Job 36:20

Desire not the night,.... Either in a literal sense, which Job might do; not for secrecy to commit sin, as the thief, murderer, and adulterer do; Elihu had no such suspicion of Job; nor for ease and

Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place. Desire - pant for [ tish'ap (H7602)]. Job had wished for death, (Job 3:3-9, etc.) Night - (John 9:4). When , lª- - whereby, or wherein; literally, for the purpose.

Desire not the night; either, 1. Properly, that in it thou mayst find some ease or rest, as men usually do. But this Job did not much desire, for he complains that his nights were as restless as his days. Or rather, 2. Metaphorically, the night of death, which is called the night both in Scripture, as , and in other writers; and which Job had oft and earnestly desired, and even thirsted after, as this verb notes. See . And this seems best to agree with the foregoing counsel, , beware lest he take thee away with his stroke; for then, saith he, thou art irrecoverably lost and gone; and therefore take heed of thy foolish and oft-repeated desire of death, lest God inflict it upon thee in great anger. When; or, by which; which words are oft understood in divers texts of Scripture. People; even whole nations and bodies of people, which are all God’ s creatures as well as thou, and yet are not spared by him, but cut off in wrath, and many of them sent from one death to another; take heed therefore thou be not added to the number. Are cut off, Heb. are made to ascend, i.e. to vanish, or perish, or die, as this verb is oft used, as . In their place; in their several places where they are; or suddenly, before they can remove out of the place where the hand and stroke of God finds them; or in the place where they are settled and surrounded with all manner of comforts, and supports, and friends, all which could not prevent their being cut off. Possibly this phrase may allude to that expression of Job’ s, , I shall die in my nest.

Job 36:20 Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place.Ver. 20. Desire not the night, &c.] That is, as some sense it, do not thou peevishly desire death, lest it come too soon, and it do by thee as it doth by many a one, whom it cuts off in judgment. For surely in the state thou art now in thou oughtest to fear an extraordinary kind of death, an inlet to eternal destruction, as in the deluge, Sodom, and Egypt. Others render it thus, Neither let it disquiet thee in the night, how people are destroyed out of their place; that is, in the night season, when thy mind is void of cares, puzzle not thyself how and why some nations perish, and not others, but rather rest thyself upon God’ s providence and unsearchable wisdom, and trouble not thy head in searching out the cause of this so sudden misfortune. Brentius makes this the sense, Noli impie agere, Desire not the night; that is, deal not wickedly by complaining against God, and impatiently bearing his hand; as thieves and adulterers desire the night for despatch of their deeds of darkness. Think not thou to hide thyself in the dark from the dint of God’ s displeasure. When people are cut off in their place] Heb. ascend under them; i.e. rise, that they may fall, Psalms 102:10; as the light of a candle, when it is ready to go out, flieth up, and then vanisheth away; or as the corn is first taken up by the hand of the reaper, and then cut off, and laid flat on the ground.

(20) Desire not the night—i.e., of death, as Job had done (Job 16:22; Job 17:13, &c., Job 19:27), or as, at all events, his words might be understood. For “people,” read peoples: i.e., nations.

Verse 20. Desire not the night] Thou hast wished for death; (here called night;) desire it not; leave that with God. If he hear thee, and send death, thou mayest be cut off in a way at which thy soul would shudder.

5–25. Elihu’s doctrine is in a word: God is great and despiseth not, He is great in strength of heart. His greatness is that of understanding, which enables Him to estimate all rightly, to see through all right and wrong, and to adapt His providence to the strong and to the weak, the evil and the good. This thought with the illustrations of it, Job 36:6-15, and the application of it to Job , vv16-25, exhaust the first half of this concluding speech.

Desire not the night - That is, evidently, “the night of death.” The darkness of the night is an emblem of death, and it is not uncommon to speak of death in this manner; see John 9:4, “The night

20. The night — Night is used figuratively for death, (Job 34:20; Job 34:25,) or for destruction heightened by night. Psalms 91:5.