12 A sea-`monster' am I, or a dragon, That thou settest over me a guard?
What `is' man that Thou dost magnify him? And that Thou settest unto him Thy heart?
On what have its sockets been sunk? Or who hath cast its corner-stone? In the singing together of stars of morning, And all sons of God shout for joy, And He shutteth up with doors the sea, In its coming forth, from the womb it goeth out. In My making a cloud its clothing, And thick darkness its swaddling band, And I measure over it My statute, And place bar and doors, And say, `Hitherto come thou, and add not, And a command is placed On the pride of thy billows.'
Dost thou draw leviathan with an angle? And with a rope thou lettest down -- his tongue? Dost thou put a reed in his nose? And with a thorn pierce his jaw? Doth he multiply unto thee supplications? Doth he speak unto thee tender things? Doth he make a covenant with thee? Dost thou take him for a servant age-during? Dost thou play with him as a bird? And dost thou bind him for thy damsels? (Feast upon him do companions, They divide him among the merchants!) Dost thou fill with barbed irons his skin? And with fish-spears his head? Place on him thy hand, Remember the battle -- do not add! Lo, the hope of him is found a liar, Also at his appearance is not one cast down? None so fierce that he doth awake him, And who `is' he before Me stationeth himself? Who hath brought before Me and I repay? Under the whole heavens it `is' mine. I do not keep silent concerning his parts, And the matter of might, And the grace of his arrangement. Who hath uncovered the face of his clothing? Within his double bridle who doth enter? The doors of his face who hath opened? Round about his teeth `are' terrible. A pride -- strong ones of shields, Shut up -- a close seal. One unto another they draw nigh, And air doth not enter between them. One unto another they adhere, They stick together and are not separated. His sneezings cause light to shine, And his eyes `are' as the eyelids of the dawn. Out of his mouth do flames go, sparks of fire escape. Out of his nostrils goeth forth smoke, As a blown pot and reeds. His breath setteth coals on fire, And a flame from his mouth goeth forth. In his neck lodge doth strength, And before him doth grief exult. The flakes of his flesh have adhered -- Firm upon him -- it is not moved. His heart `is' firm as a stone, Yea, firm as the lower piece. From his rising are the mighty afraid, From breakings they keep themselves free. The sword of his overtaker standeth not, Spear -- dart -- and lance. He reckoneth iron as straw, brass as rotten wood. The son of the bow doth not cause him to flee, Turned by him into stubble are stones of the sling. As stubble have darts been reckoned, And he laugheth at the shaking of a javelin. Under him `are' sharp points of clay, He spreadeth gold on the mire. He causeth to boil as a pot the deep, The sea he maketh as a pot of ointment. After him he causeth a path to shine, One thinketh the deep to be hoary. There is not on the earth his like, That is made without terror. Every high thing he doth see, He `is' king over all sons of pride.
He hath hedged me about, and I go not out, He hath made heavy my fetter.
`Son of man, lift up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and thou hast said unto him: A young lion of nations thou hast been like, And thou `art' as a dragon in the seas, And thou comest forth with thy flowings, And dost trouble the waters with thy feet, And thou dost foul their flowings. Thus said the Lord Jehovah: And -- I have spread out for thee My net, With an assembly of many peoples, And they have brought thee up in My net.
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.