Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 16:18
O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.
18. God’s destructive enmity will bring Job to death, though there is no wrong in his hands and his prayer is pure (Job 16:17). This feeling makes him appeal to the earth not to cover his innocent blood. He shall die, but it is an unjust death, and his blood shall lie on the bosom of the earth open, appealing to heaven for vindication, and uttering an unceasing cry for justice.
let my cry have no place ] i. e. no resting place, where it should cease and be dumb and penetrate no further. His “cry” is his cry for reparation, as in Gen 4:10 “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.” His “blood” is, of course, a figure; it does not imply actual bloodshed, but merely a wrongful death; but it cannot mean anything short of death, because the figure is taken from a violent death. The word is used in a similar way, Psa 30:9, “What profit is there in my blood, in my going down to the pit”? where death at God’s hand from sickness seems referred to. On the idea that uncovered blood is blood calling for reparation see the remarkable passage Eze 24:7-8; cf. Isa 26:21.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ch. Job 16:18 to Job 17:9. Job, dying a martyr’s death, beseeches God that He would uphold his right with God and against men, and give him a pledge that He will make his innocence appear
In Job 16:12-14 Job described the terrible hostility of God, who dashed him to pieces, laid him in ruins and poured out his soul to the ground brought him unto death. Then the other thought rose in his mind that all this befell him though he was innocent both in life and in spirit. Here he comes to the point at which he always loses self-control when he realizes that in spite of his innocence he is held guilty. This is an overwhelming feeling, and under it Job either wildly challenges the rectitude of God, as in the first cycle of speeches; or he flings off from him altogether the form of things in the present world, and forces his way into another region, where such perversions cannot prevail and where the face of God, clouded here, must be clear and propitious. This second direction, entered upon first in ch. 14, is pursued in the present passage, and reaches its highest point in ch. 19. Already in ch. 10. Job had drawn a distinction between God of the present, who persecuted him as guilty though he was innocent, and God of the past, whose gracious care of him had been wonderful; though there he grasped at a frightful reconciliation of the contradiction: God of the present, who destroyed him, seemed the real God, and His past mercies were no true expression of His nature (see on Job 10:13 seq.). In ch. 14. Job reached out his hand into the darkness and clutched at another idea, a distinction between God of the present who would pursue him unto death, and God of the future God when His anger should be over-past and He would yearn again towards His creature, the work of His hands (see on Job 14:13 seq.). This God of the future was God as He is in truth, true to His own past dealing and to man’s conceptions of Him. It is on this line of thought that the present passage moves.
The two great ideas which fill Job’s mind in all this discourse are, first, the certainty of his speedy death under God’s afflicting hand; and second, the moral infamy and the inexplicable contradiction to his conscience which death in such circumstances carries with it. The first, his speedy death, Job accepts as inevitable, and he cannot restrain his contemptuous indignation at the foolishness of his friends, who talk as if something else were possible (Job 17:2-4; Job 17:10-16). But such a death under the hand of God meant to Job the reprobation of God and the scorn and abhorrence of men. And it is against this idea, not his mere death, that Job wrestles with all his might. This is the meaning of such a death; but it cannot be that God will allow this obloquy and injustice to overwhelm His innocent creature for ever. His blood will utter a ceaseless cry for reparation. And even now he has in heaven one who will witness to his innocence. And he prays to God that He would maintain his right with God and against men.
It is impossible to escape the conclusion that Job prays or hopes for this vindication not before but after death. For he contemplates dying an unjust death his blood will cry for vengeance. His present unjust afflictions will bring him to the grave. But these fatal afflictions are just God’s witness to his guilt. Any interference of God, therefore, to declare his innocence cannot take place in this life, for an intervention of God to declare his innocence, all the while that He continued to declare him guilty by His afflictions, could not occur to Job’s mind.
