성경 주석서

My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

My soul is weary of my life — Because it is a lifeless life. Mortis habet vires, a death more like. Life is sweet, and every creature maketh much of it, from the highest angel in heaven to the lowest worm on earth. The Scripture setteth it forth as a sweet mercy, Genesis 45:28 Lamentations 3:39 Esther 7:3 Jeremiah 39:18 ; Jeremiah 51:5 . But God can so embitter it with outward and inward troubles, that it shall become a burden. "I am weary of my life" (saith good Rebekah, Genesis 27:46 ), and "What good shall my life do me?" David, forced to be in bad company, cries, Oh that I had the wings of a dove, … Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshech, … Elijah, fleeing from Jezebel, requested for himself that he might die, saying, "It is enough, Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers," 1 Kings 19:4 . No: but God had provided some better thing for him (as the apostle speaketh in another case, Hebrews 11:40 ), for he was shortly after translated and taken out of the reach both of Jezebel, whom he feared, and of death, which he desired. Sed multi magni viri sub Eliae iunipero sedent, saith one, many good men sit under Elijah’ juniper, wishing to be out of the world, if God were so pleased, that they might rest from their labours, and be rid of their many burdens and bondages; as, in the mean while, they rather endure life than desire it, as holding it little better than hell, were it not for the hopes they have of heaven hereafter.

I will leave my complaint upon myself — Liberty I will take to complain, whatever come of it. I will lay the reins in the neck, and let my passions have their full swing at my peril. See the like Job 13:3 . Verum Iob hac in re nimius, saith Mercer, but Job was to blame in doing and saying thus; and it is to be attributed to the infirmity of the flesh, wherewith, although the spirit do notably combat, yet the flesh seemeth sometimes and in some sort to get the better. Nimis augusta res est, nuspiam errare, saith one; Triste mortalitatis privilegium est, licere aliquando peccare, saith another. The snow like swan hath black legs; and in many things we offend all: gold is not to be refused because it wanteth some grains, and hath a crack, …

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul — And so seek to ease my grief by giving a vent unto it. But it is evident that such outbursts and overflowings of the gall and spleen come from a fulness of bad humours.

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I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.

I will say unto God, do not condemn me — You may say so as a humble suppliant, but not as holding yourself innocent, and therefore harshly dealt with. The Hebrew is, Do not make me wicked; rather do good, O Lord, to those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts; but lead me not forth with the workers of iniquity, as a malefactor is led forth to execution, Psalms 125:5 .

Show me wherefore thou contendest with me — i.e. Quare sic me affigas, saith Vatablus, why thou thus afflictest me, whether for sin or for trial; and this Job desired to know, not to satisfy his curiosity, but his conscience, as one well observeth; and that the world might be satisfied, the rash judgment of his friends confuted, and answered by a determination from heaven.

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[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?

Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress? — It is the guise of wicked judges to take this counsel, to follow this course; whom thou, being a most just and righteous judge, canst not confirm or encourage by thine own example, as it were by a light shining from above. Thus Job rhetoricateth; his complaints are high, yet ever with an alloy or mixture of modesty (Beza).

That thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands — i.e. Me, thy poor creature, wilt thou do and undo? make a man, and unmake him again for thy mind’s sake? Builders use not to ruin what they have built; artificers love and plead for their own handiwork; fathers foster their children with all tenderness. Some authors dote upon their own doings, as Laurentius Valla did upon his logic, as if there had been none such, calling it, in a bravado, Logicam Laurentinam; and as Campian the Jesuit did upon his ten leaden reasons, which he deemed and boasted to be unanswerable, Heliodorus would rather be unbishoped than yield that his Ethiopic history (a toilsome toy, but the brat of his brain) should be abolished. The saints are "God’s building," 1 Corinthians 3:9 ; handy work, Ephesians 2:10 ; "children," Romans 9:26 ; "epistles known and read of all men," 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 . This if we plead, when sorely afflicted (as the Church did, Isaiah 64:8 , and David, Psalms 138:8 , and Job here), we may have anything. See that notable text, Isaiah 45:11 , and that other, Isaiah 59:16 .

And shine upon the counsel of the wicked? — That is, favour and further their designs. God makes his sun to shine upon such, but himself never shineth upon them. He may be angry enough with men, though they outwardly prosper; yea, to prosper in sin is a most heavy judgment. See Zechariah 1:15 . See Trapp on " Zechariah 1:15 "

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Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?

Hast thou eyes of flesh? — Which see but the surface of things, and not that neither in the dark. Hast thou not fiery eyes, Revelation 1:14 , that need no outward light, but see by sending out a ray, and pierce the inward parts also? Hast thou not made the eye? yea, the optic virtue in the eye, which seeth all and is seen of none? If the sun be the eye of the world, God is much more. The Greeks give him his name from seeing, because he seeth through and through; eyes he hath, but not of flesh; he seeth, but not as man.

Or seest thou as man seeth? — Art thou subject to error, ignorance, partiality, popularity, …? Proceedest thou not according to truth (yea, truth in the inward parts), and not according to opinion or appearance? Of a judge it is said, that he doth neque suspicere, nec despicere, nec respicere, nec circumspicere, neither look up nor down, nor this way nor that, but straight forward to the cause, and not to the person. Of a just law it is said, that it is a heart without affection, an eye without lust, a mind without passion, a treasurer which keepeth for every man what he hath, and distributeth to every man what he ought to have; so and much more than so is God, whatever thoughts might arise sometimes in Job’s heart to the contrary.

