---
title: "Clarke"
description: "termination of all his sufferings by death. 17-22. NOTES ON CHAP. XVI Verse Job 16:2. I have heard many such things — These sayings of the ancients are no"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/job/16"
---

*termination of all his sufferings by death*. 17-22.
NOTES ON CHAP. XVI

Verse [Job 16:2](../../../kjv/job/16/2). ***I have heard many such things*** — These sayings of the ancients are not strange to me; but they do not apply to my case: ye see me in affliction; ye should endeavour to console me. This ye do not; and yet ye pretend to do it! *Miserable comforters* are *ye all*.

Verse [Job 16:3](../../../kjv/job/16/3). ***Vain words*** — Literally, *words of air*.
***What emboldeneth thee*** — Thou art totally ignorant of the business; what then can induce thee to take part in this discussion?

Verse [Job 16:4](../../../kjv/job/16/4). ***I also could speak*** — It is probably better to render some of these *permissives* or *potential verbs* literally in the *future tense*, as in the Hebrew: *I also WILL speak*. Mr. *Good* has adopted this mode.
***If your soul were in my soul's stead*** — If you were in my place, I also could quote many wise sayings that might tend to show that you were hypocrites and wicked men; but would this be fair? Even when I might not choose to go farther in *assertion*, I might *shake* *my head* by way of *insinuation* that there was much more behind, of which I did not choose to speak; but would this be right? That such sayings are in memory, is no proof that they were either made for me, or apply to my case.

Verse [Job 16:5](../../../kjv/job/16/5). ***I would strengthen you with my mouth*** — Mr. *Good* translates thus: -
"With my own mouth will I overpower you,
Till the quivering of my lips shall fail;"

for which rendering he contends in his learned notes. This translation is countenanced by the *Septuagint, Syriac*, and *Arabic* versions.

Verse [Job 16:6](../../../kjv/job/16/6). ***Though I speak*** — But it will be of no avail thus to speak; for reprehensions of *your* conduct will not serve to mitigate *my* sufferings.

Verse [Job 16:7](../../../kjv/job/16/7). ***But now he hath made me weary*** — The *Vulgate* translates thus: - *Nunc autem oppressit me dolor meus; et in nihilum redacti* *sunt omnes artus mei*; "But now my grief oppresses me, and all my joints are reduced to nothing." Perhaps Job alluded here to his *own afflictions*, and the *desolation of his family*. Thou hast made me weary with continual affliction; my strength is quite exhausted; and thou hast made desolate all my company, not leaving me a single child to continue my name, or to comfort me in sickness or old age. Mr. *Good* translates: -
"Here, indeed, hath he distracted me;
Thou hast struck apart all my witnesses."

Verse [Job 16:8](../../../kjv/job/16/8). ***Thou hast filled me with wrinkles*** — If Job's disease were the *elephantiasis*, in which the whole skin is *wrinkled* as the skin of the *elephant*, from which this species of leprosy has taken its name, these words would apply most forcibly to it; but the whole passage, through its obscurity, has been variously rendered. *Calmet* unites it with the preceding, and *Houbigant* is not very different. He translates thus: - "For my trouble hath now weakened all my frame, and brought wrinkles over me: he is present as a witness, and ariseth against me, who telleth lies concerning me; he openly contradicts me to my face." Mr. *Good* translates nearly in the same way; others still differently.

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

Verse [Job 16:13](../../../kjv/job/16/13). ***His archers compass me*** — רביו *rabbaiv* "his great ones." The *Vulgate* and *Septuagint* translate this *his spears*; the *Syriac, Arabic*, and *Chaldee, his arrows*. On this and the following verse Mr. *Heath* observes: "The metaphor is here taken from huntsmen: first, they surround the beast; then he is shot dead; his entrails are next taken out; and then his body is broken up limb by limb."

