Job 16
DOYLYJob 16:15
- I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, &c.] I have humbly submitted myself to receive and sustain these dispensations. “The horn” is often put for power and dignity. “There shall I make the horn of David to flourish,” Ps. cxxxii. 18. Caryl. See note at 1 Sam. ii. 1.
As “exalting the horn” intimates the highest degree of honour and power, so this phrase of “defining one’s horn in the dust,” is an expression of the greatest ignominy and abasement that a person can suffer, especially after having been exalted to a high station. Chappelow.
Job 16:18
- O earth, cover not thou my blood, &c.] Commentators are divided in their interpretations of this passage. Some suppose that Job utters here an impression on himself, if he has been guilty of any such offences as his friends would, by insinuation, fasten upon him. According to which interpretation the sense may be, If it be not true that there is no injustice in my hands, and that my prayer is pure, let my blood be left for the dogs to lick, when I am dead, and let neither God nor man regard my complaint, while I am alive. Others understand him to pray, that his innocence may be cleared, and that his grief and his cries may be every where made known. The sense will then be, “O earth, cover not my blood,” so as to withdraw it from the sight of God; see Gen. iv. 10, 11; xxxvii. 26; 1 Sam. xxvi. 20; Is. xxvi. 21; in other words, O that my afflictions may be displayed before the eyes of God and man! a wish, that the earth may not cover his blood before it has made manifest his innocence, which he asserts in the preceding verse: “and let my cry have no place,” where it may be concealed; but let it be carried up to heaven. Bp. Patrick, Rosenmüller.
Job 16:19
- Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven.] As if Job had said, I fear no evidence that can be brought against me on earth, and I rejoice in the witness which I have in heaven: though I have none to testify for me here, yet I have One who will testify for me above: “my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.” We may hence remark, that a good man dares appeal to God, and commit his cause to Him, deriving joy and comfort from the reflection, that there is a God in
mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
Job 16:21
- O that one might plead for a man with God.] That I might argue my cause as freely with God, as men of the same rank and degree debate their own cases with each other. All that Job seems to intend by uttering this wish, is the desire he has to gain an opportunity of setting himself right in the opinion of men, by that impartial decision of his cause which, he was well assured, God would give upon the whole matter in question between him and his friends, if once He would be pleased to vouchsafe a free and familiar hearing. Caryl.
Job 16:22
22.—whence I shall not return.] A return to this world is all that can be reasonably understood both here and chap. x. 21: and it is remarkable, that in both places the words are introduced by a reflection on the bitter usage given to Job by his friends. Peters.
As for the complaints that Job makes in this chapter, and his protestations of innocence, they are not to be interpreted into a declaration that he was exempt from all sin, or into a pretence of justifying himself before God. But as his friends had accused him of bringing on himself by his sins all the miseries which he endured, he meant only that he was not guilty of those heinous sins, by which wicked and ungodly men expose themselves to the Divine vengeance. Every one, who sincerely fears God, should be able to say as much: and this should make us sensible of the happiness of those who endeavour to live uprightly, and can call God to witness their sincerity in studying to serve Him and keep His commandments. Ostervold.
Chap. XVII. ver. 1. My breath is corrupt.] In the margin, “My spirit is spent.” The verse may run, “My breath is confined, straitened, oppressed; my days are extinct; the sepulchral cells are ready for me:” for in the elephantiasis, Job’s distemper, death is usually caused by a violent suffocation. Parkhurst.
—the graves] The cells or holes in the sepulchral chambers for the coffins; see Ezek. xxxii. 22, 23: the walls of these subterraneous rooms, hewn in the rock, were sometimes scooped into rows of cells, like the holes in a pigeon house, wide and deep enough to receive a coffin of seven or eight feet long. Scott.