The passage Job 16:18 to Job 17:9 embraces two sections similar to one another, each of which contains a fervent appeal to God, followed by words which support it, Job 16:18 to Job 17:2, and Job 17:3-9.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
O earth – Passionate appeals to the earth are not uncommon in the Scriptures; see the notes at Isa 1:2. Such appeals indicate deep emotion, and are among the most animated forms of personification.
Cover not thou my blood – Blood here seems to denote the wrong done to him. He compares his situation with that of one who had been murdered, and calls on the earth not to conceal the crime, and prays that his injuries may not be hidden, or pass unavenged. Aben Ezra, Dr. Good, and some others, however, suppose that he refers to blood shed by him, and that the idea is, that he would have the earth reveal any blood if he had ever shed any; or in other words, that it is a strong protestation of his innocence. But the former interpretation seems to accord best with the connection. It is the exclamation of deep feeling. He speaks as a man about to die, but he says that he would die as an innocent and a much injured man, and he passionately prays that his death may not pass unavenged. God had crushed him, and his friends had wronged him, and he now earnestly implores that his character may yet be vindicated. According to the saying of the Arabs, the blood of one who was unjustly slain remained upon the earth without sinking into it; until the avenger of blood came up. It was regarded as a proof of innocence. Eichhorn, in loc That there is much of irreverence in all this must, I think, be conceded. It is not language for us to imitate. But it is not more irreverent and unbecoming than what often occurs, and it is designed to show what the human heart will express when it is allowed to give utterance to its real feelings.
And let my cry have no place – Let it not be hid or concealed. Let there be nothing to hinder my cry from ascending to heaven. The meaning is, that Job wished his solemn protestations of his innocence to go abroad. He desired that all might hear him. He called on the nations and heaven to hear. He appealed to the universe. He desired that the earth would not conceal the proof of his wrongs, and that his cry might not be confined or limited by any bounds, but that it might go abroad so that all worlds might hear.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 18. O earth, cover not thou my blood] This is evidently an allusion to the murder of Abel, and the verse has been understood in two different ways:
1. Job here calls for justice against his destroyers. His blood is his life, which he considers as taken away by violence, and therefore calls for vengeance. Let my blood cry against my murderers, as the blood of Abel cried against Cain. My innocent life is taken away by violence, as his innocent life was; as therefore the earth was not permitted to cover his blood, so that his murderer should be concealed, let my death be avenged in the same way.
2. It has been supposed that the passage means that Job considered himself accused of shedding innocent blood; and, conscious of his own perfect innocence, he prays that the earth may not cover any blood shed by him. Thus Mr. Scott: –
“O earth, the blood accusing me reveal;
Its piercing voice in no recess conceal.”
And this notion is followed by Mr. Good. But, with all deference to these learned men, l do not see that this meaning can be supported by the Hebrew text; nor was the passage so understood by any of the ancient versions. I therefore prefer the first sense, which is sufficiently natural, and quite in the manner of Job in his impassioned querulousness.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
My blood, so called not actively, to wit, his own blood; but passively or objectively, i.e. the blood of others shed by him, and lying upon his conscience. The earth is said to cover that blood which lies undiscovered and unrevenged; of which See Poole “Gen 4:10“, See Poole “Gen 4:11“; See Poole “Isa 26:21“, But, saith Job, if I be guilty of destroying any one man by murder or oppression, as I am traduced, O Lord, let the earth disclose it; let it be brought to light, that I may suffer condign punishment for it.
My cry; either,
1. Passively, to wit, the cries and groans which I have forced from others by my oppressions; let those cries have no place to hide them. Or rather,
2. Actively, the cry of my complaints to men, or prayers to God; let them find no place in the cars or hearts of God or men, if this be true: or, no place, i.e. no regard, or no power or success; in which sense Gods word is said not to have place in evil men, Joh 8:37; and Esau not to
find place of repentance, Heb 12:17, i.e. all his entreaties and tears could not prevail with his father to repent of and retract the blessing given from him to Jacob.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. my bloodthat is, myundeserved suffering. He compares himself to one murdered, whoseblood the earth refuses to drink up until he is avenged (Gen 4:10;Gen 4:11; Eze 24:1;Eze 24:8; Isa 26:21).The Arabs say that the dew of heaven will not descend on a spotwatered with innocent blood (compare 2Sa1:21).
no placenoresting-place. “May my cry never stop!” May it go abroad!”Earth” in this verse in antithesis to “heaven”(Job 16:19). May my innocencebe as well-known to man as it is even now to God!
