Bible Commentaries

Many such things - That is, either things fitted to provoke and irritate, or sentiments that are common-place. There was nothing new in what they said, and nothing to the purpose.

Miserable comforters - Compare Job 13:4. They had come professedly to condole with him. Now all that they said was adapted only to irritate, and to deepen his distress. He was disappointed; and he was deeply wounded and grieved.

Shall vain words? - Margin, As in Hebrew words of wind; that is, words which were devoid of thought-light, trifling. This is a retort on Eliphaz. He had charged Job JObadiah 15:2-3 with uttering only such words. Such forms of expression are common in the East. "His promise, it is only wind." "Breath, breath: all breath." Roberts.

Or what emboldeneth thee? - "What provokes or irritates thee, that thou dost answer in this manner? What have I said, that has given occasion to such a speech - a speech so severe and unkind?" The Syriac reads this, "do not afflict me any more with speeches; for if you speak any more, I will not answer you."

I also could speak as ye do - In the same reproachful manner, and stringing together old proverbs and maxims as you have.

If your soul were in my soul's stead - If you were in my place. The idea is, that there is no difficulty in finding arguments to overwhelm the afflicted - a truth which most persons who have been unfortunate, have had opportunity to experience.

I could heap up words against you - Or, rather, "I could string together words against you." The idea is not that of heaping up, or accumulating; it is that of tying together, or uniting; and refers here to stringing together old maxims, saws, and proverbs, in the form of a set argument or discourse. The idea of Job is, that their discourses were nothing but ancient proverbs, thrown together, or strung along without regard to order, pertinency, or force. The Hebrew word used here (חבר châbar) means to bind, to bind together, to associate, to be confederate. It may be applied to friends - united in friendship; to nations - united in an alliance, etc. Gesenius supposes that it means here that he "would make a league with words against them;" but the above seems to be the more probable interpretation. The Septuagint renders it, "then I could insult you - ἐναλοῦμαι enaloumai - with words." Jerome (Vulgate) "I would console you with words, and move my head over you." The Chaldee is as the Hebrew - חבר châbar. Dr. Good renders it, "against you will I string together old sayings."

And shake mine head at you - An action common to all countries and ages, expressive of contempt, or of threatening; compare Jeremiah 18:16; Lamentations 2:15; Zephaniah 2:15; Matthew 27:39. So Lucretius ii.:1163:

Jamque caput quassans grandis suspirat ararat

Crebrius incassum magnum cecidisse laborem.

In like manner Virgil, Aeneid xii. 292:

Tum quassanos caput, haec effudit pectore dicta.

So, also, Homer, Odyssey ε e:

Κινήσας δὲ κάρη πρότι ὅν μυθήσατο Θυμόν.

Kinēsas de karē proti hon muthēsato thumon.

The meaning of Job here is, that be could as easily have expressed contempt, reproach, and scorn, as they did. It required no uncommon talent to do it, and he felt that he would have been fully sufficient for the task.

(But I would strengthen you with my mouth With that which proceeds from the mouth - words.

And the moving of my lips - My speaking - implying that it would have been done in a mild, gentle, kind manner - so that the lips would appear just to move. Others, however, have given a different interpretation. Thus, Dr. Good renders it:

"With my own mouth will I overpower you,

Till the quivering of my lips shall fall."

But the common interpretation is to be preferred. The word rendered "moving" ניד nı̂yd is from נוּד nûd - "to move," "agitate," and hence, denotes "motion." It denotes here the motion of the lips when we speak. Gesenius renders it, "consolation," "comfort" - because this is expressed by a motion of the head.

Should assuage your grief - The word used here (יחשׂך yachâśak) means properly "to hold back," "to restrain;" Job 7:11. Here it is correctly rendered, meaning that he would hold back, or check their sorrows. In other words, he would sustain them.

Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged - "But for me, it makes now no difference whether I speak or am silent. My sufferings continue. If I attempt to vindicate myself before people, I am reproached; and equally so if I am silent. If I maintain my cause before God, it avails me nothing, for my sufferings continue. If I am silent, and submit without a complaint, they are the same. Neither silence, nor argument, nor entreaty, avail me before God or man. I am doomed to suffering."

What am I eased? - Margin. "Goeth from me." Literally, "what goeth from me?" The sense is, that it all availed nothing.

But now he hath made me weary - That is, God has exhausted my strength. This verse introduces a new description of his sufferings; and he begins with a statement of the woes that God had brought on him. The first was, that he had taken away all his strength.

All my company - The word rendered "company" (עדה ‛êdâh) means properly an assembly that comes together by appointment, or at stated times; but here it is evidently used in the sense of the little community of which Job was the head and father. The sense is, that all his family had been destroyed.

And thou hast filled me with wrinkles - Noyes renders this, "and thou hast seized hold of me, which is a witness against me." Wemyss, "since thou hast bound me with chains, witnesses come forward." Good, "and hast cut off myself from becoming a witness." Luther, "he has made me "kuntzlich" (skillfully, artificially, cunningly,) and bears witness against me." Jerome, "my wrinkles bear witness against me." Septuagint, "my lie has become a witness, and is risen up against me." From this variety of explanations, it will be seen that this passage is not of easy and obvious construction. The Hebrew word which is here used and rendered, "thou hast filled me with wrinkles" (תקמטני tı̂qâmaṭēnı̂y), from קמט qâmaṭ - occurs only in one other place in the Bible; Job 22:16. It is there in the "Pual" form, and rendered "were cut down." According to Gesenius, it means, to lay fast hold of, to seize with the hands, and answers to the Arabic "to bind."

