Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 2:12

And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.

12. knew him not ] He was so altered and disfigured by the disease. As Job perhaps lay outside the town they may have seen him at a distance.

sprinkled dust upon their heads ] that is, they threw dust upwards towards heaven, which fell upon their heads, the gesture intimating perhaps that they were laid in the dust by a calamity sent from heaven; comp. Jos 7:6 ; 1Sa 4:12; Lam 2:10. See on Job 1:20.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

And when they lifted up their eyes afar off – When they saw him at the distance at which they could formerly recognize him without difficulty, disease had so altered his appearance that at first sight they knew him not – Noyes.

They lifted up their voice – This is a common expression in the Scriptures, to denote grief; Gen 27:38; Gen 29:11; Jdg 2:4; Rth 1:9; 1Sa 24:16, et soepe al. We learn to suppress the expressions of grief. The ancients gave vent to their sorrows aloud. – They even hired persons to aid them in their lamentations; and it became a professional business of women to devote themselves to the office of making an outcry on occasions of mourning. The same thing prevails in the East at present. Friends sit around the grave of the dead, or go there at different times, and give a long and doleful shriek or howl, as expressive of their grief.

And they rent every one his mantle – See the notes at Job 1:20.

And sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven – Another expression of sorrow; compare Lam 2:10; Neh 9:1; 1Sa 4:12; Jos 7:6; Eze 27:30. Thc indications of grief here referred to, were such as were common in ancient times. They resemble, in a remarkable manner, the mode in which Achilles gave utterance to his sorrow, when informed of the death of Patroclus. Iliad xviii. 21-27.

A sudden horror shot through all the chief,

And wrappd his senses in the cloud of grief;

Cast on the ground, with furious hands he spread

The scorching ashes oer his graceful head,

His purple garments, and his golden hairs,

Those he deforms with dust, and these he tears:

On the hard soil his groaning breast he threw,

And rolld and grovelld as to earth he grew.

Pope

Thus far the feelings of the three friends were entirely kind, and all that they did was expressive of sympathy for the sufferer.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 12. They rent every one his mantle] I have already had frequent occasions to point out and illustrate, by quotations from the ancients, the actions that were used in order to express profound grief; such as wrapping themselves in sackcloth, covering the face, strewing dust or ashes upon the head, sitting upon the bare ground, c., &c. significant actions which were in use among all nations.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Afar off, to wit, at some convenient distance from him; whom they found sitting upon the ground, either in the open air, or within his own house.

Knew him not; his countenance being so fearfully changed and disfigured by his boils.

Sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven; either upon the upper part of their heads, which look towards heaven; or cast it up into the air, so as it should fall upon their heads, as they did Act 22:23. See Jos 6:6; Neh 9:1; Lam 2:10.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

12. toward heavenThey threwashes violently upwards, that they might fall on their heads andcover themthe deepest mourning (Jos 7:6;Act 22:23).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And when they lifted up their eyes afar off,…. Either when at some distance from Job’s house, and he being without in the open air, as some think; or as they entered his house, he being at the further part of the room, or in another further on, which they could see into:

and knew him not; at first sight; until they came nearer to him, his garments being rent, and his head shaved, and his body covered all over with boils; so that he was so deformed and disfigured that they could not know him at first, and could scarcely believe him to be the same person:

they lifted up their voice and wept: they wept and cried aloud, being greatly affected with the sight of him, and their hearts sympathizing with him under his afflictions, being his cordial friends, and of that disposition, to weep with those that weep:

and they rent everyone his mantle, or “cloak”; in token of mourning, as Job had done before, [See comments on Job 1:20];

and sprinkled dust upon their heads towards heaven; that is, they took up handfuls of dust from off the ground, and threw it up in the air over their heads, which fell upon them and covered them; which was another rite or ceremony used by mourners, as Jarchi observes, and showed the vehemence of their affections and passions, and the confusion they were in at seeing their friend in such a miserable condition; see Jos 7:6.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Their Arrival:

12 And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and threw dust upon their heads toward heaven.

They saw a form which seemed to be Job, but in which they were not able to recognise him. Then they weep and rend their outer garments, and catch up dust to throw up towards heaven (1Sa 4:12), that it may fall again upon their heads. The casting up of dust on high is the outwards sign of intense suffering, and, as von Gerlach rightly remarks, of that which causes him to cry to heaven.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

(12) And knew him not.Compare the converse statement descriptive of the love of mm who could recognise his lost son under a disguise as great as that of Job, or even greater (Luk. 15:20).

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

12. They lifted up their voice Sir John Chardin (year 1676) says of the people of Asia, that “their cries are long in the case of death, and frightful, for the mourning is right-down despair, and an image of hell.”

The moment the mistress of the house next to his (at Ispahan) expired, “all the family, to the number of twenty-five or thirty people, set up such a furious cry that I was quite startled, and was above two hours before I could recover myself. These cries continue a long time, then cease all at once; they begin again as suddenly at daybreak, and in concert. It is this suddenness which is so terrifying, together with a greater shrillness and loudness than one could easily imagine. This enraged kind of mourning, if I may call it so, continued forty days not equally violent, but with diminution from day to day.”

