and which is as though it stared at him from the immediate future. Thus Nolde explains it as comparative, but connecting Job 17:12 with ישׂימו, and considering פני (which is impossible by this compar. rendering) as meaningless: lucem magis propinquam quam tenebras. It is however possible that מפני is used the same as in Job 23:17 : light is, as they think near before darkness, i.e., while darkness sets in (ingruentibus tenebris), according to which we have translated. If we understand Job 23:12 from Job’s standpoint, and not from that of the friends, מן קרוב is to be explained according to the Arab. qrı̂b mn , prope abest ab, as the lxx even translatesφῶς ἐγγὺς ἀπὸ προσώπου σκότους, which Olympiodorus interprets by ου ̓ μακρὰν σκότους. But by this rendering פני makes the expression, which really needs investigation, only still lamer. Renderings, however, like Renan’s Ah! votre lumière resemble aux tenèbres, are removed from all criticism. The subjective rendering, by which Job 17:12 is under the government of ישׂימו, is after all the most natural. That he has darkness before him, while the friends present to him the approach of light on condition of penitence, is the thought that is developed in the next strophe.

Job 17:13-16 13  If I hope, it is for Sheôl as my house,

In darkness I make my bed. 14  I cry to corruption: Thou art my father! -

To the worm: Thou art my mother and sister! 15  Where now therefore is my hope?

And my hope, who seeth it? 16  To the bars of Sheôl it descends,

When at the same time there is rest in the dust.

All modern expositors transl.: If I hope (wait) for Sheôl as my house, etc., since they regard Job 17:13. as a hypothetical antecedent clause to Job 17:15, consisting of four members, where the conclusion should begin with ואיּה, and should be indicated by Waw apodosis. There is no objection to this explanation so far as the syntax is concerned, but there will then be weighty thoughts which are also expressed in the form of fresh thoughts, for which independent clauses seem more appropriate, under the government of אם, as if they were presuppositions. The transition from the preceding strophe to this becomes also easier, if we take Job 17:13. as independent clauses from which, in Job 17:15, an inference is drawn, with Waw indicative of the train of thought (Ew. §348). Accordingly, we regard אם־אקוה in Job 17:13 as antecedent (denoted by Dechî, i.e., Tiphcha anterius, just as Psa 139:8) and ביתי שׁאול as conclusion; the Waw apod. is wanting, as e.g., Job 9:27., and the structure of the sentence is similar to Job 9:19. If I hope, says Job, “Sheôl is my house” = this is the substance of my hope, that Sheôl will be my house. In darkness he has (i.e., in his consciousness, which anticipates that which is before him as near and inevitable) fixed his resting-place (poet. strata, as Psa 132:3). To corruption and the worm he already cries, father! and, mother! sister! It is, as it seems, that bold figure which is indicated in the Job-like Ps. 88:19 (“my acquaintances are the realms of darkness”), which is here (comp. Job 30:29) worked out; and, differently applied, perhaps Pro 7:4 echoes it. Since the fem. רמּה is used as the object addressed by אמי and אחותי, which is besides, on account of its always collective meaning (in distinction from תילעת), well suited for this double apostrophe, we may assume that the poet will have used a masc. object for אבי; and there is really no reason against שׁחת here being, with Ramban, Rosenm., Schlottm., Böttcher (de inferis, §179), derived not from שׁוּח (as נחת, Job 17:16, from נוח), but from שׁחת (as נחת, Isa 30:30, from נחת), especially since the old versions transl. שׁחת also elsewhere διαφθορά (putredo), and thereby prove that both derivations accord with the structure of the language. Now already conscious of his belonging to corruption and the worm as by the closest ties of relationship, he asks: Itaque ubi tandem spes mea?

The accentuation connects אפו to the following word, instead of uniting it with איּה, just as in Isa 19:12; Luzzatto (on Isa 19:12) considers this as a mistake in the Codd., and certainly the accentuation Jdg 9:38 (איה Kadma, אפוא Mercha) is not according to our model, and even in this passage another arrangement of the accents is found, e.g., in the edition of Brescia.This accentuates ואיה with Munach, אפו with Munach, which accords with the matter, instead of which, according to Luzz., since the Athnach-word תקותי consists of three syllables, it should be more correctly accentuated ואיה with Munach, אפו with Dechî. Both, also Munach Munach, are admissible; vid., Bär, Thorath Emeth, S. 43, §7, comp. S. 71, not.

No other hope, in Job’s opinion, but speedy death is before him; no human eye is capable of seeing, i.e., of discovering (so e.g., Hahn), any other hope than just this. Somewhat differently Hirz. and others: and my hope, viz., of my recovery, who will it see in process of fulfilment? Certainly תקותי is in both instances equivalent to a hope which he dared to harbour; and the meaning is, that beside the one hope which he has, and which is a hope only per antiphrasin, there is no room for another hope; there is none such (Job 17:15), and no one will attain a sight of such, be it visible in the distance or experienced as near at hand (Job 17:15). The subj. of Job 17:16 is not the hope of recovery which the friends present to him (so e.g., Ew.), but his only real hope: this, avoiding human ken, descends to the lower world, for it is the hope of death, and consequently the death of hope. בּדּי signifies bars, bolts, which Hahn denies, although he says himself that בדים signifies beams of wood among other things; “bolts” is not here intended to imply such as are now used in locks, but the cross bars and beams of wood of any size that serve as a fastening to a door; vectis in exactly the same manner combines the meanings, a carrying-pole and a bar, in which signification בּד is the synon. of בּריח.Accordingly we also explain Hos 11:6 after Lam 2:9, and transl.: The sword moveth round in his (Ephraim’s) cities, and destroyeth his (Ephraim’s) bars (i.e., the bars of his gates), and devoureth round about, because of their counsels.

The meanings assigned to the word, wastes (Schnurrer and others), bounds (Hahn), clefts (Böttch.), and the like, are fanciful and superfluous. On תּרדנה, instead of תּרד, vid., Caspari on Obad. Oba 1:13, Ges. §47, rem. 3. It is sing., not plur. (Böttch.), for Job 17:15 does not speak of two hopes, not even if, as it seems according to the ancient versions, another word of cognate meaning had stood in the place of the second תקותי originally. His hope goes down to the regions of the dead, when altogether there is rest in the dust. This “together, יחד,” Hahn explains: to me and it, to this hope; but that would be pursuing the figure to an inadmissible length, extending far beyond Job 20:11, and must then be expressed יחד לנוּ. Others (e.g., Hirz., Ew.) explain: if at the same time, i.e., simultaneously with this descent of my hope, there is rest to me in the dust. Considering the use of יחד in itself, it might be explained: if altogether entirely there is rest in the dust; but this meaning integer, totus quantus, the word has elsewhere always in connection with a subj. or obj. to which it is referable, e.g., Job 10:8; Psa 33:15; and, moreover, it may be rendered also in the like passages by “all together,” as Job 3:18; Job 21:26; Job 40:13, instead of “altogether, entirely.” Since, on the other hand, the signification “at the same time” can at least with probability be supported by Psa 141:10, and since אם, which is certainly used temporally, brings contemporary things together, we prefer the translation: “when at the same time in the dust there is rest.” The descent of his hope to the bars of Hades is at the same time his own, who hopes for nothing but this. When the death of his hope becomes a reality, then at the same time his turmoil of suffering will pass over to the rest of the grave.

