Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 3:18
[There] the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
18. the prisoners rest together ] The “prisoners” are not those immured in prison, but captives driven to forced labour.
the oppressor ] The taskmaster, Exo 3:7. The prisoners are there all together, and they hear not the voice, the shouts and curses of the driver ch. Job 39:7).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
There the prisoners rest together – Herder translates this, There the prisoners rejoice in their freedom. The Septuagint strangely enough, There they of old ( hoi aionioi) assembled together ( homothumadon) have not heard the voice of the exactor. The Hebrew word sha’an means to rest, to be quiet, to be tranquil; and the sense is, that they are in the grave freed from chains and oppressions.
They hear not the voice of the oppressor – Of him who exacted taxes, and who laid on them heavy burdens, and who imprisoned them for imaginary crimes. He who is bound in chains, and who has no other prospect of release, can look for it in the grave and will find it there. Similar sentiments are found respecting death in Seneca, ad Marcian, 20: Mots omnibus finis, multis remedium, quibusdam votum; haec servitutem invito domino remittit; haec captivorum catenas levat; haec a carcere reducit, quos exire imperium impofens vetuerat; haec exulibus, in pairtam semper animum oculosque tendentibus, ostendit, nibil interesse inter quos quisque jaceat; haec, ubi res communes fortuna male divisit, et aequo jure genitos allure alii donavit, exaequat omnia; haec est, quae nihil quidquam alieno fecit arbitrio; haec est, ea qua nemo humilitatem guam sensit; haec est, quae nuili paruit. The sense in Job is, that all are at liberty in death. Chains no longer bind; prisons no longer incarccrate; the voice of oppression no longer alarms.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 18. The prisoners rest together] Those who were slaves, feeling all the troubles, and scarcely tasting any of the pleasures of life, are quiet in the grave together; and the voice of the oppressor, the hard, unrelenting task-master, which was more terrible than death, is heard no more. They are free from his exactions, and his mouth is silent in the dust. This may be a reference to the Egyptian bondage. The children of Israel cried by reason of their oppressors or task-masters.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The prisoners rest together, i.e. one as well as another; they who were kept in the strongest chains and closest prisons, and condemned to the most hard and miserable slavery, rest as well as those who were captives in much better circumstances. Or,
in like manner, ( as this word oft signifies,) as those oppressors and oppressed do.
The oppressor, or, exacter, or taskmaster, who urgeth and forceth them by cruel threatenings and stripes to greater diligence in the works to which they are condemned. See Exo 3:7; 5:6,10,13. Job meddles not here with their eternal state after death, or the sentence and judgment of God against wicked men, of which he speaks hereafter; but only speaks of their freedom from worldly troubles, which is the only matter of his complaint and present discourse.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. There the prisoners restfromtheir chains.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[There] the prisoners rest together,…. “Are at ease”, as Mr. Broughton renders the words; such who while they lived were in prison for debt, or were condemned to the galleys, to lead a miserable life; or such who suffered bonds and imprisonment for the sake of religion, at death their chains are knocked off, and they are as much at liberty, and enjoy as much ease, as the dead that never were prisoners; and not only rest together with those who were their fellow prisoners, but with those who never were in prison, yea, with those who cast them into it; for there the prisoners and those that imprisoned them are upon a level, enjoying equal ease and liberty:
they hear not the voice of the oppressor; or “exactor” x; neither of their creditors that demanded their debt of them, and threatened them with a prison, or that detained them in it; nor of the jail keeper that gave them hard words as well as stripes; nor of cruel taskmasters, who kept them to hard service in prison, and threatened them severely if they did not perform it, like the taskmasters in Egypt, Ex 5:11; but, in the grave, the blustering, terrifying, voice of such, is not heard.
x “exactoris”, Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, &c.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(18) The oppressor.As this is the word rendered taskmaster in Exodus, some have thought there may be an allusion to that history here.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. Rest , an intensive form of the verb, expressive of deep and abiding rest.
The oppressor , taskmaster. The same word appears in Exo 5:6.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 3:18 [There] the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
Ver. 18. There the prisoners rest together ] Or alike, as do their cruel creditors and hard taskmasters. There, that is, in the state of the dead, whether by land or sea, the prisoners, or bound persons, the miserable captives, rest; such as were those poor Christians, shut up so close (by Barbarossa, the Turkish general, returning toward Constantinople) under hatches among the excrements of nature, that all the way as he went almost every hour, some of them were cast dead over board. Such were many of the martyrs, kept fast shut up in Lollard’s tower, in the bishop of London’s coal house, a dark and ugly prison, said Mr Philpot, as any is about London; but I thank the Lord, I am not alone, but have six other faithful companions, who in our darkness do lightsomely sing psalms and praises to God for his great goodness, but especially for this, that I am so near the apprehension of eternal bliss. God forgive me mine unthankfulness and unworthiness of so great glory (Acts and Mon. 1669, 1670). What pitiful hard usage God’s poor prisoners met with in the late troubles, at Oxford especially (from which death God graciously delivered me when I was in their hands) and in the western parts, see Mr Bonas’ Sermon called Job in the West, where he compareth the enemies’ cruelty to that of the American cannibals, who, when they take a prisoner, feed upon him alive, and by degrees, to the unutterable aggravation of his horror and torment.
They hear not the voice of the oppressor
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
oppressor = taskmaster.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
they: Job 39:7, Exo 5:6-8, Exo 5:15-19, Jdg 4:3, Isa 14:3, Isa 14:4
Reciprocal: Deu 28:30 – build Job 21:26 – alike Job 21:33 – sweet Ecc 9:6 – their love
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 3:18. There the prisoners rest together That is, one as well as another; they who were lately deprived of their liberty, kept in the strongest chains and closest prisons, and condemned to the most hard and miserable slavery, rest as well as those who were captives in much better circumstances. They hear not the voice of the oppressor Or exactor, or taskmaster, (as the word , nogesh, is translated Exo 5:6,) who urges and forces them, by cruel threatenings and stripes, to labour beyond their strength. Job does not here take into consideration their eternal state after death, of which he speaks hereafter, but only their freedom from worldly troubles, which is the sole matter of his present discourse.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3:18 [There] the {m} prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
(m) All they who sustain any kind of calamity and misery in this world: which he speaks after the judgment of the flesh.