12 Am I a sea, H3220 or a whale, H8577 that thou settest H7760 a watch H4929 over me?
What is man, H582 that thou shouldest magnify H1431 him? and that thou shouldest set H7896 thine heart H3820 upon him?
Whereupon are the foundations H134 thereof fastened? H2883 or who laid H3384 the corner H6438 stone H68 thereof; When the morning H1242 stars H3556 sang H7442 together, H3162 and all the sons H1121 of God H430 shouted H7321 for joy? Or who shut up H5526 the sea H3220 with doors, H1817 when it brake forth, H1518 as if it had issued out H3318 of the womb? H7358 When I made H7760 the cloud H6051 the garment H3830 thereof, and thick darkness H6205 a swaddlingband H2854 for it, And brake up H7665 for it my decreed H2706 place, and set H7760 bars H1280 and doors, H1817 And said, H559 Hitherto H5704 H6311 shalt thou come, H935 but no further: H3254 and here shall thy proud H1347 waves H1530 be stayed? H7896
Canst thou draw out H4900 leviathan H3882 with an hook? H2443 or his tongue H3956 with a cord H2256 which thou lettest down? H8257 Canst thou put H7760 an hook H100 into his nose? H639 or bore H5344 his jaw H3895 through with a thorn? H2336 Will he make many H7235 supplications H8469 unto thee? will he speak H1696 soft H7390 words unto thee? Will he make H3772 a covenant H1285 with thee? wilt thou take H3947 him for a servant H5650 for ever? H5769 Wilt thou play H7832 with him as with a bird? H6833 or wilt thou bind H7194 him for thy maidens? H5291 Shall the companions H2271 make a banquet H3739 of him? shall they part H2673 him among the merchants? H3669 Canst thou fill H4390 his skin H5785 with barbed irons? H7905 or his head H7218 with fish H1709 spears? H6767 Lay H7760 thine hand H3709 upon him, remember H2142 the battle, H4421 do no more. H3254 Behold, the hope H8431 of him is in vain: H3576 shall not one be cast down H2904 even at the sight H4758 of him? None is so fierce H393 that dare stir him up: H5782 H5782 who then is able to stand H3320 before H6440 me? Who hath prevented H6923 me, that I should repay H7999 him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven H8064 is mine. I will not conceal H2790 his parts, H907 nor his power, H1369 H1697 nor his comely H2433 proportion. H6187 Who can discover H1540 the face H6440 of his garment? H3830 or who can come H935 to him with his double H3718 bridle? H7448 Who can open H6605 the doors H1817 of his face? H6440 his teeth H8127 are terrible H367 round about. H5439 His scales H4043 H650 are his pride, H1346 shut up together H5462 as with a close H6862 seal. H2368 One H259 is so near H5066 to another, H259 that no air H7307 can come H935 between them. They are joined H1692 one H376 to another, H251 they stick together, H3920 that they cannot be sundered. H6504 By his neesings H5846 a light H216 doth shine, H1984 and his eyes H5869 are like the eyelids H6079 of the morning. H7837 Out of his mouth H6310 go H1980 burning lamps, H3940 and sparks H3590 of fire H784 leap out. H4422 Out of his nostrils H5156 goeth H3318 smoke, H6227 as out of a seething H5301 pot H1731 or caldron. H100 His breath H5315 kindleth H3857 coals, H1513 and a flame H3851 goeth out H3318 of his mouth. H6310 In his neck H6677 remaineth H3885 strength, H5797 and sorrow H1670 is turned into joy H1750 before H6440 him. The flakes H4651 of his flesh H1320 are joined together: H1692 they are firm H3332 in themselves; they cannot be moved. H4131 His heart H3820 is as firm H3332 as a stone; H68 yea, as hard H3332 as a piece H6400 of the nether H8482 millstone. When he raiseth up H7613 himself, the mighty H352 are afraid: H1481 by reason of breakings H7667 they purify H2398 themselves. The sword H2719 of him that layeth H5381 at him cannot hold: H6965 the spear, H2595 the dart, H4551 nor the habergeon. H8302 He esteemeth H2803 iron H1270 as straw, H8401 and brass H5154 as rotten H7539 wood. H6086 The arrow H1121 H7198 cannot make him flee: H1272 slingstones H68 H7050 are turned H2015 with him into