As from the first speech of Eliphaz, so also from this first speech of Job, it may be seen that the controversy takes a fresh turn, which brings it nearer to the maturity of decision. From Eliphaz' speech Job has seen that no assertion of his innocence can avail to convince the friends, and that the more strongly he maintains his innocence, even before God, he only confirms them in the opinion that he is suffering the punishment of his godlessness, which now comes to light, like a wrong that has been hitherto concealed. Job thus perceives that he is incapable of convincing the friends; for whatever he may say only tends to confirm them in the false judgment, which they first of all inferred from their false premises, but now from his own words and conduct. He is accounted by them as one who is punished of God, whom they address as the preachers of repentance; now, however, they address him so that the chief point of their sermon is no longer bright promises descriptive of the glorious future of the penitent, but fearful descriptions of the desolating judgment which comes upon the impenitent sinner. This zealous solicitude for his welfare seems to be clever and to the point, according to their view; it is, however, only a vexatious method of treating their friend’s case; it is only roughly and superficially moulded according to the order of redemption, but without an insight into the spiritual experience and condition of him with whom they have here to do. Their prudentia pastoralis is carnal and legal; they know nothing of a righteousness which avails before God, and nothing of a state of grace which frees from the divine vengeance; they know not how to deal with one who is passing through the fierce conflict of temptation, and understand not the mystery of the cross.

Can we wonder, then, that Job is compelled to regard their words as nothing more than רוח דברי, as they regarded his? In the words of Job they miss their certainly compact dogma, in which they believe they possess the philosopher’s stone, by means of which all earthly suffering is to be changed into earthly prosperity. Job, however, can find nothing in their words that reminds him of anything he ought to know in his present position, or that teaches him anything respecting it. He is compelled to regard them as מנחמי עמל, who make the burden of his suffering only more grievous, instead of lightening it for him. For their consolation rests upon an unjust judgment of himself, against which his moral consciousness rebels, and upon a one-sided notion of God, which is contradicted by his experience. Their speeches exhibit skill as to their form, but the sympathy of the heart is wanting. Instead of plunging with Job into the profound mystery of God’s providence, which appoints such a hard lot for the righteous man to endure, they shake their heads, and think: What a great sinner Job must be, that God should visit him with so severe a punishment! It is the same shaking of the head of which David complains Psa 22:8 and Psa 109:25, and which the incomparably righteous One experienced from those who passed by His cross, Mat 27:39; Mar 15:29. These comparisons give us the opportunity of noting the remarkable coincidence of these pictures of suffering, in outline and expression; the agreement of Job 16:8 with Psa 109:24, comp. Psa 109:23 with Job 17:7, puts it beyond a doubt, that there is a mutual relation between Job 16:4 and Psa 109:25 which is not merely accidental.

By such unjust and uncharitable treatment from the friends, Job’s sufferings stand forth before him in increased magnitude. He exceeds himself in the most terrible figures, in order to depict the sudden change which the divine dispensation of suffering has brought upon him. The figures are so terrible, for Job sees behind his sufferings a hostile hideous God as their author; they are the outburst of His anger, His quivering looks, His piercing darts, His shattering missiles. His sufferings are a witness de facto against him, the sufferer; but they are this not merely in themselves, but also in the eyes of the people around him. To the sufferings which he has directly to endure in body and soul there is added, as it were, as their other equally painful part, misconstruction and scorn, which he has to suffer from without. Not only does he experience the wrath of God contrary to the testimony to his righteousness which is consciousness gives him, but also the scoff of the ungodly, who now deridingly triumph over him. Therefore he clothes himself in mourning, and lies with his former majesty in the dust; his face is red with weeping, and his eyes are become almost blind, although there is no wrong in his hand, and his prayer is free from hypocrisy. Who does not here think of the servant of Jehovah, of whom Isaiah, Isa 53:9 (in similar words to those which Job uses of himself, Job 16:16), says, that he is buried among the godless על לא־חמס עשׂה ולא מרמה בפיו? All that Job says here of the scorn that he has to endure by being regarded as one who is punished of God and tormented, agrees exactly with the description of the sufferings of the servant of Jehovah in the Psalms and the second part of Isaiah. Job says: they gape at me with their mouth; and in Psa 22:8 (comp. Psa 35:21) it is: all they that see me laugh me to scorn, they open wide the lips, they shake the head. Job says: they smite my cheeks in contempt; and the servant of Jehovah, Isa 50:6, is compelled to confess: I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that pluck off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Like Job, the servant of Jehovah in the Psalms and in Isaiah II. is delivered over into the hands of the unrighteous, and reckoned among evil-doers, although he is the servant of Jehovah, and knows himself to be Jehovah’s servant. The same hope that he expresses in Isa 50:8. in the words: he is near who justifieth me, who will condemn me! - the same hope in Job breaks through the night of conflict, with which his direct and indirect suffering has surrounded him.

Just when Job becomes conscious of his doubled affliction in all its heaviness, when he feels himself equally rejected of men as of God, must this hope break forth. For there is only a twofold possibility for a man who thinks God has become his enemy, and that he has not a friend among men: either he sinks into the abyss of despair; or if faith still exists, he struggles upwards through his desertion by God and man to the love that lies deep in the heart of God, which in spite of hostile manifestation cannot abandon the righteous. Whither shall Job turn when God seems to him as an enemy, and when he nevertheless will not renounce God? He can only turn from the hostile God to the God who is differently disposed towards him, and that is equivalent to saying from the imaginary to the real God, to whom faith clings throughout every outward manifestation of wrath and wrathful feeling.Compare the prayer of Juda ha-Levi, אברח ממך אליך (Arab. mn-k ''ud l-k), in Kämpf’s Nichtandalusische Poesien andalusischer Dichter (1858), ii. 206.

Since both, however, is one God, who only seems to be other than He is, that bold grasp of faith is the exchange of the phantom-god of the conflict of temptation for the true God. Faith, which in its essence is a perception capable of taking root, seizes the real existence behind the appearance, the heart behind the countenance, that which remains the same behind the change, and defies a thousand contradictions with the saintly Nevertheless: God nevertheless does not belie himself.

Job challenges the earth not to hide his blood; unceasingly without restraint shall the cry of his blood rise up. What he says in Job 16:18 is to be taken not so much as the expression of a desire as of a demand, and better still as a command; for even in case he should succumb to his sufferings, and consequently in the eyes of men die the death of a sinner, his clear consciousness of innocence does not allow him to renounce his claim to a public declaration that he has died guiltless. But to whom shall the blood of the slain cry out? To whom else but God; and yet it is God who has slain him? We see distinctly here how Job’s idea of God is lighted up by the prospect of a decisive trial of his cause. The God who abandons Job to death as guilty, and the God who cannot (and though it should be even after death) leave him unvindicated, come forth distinct and separate as darkness from light from the chaos of the conflict of temptation. Since, however, the thought of a vindication after death for Job, which knows only of a seeming life after death, according to the notion that rules him, and which is here not yet broken through, is only the extreme demanded by his moral consciousness, he is compelled to believe in a vindication in this world; and he expresses this faith (Job 16:19) in these words: “Even now, behold, my Witness is in heaven, and One who acknowledgeth me is in the heights.” He pours forth tears to this God that He would decide between God and him, between his friends and him. He longs for this decision now, for he will now soon be gone beyond return. Thus Job becomes here the prophet of the issue of his own course of suffering; and over his relation to Eloah and to the friends, of whom the former abandons him to the sinner’s death, and the latter declare him to be guilty, hovers the form of the God of the future, which now breaks through the darkness, from whom Job believingly awaits and implores what the God of the present withholds from him.Ewald very truly says: “This is the true turn of the human controversy, which is favoured by the whole course of Job’s life, that he, though in the present utterly despairing of all, even God, still holds fast to the eternal hidden God of the future, and with this faith rises wondrously, when to all human appearance it seemed that he must succumb.”