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
O earth, cover not thou my blood,…. This is an imprecation, wishing that if; he had been guilty of any capital crime, of such acts of injustice that he ought to be punished by the judge, and even to die for them, that his blood when spilt might not be received into the earth, but be licked up by dogs, or that he might have no burial or interment in the earth; and if he had committed such sins as might come under the name of blood, either the shedding of innocent blood, though that is so gross a crime that it can hardly be thought that Job’s friends even suspected this of him; or rather other foul sins, as injustice and oppression of the poor; the Tigurine version is, “my capital sins”, see Isa 1:15; then he wishes they might never be covered and concealed, but disclosed and spread abroad everywhere, that all might know them, and he suffer shame for them; even as the earth discloses the blood of the slain, when inquisition is made for it,
Isa 26:21;
and let my cry have no place; meaning if he was the wicked man and the hypocrite he was said to be, or if his prayer was not pure, sincere, and upright, as he said it was, then he desired that when he cried to God, or to man, in his distress, he might be regarded by neither; that his cry might not enter into the ears of the Lord of hosts, but that it might be shut out, and he cover himself with a cloud, that it might not pass through, and have any place with him; land that he might not meet with any pity and compassion from the heart, nor help and relief from the hand of any man.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
18 Oh earth, cover thou not my blood,
And let my cry find no resting-place!! –
19 Even now behold in heaven is my Witness,
And One who acknowledgeth me is in the heights!
20 Though the mockers of me are my friends –
To Eloah mine eyes pour forth tears,
21 That He may decide for man against Eloah,
And for the son of man against his friend.
22 For the years that may be numbered are coming on,
And I shall go a way without return.
Blood that is not covered up cries for vengeance, Eze 24:7.; so also blood still unavenged is laid bare that it may find vengeance, Isa 26:21. According to this idea, in the lofty consciousness of his innocence, Job calls upon the earth not to suck in his blood as of one innocently slain, but to let it lie bare, thereby showing that it must be first of all avenged ere the earth can take it up;
(Note: As, according to the tradition, it is said to have been impossible to remove the stain of the blood of Zachariah the son of Jehoiada, who was murdered in the court of the temple, until it was removed by the destruction of the temple itself.)
and for his cry, i.e., the cry ( to be explained according to Gen 4:10) proceeding from his blood as from his poured-out soul, he desires that it may urge its way unhindered and unstilled towards heaven without finding a place of rest (Symm. ). Therefore, in the very God who appears to him to be a blood-thirsty enemy in pursuit of him, Job nevertheless hopes to find a witness of his innocence: He will acknowledge his blood, like that of Abel, to be the blood of an innocent man. It is an inward irresistible demand made by his faith which here brings together two opposite principles – principles which the understanding cannot unite – with bewildering boldness. Job believes that God will even finally avenge the blood which His wrath has shed, as blood that has been innocently shed. This faith, which sends forth beyond death itself the word of absolute command contained in Job 16:18, in Job 16:19 brightens and becomes a certain confidence, which draws from the future into the present that acknowledgment which God afterwards makes of him as innocent. The thought of what is unmerited in that decree of wrath which delivers him over to death, is here forced into the background, and in the front stands only the thought of the exaltation of the God in heaven above human short-sightedness, and the thought that no one else but He is the final refuge of the oppressed: even now (i.e., this side of death)
(Note: Comp. 1Ki 14:14, where it is probably to be explained: Jehovah shall raise up for himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day, but what? even now ( ), i.e., He hath raised him up (= but no, even now).)
