Job 13

Ver. 2. — like a flower, — as a shadow.] The first of these similes beautifully represents the tender composition of man’s elegant frame, which is easily destroyed by the smallest accident: the other illustrates the emptiness of his enjoyments, and the celerity with which his life is continually basting to its period. Scott.

Job 13:3

3. Surely I would speak to the Almighty, &c.] As if Job had said, I see that I shall avail or profit myself but little by any farther conference with you; therefore, I desire to turn myself to God, from whom I am sure of a good answer. Caryl.

4. And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one.] Dost Thou observe all his ways to find some occasion for punishing him, and deal with me according to rigid justice? Clark.

5. 4. And dost thou open thine eyes &c.] These last words plainly refer to the first, and shew the ground of other expostulations; see chap. xv. 14, and xxv. 4. This seems to be the sense of Job’s expostulation: “Why art Thou extreme to mark all my errors? Is it reasonable to expect purity from a man born of a woman, who is, by the very condition of his birth, unclean?” The expostulation has a plain reference to the introduction of vanity and corruption by the sin of the woman; and is an evidence, that this ancient writer was sensible of the evil consequences of the fall upon the whole race of mankind. Bp. Sherlock.

Job 13:4

4. But ye are forgers of lies.] My integrity is such, that I dare undertake to clear myself before God; but as for you, ye are authors of false doctrine, namely, that great afflictions are peculiar to hypocrites and wicked men; ye are unskilful and unfaithful, prescribing bad remedies, and misapplying good ones. Clark.

Job 13:5

5. — and it should be your wisdom.] To keep the tongue within proper restraint was always reckoned one of the qualities of a wise man. Solomon delivers his opinion in very strong terms, Prov. xvii. 28. The Arabians are remarkable for their proverbs of the same kind. Chappelow.

6. — his days are determined.] Or cut short. Job probably thought of the longevity of the antediluvian men, and the present abbreviation of human life. Scott. See the note on chap. vii. 1, from Collyer.

Job 13:6

6. — till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.] Till, wearied with life, he shall look to death for relief, as the hireling eagerly expects the evening that he may secure his wages, and rest from his labour. Rosenmüller.

Job 13:7

7. Will ye speak wickedly for God? &c.] Doth God stand in need of untruths to justify His proceedings? cannot He be righteous unless I be wicked? Bp. Patrick.

7—12. For there is hope of a tree, &c.] The death of man is not like the cutting down of a tree, which soon sprouts again and flourishes in the same place; but rather, like the drying up of a river whose waters disappear, and we see no more of them. So man appears no more upon the stage of this world; “he lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more.” Peters.

Job 13:8

8. Will ye accept his person?] Will you seek to win the favour of God by assailing me unjustly, as is the practice towards earthly princes? Grotius. — will ye contend for God?] As if Job had said, If you will engage as patrons of God’s cause, and contend for Him, you must do it so as becomes the cause of God; you must not, to gratify God, oppress the poorest man. Caryl.

Job 13:9

9 — 13. Is it good that he should search you out?] The ninth and tenth verses are an appendix to, or an enlargement of, his second argument, which began at the seventh verse. There he expostulates thus: “Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for Him? Will ye accept His person?” Will ye make such

9. Yet through the scent of water it will bud.] The sensitive faculty of smelling is here elegantly ascribed to the root. As soon as it shall have smelt, that is, felt the influence of, the water, it will bud. Chappelow.

Job 13:11

11. — the sea.] So the Orientals style a lake, or any large body of water. Scott.

Job 13:12

12. Your remembrances are like unto ashes.] Whatsoever thing of yours seems memorable, or what monument soever ye shall set up to yourselves, it shall vanish away, and be scattered like ashes. Bp. Hall. — your bodies to bodies of clay.] He threatens them with punishment, for acting so rashly and presumptuously concerning God: or rather he describes their abject state in comparison with the sublimity of the Divine nature. Whatsoever is eminent in you, is like a heap of clay, and shall be reduced to clay. Why then do you flatter yourselves, and thus exalt yourselves above others, and despise me? Poole.

13. — till the heavens be no more.] We know from writers both sacred and profane, that it was a very old opinion, that the present frame of nature should be one day dissolved, and be succeeded by a renovation of all things, by new heavens and a new earth. Bp. Sherlock.

Our blessed Saviour speaks in the same language, Matt. v. 18, “Till heaven and earth pass,” that is, so long as the world endures. Chappelow.

Job 13:13

13. Hold your peace, &c.] Job being provoked speaks here with some heat, and is desirous rather to cast himself wholly on God, than to hear his friends any longer. Caryl.

13—17. O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, &c.] As if he had said, “Tired out with the calamities of life, let me then presently undergo my lot, the effect of Adam’s sin, and of Thy wrath against it, till the time appointed for us to remain in this separate state be fulfilled; and then remember me; and raise me to that better state, which Thou hast prepared for Thy faithful servants.” And here he breaks off into an expression of joy and admiration, ver. 14, “If a man die, shall he live, or revive? Is it true that we shall rise again to a new and better life hereafter? Let me with hope and patience wait this happy change, (my renovation,) how long soever it may be in coming.” He adds, ver. 15, “Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee; Thou wilt have a

Before CHRIST about 1520. weakened, or, cut off.