What Job (Job 16:20.), by reason of that confident “Behold, my Witness is in heaven,” had expressed as the end of his longing, - that God would vindicate him both before Himself, and before the friends and the world, - urges him onward, when he reflects upon his twofold affliction, that he is sick unto death and one who is misjudged even to mockery, to the importunate request: Lay down now (a pledge), be surety for me with Thyself; for who else should strike his hand into mine, i.e., in order to become bondsman to me, that Thou dost not regard me as an unrighteous person? The friends are far from furnishing a guarantee of this; for they, on the contrary, are desirous of persuading him, that, if he would only let his conscience speak, he must regard himself as an unrighteous one, and that he is regarded as such by God. Therefore God cannot give them the victory; on the contrary, he who so uncompassionately abandons his friends, must on his own children experience similar suffering to that which he made heavier for his friend, instead of making it lighter to him. The three have no insight into the affliction of the righteous one; they dispose of him mercilessly, as of spoil or property that has fallen into the hands of the creditor; therefore he cannot hope to obtain justice unless God become surety for him with himself, - a thought so extraordinary and bold, that one cannot wonder that the old expositors were misled by it: God was in Christ, and reconciled the world with Himself, 2Co 5:19. The God of holy love has reconciled the world with himself, the God of righteous anger, as Job here prays that the God of truth may become surety for him with the God of absolute sovereignty.

When Job then complains of the misconstruction of his character, and tracing it to God, says: He hath made me למשׁל עמים, one is reminded, in connection with this extravagant expression, of complaints of a like tone in the mouth of the true people of Israel, Psa 44:15, and of the great sufferer, Psa 69:12. When we further read, that, according to Job’s affirmation, the godly are scared at his affliction, the parallel Isa 52:14 forces itself upon us, where it is said of the servant of Jehovah, “How were many astonied at thee.” And when, with reference to himself, Job says that the suffering of the righteous must at length prove a gain to him that hath clean hands, who does not call to mind the fact that the glorious issue of the suffering of the servant of Jehovah which the Old Testament evangelist sets before us, - that servant of Jehovah who, once himself a prey to oppression and mocking, now divides the spoil among the mighty, - tends to the reviving, strengthening, and exaltation of Israel? All these parallels cannot and are not intended to prove that the book of Job is an allegorical poem; but they prove that the book of Job stands in the closest connection, both retrospective and prospective, with the literature of Israel; that the poet, by the relation to the passion-psalms stamped on the picture of the affliction of Job, has marked Job, whether consciously or unconsciously, as a typical person; that, by taking up, probably not unintentionally, many national traits, he has made it natural to interpret Job as a Mashal of Israel; and that Isaiah himself confirms this typical relation, by borrowing some Job-like expressions in the figure of the עבד יהוה, who is a personification of the true Israel. The book of Job has proved itself a mirror of consolation for the people, faithful to God, who had cause to complain, as in Ps 44, and a mirror of warning to their scoffers and persecutors, who had neither true sympathy with the miserable state of God’s people, nor a true perception of God’s dealings. At the same time, however, Job appears in the light which the New Testament history, by the fulfilment of the prophecies of suffering in the Psalms, Isaiah, and also Zechariah, throws upon him, as a type of Him who suffers in like manner, in order that Satan may have his deserts, and thereby by confounded; who also has an affliction to bear which in itself has the nature and form of wrath, but has its motive and end in the love of God; who is just so misjudged and scorned of men, in order at length to be exalted, and to enter in as intercessor for those who despised and rejected Him. At the same time, it must not be forgotten that there remains an infinite distance between the type and antitype, which, however, must be in the very nature of a type, and does not annul the typical relation, which exists only exceptis excipiendis. Who could fail to recognise the involuntary picture of the three friends in the penitent ones of Isa 53:1-12, who esteemed the servant of Jehovah as one smitten of God, for whom, however, at last His sacrifice and intercession avail?

Job at last considers his friends as devoid of wisdom, because they try to comfort him with the nearness of light, while darkness is before him; because they give him the hope of a bodily restoration, while he has nothing to expect but death, and earnestly longs for the rest of death. It is surprising that the speech of Job plunges again into complete hopelessness, after he has risen to the prospect of being vindicated in this life. He certainly does not again put forth that prospect, but he does not even venture to hope that it can be realized by a blessing in this life after a seeming curse. It is in this hopelessness that the true greatness of Job’s faith becomes manifest. He meets death, and to every appearance so overwhelmed by death, as a sinner, while he is still conscious that he is righteous. Is it not faith in and fidelity to God, then, that, without praying for recovery, he is satisfied with this one thing, that God acknowledges him? The promises of the friends ought to have rested on a different foundation, if he was to have the joy of appropriating them to himself. He feels himself to be inevitably given up as a prey to death, and as from the depth of Hades, into which he is sinking, he stretches out his hands to God, not that He would sustain him in life, but that He would acknowledge him before the world as His. If he is to die even, he desires only that he may not die the death of a criminal. And is this intended at the same time for the rescue of his honour? No, after all, for the honour of God, who cannot possibly destroy as an evil-doer one who is in everything faithful to Him. When, then, the issue of the history is that God acknowledges Job as His servant, and after he is proved and refined by the temptation, preserves to him a doubly rich and prosperous life, Job receives beyond his prayer and comprehension; and after he has learned from his own experience that God brings to Hades and out again, he has for ever conquered all fear of death, and the germs of a hope of a future life, which in the midst of his affliction have broken through his consciousness, can joyously expand. For Job appears to himself as one who is risen from the dead, and is a pledge to himself of the resurrection from the dead.

Deplorable Condition of Job; The Improvement of Job's Troubles. (b. c. 1520.)

1 My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me. 2 Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation? 3 Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me? 4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them. 5 He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail. 6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret. 7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow. 8 Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite. 9 The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.

Job's discourse is here somewhat broken and interrupted, and he passes suddenly from one thing to another, as is usual with men in trouble; but we may reduce what is here said to three heads:—

I. The deplorable condition which poor Job was now in, which he describes, to aggravate the great unkindness of his friends to him and to justify his own complaints. Let us see what his case was.