behold in heaven is my witness ( an expression of the actus directus fidei ) and my confessor ( a poetic Aramaism, similar in meaning to , lxx ) in the heights. To whom should he flee from the mockery of his friends, who consider his appeal to the testimony of his conscience as the stratagem of a hypocrite! from , Psa 119:51, my mockers, i.e., those mocking me, lascivientes in me (vid., Gesch. der jd. Poesie, S. 200. The short clause, Job 16:20, is, logically at least, like a disjunctive clause with or , Ewald, 362, b: if his friends mock him – to Eloah, who is after all the best of friends, his eyes pour forth tears ( , stillat, comp. of languishing, Isa 38:14), that He may decide ( voluntative in a final signification, as Job 9:33) for man ( here, as Isa 11:4; Isa 2:4, of the client) against ( , as Psa 55:19; Psa 94:16, of an opponent) Eloah, and for the son of man ( to be supplied here in a similar sense to Job 16:21, comp. Job 15:3) in relation to ( as it is used in … , e.g., Eze 34:22) his friend. Job longs and hopes for two things from God: (1) that He would finally decide in favour of , i.e., just himself, the patient sufferer, in opposition to God, that therefore God would acknowledge that Job is not a criminal, nor his suffering a merited punishment; (2) that He would decide in favour of , i.e., himself, who is become an Ecce homo , in relation to his human opponent ( , not collective, but individualizing or distributive instead of ), who regards him as a sinner undergoing punishment, and preaches to him the penitence that becomes one who has fallen. is purposely only used once, and the expression Job 16:21 is contracted in comparison with 21 a: the one decision includes the other; for when God himself destroys the idea of his lot being merited punishment, He also at the same time delivers judgment against the friends who have zealously defended Him against Job as a just judge.
Olsh. approves Ewald’s translation: “That He allows man to be in the right rather than God, and that He judges man against his friend:” but granted even that , like followed by an acc., may be used in the signification: to grant any one to be in the right (although, with such a construction, it everywhere signifies ), this rendering would still not commend itself, on account of the specific gravity of the hope which is here struggling through the darkness of conflict. Job appeals from God to God; he hopes that truth and love will finally decide against wrath. The meaning of has reference to the duty of an arbitrator, as in Job 9:33. Schlottm. aptly recalls the saying of the philosophers, which applies here in a different sense from that in which it is meant, nemo contra Deum, nisi Deus ipse. In Job 16:22 Job now establishes the fact that the heavenly witness will not allow him to die a death that he and others would regard as the death of a sinner, from the brevity of the term of life yet granted him, and the hopelessness of man when he is once dead. are years of number = few years (lxx ); comp. the position of the words as they are to be differently understood, Job 15:20. On the inflexion jeethaju , vid., on Job 12:6. Jerome transl. transeunt , but cannot signify this in any Semitic dialect. But even that Job (though certainly the course of elephantiasis can continue for years) is intended to refer to the prospect of some, although few, years of life (Hirz. and others: the few years which I can still look forward to, are drawing on), does not altogether suit the tragic picture. The approach of the years that can be numbered is rather thought of as the approach of their end; and the few years are not those which still remain, but in general the but short span of life allotted to him (Hahn). The arrangement of the words in Job 16:22 also agrees with this, as not having the form of a conclusion (then shall I go, etc.), but that of an independent co-ordinate clause: and a path, there (whence) I come not back (an attributive relative clause according to Ges. 123, 3, b) I shall go ( poetic, and in order to gain a rhythmical fall at the close, for ). Now follow, in the next strophe, short ejaculatory clauses: as Oetinger observes, Job chants his own requiem while living.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
3. He must be vindicated by a heavenly witness. (Job. 16:18-22)
TEXT 16:1822
18 O earth, cover not thou my blood,
And let my cry have no resting-place.
19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,
And he that voucheth for me is on high.
20 My Mends scoff at me:
But mine eye poureth out tears unto God,
21 That he would maintain the right of a man with God,
And of a son of man with his neighbor!