stubble. H7179 Darts H8455 are counted H2803 as stubble: H7179 he laugheth H7832 at the shaking H7494 of a spear. H3591 Sharp H2303 stones H2789 are under him: he spreadeth H7502 sharp pointed things H2742 upon the mire. H2916 He maketh the deep H4688 to boil H7570 like a pot: H5518 he maketh H7760 the sea H3220 like a pot of ointment. H4841 He maketh a path H5410 to shine H215 after H310 him; one would think H2803 the deep H8415 to be hoary. H7872 Upon earth H6083 there is not his like, H4915 who is made H6213 without H1097 fear. H2844 He beholdeth H7200 all high H1364 things: he is a king H4428 over all the children H1121 of pride. H7830
He hath hedged H1443 me about, that I cannot get out: H3318 he hath made my chain H5178 heavy. H3513
Son H1121 of man, H120 take up H5375 a lamentation H7015 for Pharaoh H6547 king H4428 of Egypt, H4714 and say H559 unto him, Thou art like H1819 a young lion H3715 of the nations, H1471 and thou art as a whale H8577 H8565 in the seas: H3220 and thou camest forth H1518 with thy rivers, H5104 and troubledst H1804 the waters H4325 with thy feet, H7272 and fouledst H7515 their rivers. H5104 Thus saith H559 the Lord H136 GOD; H3069 I will therefore spread out H6566 my net H7568 over thee with a company H6951 of many H7227 people; H5971 and they shall bring thee up H5927 in my net. H2764
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Job 7
Commentary on Job 7 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 7
Job 7:1-21. Job Excuses His Desire for Death.
1. appointed time—better, "a warfare," hard conflict with evil (so in Isa 40:2; Da 10:1). Translate it "appointed time" (Job 14:14). Job reverts to the sad picture of man, however great, which he had drawn (Job 3:14), and details in this chapter the miseries which his friends will see, if, according to his request (Job 6:28), they will look on him. Even the Christian soldier, "warring a good warfare," rejoices when it is completed (1Ti 1:18; 2Ti 2:3; 4:7, 8).
2. earnestly desireth—Hebrew, "pants for the [evening] shadow." Easterners measure time by the length of their shadow. If the servant longs for the evening when his wages are paid, why may not Job long for the close of his hard service, when he shall enter on his "reward?" This proves that Job did not, as many maintain, regard the grave as a mere sleep.
3.—Months of comfortless misfortune.
I am made to possess—literally, "to be heir to." Irony. "To be heir to," is usually a matter of joy; but here it is the entail of an involuntary and dismal inheritance.
Months—for days, to express its long duration.
Appointed—literally, "they have numbered to me"; marking well the unavoidable doom assigned to him.
4. Literally, "When shall be the flight of the night?" [Gesenius]. Umbreit, not so well, "The night is long extended"; literally, "measured out" (so Margin).
5. In elephantiasis maggots are bred in the sores (Ac 12:23; Isa 14:11).
clods of dust—rather, a crust of dried filth and accumulated corruption (Job 2:7, 8).
my skin is broken and … loathsome—rather, comes together so as to heal up, and again breaks out with running matter [Gesenius]. More simply the Hebrew is, "My skin rests (for a time) and (again) melts away" (Ps 58:7).
6. (Isa 38:12). Every day like the weaver's shuttle leaves a thread behind; and each shall wear, as he weaves. But Job's thought is that his days must swiftly be cut off as a web;
without hope—namely, of a recovery and renewal of life (Job 14:19; 1Ch 29:15).
7. Address to God.
Wind—a picture of evanescence (Ps 78:39).
shall no more see—rather, "shall no more return to see good." This change from the different wish in Job 3:17, &c., is most true to nature. He is now in a softer mood; a beam from former days of prosperity falling upon memory and the thought of the unseen world, where one is seen no more (Job 7:8), drew from him an expression of regret at leaving this world of light (Ec 11:7); so Hezekiah (Isa 38:11). Grace rises above nature (2Co 5:8).