1. He was a dying man, v. 1. He had said (ch. xvi. 22), "When a few years have come, I shall go that long journey." But here he corrects himself. "Why do I talk of years to come? Alas! I am just setting out on that journey, am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. My breath is already corrupt, or broken off; my spirits are spent; I am a gone man." It is good for every one of us thus to look upon ourselves as dying, and especially to think of it when we are sick. We are dying, that is, (1.) Our life is going; for the breath of life is going. It is continually going forth; it is in our nostrils (Isa. ii. 22), the door at which it entered (Gen. ii. 7); there it is upon the threshold, ready to depart. Perhaps Job's distemper obstructed his breathing, and short breath will, after a while, be no breath. Let the Anointed of the Lord be the breath of our nostrils, and let us get spiritual life breathed into us, and that breath will never be corrupted. (2.) Our time is ending: My days are extinct, are put out, as a candle which, from the first lighting, is continually wasting and burning down, and will by degrees burn out of itself, but may by a thousand accidents be extinguished. Such is life. It concerns us therefore carefully to redeem the days of time, and to spend them in getting ready for the days of eternity, which will never be extinct. (3.) We are expected in our long home: The graves are ready for me. But would not one grave serve? Yes, but he speaks of the sepulchres of his fathers, to which he must be gathered: "The graves where they are laid are ready for me also," graves in consort, the congregation of the dead. Wherever we go there is but a step between us and the grave. Whatever is unready, that is ready; it is a bed soon made. If the graves be ready for us, it concerns us to be ready for the graves. The graves for me (so it runs), denoting not only his expectation of death, but his desire of it. "I have done with the world, and have nothing now to wish for but a grave."

2. He was a despised man (v. 6): "He" (that is, Eliphaz, so some, or rather God, whom he all along acknowledges to be the author of his calamities) "has made me a byword of the people, the talk of the country, a laughing-stock to many, a gazing-stock to all; and aforetime (or to men's faces, publicly) I was as a tabret, that whoever chose might play upon." They made ballads of him; his name became a proverb; it is so still, As poor as Job. "He has now made me a byword," a reproach of men, whereas, aforetime, in my prosperity, I was as a tabret, deliciæ humani generis—the darling of the human race, whom they were all pleased with. It is common for those who were honoured in their wealth to be despised in their poverty.

3. He was a man of sorrows, v. 7. He wept so much that he had almost lost his sight: My eye is dim by reason of sorrow, ch. xvi. 16. The sorrow of the world thus works darkness and death. He grieved so much that he had fretted all the flesh away and become a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones: "All my members are as a shadow. I have become so poor and thin that I am not to be called a man, but the shadow of a man."

II. The ill use which his friends made of his miseries. They trampled upon him, and insulted over him, and condemned him as a hypocrite, because he was thus grievously afflicted. Hard usage! Now observe,

1. How Job describes it, and what construction he puts upon their discourses with him. He looks upon himself as basely abused by them. (1.) They abused him with their foul censures, condemning him as a bad man, justly reduced thus and exposed to contempt, v. 2. "They are mockers, who deride my calamities, and insult over me, because I am thus brought low. They are so with me, abusing me to my face, pretending friendship in their visit, but intending mischief. I cannot get clear of them; they are continually tearing me, and they will not be wrought upon, either by reason or pity, to let fall the prosecution." (2.) They abused him too with their fair promises, for in them they did but banter him. He reckons them (v. 5) among those that speak flattery to their friends. They all came to mourn with him. Eliphaz began with a commendation of him, ch. iv. 3. They had all promised him that he would be happy if he would take their advice. Now all this he looked upon as flattery, and as designed to vex him so much the more. All this he calls their provocation, v. 2. They did what they could to provoke him and then condemned him for his resentment of it; but he thinks himself excusable when his eye continued thus in their provocation: it never ceased, and he never could look off it. Note, The unkindness of those that trample upon their friends in affliction, that banter and abuse them then, is enough to try, if not to tire, the patience even of Job himself.

2. How he condemns it. (1.) It was a sign that God had hidden their heart from understanding (v. 4), and that in this matter they were infatuated, and their wonted wisdom had departed from them. Wisdom is a gift of God, which he grants to some and withholds from others, grants at some times and withholds at other times. Those that are void of compassion are so far void of understanding. Where there is not the tenderness of a man one may question whether there be the understanding of a man. (2.) It would be a lasting reproach and diminution to them: Therefore shalt thou not exalt them. Those are certainly kept back from honour whose hearts are hidden from understanding. When God infatuates men he will abase them. Surely those who discover so little acquaintance with the methods of Providence shall not have the honour of deciding this controversy! That is reserved for a man of better sense and better temper, such a one as Elihu afterwards appeared to be. (3.) It would entail a curse upon their families. He that thus violates the sacred laws of friendship forfeits the benefit of it, not only for himself, but for his posterity: "Even the eyes of his children shall fail, and, when they look for succour and comfort from their own and their father's friends, they shall look in vain as I have done, and be as much disappointed as I am in you." Note, Those that wrong their neighbours may thereby, in the end, wrong their own children more than they are aware of.

3. How he appeals from them to God (v. 3): Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee, that is, "Let me be assured that God will take the hearing and determining of the cause into his own hands, and I desire no more. Let some one engage for God to bring on this matter." Thus those whose hearts condemn them not have confidence towards God, and can with humble and believing boldness beg of him to search and try them. Some make Job here to glance at the mediation of Christ, for he speaks of a surety with God, without whom he durst not appear before God, nor try his cause at his bar; for, though his friends' accusations of him were utterly false, yet he could not justify himself before God but in a mediator. Our English annotations give this reading of the verse: "Appoint, I pray thee, my surety with thee, namely, Christ who is with thee in heaven, and has undertaken to be my surety let him plead my cause, and stand up for me; and who is he then that will strike upon my hand?" that is, "Who dares then contend with me? Who shall lay any thing to my charge if Christ be an advocate for me?" Rom. viii. 32, 33. Christ is the surety of the better testament (Heb. vii. 22), a surety of God's appointing; and, if he undertake for us, we need not fear what can be done against us.

III. The good use which the righteous should make of Job's afflictions from God, from his enemies, and from his friends, v. 8, 9. Observe here,

1. How the saints are described. (1.) They are upright men, honest and sincere, and that act from a steady principle, with a single eye. This was Job's own character (ch. i. 1), and probably he speaks of such upright men especially as had been his intimates and associates. (2.) They are the innocent, not perfectly so, but innocence is what they aim at and press towards. Sincerity is evangelical innocency, and those that are upright are said to be innocent from the great transgression, Ps. xix. 13. (3.) They are the righteous, who walk in the way of righteousness. (4.) They have clean hands, kept clean from the gross pollutions of sin, and, when spotted with infirmities, washed with innocency, Ps. xxvi. 6.

