Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 19:8
He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
8. No outgo or escape was possible, for there rose a wall before him if he would move; neither was there any outlook, for thick darkness fell close about him. These images are common to express the extremest perplexity.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He hath fenced up my way – This figure is taken from a traveler, whose way is obstructed by trees, rocks, or fences, so that he cannot get along, and Job says it was so with him. He was traveling along in a peaceful manner on the journey of life, and all at once obstructions were put in his path, so that he could not go farther. This does not refer, particularly, to his spiritual condition, if it does at all. It is descriptive of the obstruction of his plans, rather than of spiritual darkness or distress.
And he hath set darkness in my paths – So that I cannot see – as if all around the traveler should become suddenly dark, so that he could not discern his way. The language here would well express the spiritual darkness which the friends of God sometimes experience, though it is by no means certain that Job referred to that. All the dealings of God are to them mysterious, and there is no light in the soul – and they are ready to sink down in despair.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. He hath fenced up my way] This may allude to the mode of hunting the elephant, described at the conclusion of the preceding chapter; or to the operations of an invading army. See under Job 19:11.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That I cannot pass, i.e. so that I know not what to say or do, and can see no means nor possibility of getting out of my troubles.
He hath set darkness in my paths; so that I cannot discern my way, or what course I should take.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. Image from a benightedtraveller.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass,…. A metaphor taken from travellers, who not only meet with obstacles and obstructions in their way, which make it difficult; but sometimes with such enclosures and fences, that they are at a full stop, and cannot pass on, and know not what course to steer: the people of God are not inhabitants of this world, but pilgrims, strangers, and sojourners in it, and travellers through it; they are bound for another country, and are travelling to it; and though their way for far most part is indeed troublesome, but generally passable, or made so; yet sometimes not only is their way hedged up with afflictions, and they hedged about with them, that they cannot easily get out, and get through and pass on; and it is with much difficulty, and with being much scratched and torn, they do brush through; but they also at other times find God has built up a wall against them, and enclosed them with hewn stones, and so fenced up their way that they cannot pass on; such difficulties present as seem insurmountable, and they are at a standstill, and know not what way to take; which was now Job’s case, see La 3:5; and this may not only respect the way of his walk in this world, but his way to God, either to the throne of his grace, or the tribunal of his justice: the way to God, as on a throne of grace, is only through Christ, the living way; which, though more clearly revealed under the Gospel dispensation, and therefore called a new way, yet was known under the former dispensation, and made use of; in which saints may have access to God with boldness and confidence: but sometimes this way seems by unbelief to be fenced up, though it is always open; and especially when God hides his face, and is not to be seen, nor is it known where to find him, and how to come up to his seat; and which also was Job’s case,
Job 23:3; and whereas he was very desirous of having his cause heard and tried at the tribunal of God, his way was so shut up, that he could not obtain what he so much desired, and knew not therefore how to proceed, and what course to take:
and he hath set darkness in my paths; and was like a traveller in a very dark night, that cannot see his way, and knows not what step to take next; so good men, though they walk not in the ways of darkness, in a moral sense, as unregenerate men do; yet even while they are walking in the good ways of truth and holiness, and while they are passing through this world, God sometimes withdraws the light of his countenance from them, so that they walk in darkness, and have no light, which is very uncomfortable walking; and when God may be said to put darkness into their paths, he not granting them the light of grace and comfort they have sometimes enjoyed; and so it is with them when under such dark dispensations of Providence, as that they cannot see the end of God in leading them in such ways; and then their case is such as it now was Job’s; that they cannot see any way of getting out of it; as the Israelites at the Red sea, and Paul and the mariners when in a storm, and all hope of being saved was gone.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Job Complains of God’s Displeasure; Job Complains of His Friends. | B. C. 1520. |
8 He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. 9 He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. 10 He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree. 11 He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies. 12 His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle. 13 He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. 14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. 15 They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight. 16 I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth. 17 My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body. 18 Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me. 19 All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me. 20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. 21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me. 22 Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
Bildad had very disingenuously perverted Job’s complaints by making them the description of the miserable condition of a wicked man; and yet he repeats them here, to move their pity, and to work upon their good nature, if they had any left in them.