8. The eye of him who beholds me (present, not past), that is, in the very act of beholding me, seeth me no more.
Thine eyes are upon me, and I am not—He disappears, even while God is looking upon him. Job cannot survive the gaze of Jehovah (Ps 104:32; Re 20:11). Not, "Thine eyes seek me and I am not to be found"; for God's eye penetrates even to the unseen world (Ps 139:8). Umbreit unnaturally takes "thine" to refer to one of the three friends.
9. (2Sa 12:23).
the grave—the Sheol, or place of departed spirits, not disproving Job's belief in the resurrection. It merely means, "He shall come up no more" in the present order of things.
10. (Ps 103:16). The Oriental keenly loves his dwelling. In Arabian elegies the desertion of abodes by their occupants is often a theme of sorrow. Grace overcomes this also (Lu 18:29; Ac 4:34).
11. Therefore, as such is my hard lot, I will at least have the melancholy satisfaction of venting my sorrow in words. The Hebrew opening words, "Therefore I, at all events," express self-elevation [Umbreit].
12. Why dost thou deny me the comfort of care-assuaging sleep? Why scarest thou me with frightful dreams?
Am I a sea—regarded in Old Testament poetry as a violent rebel against God, the Lord of nature, who therefore curbs his violence (Jer 5:22).
or a whale—or some other sea monster (Isa 27:1), that Thou needest thus to watch and curb me? The Egyptians watched the crocodile most carefully to prevent its doing mischief.
14. The frightful dreams resulting from elephantiasis he attributes to God; the common belief assigned all night visions to God.
15. Umbreit translates, "So that I could wish to strangle myself—dead by my own hands." He softens this idea of Job's harboring the thought of suicide, by representing it as entertained only in agonizing dreams, and immediately repudiated with horror in Job 7:16, "Yet that (self-strangling) I loathe." This is forcible and graphic. Perhaps the meaning is simply, "My soul chooses (even) strangling (or any violent death) rather than my life," literally, "my bones" (Ps 35:10); that is, rather than the wasted and diseased skeleton, left to him. In this view, "I loathe it" (Job 7:16) refers to his life.
16. Let me alone—that is, cease to afflict me for the few and vain days still left to me.
17. (Ps 8:4; 144:3). Job means, "What is man that thou shouldst make him [of so much importance], and that thou shouldst expend such attention [or, heart-thought] upon him" as to make him the subject of so severe trials? Job ought rather to have reasoned from God's condescending so far to notice man as to try him, that there must be a wise and loving purpose in trial. David uses the same words, in their right application, to express wonder that God should do so much as He does for insignificant man. Christians who know God manifest in the man Christ Jesus may use them still more.
18. With each new day (Ps 73:14). It is rather God's mercies, not our trials, that are new every morning (La 3:23). The idea is that of a shepherd taking count of his flock every morning, to see if all are there [Cocceius].
19. How long (like a jealous keeper) wilt thou never take thine eyes off (so the Hebrew for "depart from") me? Nor let me alone for a brief respite (literally, "so long as I take to swallow my spittle"), an Arabic proverb, like our, "till I draw my breath."
20. I have sinned—Yet what sin can I do against ("to," Job 35:6) thee (of such a nature that thou shouldst jealously watch and deprive me of all strength, as if thou didst fear me)? Yet thou art one who hast men ever in view, ever watchest them—O thou Watcher (Job 7:12; Da 9:14) of men. Job had borne with patience his trials, as sent by God (Job 1:21; 2:10); only his reason cannot reconcile the ceaseless continuance of his mental and bodily pains with his ideas of the divine nature.
set me as a mark—Wherefore dost thou make me thy point of attack? that is, ever assail me with new pains? [Umbreit] (La 3:12).
21. for now—very soon.
in the morning—not the resurrection; for then Job will be found. It is a figure, from one seeking a sick man in the morning, and finding he has died in the night. So Job implies that, if God does not help him at once, it will be too late, for he will be gone. The reason why God does not give an immediate sense of pardon to awakened sinners is that they think they have a claim on God for it.