2. How they should be affected with the account of Job's troubles. Great enquiry, no doubt, would be made concerning him, and every one would speak of him and his case; and what use will good people make of it? (1.) It will amaze them: Upright men shall be astonished at this; they will wonder to hear that so good a man as Job should be so grievously afflicted in body, name, and estate, that God should lay his hand so heavily upon him, and that his friends, who ought to have comforted him, should add to his grief, that such a remarkable saint should be such a remarkable sufferer, and so useful a man laid aside in the midst of his usefulness; what shall we say to these things? Upright men, though satisfied in general that God is wise and holy in all he does, yet cannot but be astonished at such dispensations of Providence, paradoxes which will not be unfolded till the mystery of God shall be finished. (2.) It will animate them. Instead of being deterred from and discouraged in the service of God, by the hard usage which this faithful servant of God met with, they shall be so much the more emboldened to proceed and persevere in it. That which was St. Paul's care (1 Thess. iii. 3) was Job's, that no good man should be moved, either from his holiness or his comfort, by these afflictions, that none should, for the sake hereof, think the worse of the ways or work of God. And that which was St. Paul's comfort was his too, that the brethren in the Lord would wax confident by his bonds, Phil. i. 14. They would hereby be animated, [1.] To oppose sin and to confront the corrupt and pernicious inferences which evil men would draw from Job's sufferings, as that God has forsaken the earth, that it is in vain to serve him, and the like: The innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite, will not bear to hear this (Rev. ii. 2), but will withstand him to his face, will stir up himself to search into the meaning of such providences and study these hard chapters, that he may read them readily, will stir up himself to maintain religion's just but injured cause against all its opposers. Note, The boldness of the attacks which profane people make upon religion should sharpen the courage and resolution of its friends and advocates. It is time to stir when proclamation is made in the gate of the camp, Who is on the Lord's side? When vice is daring it is no time for virtue, through fear, to hide itself. [2.] To persevere in religion. The righteous, instead of drawing back, or so much as starting back, at this frightful spectacle, or standing still to deliberate whether he should proceed or no (allude to 2 Sam. ii. 23), shall with so much the more constancy and resolution hold on his way and press forward. "Though in me he foresees that bonds and afflictions abide him, yet none of these things shall move him," Acts xx. 24. Those who keep their eye upon heaven as their end will keep their feet in the paths of religion as their way, whatever difficulties and discouragements they meet with in it [3.] In order thereunto to grow in grace. He will not only hold on his way notwithstanding, but will grow stronger and stronger. By the sight of other good men's trials, and the experience of his own, he will be made more vigorous and lively in his duty, more warm and affectionate, more resolute and undaunted; the worse others are the better he will be; that which dismays others emboldens him. The blustering wind makes the traveller gather his cloak the closer about him and gird it the faster. Those that are truly wise and good will be continually growing wiser and better. Proficiency in religion is a good sign of sincerity in it.

Job Reproves His Three Friends; Vanity of Worldly Expectations. (b. c. 1520.)

10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you. 11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart. 12 They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness. 13 If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness. 14 I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister. 15 And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it? 16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

Job's friends had pretended to comfort him with the hopes of his return to a prosperous estate again; now he here shows,

I. That it was their folly to talk so (v. 10): "Return, and come now, be convinced that you are in an error, and let me persuade you to be of my mind; for I cannot find one wise man among you, that knows how to explain the difficulties of God's providence or how to apply the consolations of his promises." Those do not go wisely about the work of comforting the afflicted who fetch their comforts from the possibility of their recovery and enlargement in this world; though that is not to be despaired of, it is at the best uncertain; and if it should fail, as perhaps it may, the comfort built upon it will fail too. It is therefore our wisdom to comfort ourselves, and others, in distress, with that which will not fail, the promise of God, his love and grace, and a well-grounded hope of eternal life.

II. That it would he much more his folly to heed them; for,

1. All his measures were already broken and he was full of confusion, v. 11, 12. He owns he had, in his prosperity, often pleased himself both with projects of what he should do and prospects of what he should enjoy; but now he looked upon his days as past, or drawing towards a period; all those purposes were broken off and those expectations dashed. He had had thoughts about enlarging his border, increasing his stock, and settling his children, and many pious thoughts, it is likely, of promoting religion in his country, redressing grievances, reforming the profane, relieving the poor, and raising funds perhaps for charitable uses; but he concluded that all these thoughts of his heart were now at an end, and that he should never have the satisfaction of seeing his designs effected. Note, The period of our days will be the period of all our contrivances and hopes for this world; but, if with full purpose of heart we cleave to the Lord, death will not break off that purpose. Job, being thus put upon new counsels, was under a constant uneasiness (v. 12): The thoughts of his heart being broken, they changed the night into day and shortened the light. Some, in their vanity and riot, turn night into day and day into night; but Job did so through trouble and anguish of spirit, which were a hindrance, (1.) To the repose of the night, keeping his eyes waking, so that the night was as wearisome to him as the day, and the tossings of the night tired him as much as the toils of the day. (2.) To the entertainments of the day. "The light of the morning is welcome, but, by reason of this inward darkness, the comfort of it is soon gone, and the day is to me as dismal as the black and dark night," Deut. xxviii. 67. See what reason we have to be thankful for the health and ease which enable us to welcome both the shadows of the evening and the light of the morning.

2. All his expectations from this world would very shortly be buried in the grave with him; so that it was a jest for him to think of such mighty things as they had flattered him with the hopes of, ch. v. 19; viii. 21; xi. 17. "Alas! you do but make a fool of me."

(1.) He saw himself just dropping into the grave. A convenient house, an easy bed, and agreeable relations, are some of those things in which we take satisfaction in this world: Job expected not any of these above ground; all he felt, and all he had in view, was unpleasing and disagreeable, but under ground he expected them. [1.] He counted upon no house but the grave (v. 13): "If I wait, if there be any place where I shall ever be easy again, it must be in the grave. I should deceive myself if I should count upon any out-let from my trouble but what death will give me. Nothing is so sure as that." Note, In all our prosperity it is good to keep death in prospect. Whatever we expect, let us be sure to expect that; for that may prevent other things which we expect, but nothing will prevent that. But see how he endeavours not only to reconcile himself to the grave, but to recommend it to himself: "It is my house." The grave is a house; to the wicked it is a prison-house (ch. xxiv. 19, 20); to the godly it is Bethabara, a passage-house in their way home. "It is my house, mine by descent, I am born to it; it is my father's house. It is mine by purchase. I have made myself obnoxious to it." We must everyone of us shortly remove to this house, and it is our wisdom to provide accordingly; let us think of removing, and send before to our long home. [2.] He counted upon no quiet bed but in the darkness: "There," says he, "I have made my bed. It is made, for it is ready, and I am just going to it." The grave is a bed, for we shall rest in it in the evening of our day on earth, and rise from it in the morning of our everlasting day, Isa. lvii. 2. Let this make good people willing to die; it is but going to bed; they are weary and sleepy, and it is time that they were in their beds. Why should they not go willingly, when their father calls? "Nay, I have made my bed, by preparation for it, have endeavoured to make it easy, by keeping conscience pure, by seeing Christ lying in this bed, and so turning it into a bed of spices, and by looking beyond it to the resurrection." [3.] He counted upon no agreeable relations but what he had in the grave (v. 14): I have cried to corruption (that is, to the grave, where the body will corrupt), Thou art my father (for our bodies were formed out of the earth), and to the worms there, You are my mother and my sister, to whom I am allied (for man is a worm) and with whom I must be conversant, for the worms shall cover us, ch. xxi. 26. Job complained that his kindred were estranged from him (ch. xix. 13, 14); therefore here he claims acquaintance with other relations that would cleave to him when those disowned him. Note, First, We are all of us near akin to corruption and the worms. Secondly, It is therefore good to make ourselves familiar with them, by conversing much with them in our thoughts and meditations, which would very much help us above the inordinate love of life and fear of death.