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[Are] thy days as the days of man? [are] thy years as man’s days,

Are thy days as the days of man? — Art thou mortal and short lived, as sorry man is, that thou proceedest in this sudden and severe manner, as if thou shouldest not have time enough to try me, and to take an order with me? Art not thou eternal, and dost thou not know in the indivisible moment of thine eternity, all what hath been, is, and shall be? "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world," Acts 15:18 ; yea, long before. The truth is, neither foreknowledge nor remembrance are properly in God, since all things, both past and future, are present with him, Romans 4:17 2 Peter 3:8 Jeremiah 1:5-7 Psalms 139:2 ; and all things without him are but as a point or ball, which with as much ease he discerneth as we turn our eyes.

Are thy years as man’s days — It is well observed that God’s time is set out by years, man’s by days; his time is so short, that it is reckoned by the shortest complete time, a day. The days of our years are threescore and ten, Psalms 90:10 . As for God, he is not only the Ancient of days, Daniel 7:9 , but the day’s Ancient, for he made the day.

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That thou enquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin?

That thou inquirest after mine iniquity, … — viz. By strong pains and mighty terrors, as judges sometimes make inquisition by torture, to find out treason or other heinous offences. What, wouldest thou that I should confess myself a wicked person?

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Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and [there is] none that can deliver out of thine hand.

Thou knowest that I am not wicked — A lewd liver, and a rank hypocrite, as these men would make of me. A sinner I am, but I allow not, wallow not in any known sin; there is no way of wickedness found in me; hypocrisy reigns not in my heart: Haeret in regenitis peccatum, saith one, sin abideth in the best; yet they may not, they must not be called wicked. Julian, the apostate, affirmed that Peter’s halting at Antioch was so taxed by Paul that Peter must needs be a hypocrite (Cyril, lib. 9, in Julian); but this cavil and calumny can never be proved from Paul’s words, for not every one that through infirmity dissembleth sometimes is presently a hypocrite. It is upon thy knowledge, saith Job, that however I am weak, yet wicked I am not; my great scum is not in me, Ezekiel 24:11-12 . The good heart admits not the mixture of any sin; like right wine or honey, as the scum ariseth, it ever casteth it out; as spring water worketh itself clean; as the sea will endure no poisonous thing, but casts it up upon the shore; so a Christian cleareth himself of sin. Well, it may cleave to it for a while, as dross doth to silver, but it entereth not into the frame and constitution; Job is confident of that, and will venture all upon it.

And there is none (or nothing) that can deliver out of thine hand — q.d. Thus thou, Lord, knowest it to be with me, that I have no wicked heart; but for this I expect not to be delivered, for thou canst still find matter in me for which to lay thine hand upon me: but the more I submit myself the more mild shouldest thou surely be in thy dealings toward me; as a lion to a man crouching to him. As Paul said, "I know nothing by myself; yet am I not thereby justified," 1 Corinthians 4:4 ; so Job saith, Lord, thou knowest nothing by me, yet hereby I cannot be delivered (Junius).

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Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.

Thine hands have made me — Or, throughly and accurately wrought me, as it were, with much pains and labour; thou hast exactly fashioned all my members: not that God either hath hands, or putteth himself to pains; for he doth his work without either tool or toil, Isaiah 40:28 . But this is attributed to him after the manner of men, to show the curious workmanship showed in man’s creation, the masterpiece of all his works of wonder. This David sweetly singeth of, Psalms 139:1-24 , and Galen admireth in that excellent book of his, De usu partium humani corporis, setting forth the praises of that God whom he knew not, and singing a hymn unto him. Man, saith one, is cura divini ingenii, he is God’s escutcheon, wherein he hath portrayed all the titles of the most excellent beauties of the world. The sun, moon, and stars are but the works of God’s fingers, Psalms 8:3 , but man is the work of his hands, Psalms 139:14 . He is the most beautiful building of a most wise architect, saith Euripides; the bold attempt of daring nature, saith another heathen; the greatest of all miracles, saith a third. David, speaking of him, and of God’s goodness to him, begins to wonder before he speaketh, and stops speaking, but not to wonder, Psalms 8:1 ; Psalms 8:9 .

And fashioned me together round about — A metaphor from potters, who make their work by turning it around till it be all finished, Jeremiah 18:3 . Thou hast fashioned me, and made me in every point, so Broughton rendereth it. Totum me, non dimidium, Thou hast made the whole, and every part of me, from top to toe, not my nails excepted (as Mercer hath it), with extraordinary care and cunning, bestowing upon me mercies enough between head and foot to till a volume. Who is there, saith Galen, which, looking but upon the skin only of man’s body, wondereth not at the artifice of the Creator? but especially he was amazed at the manner of the motion of the lungs by systole and diastole, and would needs offer hecatombs to that God, whosoever he were, that was author of so admirable and excellent a piece of work.

Yet thou dost destroy me — And this seemeth strange to me. Dost thou yet destroy me? so some read this text; wilt thou swallow me up quick and devour me, as the greater fishes do the lesser? See the note on Job 10:3 . Carest thou not that I am tby workmanship, created unto good works? Ephesians 2:10 ; one in whom thou hast erected the fair fabric of the new man? for this also Job may here very likely refer to.

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