Verse [Job 16:15](../../../kjv/job/16/15). ***I have sewed sackcloth*** — שק *sak*, a word that has passed into almost all languages, as I have already had occasion to notice in other parts of this work.
***Defiled my horn in the dust.*** — The *horn* was an emblem of *power*; and the metaphor was originally taken from beasts, such as the urus, wild ox, *buffalo*, or perhaps the *rhinoceros*, who were perceived to have so much power in their horns. Hence a horn was frequently worn on crowns and helmets, as is evident on ancient coins; and to this day it is an appendage to the diadem of the kings and chiefs of Abyssinia. In the second edition of Mr. Bruce's Travels in Abyssinia, vol. viii., plates 2 and 3, we have engravings of two chiefs, *Kefla Yasous*, and *Woodage Ashahel*, who are represented with this emblem of *power* on their forehead. Mr. Bruce thus describes it: "One thing remarkable in this cavalcade, which I observed, was the head dress of the *governors of* *provinces*. A large broad fillet was bound upon their forehead, and tied behind their head. In the middle of this was a *horn*, or a conical piece of silver, gilt, about *four* inches in length, much in the shape of our common candle extinguishers. This is called *kirn*, or horn; and is only worn in reviews, or *parades after* *victory*. This, I apprehend, like all others of their usages is taken from the Hebrews; and the several allusions made in Scripture to it arise from this practice. 'I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly; and to the wicked, Lift not up the *horn*.' 'Lift not up your *horn* on high, speak not with a stiff neck; for promotion cometh not,' &c. 'But my *horn* shalt thou *exalt* like the horn of a unicorn.' 'And the *horn* of the righteous shall be *exalted* with honour.' And so in many other places throughout the Psalms." In a note on the same page we have the following observation: "The crooked manner in which they hold their neck when this ornament is on their forehead, for fear it should fall forward, perfectly shows the meaning of 'Speak not with a stiff neck when you hold the horn on high (or erect) like the horn of the unicorn."' - Bruce's Travels, vol. iv., p. 407.
*Defiling* or *rolling the horn in the dust*, signifies the disgrace or destruction of power, authority, and eminence.
Mr. *Good* translates, *I have rolled my* turban *in the dust*, which he endeavours to justify in a long note. But in this, I think, this very learned man is mistaken. The Hebrew *keren* is the same as the AEthiopic *kirn*, and both mean exactly, in such connection, what Mr. Bruce has noticed above. The *horn* on the *diadem* is the emblem of power, authority, and eminence.

Verse [Job 16:16](../../../kjv/job/16/16). ***On my eyelids*****is*****the shadow of death*** — Death is now *fast approaching* me; already his *shadow* is projected over me.

Verse [Job 16:17](../../../kjv/job/16/17). ***Not for*****any*****injustice*** — I must assert, even with my last breath, that the charges of my friends against me are groundless. I am afflicted unto death, but not on account of my iniquities.
***Also my prayer*****is*****pure.*** — I am no hypocrite, God knoweth.

Verse [Job 16:18](../../../kjv/job/16/18). ***O earth, cover not thou my blood*** — This is evidently an allusion to the murder of Abel, and the verse has been understood in *two* different ways:
1. Job here calls for justice against his destroyers. His *blood* is his *life*, which he considers as taken away by *violence*, and therefore calls for vengeance. Let my blood cry against my murderers, as the blood of Abel cried against Cain. My innocent life is taken away by violence, as his innocent life was; as therefore the *earth* was not permitted *to cover his blood*, so that his murderer should be concealed, let my death be avenged in the same way.
2. It has been supposed that the passage means that Job considered himself accused of shedding innocent blood; and, conscious of his own perfect innocence, he prays that the earth may not cover any blood shed by him. Thus Mr. Scott: -
"O earth, the blood accusing me reveal;
Its piercing voice in no recess conceal."

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

Verse [Job 16:19](../../../kjv/job/16/19). ***My witness*****is*****in heaven*** — I appeal to God for my innocence.

Verse [Job 16:20](../../../kjv/job/16/20). ***My friends scorn me*** — They deride and insult me, but my eye is towards God; I look to him to vindicate my cause.

Verse [Job 16:21](../../../kjv/job/16/21). ***O that one might plead*** — Let me only have liberty to plead with God, as a man hath with his fellow.

Verse [Job 16:22](../../../kjv/job/16/22). ***When a few years are come*** — I prefer Mr. *Good's* version: -
I HAVE said on [Job 16:9](../../../kjv/job/16/9) that a part of Job's sufferings probably arose from appalling representations made to his eye or to his imagination by Satan and his agents. I think this neither irrational nor improbable. That he and his demons have power to make themselves manifest on especial occasions, has been credited in all ages of the world not by the weak, credulous, and superstitious only, but also by the wisest, the most learned, and the best of men. I am persuaded that many passages in the Book of Job refer to this, and admit of an easy interpretation on this ground.

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