I. He complains of the tokens of God’s displeasure which he was under, and which infused the wormwood and gall into the affliction and misery. How doleful are the accents of his complaints! “He hath kindled his wrath against me, which flames and terrifies me, which burns and pains me,” v. 11. What is the fire of hell but the wrath of God? Seared consciences will feel it hereafter, but do not fear it now. Enlightened consciences fear it now, but shall not feel it hereafter. Job’s present apprehension was that God counted him as one of his enemies; and yet, at the same time, God loved him, and gloried in him, as his faithful friend. It is a gross mistake, but a very common one, to think that whom God afflicts he treats as his enemies; whereas, on the contrary, as many as he loves he rebukes and chastens; it is the discipline of his sons. Which way soever Job looked he thought he saw the tokens of God’s displeasure against him. 1. Did he look back upon his former prosperity? He saw God’s hand putting an end to that (v. 9): “He has stripped me of my glory, my wealth, honour, power, and all the opportunity I had of doing good. My children were my glory, but I have lost them; and whatever was a crown to my head he has taken it from me, and has laid all my honour in the dust.” See the vanity of worldly glory: it is what we may be soon stripped of; and, whatever strips us, we must see and own God’s hand in it and comply with his design. 2. Did he look down upon his present troubles? He saw God giving them their commission, and their orders to attack him. They are his troops, that act by his direction, which encamp against me, v. 12. It did not so much trouble him that his miseries came upon him in troops as that they were God’s troops, in whom it seemed as if God fought against him and intended his destruction. God’s troops encamped around his tabernacle, as soldiers lay siege to a strong city, cutting off all provisions from being brought into it and battering it continually; thus was Job’s tabernacle besieged. Time was when God’s hosts encamped round him for safety: Hast thou not made a hedge about him? Now, on the contrary, they surrounded him, to his terror, and destroyed him on every side, v. 10. 3. Did he look forward for deliverance? He saw the hand of God cutting off all hopes of that (v. 8): “He hath fenced up my way, that I cannot pass. I have now no way left to help myself, either to extricate myself out of my troubles or to ease myself under them. Would I make any motion, take any steps towards deliverance? I find my way hedged up; I cannot do what I would; nay, if I would please myself with the prospect of a deliverance hereafter, I cannot do it; it is not only out of my reach, but out of my sight: God hath set darkness in my paths, and there is none to tell me how long,” Ps. lxxiv. 9. He concludes (v. 10), “I am gone, quite lost and undone for this world; my hope hath he removed like a tree cut down, or plucked up by the roots, which will never grow again.” Hope in this life is a perishing thing, but the hope of good men, when it is cut off from this world, is but removed like a tree, transplanted from this nursery to the garden of the Lord. We shall have no reason to complain if God thus remove our hopes from the sand to the rock, from things temporal to things eternal.
II. He complains of the unkindness of his relations and of all his old acquaintance. In this also he owns the hand of God (v. 13): He has put my brethren far from me, that is, “He has laid those afflictions upon me which frighten them from me, and make them stand aloof from my sores.” As it was their sin God was not the author of it; it is Satan that alienates men’s minds from their brethren in affliction. But, as it was Job’s trouble, God ordered it for the completing of his trial. As we must eye the hand of God in all the injuries we receive from our enemies (“the Lord has bidden Shimei curse David”), so also in all the slights and unkindnesses we receive from our friends, which will help us to bear them the more patiently. Every creature is that to us (kind or unkind, comfortable or uncomfortable) which God makes it to be. Yet this does not excuse Job’s relations and friends from the guilt of horrid ingratitude and injustice to him, which he had reason to complain of; few could have borne it so well as he did. He takes notice of the unkindness, 1. Of his kindred and acquaintance, his neighbours, and such as he had formerly been familiar with, who were bound by all the laws of friendship and civility to concern themselves for him, to visit him, to enquire after him, and to be ready to do him all the good offices that lay in their power; yet these were estranged from him, v. 13. They took no more care about him than if he had been a stranger whom they never knew. His kinsfolk, who claimed relation to him when he was in prosperity, now failed him; they came short of their former professions of friendship to him and his present expectations of kindness from them. Even his familiar friends, whom