22 For when a few years are come,
I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
COMMENT 16:1822
Job. 16:18Shed blood cries out for vengeanceGen. 4:10; Gen. 37:26; Isa. 26:21; Eze. 24:8, hence the effort to hide it in the dust. Job desires that his blood remain uncovered as a protest and appeal to God for vindication. Dahood presents strong evidence that the A. V. rendering of resting place should be burial place. Here it is improbable that Job thinks of vindication while still alive. The passage (Job. 16:18Job. 17:9) shows a very important development towards Job. 19:24 ff.
Job. 16:19Exegetically and theologically, it would be very difficult, even impossible, to deny that the witness in heaven is Jobs mediator, redeemer (or VindicatorS. Terrien in Interpreters Bible, Vol. Ill, 10251029), even though God is already Jobs Accuser, Judge, and ExecutionerJob. 9:33; Job. 19:25; and Job. 33:23-24.
Job. 16:20My scorners (melisay) are my friends (Rowley, p. 150), so as I turn from them, I turn to God with tears streaming down my face. The above word for friend (rea) is used of Eliphaz, Bildad, and ZopharJob. 2:11; Job. 32:3; Job. 42:10; and Jesus in John 15.
Job. 16:21The one to whom Job turns is surely the same person as the witness of the preceding verse, and the vindicator of Job. 9:33 and Job. 19:25 (see bibliography on this verse). This is one of the most profound verses in all scripture. Job appeals to God, who had indicted him with cruel agony and as the God of his faith the object of Jobs faith is also Lord of justice and righteousness, the one who will maintain the right (verb from which the word umpire is derived in Job. 9:33). Now he pleads that God might present the case to himself. (Note the significance of the Incarnation in explaining the wonderful things here disclosed.) A son of man simply means a person, i.e., Job. Neighbor comes from the same word that is translated friend in Job. 16:20. The neighbor is not God, as some suggest, rather a fellow human being.
Job. 16:22Job here lapses into the thought of the inevitability and finality of death that has been expressed beforeJob. 7:9 ff and Job. 10:21.[189]
[189] M. Dahood, Biblica, 48, 1967, 429.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(18) Let my cry have no place.That is, Let there be no place in the wide earth where my cry shall not reach: let it have no resting place: let it fill the whole wide earth.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. Cover not thou my blood He speaks of his sufferings under the figure of blood that has been wrongfully shed. “Blood,” says Grotius, “denotes every kind of immature death.” The ancients attributed to blood, unjustly shed, a cry that excited God to vengeance; an opinion which may have sprung from the case of Abel, Gen 4:10. “When the earth covers the blood of the slain it seems to cloak injury.” Drusius. See also Isa 26:21; Eze 24:7-8. The Arabs say the dew of heaven will not descend upon a spot watered with innocent blood; and their poets fancy that the poison of asps distils from the dead body of the slain, and continues to do so till he is avenged, that is, sprinkled with fresh blood. (See HERDER, Hebrews Poetry, 1:195.) Job will have nothing to do with a human goel; he transfers his cause to a divine being (Job 19:25) who he believes will finally avenge his blood.
No place In sense of resting place.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
First strophe God, the witness of the innocent blood which his own wrath hath shed, cannot but plead with God for justice, though man, the victim, be in the article of death. Job 16:18 – Job 17:2.
Job’s faith again appeals from God as he seems, to God as he must be.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 16:18. O earth, cover not thou my blood, &c. O earth! cover not thou my blood, lest there be no place for my cry! Job 16:19. Yea, even now my witness is in heaven; and He who is conscious of my actions is on high: Job 16:20. My thought is my interpreter with God; mine eye is dropping before him: Job 16:21. Is it for man to dispute with God, as a man disputeth with his neighbour? Houbigant. Heath renders the 21st verse, Oh that it might plead, &c.! meaning the dropping eye, the tears which he shed; and the 22nd verse, that those few years might come to an end; that I might go the way, &c.