(2.) He saw all his hopes from this world dropping into the grave with him (v. 15, 16): "Seeing I must shortly leave the world, where is now my hope? How can I expect to prosper who do not expect to live?" He is not hopeless, but his hope is not where they would have it be. If in this life only he had hope, he was of all men most miserable. "No, as for my hope, that hope which I comfort and support myself with, who shall see it? It is something out of sight that I hope for, not things that are seen, that are temporal, but things not seen, that are eternal." What is his hope he will tell us (ch. xix. 25), Non est mortale quod opto, immortale peto—I seek not for that which perishes, but for that which abides for ever. "But, as for the hopes you would buoy me up with, they shall go down with me to the bars of the pit. You are dying men, and cannot make good your promises. I am a dying man, and cannot enjoy the good you promise. Since, therefore, our rest will be together in the dust, let us all lay aside the thoughts of this world and set our hearts upon another." We must shortly be in the dust, for dust we are, dust and ashes in the pit, under the bars of the pit, held fast there, never to loose the bands of death till the general resurrection. But we shall rest there; we shall rest together there. Job and his friends could not agree now, but they will both be quiet in the grave; the dust of that will shortly stop their mouths and put an end to the controversy. Let the foresight of this cool the heat of all contenders and moderate the disputers of this world.

CHAP. XVII. Verſe 1. My breath is corrupt.]

WHich argueth that my inwards are Impoſthumated, and rotten, ſo that I cannot in likelihood have long to live; Oh therefore that I might have a day of hearing and clearing, before I dye. But Job ſhould have remembered, that there will be at the laſt day a reſurrection of names, as well as of bodies; which he that believeth maketh not haſte. Howſoever it was not amiſſe for Job ſo grievouſly diſeaſed, and now well in years, to bethink himſelf of death, and to diſcourſe of theſe three particulars, that ſpeak him a dying man. In the old, the Palm tree is full of bloomes, the map of age is figured on his forehead, the Calendars of death appear in the furrowes of his face, the mourners are ready to go about the ſtreets, and he is going to his long home, according to that elegant deſcription, Eccleſ. 12.Varro de're ruſt. l. 1. c. 1. He ſhould therefore ſay with Varro, Annus octogeſimus wie admonet, ut ſarcinas colligam, &c. It is high time for me to pack up, and to be gone out of this life: Or rather, as Simeon, Lord, now let thou thy ſervant depart in peace, &c.

My dayes are extinct] As a candle, Prov. 13.9. Or, Cut off (as a web) ſo ſome read it. The Original word is found only here.

The graves are ready for me.] Heb. The graves for me; q.d. I bid adieu to all things elſe, and as the grave gapes for me, ſo do I gape for the grave, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. I would it were even ſo, as Baſil ſaid, when Valens the Arian Emperor threatned him with death. But why doth Job ſpeak of graves in the plural? Surely, to ſhew that he was beſieged with many deaths: or elſe, becauſe the dead are buried (as it were) firſt in their grave-cloathes, and then in the coffin, and then in the Beir or Hearſe, and laſtly in the Sepulcher, which every place did, as it were, proffer to Job, and threaten him with death, in regard of his many paines and preſſures, by the ſcoffs and taunts of his friends. For,

Verſe 2. Are there not mockers with me?] Heb. If there be not mockers with me, q.d. deſpeream, Let me be puniſhed, or let me be blarned for wiſhing to argue it out with God: ſo ſome Jew-Doctors ſenſe it. job had before complained of his friends jearing and girding at him, chap. 16.20. To be mocked in miſery is no ſmall aggravation thereof. See what is threatned. Prov. 1.26. The Proverb is, Oculus, fides. & fa[illegible: 1 letter]a non patiuntur jocot. There's no jeſting with a mans eye, faith, and fame. Junius readreth the Text thus, For as much as there are no mockings with me, I meane honeſtly, and deal plainly, and yet mine eye continueth in their provocations, neither can I be ſet right in their opinions, ſo prejudiced they are againſt me.

And doth not mine eye continue in their prevoc[illegible: 2 letters]miums?] Heb. Lodg or tarry all night in their provocations, or bitterneſſes? Broughton readeth, In thoſe mans vexing lodgeth mine eye; that is, I lodg not ſo much in roy bed as in the thoughts of my friends un[illegible: 4 letters]neſſe. And indeed (ſaith one) a man may ſleep better upon bare boards, then upon hard words. Some refer it to the eye of his mind lifted up to God in prayer: but yet no ſweetneſſe coming from him either internally or externally. The former is rather to be followed.

Verſe 3. Lay down now, put me in a ſurety with thee] This Job ſpeaketh not to El[illegible: 3 letters] (as K. Moſes. Beza. and ſome others would have it) but to God himſelf, as chap. 16.7. whom he deſireth to lay down or appoint (as Exod. 1.11.) and put in Chriſt as a Surety to plead for him. See Heb. 7.22. and ſo Brentius expoundeth it; There is one only ſurety (ſaith he) one only Interceſſor, the Lord Jeſus Chriſt, who if he appear not in the eyes of our faith, we have none elſe that can undertake for us to God; neither is there any creature which can ſtand in the judgement of God, though he would never ſo fain be Surety for us: Thus he. And accordingly our late learned Annotatours reading the words thus: Appoint I pray thee my Surety with thee; who is he then that will ſt[illegible: 2 letters]ke upon my hand? that is, Appoint Chriſt, who is with thee in heaven, and hath undertaken to be my Surety: appoint him (I ſay) to plead my cauſe and to ſtand up for me, and then no man will dare to contend with me. And ſo it is futable to the Notes on chap. 16.21. and to Rom. 8.33. The Vulgar Latine, (not altogether from the purpoſe, ſaith Brentius,) tranſlates the whole verſe thus, Put me near thy ſelf, and then let whoſe will contend with me.

Verſe 4. Thou haſt hid their heart from underſtanding.] that is, Thou haſt hidden underſtanding from their heart, thou haſt left them in the dark, deſtitute of a right judgement, whilſt they condemn me for wicked, becauſe grievouſly afflicted; and thence it is that I do ſo confidently appeal to thee in Jeſus Chriſt, ſith my friends are ſo far miſtaken in this controverſie. If God give not both light and ſight, if he vouchſafe not to irradiate both Organ and Object, the beſt will be bemiſted. Every good gift and perfect cometh from above, even from the Father of lights, Jam. 1.17. It was he that made Reverend Doctor Sibbs (as one ſaith of him) Spiritually rational, and rationally Spiritual; One that ſeemed to ſee the inſides of Nature and Grace, and the world and heaven, by thoſe perfect Anatomies he had made of them all.

Therefore ſhalt thou not exalt them] Therefore thou ſhalt not give them honour: ſo Broughton rendreth it. But that's not all, Liptoti eſt, ſaith Mercer; it is a figure, wherein leſſe is ſaid, and more is meant: Thou ſhalt not only not exalt them, but thou ſhalt alſo abaſe and humble them: this conteſtation ſhall be nothing at all to their commendation in the end. It is the found knowledg of the truth according to godlineſſe, that exalteth a man, and makes him to be accounted of; and the contrary. Howbeit many great and good men have been greatly miſtaken in very great controverſies and tranſactions, as was Luther, Doctor Reſolutus, ſed non in omnibus Illuminatus. And yet how many Learned able men hath his name miſled in the point of Conſubſtantiation? Ʋrſin was carried away with it a while, till he read his Arguments which he found to be little better then Paralogiſmes. Holy Greenham. when preſſed to conformity to the Ceremonies by the Biſhop of Ely. who urged Luthers approbation of them; and are you wiſer then Luther? His ſober and gracious anſwer was, I reverence more the revealed will of God in teaching Luther ſo many neceſſary things to ſalvation, then I ſearch into his ſecret will, why he hid his heart from underſtanding in things leſs neceſſary.