he was mindful of, had now forgotten him, had forgotten both his former friendliness to them and his present miseries: they had heard of his troubles, and designed him a visit; but truly they forgot it, so little affected were they with it. Nay, his inward friends, the men of his secret, whom he was most intimate with and laid in his bosom, not only forgot him, but abhorred him, kept as far off from him as they could, because he was poor and could not entertain them as he used to do, and because he was sore and a loathsome spectacle. Those whom he loved, and who therefore were worse than publicans if they did not love him now that he was in distress, not only turned from him, but were turned against him, and did all they could to make him odious, so to justify themselves in being so strange to him, v. 19. So uncertain is the friendship of men; but, if God be our friend, he will not fail us in a time of need. But let none that pretend either to humanity or Christianity ever use their friends as Job’s friends used him: adversity is the proof of friendship. 2. Of his domestics and family relations. Sometimes indeed we find that, beyond our expectation, there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother; but the master of a family ordinarily expects to be attended on and taken care of by those of his family, even when, through weakness of body or mind, he has become despicable to others. But poor Job was misused by his own family, and some of his worst foes were those of his own house. He mentions not his children; they were all dead, and we may suppose that the unkindness of his surviving relations made him lament the death of his children so much the more: “If they had been alive,” would he think, “I should have had comfort in them.” As for those that were now about him, (1.) His own servants slighted him. His maids did not attend him in his illness, but counted him for a stranger and an alien, v. 15. His other servants never heeded him; if he called to them they would not come at his call, but pretended that they did not hear him. If he asked them a question, they would not vouchsafe to give him an answer, v. 16. Job had been a good master to them, and did not despise their cause when they pleaded with him (ch. xxxi. 13), and yet they were rude to him now, and despised his cause when he pleaded with them. We must not think it strange if we receive evil at the hand of those from whom we have deserved well. Though he was now sickly, yet he was not cross with his servants, and imperious, as is too common, but he entreated his servants with his mouth, when he had authority to command; and yet they would not be civil to him, neither kind nor just. Note, Those that are sick and in sorrow are apt to take things ill, and be jealous of a slight, and to lay to heart the least unkindness done to them: when Job was in affliction even his servants’ neglect of him troubled him. (2.) But, one would think, when all forsook him, the wife of his bosom should have been tender of him: no, because he would not curse God and die, as she persuaded him, his breath was strange to her too; she did not care for coming near him, nor took any notice of what he said, v. 17. Though he spoke to her, not with the authority, but with the tenderness of a husband, did not command, but entreated her by that conjugal love which their children were the pledges of, yet she regarded him not. Some read it, “Though I lamented, or bemoaned myself, for the children,” that is, “for the death of the children of my own body,” an affliction in which she was equally concerned with him. Now, it appeared, the devil spared her to him, not only to be his tempter, but to be his tormentor. By what she said to him at first, Curse God and die, it appeared that she had little religion in her; and what can one expect that is kind and good from those that have not the fear of God before their eyes and are not governed by conscience? (3.) Even the little children who were born in his house, the children of his own servants, who were his servants by birth, despised him, and spoke against him (v. 18); though he arose in civility to speak friendly to them, or with authority to check them, they let him know that they neither feared him nor loved him.
III. He complains of the decay of his body; all the beauty and strength of that were gone. When those about him slighted him, if he had been in health, and at ease, he might have enjoyed himself. But he could take as little pleasure in himself as others took in him (v. 20): My bone cleaves now to my skin, as formerly it did to my flesh; it was this that filled him with wrinkles (ch. xvi. 8); he was a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones. Nay, his skin too was almost gone, little remained unbroken but the skin of his teeth, his gums and perhaps his lips; all the rest was fetched off by his sore boils. See what little reason we have to indulge the body, which, after all our care, may be thus consumed by the diseases which it has in itself the seeds of.