REFLECTIONS.1st, Such arguing as Eliphaz offered produced little conviction and less comfort; no wonder, therefore, that Job, insulted and afflicted, retorts sharply the reproaches which his opponent had cast upon him. It was as hard to be patient under such provocation, as to be silent under his sufferings.
1. He is tired of such vain repetition. It was crambe repetita, the same jarring string struck with the same rough hand. He complains of them all, as miserable comforters, who heightened his anguish by unjust reproaches, instead of pouring in the kind balm of friendly sympathy. He thought it high time for such vain talkers to have done, and considers it as insolent and provoking to have such answers obtruded upon him. Note; (1.) They who send wounded consciences to better obedience, and their own duties, for a cure, like Job’s comforters, do but exasperate the pain. (2.) No human consolations can afford satisfaction to the soul under a sense of sin, till God speak the pardoning word. (3.) To censure men for sins that we cannot prove, and to persist in repeating accusations that have been confuted and answered, deserves a sharp rebuke.
2. He suggests to them how different a conduct he would have adopted toward them, had they been in his circumstances; and therein justly upbraids their cruelty and unkindness. I also could speak, or ought I to speak? ought I to heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you, if you were under my calamities? No: far other should be my conduct. ‘Twere easy indeed, as you do, to trample on the miserable, and insult the afflicted; but I would strengthen you with my mouth, suggesting every kind alleviation, ministering the soft balm of friendly sympathy and consolation; and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief. Note; (1.) Though we cannot remove the afflictions of our friends, we may kindly suggest to them arguments to support them, and, by tender sympathy with them, alleviate their sorrows. (2.) If we placed our souls in others’ stead, under their temptations and afflictions, it would teach us both to judge of them more favourably, and to treat them with greater tenderness.
2nd, Job’s complaints are still uppermost, and all methods to asswage them are vain: whether he spoke, or was silent, he derived no ease from God or man; his prayers returned unanswered: his friends misconstrued his words into passion, and seemed disposed to call his silence sullenness. He therefore speaks in the bitterness of his soul.
1. He was weary of his life; deprived now of every comfort, desolate and solitary; bereaved of his family, and forsaken of all those who used to assemble at his house for the worship of God.
2. His body, emaciated with pain and grief, looked like decrepit age, and he appeared a kind of living skeleton; witnesses, indeed, of his deep affliction, but cruelly pleaded against him as proofs of guilt and sin.
3. His enemy, who hated him, with piercing eyes observed him, full of indignation, and tearing him in fury. This enemy may be understood of Eliphaz, or Satan, or, as the context seems best to suit, of God himself, who appeared in such a terrible character, and of whom he was ready to entertain such hard thoughts. Note; They who have God indeed for their enemy, will be torn in pieces while there is none to deliver them.
4. He was become the object of scorn and contempt, and herein a type of Jesus. But, though like him in scorn, how inferior to him in resignation!
5. He was delivered into the hands of the wicked; the Chaldeans, who robbed him; and his friends, who seemed so set against him; or the wicked one, the devil, whose power to torment him appeared so absolute.
6. The wrath of God seemed let loose upon him. When at ease a little moment, again suddenly the stroke broke into shivers all his comforts; seized as a child in a giant’s arms, and shook limb from limb; set up as the butt of God’s poisoned arrows, and the mark for the world’s enmity; tormented with the most acute pains, and no intermission of his agonies; living as in the pangs of death, pierced through the liver with a sword, and the gall flowing through the wound, and daily aggravated and increasing troubles succeeding as breach upon breach, while with a giant’s fury, resistless and cruel, God appeared to delight in crushing him under his feet: such sad thoughts his afflicted heart suggested.
7. His humiliation was as deep as his affliction; sackcloth was his garb, his glory all departed, his horn in the dust, and tears night and day flowed, till his eyes grew dim with sorrow, as if the shadow of death hung on his eyelids. Note; (1.) It becomes us to humble ourselves when God’s heavy hand is upon us. (2.) Though we sow in tears, as the showers in seed-time, the harvest of patient suffering shall be joy.
