Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 15:24
Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
24. shall make him afraid ] Rather, make him afraid.
ready to the battle ] Fully prepared and therefore irresistible.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
As a king ready to the battle – Fully prepared for a battle; whom it would be vain to attempt to resist. So mighty would be the combined forces of trouble and anguish against him, that it would be vain to attempt to oppose them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 24. Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid] He shall be in continual fear of death; being now brought down by adversity, and stripped of all the goods which he had got by oppression, his life is a mark for the meanest assassin.
As a king ready to the battle.] The acts of his wickedness and oppression are as numerous as the troops he commands; and when he comes to meet his enemy in the field, he is not only deserted but slain by his troops. How true are the words of the poet: –
Ad generum Cereris sine caede et vulnere pauci
Descendunt reges, et sicca morte tyranni.
Juv. Sat., ver. 112.
“For few usurpers to the shades descend
By a dry death, or with a quiet end.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
i.e. When trouble comes, instead of trusting, and hoping, and comforting himself in God, as good men do in such cases, as 1Sa 30:6, he is full of torment and dread of the issue of it, and concludes it will end in his utter ruin, as he hath great reason to do.
Ready to the battle; or, prepared or furnished; or, disposed with his army round about him, as this word seems to signify.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
24. prevailbreak upon himsuddenly and terribly, as a king, &c. (Pr6:11).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid,…. Either his present troubles shall frighten him, they being so very dismal, terrible, and distressing, and make him fear that others were coming on, more dreadful and formidable; or those troubles he fears will be his portion hereafter, these terrify him beyond measure, even that indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, that shall come upon every soul of man that doeth evil, Ro 2:8;
they shall prevail against him as a king ready to the battle; that is, trouble and anguish shall prevail against him; he will be no more able to resist them than a very inferior force, or even a single man, is able to resist a warlike king, attended with a numerous army, and these set in battle array; such a man’s troubles will come upon him as an armed man, against which he cannot stand; the Targum is,
“they shall surround him as a king prepared for a footstool;”
who being taken by the enemy shall be used as a footstool to mount on horseback; and as the word has the signification of a globe or ball, see Isa 22:18; some think it has respect to the manner of kings, when taken captive, put into an iron cage, as Bajazet was by Tamerlane; or into an iron hoop, bound hand and foot, and hung up in chains; or, as Ben Gersom thinks, to the manner of drowning persons, who used to be tied hand and foot, as if rolled up in the form of a globe, and so cast into the water; but rather the reference is to an army, besieging a place all around in the form of a ball or globe, so that there is no escaping them; or rather it may be to a king drawing up his army in such a form, ready to engage in battle; or putting it in such a position when encamped or entrenched, waiting the motion of the enemy; see 1Sa 26:5; and such are the troubles that surround and prevail against a wicked man, see Isa 29:3; the reasons of the wicked man being brought into such a woeful condition follow.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(24) As a king ready to the battle.Or, They prevail against him like a king: he is destined to be like a ball (comp. Isa. 22:18), the tennis-ball of calamity.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
24. Trouble and anguish These are personified as leaders of a formidable force of troubles. They loom forth, kings armed for the battle.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 15:24. As a king ready to the battle As the master-goat ruleth over the flock. Heath. Schultens reads the verse thus, Distress and perplexity shall terrify him; they shall overpower him, like a king: he is destined to the most troublous fortunes.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 15:24 Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
Ver. 24. Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid ] Or scare him, not only out of his comforts, but out of his wits and senses too, as it did Charles the Great, Cardinal of Lorrain (Meutis inops moritur). See Deu 28:34 . Tullus Hostilius, the third king of Romans, deriding the religion of his predecessor Numa, as that which did emasculate men’s minds, was afterwards so terrified, that he set up and worshipped two new gods, viz. Pavorem et Pallorem, trouble and anguish, which he had perpetually present with him, as Lactantius reporteth. What a pitiful agony Vitellius the emperor was in when Vespasian’s army marched toward Rome, is notably set forth by Dio in his Life ( E ). Not long after that, at the sack of Jerusalem, some Jews killed themselves, lest they should fall into the hands of Vespasian’s soldiers.
Hic rogo; non furor est, ne moriare, mori?
They shall prevail against him ] Or, begirt him, as a king is surrounded, in peace by his guard, in war by his army. Or, they shall destroy him, as a king ready to the battle doth his enemies’ forces, which he routeth and ruineth. Fear hath a deadly force upon feeble spirits; neither is it any wonder that they ring their bells backward when things begin once to be on fire.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
anguish: Job 6:2-4, Psa 119:143, Pro 1:27, Isa 13:3, Mat 26:37, Mat 26:38, Rom 2:9
as a king: Pro 6:11, Pro 24:34
Reciprocal: Est 6:13 – If Mordecai Job 18:12 – hungerbitten Isa 45:9 – unto him Jer 36:29 – Thou hast
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 15:24. Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid When trouble comes, instead of trusting and hoping, and comforting himself in God, as good men do in such cases, 1Sa 30:6, he is full of torment, dreading the issue of it, and concluding it will end in his utter ruin, as he has great reason to do. They shall prevail against him Though he would fain shake off his fears, and uses many expedients to free himself from them, he is not able; they overpower him, as a king ready to the battle With forces too strong to be resisted. He that would keep his peace must keep a good conscience.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
15:24 Trouble and {p} anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
(p) He shows the weapons God uses against the wicked, who lift up themselves against him, that is, terror of conscience and outward afflictions.