Verſe 5. He that ſpeaketh flattery to his friends.] As you my friends do to, and for God, in ſeeming to aſſert his juſtice in puniſhing me for my wickedneſſe, ſo ſoothing and ſmoothing up the Almighty (quod ipſum nibil aliud eſt quam falſo Deo blaudiri, ſaith Merlin) and ſeeking to make the world believe by your great words, that you are his great Champions, whilſt you go about to cleare up his righteouſneſſe, by concluding me unrighteous, See chap. 13.7, 8. with the Notes.

The eyes of his children ſhall fail.] Not himſelf only ſhall ſmart (while the Lord curteth off flattering lips, and the deceitful tongue, Pſal. 12.3.) but his poor children ſhall rue for it. They ſhall lye languiſhing at Hopes Hoſpital, and after all be diſappointed, or their eyes ſhall fail with long looking after good, but nothing comes. They ſhall look for peace, and there is no good; and for a time of healing, but behold trouble, Jer. 14.19. God will deſtroy flatterers, head and tail, branch and ruſh, like as the Theſſalians, once utterly deſtroyed the City called,Hen. Steph. Apol. pro Herod. [non-Latin text not transcribed] or Flattery.

Verſe 6. He hath made me alſo a by-word of the people.] Here Job returnes to his old task of ſetting forth his own miſery; for what men are moſt ſenſible of, that their tongues do moſt of all run upon. Job is a by word or a Proverb to this day, for we ſay, As poor as Job; as of old they ſaid, Iro panperior, &c. He was become a common proverb, a publick mocking-ſtock, yea he was pro cantione and tympanum trita; as ſome ſenſe the next words. And aforetime (or, to mens faces) I was (or I am) [illegible: 1 letter] tabret: They ſing my miſeries to the Tabret, as a matter of mirth; they compoſe Comedies out of my Tragedies, and this greatneth my grief. I am openly a T[illegible: 1 letter]bret: ſo Broughton reads it. The Vulgar hath it, I am an example before them. The Chaldee Paraphraſt, I am at hell before them. The Hebrew word in Tophet, taken afterwards indeed for hell, but not ſo in Jobs t[illegible: 1 letter]me. The Septuagint, I became a ſport to them; David met with the like meaſure, Pſal. 69.19, 11. and the Church, Lam. 2.15. [non-Latin text not transcribed] And Chriſt on the Croſſe was matter of mirth to the malicious Jewes. God had made Job all this. He (that is, God) hath made me, &c. his name he ſpares in reverence: but every where he acknowledgeth God the Author of his troubles, as Mercer here noteth. The whole verſe may be read thus: He hath made me alſo a by-word of the people, where as aforetime, I was as a Tabret; that is, I am now a ſcorn to them who delighted in me in my proſperity.

Verſe 7. Mine eye alſo is dim by reaſon of ſorrow] Not only is my good name blaſted, but my body alſo is waſted: the nerves of mine eyes are contracted, the viſive faculty decayed, Pſal. 6.7. Mine eye is conſumed becauſe of grief, yea my ſoul and my belly,R. Levi. Pagnin Vatab. Pſal. 1.10. Not the viſive only, but the vital powers [illegible: 1 letter]re waſted (ſee chap. 16.16.) yea the intellective part, as well as the ſenſitive, underſtood by the formations in the next clauſe, that is, the cogitations, ſay they according to Gen. 6.5. But I rather take it according to our Tranſlation, for the members of the body.

And all my members are as a ſhadow] My membra are but umbra, they look more like a Skeleton, an Anatomy, an Apparition, then a true body, nothing being left but skin and bone ſo much meager'd are all my members. This is hyperbolica ma[illegible: 1 letter]orum ſuorum amplificatio, ſaith Merlin.

Verſe 8. Ʋpright men ſhall be a ſtonied at this] They ſhall ſilently admire and adore the fathomleſſe depth of the divine adminiſtration, when they ſee a man ſo upright to ſuffer ſuch heavy preſſures: yet ſhall they not cenſure me as you do, not condemn me for complaining, ſith there is a cauſe. They cannot indeed ſee far into Gods ſecret intentions, they do therefore mirari rather then rimari, like as the old Romanes dedicated unto Victory a certain Lake, the depth whereof they could not fathom.

And the innocent ſhall ſtir up himſelf againſt the hypocrite] He ſhall learn of me, not to be baffled out of his ſincerity; to be mocked out of his integrity, but to maintain and take comfort therein againſt all his falſe Accuſers. Oppoſition doth not weaken, but waken Heroick Spirits, 2 Sam. 6.21, 22. They proceed ſo much the more vigorouſly in the wayes of Holineſs; like as Lime burns the more for the cold water caſt upon it, and as the Palm-tree, which although it have many weights at the top, and many ſnakes at the bottome, yet it ſtirreth up it ſelfe, and flouriſheth, taking for its Poſie, Nee premor, nec perimor. Nothing hurteth or hindreth me.

Verſe 9. The righteous alſo ſhall hold on his way] Stumble he may for a time at his owne calamity, and worſe mens felicity; but as he that ſtumbleth, and yet falleth not, gets ground; ſo fareth it with the righteous in this caſe. Once David ſaid, Verily I have cleanſed my heart in vaine, and waſhed my hands in innocency: For all the day long have I been plagued, when had men have been proſpered. Hence he began to repent of his repentance, and to miſcenſure the generation of Gods children as thrice miſerable, Pſal. 73.13, 14, 15. but after a while, and upon better conſideration, he ſaid, This is mine infirmity; yea, he befooled and be beaſted himſelf, ver. 22. for ſo ſaying. And the like will all thoſe at length do, that belong to God, though for the preſent offended at Gods proceedings, and by their paſſions miſcarried to their coſt; yet they return to their right minds: forwards they may fall ſometimes, but not backwards, for that were far more dangerous. Lord, to whom ſhould we go, ſaith Peter? ſith thou alone haſt the words of eternal life, John 6.68. Neither know we where to mend our ſelves, by gadding about to change our way, Jer. 2.36. The righteous ſhall hold on his way, merdicùs tenebit, he ſhall hold it toughly, hold it as with tooth and nail, not going aſide a nailes bredth; [non-Latin text not transcribed], he ſhall ſtick to it, as the Greek hath it.

And he that hath clean hands] Upright Innocent. Righteous, cleane handed, theſe all are the good mans adjuncts and Titles of honour, far beyond thoſe of the worlds greateſt Magnifico.