3rdly, Though his passionate expressions are to be condemned, Job’s uprightness in general deserves the highest approbation.
1. He can appeal to God to testify that these afflictions came not upon for any injustice in his hands, as his friends suggested; or for any impiety in restraining prayer before God; for God knew his integrity to man, as also the purity of his intentions, and the fervency of his devotions. Note; It is an unspeakable comfort, whatever we suffer, if we can still keep a clear conscience, and take God to witness for the simplicity of our souls before him.
2. He supports his appeal to God by a solemn imprecation: if what I say be not true, O earth, cover not thou my blood, let it be shed for dogs to lick; or, if there be any secret crime, let it be laid open to the day; and let my cry have no place with God or man: I am content to be condemned of both without mercy.
3. He makes God his resource in his afflictions: amid the scorn and insult of his friends he poured out tears unto him; tears that bespoke his compassion, tears that pleaded against the unkindness of his accusers. Note; The tears of God’s people are not forgotten; and they who cruelly caused these tears to fall shall be recompensed.
4. He longs to have an opportunity to plead his cause before God, without dread of the Divine Majesty, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour, with freedom and unreserve; then he doubted not he should obtain a verdict in his favour, and silence his censorious friends.
5. He comforts himself that the time is short; and, however now unjustly censured, his character would ere long be cleared up: when the few years of life ended, he should go the way whence he should not return, never come back again to a miserable world, nor be exposed to any of those calamities under which he now groaned. Note; (1.) Death is a journey into a far country, whence we are no more to return; the moment we depart from earth, our eternity is determined for hell or heaven. (2.) The time here is short, happy they who employ it in getting ready for their removal, that when the hour comes, they may have nothing to do but die.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 16:18 O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.
Ver. 18. O earth, cover not thou my blood ] Job had made a high profession of his innocence and integrity. This he further confirmeth, 1. By an imprecation against himself. 2. By an appeal to God, Job 16:19 . In this imprecation or wish of his (which Mr Broughton taketh to be meant by the foregoing words, Also my prayer is pure, rendered by him thus, But my wish is clean, saying, O earth, cover not, &c.) he hath an eye, no doubt, to the history of Abel’s blood, shed by Cain, Gen 4:1-15 , and it is as if he should say, If I have committed murder or any the like wickedness, cover it not, O earth, but do thy office by crying out against me; yea, cry so loud to God for vengeance, as to drown the voice of my supplication.
And let my cry have no place
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
O. Figure of speech Ecphonesis. App-6.
cover not. my blood. The reference is to the practice which remains to this day, based on Num 35:33. Lev 17:13. Job’s desire is that the evidence of his sufferings may not be hidden.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Job 16:18-22
Job 16:18-22
JOB TRUSTS THAT HE HAS AN ADVOCATE IN HEAVEN
“O earth, cover not thou my blood,
And let my cry have no resting place.
Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,
And he that voucheth for me is on high.
My friends scoff at me;
But mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
That he would maintain the right of a man with God,
And of a son of man with his neighbor!
For when a few years are come,
I shall go the way whence I shall not return.”
Here we have a sudden burst of inspiration. Yes, indeed, “We have an advocate with the Father,” even as an apostle would declare it in ages to come; but here the Lord suddenly revealed it to his beleaguered worshipper sorely oppressed by the devil and struggling with problems which no mortal man could handle alone. Job will again speak of this “Redeemer” in Job 19; but even here he is sure of his existence and fully confident Of his vindication at last in heaven itself. Note too that here is a clear acknowledgment of heaven’s existence and of the certainty of the saints being welcomed there when the probation of life has ended. This writer cannot explain why many writers do not even mention what is written here.
“O Earth, cover not thou my blood” (Job 16:18). This is a reference to the murder of Abel, another righteous man, who like Job, suffered only because he was righteous, and whom Job’s conceited friends had apparently never heard of. God said that Abel’s blood cried unto God for vengeance (Gen 4:9); and here Job pleaded that his own innocent blood would cry to God for vengeance, and that the earth would not cover (prevent) it.
