1.
My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
1. leave my complaint upon
myself—rather, "I will give loose to my complaint"
(Job 7:11).
2.
I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.
2. show me, &c.—Do not, by
virtue of Thy mere sovereignty, treat me as guilty without showing me
the reasons.
3.
Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
3. Job is unwilling to think God
can have pleasure in using His power to "oppress" the weak,
and to treat man, the work of His own hands, as of no value (Job 10:8;
Psalms 138:8).
shine upon—favor with
prosperity (Psalms 50:2).
4.
Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?
4-6. Dost Thou see as feebly as
man? that is, with the same uncharitable eye, as, for instance, Job's
friends? Is Thy time as short? Impossible! Yet one might think, from
the rapid succession of Thy strokes, that Thou hadst no time to spare
in overwhelming me.
5.
Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man's days,
6.
That thou inquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin?
7.
Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.
7. "Although Thou (the
Omniscient) knowest," &c. (connected with ), "Thou searchest after my sin."
and . . . that
none that can deliver out of thine hand—Therefore Thou hast no
need to deal with me with the rapid violence which man would use (see
Job 10:6).
8.
Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.
8. Made—with pains; implying a
work of difficulty and art; applying to God language applicable only
to man.
together round about—implying
that the human body is a complete unity, the parts of which on
all sides will bear the closest scrutiny.
9.
Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?
9. clay— proves that the reference here is, not so much to the
perishable nature of the materials, as to their wonderful
fashioning by the divine potter.
10.
Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?
10. In the organization of the
body from its rude commencements, the original liquid gradually
assumes a more solid consistency, like milk curdling into cheese
(Psalms 139:15; Psalms 139:16).
Science reveals that the chyle circulated by the lacteal vessels is
the supply to every organ.
11.
Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.
11. fenced—or "inlaid"
(Psalms 139:15); "curiously
wrought" [UMBREIT].
In the foeligtus the skin appears first, then the flesh, then the
harder parts.
12.
Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.
12. visitation—Thy watchful
Providence.
spirit—breath.
13.
And these things hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this is with thee.
13. is with thee—was Thy
purpose. All God's dealings with Job in his creation, preservation,
and present afflictions were part of His secret counsel (Psalms 139:16;
Acts 15:18; Ecclesiastes 3:11).
14.
If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.
14, 15. Job is perplexed because
God "marks" every sin of his with such ceaseless rigor.
Whether "wicked" (godless and a hypocrite) or "righteous"
(comparatively sincere), God condemns and punishes alike.
15.
If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;
15. lift up my head—in
conscious innocence (Psalms 3:3).
see thou—rather, "and
seeing I see (I too well see) mine affliction," (which seems to
prove me guilty) [UMBREIT].
16.
For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.
16. increaseth—rather, "(if)
I lift up (my head) Thou wouldest hunt me," &c.
[UMBREIT].
and again—as if a lion
should not kill his prey at once, but come back and torture it again.
17.
Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.
17. witnesses—His accumulated
trials were like a succession of witnesses brought up in proof of his
guilt, to wear out the accused.
changes and war—rather,
"(thou settest in array) against me host after host"
(literally, "changes and a host," that is, a succession of
hosts); namely, his afflictions, and then reproach upon reproach from
his friends.
18.
Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!
19.
I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
20.
Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,
20. But, since I was destined
from my birth to these ills, at least give me a little breathing time
during the few days left me (Job 9:34;
Job 13:21; Psalms 39:13).
21.
Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
22.
A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.
22. The ideas of order and
light, disorder and darkness, harmonize (). Three Hebrew words are used for darkness; in (1) the common word "darkness"; here (2) "a
land of gloom" (from a Hebrew root, "to cover up");
(3) as "thick darkness" or blackness (from a root,
expressing sunset). "Where the light thereof is like blackness."
Its only sunshine is thick darkness. A bold figure of poetry. Job in
a better frame has brighter thoughts of the unseen world. But his
views at best wanted the definite clearness of the Christian's.
Compare with his words here Revelation 21:23;
Revelation 22:5; 2 Timothy 1:10.