Job 13:14

14. Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, &c.] Why is my heart torn with anguish, and wherefore am I involved in the greatest danger? Grotius. The putting any thing valuable “in one’s hand,” may signify exposing it to danger, on this account; because it is then ready to be snatched away by one that is stronger: whereas a treasure locked up and kept in a retired place is not so easy to be come at, nor affords the like temptation. Dr. Durell.

14, 15. Wherefore do I take my flesh &c.] You ask me, Why I should consider my case as desperate? Why I should be thus slow to believe that God will deliver me out of my troubles? You say this looks as if I were conscious of some wickedness that rendered me unworthy of such a deliverance. No: it is not the want of a Before CHRIST about 1520. He professeth his confidence in God, and intreateth to know his own sins. Before CHRIST about 1570. or, argue.

Job 13:15

15. Though he slay me, &c.] Though he slay me here, yet I am sure that He will save me hereafter, and be my portion for ever. Caryl.

Job 13:16

16.—for an hypocrite shall not come before him.] Rather, but an hypocrite, &c. In this latter clause, Job secretly refutes the censure of his friends, who had aspersed him as an hypocrite. Bildad did so obliquely in chap. viii. 13. Job looking up to God as his “salvation,” expresses his confidence that he should come “before” God, that is, into His presence, whither no hypocrite could come. Caryl.

Job 13:18

18. Behold now, I have ordered my cause;] As if Job had said, I address myself to my trial, and plead not guilty. Peters. I am so sure of the goodness of my cause, that I know I shall be acquitted. Bp. Patrick.

Job 13:19

19.—if I hold my tongue, &c.] I am so full, and my impatience for a trial is so great, that if I have not liberty to give it vent in vindicating myself, I shall expire. Clark.

Job 13:20

20—23. Only do not two things unto me: &c.] This holy man seems here to recollect himself; and, as fearing that he might have been too bold in his appeal, addresses himself in these verses to the Judge Himself, and beseeches Him, in the most submissive manner, before He enters into judgment with him, to grant him two things; to withdraw His afflicting hand from him, and to vail the terrours of His majesty, that it might not strike him with too great a dread; and then to question him, and he would answer, or permit him to speak, and vouchsafe to inform him what his guilt was, and what were the reasons of these severe afflictions. Several passages in his speech shew very evidently, that Job looked forward to a day of judgment, in which he hoped to have his innocence cleared. The whole tenour of his argument must therefore be referred to a future, not a temporal deliverance. Peters.

Job 13:23

23—25. How many are mine iniquities &c.] Scarcely ever were the feelings of the human heart, oppressed

with such a load of grief, expressed in a more natural or less blamable way: in the last part Job confesses his own meanness, or rather nothingness, in comparison of God, and that in a manner so ingenuous and simple, as to shew that his complaints, however passionate and moving, had but a small mixture of pride and stubbornness at the bottom of them. Peters.

Job 13:26

26—28. For thou writest bitter things &c.] The whole relation is carried on in a continued metaphor, alluding to a judiciary proceeding, as if himself were a guilty malefactor, and God the supreme Judge: first, aggravating his faults and pronouncing sentence upon him, ver. 26; secondly, executing the sentence, ver. 27; “Thou puttest my feet in the stocks.” In the close of all Job declares the effect which that sentence, pronounced and executed, wrought upon him, ver. 28; “He, as a rotten thing, consumeth, &c.”

Job may have here had respect to some actual sins of his youth, without any detriment to his argument drawn from that present uprightness of heart and life, which he now pleads, and had so long practised; for it is not his innocence, strictly speaking, which Job insists on, but his integrity. Peters.

Job 13:27

27.—the stocks.] The original word appears to signify a clog, or logger, probably such an one as used to be put on the feet of fugitive slaves, or rather malefactors. Parkhurst.

—thou settest a print &c.] The shackles and chains which are upon me leave their marks behind them in my flesh; my feet swell with my heavy fetters. Caryl.

Otherwise, “Thou imprintest Thyself, that is, Thy wrath, on the soles of my feet:” Thou treatest me as the vilest slave: for perhaps he alludes to the bastina-doing of the feet, which has long been a common punishment in the East; but whether as ancient as the time of Job, or whether some other impression on the feet be not intended, I will not take upon me absolutely to determine. Michaelis thinks, that Job moreover refers to the tumours and ulcers in his feet, such as are usual in the elephantiasis, the distemper under which he suffered. Parkhurst.

Job 13:28

28. And he, as a rotten thing, &c.] The person is here changed from the first to the third, Job being still the subject of the description. A similar comparison to the latter occurs in Ps. xxix. 11. Caryl. Such changes of person are very common in the sacred poems. The usage also of the third person for the first, this man for

Job intreateth God for favour, by the shortness of life, and certainty of death. Before CHRIST about 1520. # CHAP. XIV.