“When a few years are come, I shall go away whence I shall not return” (Job 16:22). Kelly, and others, have spoken of this verse as a “special problem.” “Job here speaks of death as coming in `a few years’; but everywhere else in the book, he views death as imminent.” Of course, some of the scholars are ready to `emend’ the place and make it say what they think it should have said. Why “emend it”? Was it not indeed the truth? Job lived to a full two hundred years of age, which, in God’s sight, was indeed “a few years.” Let men understand that God in these verses spoke through Job.
Job himself might not fully have understood what God revealed through him in this place. The possibility of this is proved by the apostle Peter’s words in 1Pe 1:10-12.
E.M. Zerr:
Job 16:18. The thought in this verse is that his blood should not be silenced. If it were covered then its cry would have no place. Instead of that, he wants his blood to be allowed to cry out for justice as did Abel’s in Gen 4:10.
Job 16:19. Earthly “friends” had turned against Job and falsely accused him. But there was One on high who understood and would some day bear witness to his innocency.
Job 16:20. While Job’s friends scorned him and poured contempt on his tears, he would turn his face toward God who can “wipe away all tears.” (Rev 21:4.)
Job 16:21. Job’s friends had been pleading with him to confess to a guilt which he did not have. He prayed for someone to plead with God in behalf of the unfortunate.
Job 16:22. Job believed in another life after this, but he did not believe that mankind would again live on the earth. (Job 7:9-10.)
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
O earth: Jer 22:29
cover not: Gen 4:11, Neh 4:5, Isa 26:21, Eze 24:7
let my cry: Job 27:9, Psa 66:18, Psa 66:19, Isa 1:15, Isa 58:9, Isa 58:10, Jam 4:3, Jam 4:4
Reciprocal: Gen 4:10 – crieth Gen 37:26 – conceal Lev 17:13 – pour out Job 20:27 – earth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 16:18-21. Job cries to the avenger of blood to avenge his innocence. He is a martyr, and feels that his blood must cry for vengeance (Gen 4:10*, Rev 6:10). Job arrives at the astounding thought that God will be his avenger, though it is God that slays him. We have noticed how in Jobs bitter complaint against God, the thought that the God, who had loved him in the past, will one day turn to him once more, had again and again broken through (Job 7:8; Job 7:21, Job 14:13-15). Job now sets the God of the past and the future against the God of the present, one side of God against another, God against Himself (Job 16:21). God is his witness (Job 16:19). Davidson translates advocate and says, There was no difference between advocate and witness in the Hebrew courts, the part of a witness being to testify on behalf of one and see justice done him.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
16:18 O earth, cover not thou my {s} blood, and let my cry have no place.
(s) Let my sin be known if I am such a sinner as my adversaries accuse me, and let me find no favour.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Job’s desire for a representative in heaven 16:18-17:2
Job called on the earth not to cover his blood (Job 16:18) so it might cry to God for vindication (cf. Gen 4:10). Job did not want people to forget his case when he died. He wanted someone to answer his questions and to vindicate his innocence even if he was not alive to witness it. The witness/advocate to which he referred (Job 16:19) seems to be some heavenly witness other than God since he called this person a man (Job 16:21). [Note: See ibid., pp. 148-49.] Some commentators, however, believed Job had God in mind. [Note: E.g., Hartley, p. 264.] Certainly the God-man, Jesus Christ, our advocate with the Father, is the person whom God provided to meet this need. However, Job did not have revelation concerning Him as far as the text indicates. Job longed for someone to plead with God for him since God was apparently ignoring his cries. Moreover, Job’s companions were not pleading his case as true friends should have done (Job 16:20; Job 17:2).
"With increasing clarity Job is seeing that satisfactory answers might be gained only when he has more direct dealings with God after death." [Note: Andersen, p. 183.]
"In all the movement of this great answer it would seem as though outlines of the truth were breaking upon Job." [Note: Morgan, p. 208.]