IV. Upon all these accounts he recommends himself to the compassion of his friends, and justly blames their harshness with him. From this representation of his deplorable case, it was easy to infer, 1. That they ought to pity him, v. 21. This he begs in the most moving melting language that could be, enough (one would think) to break a heart of stone: “Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O you my friends! if you will do nothing else for me, be sorry for me, and show some concern for me; have pity upon me, for the hand of God hath touched me. My case is sad indeed, for I have fallen into the hands of the living God, my spirit is touched with the sense of his wrath, a calamity of all other the most piteous.” Note, It becomes friends to pity one another when they are in trouble, and not to shut up the bowels of compassion. 2. That, however, they ought not to persecute him; if they would not ease his affliction by their pity, yet they must not be so barbarous as to add to it by their censures and reproaches (v. 22): “Why do you persecute me as God? Surely his rebukes are enough for one man to bear; you need not add your wormwood and gall to the cup of affliction he puts into my hand, it is bitter enough without that: God has a sovereign power over me, and may do what he pleases with me; but do you think that you may do so too?” No, we must aim to be like the Most Holy and the Most Merciful, but not like the Most High and Most Mighty. God gives not account of any of his matters, but we must give account of ours. If they did delight in his calamity, let them be satisfied with his flesh, which was wasted and gone, but let them not, as if that were too little, wound his spirit, and ruin his good name. Great tenderness is due to those that are in affliction, especially to those that are troubled in mind.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
8. See note on Job 3:23.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
(8) He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. (9) He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. (10) He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree. (11) He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies. (12) His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle. (13) He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. (14) My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. (15) They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight. (16) I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth. (17) My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body. (18) Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me. (19) All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me. (20) My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
There seems to be much of that which is, and ever will be true gospel in those verses. They are not only of a bodily complaint, but of the anguish of the soul. First, Job eyes GOD’S hand in all. It is the LORD, Saith Job, that hath fenced up my way. When the awakened sinner not only feels the affliction, but eyes the LORD’S hand in that affliction; this is a sweet token that the visitation is beheld spiritually. Reader! recollect how JESUS, when he undertook to place himself in the sinner’s room, and to become sin and a curse for his people, felt and uttered his dolorious cries in consequence thereof. Thy reproach, saith JESUS, hath broken my heart. Psa 69:20 . Secondly, the complaint Job makes of having his brethren put far from him. Here the mourner is a lively type also of the LORD JESUS: who is represented as a stranger unto his brethren, and an alien unto his mother’s children. Psa 69:8 ; Joh 7:5 . Thirdly, the extremity of his bodily sufferings, his bones cleaving to his skin, and like one escaped with the skin of his teeth. Who can read this and overlook what is said of JESUS, whose tongue cleaved to his jaws, and all whose bones were out of joint. Psa 5:1-12Psa 5:1-12 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 19:8 He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
Ver. 8. He hath fenced up my way, &c. ] Here Job, carried away, as it were, with a torrent of grief, amplifieth his miseries by many other comparisons. And first of a traveller, whom nothing so much troubleth in his journey as hedges and darkness. God, saith Job, hath every way hedged me out of content and comfort, so that, though I seek it never so, I cannot find it. God’s people are oft brought into greatest straits, as David, Psa 31:1-24 and Psa 142:1-7 , Israel at the Red Sea, Jehoshaphat, 2Ch 20:1-29 , that they may learn to depend upon the Divine providence, &c.
And he hath set darkness in my paths
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
fenced: Job 3:23, Psa 88:8, Lam 3:7, Lam 3:9, Hos 2:6
set: Jos 24:7, Pro 4:19, Isa 50:10, Jer 13:16, Jer 23:12, Joh 8:12
Reciprocal: Gen 31:7 – ten times Job 22:11 – darkness Job 23:17 – the darkness from Job 36:16 – a broad Psa 107:14 – brought Lam 3:5 – builded
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 19:8-9. He hath fenced up my way, &c. So that I can see no means or possibility of getting out of my troubles. He hath set darkness in my paths So that I cannot discern what course I ought to take. He hath stripped me of my glory That is, of my estate, and children, and authority, and all my comforts. And taken the crown from my head All mine ornaments.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
19:8 He hath fenced up my way that I cannot {d} pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
(d) Meaning, out of his afflictions.