The word in Chaldee (קמט qâmaṭ) means to wrinkle, or collect in wrinkles; and is applied to anything that is "contracted," or rough. It is applied in the form קימט qâymaṭ to the pupil of the eye as being "contracted," as in the declaration in Derek 'Erets, c. 5, quoted by Castell. "The world is like the eye; where the ocean that surrounds the world is white; the world itself is black; the pupil is Jerusalem, and the image in the pupil is the sanctuary." Probably the true notion of the word is to be found in the Arabic. According to Castell, this means, to tie together the four feet of a sheep or lamb, in order that it might be slain; to bind an infant in swaddling clothes before it is laid in a cradle; to collect camels into a group or herd; and hence, the noun is used to denote a cord or rope twisted of wool, or of leaves of the palm, or the bandages by which an infant is bound. This idea is not in use in the Hebrew; but I have no doubt that this was the original sense of the word, and that this is one of the numerous places in Job where light may be cast upon the meaning of a word from its use in Arabic. The Hebrew word may be applied to the "collecting" or "contraction" of the face in wrinkles by age, but this is not the sense here. We should express the idea by "being "drawn up" with pain or affliction; by being straitened, or compressed." The meaning - is that of "drawing together" - as the feet of a sheep when tied, or twisting - as a rope; and the idea here is, that Job was drawn up, compressed, bound by his afflictions - and that this was a witness against him. The word "compressed" comes as near to the sense as any one that we have.

Which is a witness against me - That is, "this is an argument against my innocence. The fact that God has thus compressed, and fettered, and fastened me; that he has bound me as with a cord - as if I were tied for the slaughter, is an argument on which my friends insist, and to which they appeal, as a proof of my guilt. I cannot answer it. They refer to it constantly. It is the burden of their demonstration, and how can I reply to it?" The position of mind here is, that he could appeal to God for his uprightness, but these afflictions stood in the way of his argument for his innocence with his friends. They were the "usual" proofs of God's displeasure, and he could not well meet the argument which was drawn from them in his case, for in all his protestations of innocence there stood these afflictions - the usual proofs of God's displeasure against people - as evidence against him, to which they truimphantly appealed.

And my leanness rising up in me - Dr. Good renders this, "my calumniator." Wemyss, "false witnesses." So Jerome, "falsiloquus." The Septuagint renders it," my lie - τὸ ψευδός μου to pseudos mou - rises up against me." The Hebrew word (כחשׁ kachash) means properly "a lie, deceit, hypocrisy." But it cannot be supposed that Job would formally admit that he was a liar and a hypocrite. This would have been to concede the whole point in dispute. The word, therefore, it would seem, "must" have some other sense. The verb כחשׁ kâchash is used to denote not only to "lie," but also to "waste away, to fail." Psalm 109:24, "my flesh "faileth" of fatness." The idea seems to have been, that a person whose flesh had wasted away by sickness, as it were, "belied himself;" or it was a "false testimony" about himself; it did not give "a fair representation" of him. That could be obtained only when he was in sound health. Thus, in Habakkuk 3:17, "the labour of the olive "shall fail."" Hebrew shall "lie" or "deceive;" that is, it shall belie itself, or shall not do justice to itself; it shall afford no fair representation of what the olive is fitted to produce. So the word is used Hosea 9:2. It is used here in this sense, as denoting "the false appearance of Job" - his present aspect - which was no proper representation of himself; that is, his emaciated and ulcerated form. This, he says, was a "witness" against him. It was one of the proofs to which they appealed, and he did not know how to answer it. It was usually an evidence of divine displeasure, and he now solemnly and tenderly addresses God, and says, that he had furnished this testimony against him - and he was overwhelmed.

He teareth me in his wrath - The language here is all taken from the ferocity of wild beasts; and the idea is, that his enemy had come upon him as a lion seizes upon its prey. Rosenmuller, Reiske, and some others suppose that this refers to God. Cocceius refers it to Satan. Schultens, Dr. Good, and some others, to Eliphaz, as the leading man among his adversaries. I have no doubt that this is the true reference. The connection seems to demand this; and we ought not to suppose that Job would charge this upon God, unless there is the clearest evidence. The whole passage is a description of the manner in which Job supposed his friends had come upon him. He says they had attacked him like wild beasts. Yet it must be admitted that he sometimes attributes these feelings to God, and says that he came upon him like a roaring lion see Job 10:16-17.

Who hateth me - Or rather, "and persecutes me, or is become my adversary," for so the word used here (שׂטם śâṭam) means; see the notes at Job 30:21.

He gnasheth upon me with his teeth - As an enraged wild animal does when about to seize upon its prey. A similar figure occurs in Otway, in his "Orphan:"

• For my Castalio's false;

False as the wind, the water, or the weather:

Cruel as tigers o'er their trembling prey:

I feel him in my breast, he tears my heart,

And at each sigh he drinks the gushing blood.

And so Homer, when he describes the wrath of Achilles as he armed himself to avenge the death of Patroclus, mentions among other signs of wrath his gnashing his teeth:

Τοῦ καὶ ὀδόντων μὲν καναχὴ πέλε.

Tou kai odontōn men kanachē pele.

Iliad xix. 364.

So Virgil describes his hero as

furens animis, dentibus infrendens.

Aeneid viii. 228.

Mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me - Looks fiercely; watches me narrowly - as an animal does his victim when about to seize upon it. The image is probably drawn from the intense gaze of the lion when about to pounce upon his prey. "He darts piercing looks at me; or looks at me with a fierce and penetrating eye."