Shall wax ſtronger and ſtronger] Heb. Shall add ſtrength, Not only ſhall hee hold his own, but get more grace; not only perſevere, but proceed and make progreſſe. He ſhall take boldneſſe, Sumet audaciam. ſay the Septuagint, and (by an holy Antipenſtaſis) get heart of grace, as they call it, from the evil attempts of others againſt him; the more outragious they, the more couragious he; like as by Saint Pauls bonds many waxed confident, Phil. 1.14. and as the Primitive Chriſtians, the more they were killed up, the more numerous they became. True zeal is of a moſt maſculine,Plures efficimur quoties mctimur. Tertul. and couragious nature: it is inkindled, by quench-coales, quickened by rubs and remora's. Ba[illegible: 1 letter]uc repaired earneſtly, burſting out into heat, nehem. 3.20. Shall ſuch a man as I flye? ſaid that heavenly Spark, chap. 6.11. Shall I change my opinion, becauſe hoc Ithacus velit? Remit of my diligence, becauſe of a frown or a frump? becauſe ſuch a Perſecutour threatneth me? Oh that I might enjoy thoſe wild beaſts prepared for my death, ſaid Ignatius! Oh that I might have the maidenhead of that kind of ſuffering for Chriſt, ſaid that Martyr to Bonner, threatning to whip him, &c.

Verſe 10. But as for you all, do ye return, &c.] Change your minds, as Mal. 3. 18. and cloſe with me, lay aſide your prejudicate opinions, deliver up you ſelves to my diſcipline, who am ready to teach you things both weighty and neceſſary, Siquis culturae patientem accommodet aurem.

For I cannot find one wiſe man amongſt you.] Nihil hic ex odio dicit. ſaith an Interpreter. This Job ſpeaketh not out of hatred to their perſons, but freely uttereth that which he was perſwaded to be the truth, and wiſheth them a better underſtanding of the thing controverted betwixt himſelf and them at this time. Now it is no fault to ſpeak of men as we find them. See 1 Cor. 6.5. I ſpeak to your ſhame. is it ſo that there is not a wiſe man among you? and yet chap. 10.15. I ſpeak as to wiſe men, judg you what I ſay.

[non-Latin text not transcribed].Theog.

Verſe 11. My dayes are paſt] q.d. Its paſt time of day for me to hope for a returne of a proſperous condition, ſith I am irrecoverably diſeaſed, and cannot be long of life.

My purpoſes are broken off.] Or, My thoughts are pluckt up by the roots. even the Poſſeſſions of mine heart. that is, thoſe thoughts that ſhould wholly poſſeſſe me, and take me up entirely, ſeizing upon my ſpirit; q.d. I am not now in caſe to think ſettledly and ſeriouſly of any good, my ſorrowes are ſo many, and my ſores ſo grievous. The Chaldee hath it, The Tables of my heart are broken. How fooliſh then are they who put off their repentance till they are caſt upon their ſick-beds, when they may ſoon find enough to do to attend the paine and infirmity of their bodies? To ſuffer and be ſick, (ſaith One) is work enough for any man at one time: he had not need to have his greateſt work to do, when he hath ſuch work to do.

Verſe 12. They change the night into day.] i.e. My troubled thoughts render my nights reſtleſs, filling me with confuſion, when the mind is unſettled the man cannot reſt.

The light is ſhort becauſe of darkneſſe] i.e. Comfort is long ere it cometh,Bern. and ſoon it expireth: Rara hora. brevis mora. The Vulgar, Poſt tenebras ſpero [illegible: 1 letter]ucem, here, After darkneſſe I hope for light (the ancient Motto of the Town of Geneva) is far fetch'd.

Verſe 13. If I wait, the grave is mine houſe.] In that congregation houſe of all living, (as it is called chap. 30.23) both I and my hopes muſt be ſuddenly lodged. Some render it thus, If I build, the grave is my houſe. Solomon calleth it, T[illegible: 2 letters] houſe of eternity, Eccleſ. 12.5. And the Egyptians accordingly call graves, everlaſting houſes, as [illegible: 1 word] ſaith Lib. 1.

I have made my bed in darkneſs] The grave was Jobs houſe, and therein he had made his bed to reſt from his labours. There men follow their works no more, becauſe followed by their works, Rev. 14.14.

Verſe 14. I have ſaid to corruption, Thou art my father] See how he beſpeaks corruption and the wormes, Ac ſijam juris illorum, & Domeſticus eſſet as if he were of family with them, and neareſt of kin to them; ſo doth he court them, as it were, that they might be willing to receive him: ſhewing withal how willing himſelf was to dye; for whether do men in a ſtrange Country, and in miſery, deſire rather to go, then to the houſe of their parents? Here alſo Job declareth what will be the end of all men, and what ſhall be their kindred in the grave. Of corruption we came (for what elſe is the ſeed and blood of generation?) to corruption alſo we go, as ſons thereof; and Pulvu & Putredo we ſalute for ſiſters, that ſhall be moſt tender of us, and attendant upon us. Why then ſhould any boaſt of high kindred? To the pit I cry, O father. O ſiſter; O mother to the worm, ſo Broughton rendreth it Why ſhould any boaſt of bodily beauty, ſince corruption will ſhortly ſeize upon the faireſt face, which is now but putrefaction and wormes, once removed, and to the ſame muſt ſuddenly move back again. Mihi experto credite, ſaith Auſtin, Believe me who have made trial of it? Open a grave, and upon the dead mans head you ſhall find toads leaping begotten of his braines; upon his loynes Serpents crawling, begotten of his raines;Serm. 48. ad frat. in crem. in his belly wormes abounding, ariſing out of his entrailes. Behold what now we are, and what we ſhortly ſhall be; Behold the Original and filthineſs of ſin, &c.

Verſe 15. And where is now my hope, &c?] Heb. And where is my hope? ſcil. of reſtauration to my priſtine proſperity, which you have ſo often promiſed me, who am now ready ſet upon the confines of death? Job was paſt the Cape of good hope, in his own apprehenſion; but God turned again his captivity, chap. 42. Qui nil ſperare poteſt deſperet nihil. Job did well to propound death to himſelf, and prepare for it by ſuch aforementioned familiarity: but yet he ſhould have better bethought him of the infinite power and goodneſſe of God, who raiſeth the dead, and delighteth to help ſuch as are forſaken of their hopes. Who delivered us from ſo great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we truſt, that he will yet deliver, 2 Cor 1.10. The Hebrew word that ſignifieth hope, ſignifieth alſo a line, becauſe by hope the heart ſhould be ſtretcht out as a line to the thing it hopeth for; And becauſe it ſignifieth alſo a Congregation, Jerem. 3.17 Gen. 1.19. therefore ſome render this verſe thus, And where now is my congregation? And as for my congregation, who ſhall ſee it? q.d. I have no other family or familiars, but what are to be found in the grave.

Verſe 16. They ſhall go down to the bars of the pit.] That is, I and my things, or I and my hopes of proſperity, verſe 15. and they that will ſee the good I hope for, moſt paſſe through the gates of death to behold it, and lye down in the grave with me,Per irriſionem baec dicta ſunt. and then it ſhall appear. Cajetan thinks that this is ſpoken ironically to his friends, and by way of irriſion; q.d. Belike you think I ſhall be rich in the grave (who promiſe ſo much to me, and make me ſuch overtures of an happineſſe here) for I have no hope to be rich in this world. And the Septuagint ſeem to favour this ſenſe, rendring it, Shall my goods go into the grave with me? See 1 Tim. 6.7. with the Note.

When our reſt together is in the duſt] Or, When I ſhall reſt alone in the duſt, (as chap. 34.29.) and then — Modo quem fortuna fovendo.De Annibal. Sil. Ital. Congeſtis opibus doniſque refor ſit opimis, Nudum tartareâ, portabit [illegible: 2 letters]vita cymbâ.