Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 19:15
They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
15 16. Then those unrelated to him within his house, the menials and slaves. Those who, as Oriental servants, used to be subservient and observant of the slightest sign from their master (Psa 123:2) these “ducking observants” now refuse to answer when he calls, and must be besought for their service. Very soon the reflection of one’s fall is thrown from the countenances of those higher in rank down upon the faces of the servants, where it shows itself without any delicacy or reserve. Job 19:16 reads, I call my servant and he giveth me no answer: I must entreat him with my mouth.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They that dwell in mine house – The trials came to his very dwelling, and produced a sad estrangement there. The word used here garey from gur means properly those who sojourn in a house for a little time. It may refer to guests, strangers, servants, clients, or tenants. The essential idea is, that they were not permanent residents, though for a time they were inmates of the family. Jerome renders the place, Inquilini domus meoe – the tenants of my house. The Septuagint, Geitones oikias – neighbors. Schultens supposes it means clients, or those who were taken under the protection of a great man. He quotes from the Arabian poets to show that the word is used in that sense, and particularly a passage from the Hamasa, which he thus translates:
Descendite sub alas meas, alasque gentis meae.
Ut sim praesidium vobis quum pugna con seritur.
Namque testamento injunxit mihi pater, ut reciperem vos hospites.
Omnemque oppressorem a vobis propulsarem.
There can be no doubt that Job refers to dependents, but whether in the capacity of servants, tenants, or clients, it is not easy to determine, and is not material. Dr. Good renders it sojourners, and this is a correct rendering of the word. This would be clearly the sense if the corresponding member of the parallelism were not maids. or female servants. That requires us to understand here persons who were somehow engaged in the service of Job. Perhaps his clients, or those who came for protection, were under obligation to some sort of service as the return of his patronage.
And my maids – Female domestics. The Chaldee, however, renders this – my concubines; but the correct reference is to female female servants.
I am an alien – That is, to them. They cease to treat me as the head of the family.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. They that dwell in mine house] In this and the following verses the disregard and contempt usually shown to men who have fallen from affluence and authority into poverty and dependence, are very forcibly described: formerly reverenced by all, now esteemed by none. Pity to those who have fallen into adversity is rarely shown; the rich have many friends, and to him who appears to be gaining worldly substance much court is paid; for many worship the rising sun, who think little of that which is gone down. Some are even reproached with that eminence which they have lost, though not culpable for the loss. A bishop, perhaps Bale, of Ossory, being obliged to leave his country and fly for his life, in the days of bloody Queen Mary, and who never regained his bishopric, was met one morning by one like those whom Job describes, who, intending to be witty at the expense of the venerable prelate, accosted him thus: “Good morrow, BISHOP quondam.” To which the bishop smartly replied, “Adieu, KNAVE semper.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They that dwell in mine house, Heb. the sojourners of my house, i.e. such as had formerly sojourned with me, whether strangers. widows, and fatherless, whom by the law of charity and hospitality he entertained; or hired servants, who had for a good while their habitation and subsistence in his family.
My maids; who, by reason of their sex, commonly have and should have more tender and compassionate hearts than men. And therefore this is Gods doing, who hath hardened their hearts against me.
Count me for a stranger; regard my commands and concerns no more than a stranger.
I am an alien in their sight; the same thing repeated, through vehemency of passion, because this lay very heavy upon him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. They that dwell, &c.rather,”sojourn”: male servants, sojourning in his house. Mark thecontrast. The stranger admitted to sojourn as a dependent treats themaster as a stranger in his own house.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They that dwell in mine house,…. Not his neighbours, as the Septuagint; for though they dwelt near his house, they did not dwell in it; nor inmates and sojourners, lodgers with him, to whom he let out apartments in his house; this cannot be supposed to have been his case, who was the greatest man in all the east; nor even tenants, that hired houses and lands of him; for the phrase is not applicable to them; it designs such who were inhabitants in his house. Job amidst all his calamities had an house to dwell in; it is a tradition mentioned by Jerom c, that Job’s house was in Carnea, a large village in his time, in a corner of Batanea, beyond the floods of Jordan; and he had people dwelling with him in it, who are distinct from his wife, children, and servants after mentioned; and are either “strangers” d as the word sometimes signifies, he had taken into his house in a way of hospitality, and had given them lodging, and food, and raiment, as the light of nature and law of God required, De 10:18; or else proselytes, of whom this word e is sometimes used, whom he had been the instrument of converting from idolatry, superstition, and profaneness, and of gaining them over to the true religion; and whom he had taken into his house, to instruct them more and more in the ways of God, such as were the trained servants in Abraham’s family: these, says he,
and my maids, count me for a stranger; both the one and the other, the strangers he took out of the streets, and the travellers he opened his doors unto, and entertained in a very generous and hospitable manner; the proselytes he had made, and with whom he had taken so much pains, and to whom he had shown so much kindness and goodness, and been the means of saving their souls from death; and his maidens he had hired into his house, to do the business of it, and who ought to have been obedient and respectful to him, and whose cause he had not despised, but had treated them with great humanity and concern; the Targum wrongly renders the word, “my concubines”; yet these one and another looked upon him with an air of the utmost indifference, not as if he was the master of the house, but a stranger in it, as one that did not belong unto it, and they had scarce ever seen with their eyes before; which was very ungrateful, and disrespectful to the last degree; and if they reckoned him a stranger to God, to his grace, to true religion and godliness, this was worse still; and especially in the proselytes of his house, who owed their conversion, their light and knowledge in divine things, to him as an instrument:
I am an alien in their sight; as a foreigner, one of another kingdom and nation, of a different habit, speech, religion, and manners; they stared at him as if they had never seen him before, as some strange object to be looked at, an uncommon spectacle, that had something in him or about him unusual and frightful; at least contemptible and to be disdained, and not to be spoke to and familiarly conversed with, but to be shunned and despised.
c De loc. Heb. fol. 89. M. d “peregrini”, Schmidt, Schultens. e Apud Rabbinos, passim.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
15. They dwell in mine house Delitzsch understands them to be domestics or vassals.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 19:15 They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
Ver. 15. They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, &c. ] My tenants, or my guests, or my sojourners, those widows and orphans haply, whom he kept at his own charge, Job 31:32 . More than this, my maidens, those housekeepers, intrusted with the keys of the family, and that are no drudges to wash the feet of other servants, as 1Sa 25:41 . And for his servants of the other sex, he was as coarsely used by them too.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
dwell: Job 19:16-19
count me: Job 31:31, Job 31:32, Psa 123:3
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 19:15-16. They that dwell in my house Hebrew, , garei beethei, peregrini domus me, the sojourners of my house, that is, those that formerly were kindly entertained at my house, whether strangers, widows, or the fatherless; nay, the people of my family, even my maids, who, by reason of their sex, have commonly more tender and compassionate hearts than men, count me for a stranger Have forgotten the respect they owe, and were wont to pay to me, and regard my commands and concerns no more than if I were a stranger to whom they had no relation. I called my servant To do some servile office; and he gave me no answer He regarded not what I said; no, not when I besought him, as if he had been my master.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
19:15 {h} They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
(h) My household servants by all these losses Job shows that touching the flesh he had great opportunity to be moved.