Sprinkled dust upon their heads In a funeral procession, depicted on one of the tombs of ancient Egypt, there first come eight men throwing dust upon their heads, and giving other demonstrations of grief. The procession closes with eight or more women beating themselves, throwing dust on their heads, and singing the funeral dirge. Wilkinson. (See also Jos 7:6; 1Sa 4:12.) “For after the death of any of them, [the Egyptians,] all the friends and kindred of the deceased throw dirt upon their heads, and run about through the city mourning and lamenting.” Diodorus Siculus, vol. i, chap. 7. A like custom prevailed among the Greeks ( Iliad, Job 18:21-21) and the Ninevites, as appears in the annals of Assurbanipal. The friends threw the dust heavenward, that, falling, it might cover the entire body; and thus, as Homer says, “deform it with dust;” or the act may have been symbolical being either a solemn recognition of God, as the author of the evil, or an acknowledgment of man’s frailty and dependence.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

(12) And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent everyone his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.

What a finished picture of human misery is here drawn! when our Lord Jesus Christ was in his agony in the garden, and in that tremendous hour, which he called himself, the hour of the power of darkness, all human aid or consolation was taken from him; for he was withdrawn from his poor sleeping disciples, about a stone’s cast. And in a cold night, as we are told it was so cold indeed, as to render it necessary for a fire of coals to be made in the High Priest’s palace to warm the servants, Jesus’s agony, was so great, that he sweat great clods of blood. Oh! thou precious bleeding Lamb of God!

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Job 2:12 And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.

Ver. 12. And when they lift up their eyes afar off ] Hence some conclude that Job lay abroad, as lepers used.

And knew him not ] For they had never seen him before but in a splendidious fashion; now then to see him in such a pickle, that he had lost all form and fashion, more like a dead beast than a living man; this amazed and amused them; they might also by this, so sad a spectacle, be admonished of their own mutable and miserable condition ( Aut sumus, aut fuimus, aut possumus esse quod hic est either we are, or will be or are able to be because this is), and have the same thoughts as the psalmist afterwards had, Man, being in honour, abideth not, Psa 45:1-2 ; he is like the beasts that perish, pecoribus morticinis, dead hearts, saith Tremellius, the beasts that die of the murrain, and so become carrion, and are good for nothing. Job was now no otherwise to be seen than as a stinking carcase full of sores, more like than a living man, as he painteth out himself in most lively colours.

They lifted up their voice and wept ] Good men are apt to do so, saith the poet, et faciles motus mens generosa capit; we are bound to weep with those that weep, and to be both pitiful and courteous, 1Pe 3:8 . To him that is in misery pity should be showed from his friend (it was so to Job here at first), but he forsaketh the fear of the Lord, Job 6:14 . Job’s friends did so, when, amazed with the greatness of his calamity, they there hence concluded him an arrant hypocrite, unworthy of any one word of comfort.

And they rent every one his mantle ] His stately mantle, his robe of state, such as men of great honour used to wear, Stolam regiam. royal garment. Some Hebrews and Jesuits will have these three friends of Job to have been kings; such I believe they were, as the three kings of Collen; so the Papists call those wise men, Mat 2:1 , be they what they will; they rent every man his mantle in token of greatest sorrow at their friend’s calamity, a ceremony not unusual among other nations than those of the East. Suetonius telleth us that Julius Caesar, when he had passed his army to river Rubicon, and was marching toward Rome, he made a speech to his soldiers, weeping and rending his garment, that thereby he might testify to them what a grief it was to him to fight against his country; which he would never have done had there not been a necessity.

And sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven ] They so threw it up into the air that it might fall upon their heads; to import, 1. That all things were full of sorrowful confusion, as here earth and air were mingled. 2. That themselves and all mortals were but dust, Gen 18:27 , a little dirt neatly made up, and to dust they should return, Gen 3:19 , little deserving in the mean while to tread upon the earth, or to be above ground, Jos 7:6 . See Job 1:16 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

knew him: Job 19:14, Rth 1:19-21, Lam 4:7, Lam 4:8

their voice: Gen 27:34, Jdg 2:4, 1Sa 11:4, 1Sa 30:4, 2Sa 13:36, Est 4:1

they rent: Job 1:20

sprinkled dust upon: Neh 9:1, Lam 2:10, Eze 27:30, Rev 18:19

Reciprocal: Gen 33:4 – embraced Gen 37:34 – General Exo 33:4 – and no Num 5:17 – of the dust Jos 7:6 – put dust 1Sa 4:12 – with earth 2Sa 13:19 – put ashes Ezr 9:3 – sat Job 14:20 – changest Job 18:20 – were affrighted Job 21:5 – be astonished Psa 137:1 – the rivers Eze 26:16 – come Act 20:37 – wept

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Job 2:12. When they lifted up their eyes afar off Namely, at some convenient distance from him; whom they found sitting upon the ground, probably in the open air. And knew him not His countenance being so dreadfully changed and disfigured by the ulcers. They lifted up their voice and wept Through their sympathy with him, and great grief for his heavy affliction. And they rent every one his mantle As it was usual for people to do in great and sudden calamities. And sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven Either on the upper part of their heads toward heaven, or threw it up into the air, so that it fell upon their heads, and showed the confusion they were in: all which things were marks of great grief and affliction, and were the usual ways of expressing sorrow in those days.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

2:12 And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled {q} dust upon their heads toward heaven.

(q) This was also a ceremony which they used in those countries as the renting of their clothes in sign of sorrow etc.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes