6 17. Job realizes to himself his new condition: God and men combine to pursue him with their enmity, though he is innocent of all wrong

In Job 16:5 Job flung back with scorn the “comforts of God” which the friends proffered him. And now there seems to occur a pause, and the excited sufferer looks about him and realizes both the extremity of the evil in which he is held, and the new and unexpected trial, added to all others, of the judgment of men being against him. And he hardly knows whether he shall speak or be silent, so overcome is he and so unavailing to help him or make men judge truly of him are both speech and silence if I speak my grief is not assuaged, and if I forbear what am I eased? Job 16:6.

Yet this new condition in which he realizes that he is, which makes speech useless, forces him to speak, and he sets before himself in an excited soliloquy the combined enmity to him of men and God.

First, Job 16:7-11, he realizes to himself the complete estrangement from him of all familiar friends; God’s enmity to him has turned men also into foes ( Job 16:7-8). This combined enmity of God and men is represented under what seems the figure of a creature hunted by one great lion-like assailant, leading on a host of minor, ignobler foes. The chief adversary is first described, his rending anger, and gnashing teeth, and flashing eyes ( Job 16:9); and then the pell-mell rout of baser foes that howled behind him, their open mouth and shameless gestures, and full cry after the prey, which is flung over into their hands ( Job 16:10-11).

Second, Job 16:12-17, then the hostility of God Himself is particularly dwelt upon in graphic figures, which express its unexpected suddenness, its violence and destructiveness. One figure is that of a man suddenly grasped by another of overwhelming strength and tossed about and dashed to pieces ( Job 16:12). Then the figure changes, and this shattered frame is set up as a mark, and God’s arrows hiss around him and split his reins and pour out his life to the ground ( Job 16:13). Again the figure changes, and this body seems some fair edifice or fort which God dismantles by breach upon breach till it lies a sorrowful ruin ( Job 16:14). And finally the condition of humiliation to which the sufferer is brought is described; and all this befell him though he had done no wrong ( Job 16:15-17).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged – But for me, it makes now no difference whether I speak or am silent. My sufferings continue. If I attempt to vindicate myself before people, I am reproached; and equally so if I am silent. If I maintain my cause before God, it avails me nothing, for my sufferings continue. If I am silent, and submit without a complaint, they are the same. Neither silence, nor argument, nor entreaty, avail me before God or man. I am doomed to suffering.

What am I eased? – Margin. Goeth from me. Literally, what goeth from me? The sense is, that it all availed nothing.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 6. Though I speak] But it will be of no avail thus to speak; for reprehensions of your conduct will not serve to mitigate my sufferings.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Though I speak to God by prayer, or to you in way of discourse, I find no relief. Job having reproved his friends for their unkind carriage towards him, and aggravated it by his resolutions to have dealt more friendly with them, if they had been in his case; now he returns to his main business, to describe and aggravate his miseries, if by any means he could move his friends to pity and help him.

What am I eased? or, what part or grain of my grief or misery departeth from me? I receive not one jot of ease. Neither speech nor silence do me any good.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

6. easedliterally, “What(portion of my sufferings) goes from me?”

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged,…. Though he spoke to God in prayer, and entreated for some abatement of his sorrows, he got no relief; and though he spoke to himself in soliloquies, his sorrow was not repressed nor lessened; he could not administer comfort to himself in the present case, though he might to others in like circumstances, if his own were changed;

and [though] I forbear speaking, hold my peace, and say nothing,

what am I eased? or “what goes from me” t? not anything of my trouble or grief; sometimes a man speaking of his troubles to his friends gives vent to his grief, and he is somewhat eased; and on the other hand being silent about it, he forgets it, and it goes off; but in neither of those ways could Job be released: or it may be his sense is, that when he spake of his affliction, and attempted to vindicate his character, he was represented as an impatient and passionate man, if not as blasphemous, so that his grief was rather increased than assuaged; and if he was silent, that was interpreted a consciousness of his guilt; so that, let him take what course he would, it was much the same, he could get no ease nor comfort.

t “quid a me abit”, Junius & Tremellius, Schultens.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

6 If I speak, my pain is not soothed;

And if I forbear, what alleviation do I experience?

7 Nevertheless now hath He exhausted me;

Thou hast desolated all my household,

8 And Thou filledst me with wrinkles – for a witness was it,

And my leanness rose up against me

Complaining to my face.

9 His wrath tore me, and made war upon me;

He hath gnashed upon me with His teeth,

As mine enemy He sharpeneth His eyes against me.

stands with the cohortative in the hypothetical antecedent clause Job 16:6, and in 6 b the cohortative stands alone as Job 11:17; Psa 73:16; Psa 139:8, which is more usual, and more in accordance with the meaning which the cohortative has in itself, Ngelsbach, 89, 3. The interrogative, What goes from me? is equivalent to, what (= nothing) of pain forsakes me. The subject of the assertion which follows (Job 16:7) is not the pain – Aben-Ezra thinks even that this is addressed in v. 7 b – still less Eliphaz, whom some think, particularly on account of the sharp expressions which follow, must be understood, but God, whose wrath Job regards as the cause of his suffering, and feels as the most intolerable part of it. A strained connection is obtained by taking either in an affirmative sense (Ew.: surely), as Job 18:21, or in a restrictive sense: only (= entirely) He has now exhausted me (Hirz., Hahn, also Schlottm.: only I feel myself oppressed, at least to express this), by which interpretation the , which stands between and the verb, is in the way. We render it therefore in the adversative signification: nevertheless ( verum tamen ) now he seeks neither by speaking to alleviate his pain, nor by silence to control himself; God has placed him in a condition in which all his strength is exhausted. He is absolutely incapable of offering any resistance to his pain, and care has also been taken that no solacing word shall come to him from any quarter: Thou hast made all my society desolate (Carey: all my clan); of the household, as in Job 15:34. Jerome: in nihilum redacti sunt omnes artus mei ( , as explained by the Jewish expositors, e.g., Ralbag), as though the human organism could be called . Hahn: Thou hast destroyed all my testimony, which must have been (from , whereas , from , has a changeable Ssere). He means to say that he stands entirely alone, and neither sees nor hears anything consolatory, for he does not count his wife. He is therefore completely shut up to himself; God has shrivelled him up; and this suffering form to which God has reduced him, is become an evidence, i.e., for himself and for others, as the three friends, an accusation de facto , which puts him down as a sinner, although his self-consciousness testifies the opposite to him.

Job 16:8

The verb (Aram. ), which occurs only once beside (Job 22:16), has, like Arab. qmt (in Gecatilia’s transl.), the primary meaning of binding and grasping firmly (lxx , Symm. , Targ. for , , lengthened to a quadriliteral in Arab. qmtr , cogn. ),

(Note: On the other hand, , Arab. qtm , abscindere, praemordere , has no connection with , with which Kimchi and Reiske confuse it. This is readily seen from the opposite primary distinction of the two roots, and , of which the former expresses union, the latter separation.)

constringere , from which the significations comprehendere and corrugare have branched off; the signification, to wrinkle (make wrinkled), to shrivel up, is the most common, and the reference which follows, to his emaciation, and the lines which occur further on from the picture of one sick with elephantiasis, show that the poet here has this in his mind. Ewald’s conjecture, which changes into , Job 6:2; Job 30:13 = , as subject to (calamity seizes me as a witness), deprives the thought contained in , which renders the inferential clause prominent, of much of its force and emphasis. In Job 16:8 this thought is continued: signifies here, according to Psa 109:24 (which see), a wasting away; the verb-group , , Arab. jhd , kht , qht , etc., has the primary meaning of taking away and decrease: he becomes thin from whom the fat begins to fail; to disown is equivalent to holding back recognition and admission; the metaphor, water that deceives = dries up, is similar. His wasted, emaciated appearance, since God has thus shrivelled him up, came forth against him, told him to his face, i.e., accused him not merely behind his back, but boldly and directly, as a convicted criminal. God has changed himself in relation to him into an enraged enemy. Schlottm. wrongly translates: one tears and tortures me fiercely; Raschi erroneously understands Satan by . In general, it is the wrath of God whence Job thinks his suffering proceeds. It was the wrath of God which tore him so (like Hos 6:1, comp. Amo 1:11), and pursued him hostilely (as he says with the same word in Job 30:21); God has gnashed against him with His teeth; God drew or sharpened (Aq., Symm., Theod., like Psa 7:13). His eyes or looks like swords (Targ. as a sharp knife, , ) for him, i.e., to pierce him through. Observe the aorr. interchanging with perff. and imperff. He describes the final calamity which has made him such a piteous form with the mark of the criminal. His present suffering is only the continuation of the decree of wrath which is gone forth concerning him.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

      6 Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?   7 But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.   8 And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.   9 He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.   10 They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.   11 God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.   12 I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.   13 His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.   14 He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.   15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.   16 My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

      Job’s complaint is here as bitter as any where in all his discourses, and he is at a stand whether to smother it or to give it vent. Sometimes the one and sometimes the other is a relief to the afflicted, according as the temper or the circumstances are; but Job found help by neither, v. 6. 1. Sometimes giving vent to grief gives ease; but, “Though I speak” (says Job), “my grief is not assuaged, my spirit is never the lighter for the pouring out of my complaint; nay, what I speak is so misconstrued as to be turned to the aggravation of my grief.” 2. At other times keeping silence makes the trouble the easier and the sooner forgotten; but (says Job) though I forbear I am never the nearer; what am I eased? If he complained he was censured as passionate; if not, as sullen. If he maintained his integrity, that was his crime; if he made no answer to their accusations, his silence was taken for a confession of his guilt.

      Here is a doleful representation of Job’s grievances. O what reason have we to bless God that we are not making such complaints! He complains,

      I. That his family was scattered (v. 7): “He hath made me weary, weary of speaking, weary of forbearing, weary of my friends, weary of life itself; my journey through the world proves so very uncomfortable that I am quite tired with it.” This made it as tiresome as any thing, that all his company was made desolate, his children and servants being killed and the poor remains of his great household dispersed. The company of good people that used to meet at his house for religious worship, was now scattered, and he spent his sabbaths in silence and solitude. He had company indeed, but such as he would rather have been without, for they seemed to triumph in his desolation. If lovers and friends are put far from us, we must see and own God’s hand in it, making our company desolate.

      II. That his body was worn away with diseases and pains, so that he had become a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones, v. 8. His face was furrowed, not with age, but sickness: Thou hast filled me with wrinkles. His flesh was wasted with the running of his sore boils, so that his leanness rose up in him, that is, his bones, that before were not seen, stuck out, ch. xxxiii. 21. These are called witnesses against him, witnesses of God’s displeasure against him, and such witnesses as his friends produced against him to prove him a wicked man. Or, “They are witnesses for me, that my complaint is not causeless,” or “witnesses to me, that I am a dying man, and must be gone shortly.”

      III. That his enemy was a terror to him, threatened him, frightened him, looked sternly upon him, and gave all the indications of rage against him (v. 9): He tears me in his wrath. But who is this enemy? 1. Eliphaz, who showed himself very much exasperated against him, and perhaps had expressed himself with such marks of indignation as are here mentioned: at least, what he said tore Job’s good name and thundered nothing but terror to him; his eyes were sharpened to spy out matter of reproach against Job, and very barbarously both he and the rest of them used him. Or, 2. Satan. He was his enemy that hated him, and perhaps, by the divine permission, terrified him with apparitions, as (some think) he terrified our Saviour, which put him into his agonies in the garden; and thus he aimed to make him curse God. It is not improbable that this is the enemy he means. Or, (3.) God himself. If we understand it of him, the expressions are indeed as rash as any he used. God hates none of his creatures; but Job’s melancholy did thus represent to him the terrors of the Almighty: and nothing can be more grievous to a good man than to apprehend God to be his enemy. If the wrath of a king be as messengers of death, what is the wrath of the King of kings!

      IV. That all about him were abusive to him, v. 10. They came upon him with open mouth to devour him, as if they would swallow him alive, so terrible were their threats and so scornful was their conduct to him. They offered him all the indignities they could invent, and even smote him on the cheek; and herein many were confederate. They gathered themselves together against him, even the abjects, Ps. xxxv. 15. Herein Job was a type of Christ, as many of the ancients make him: these very expressions are used in the predictions of his sufferings, Ps. xxii. 13, They gaped upon me with their mouths; and (Mic. v. 1), They shall smite the Judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek, which was literally fulfilled, Matt. xxvi. 67. How were those increased that troubled him!

      V. That God, instead of delivering him out of their hands, as he hoped, delivered him into their hands (v. 11): He hath turned me over into the hands of the wicked. They could have had no power against him if it had not been given them from above. He therefore looks beyond them to God who gave them their commission, as David did when Shimei cursed him; but he thinks it strange, and almost thinks it hard, that those should have power against him who were God’s enemies as much as his. God sometimes makes use of wicked men as his sword to one another (Ps. xvii. 13) and his rod to his own children, Isa. x. 5. Herein also Job was a type of Christ, who was delivered into wicked hands, to be crucified and slain, by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God, Acts ii. 23.

      VI. That God not only delivered him into the hands of the wicked, but took him into his own hands too, into which it is a fearful thing to fall (v. 12): “I was at ease in the comfortable enjoyment of the gifts of God’s bounty, not fretting and uneasy, as some are in the midst of their prosperity, who thereby provoke God to strip them; yet he has broken me asunder, put me upon the rack of pain, and torn me limb from limb.” God, in afflicting him, had seemed, 1. As if he were furious. Though fury is not in God, he thought it was, when he took him by the neck (as a strong man in a passion would take a child) and shook him to pieces, triumphing in the irresistible power he had to do what he would with him. 2. As if he were partial. “He has distinguished me from the rest of mankind by this hard usage of me: He has set me up for his mark, the butt at which he is pleased to let fly all his arrows: at me they are directed, and they come not by chance; against me they are levelled, as if I were the greatest sinner of all the men of the east or were singled out to be made an example.” When God set him up for a mark his archers presently compassed him round. God has archers at command, who will be sure to hit the mark that he sets up. Whoever are our enemies, we must look upon them as God’s archers, and see him directing the arrow. It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good. 3. As if he were cruel, and his wrath as relentless as his power was resistless. As if he contrived to touch him in the tenderest part, cleaving his reins asunder with acute pains; perhaps they were nephritic pains, those of the stone, which lie in the region of the kidneys. As if he had no mercy in reserve for him, he does not spare nor abate any thing of the extremity. And as if he aimed at nothing but his death, and his death in the midst of the most grievous tortures: He pours out my gall upon the ground, as when men have taken a wild beast, and killed it, they open it, and pour out the gall with a loathing of it. He thought his blood was poured out, as if it were not only not precious, but nauseous. 4. As if he were unreasonable and insatiable in his executions (v. 14): “He breaketh me with breach upon breach, follows me with one wound after another.” So his troubles came at first; while one messenger of evil tidings was speaking another came: and so it was still; new boils were rising every day, so that he had no prospect of the end of his troubles. Thus he thought that God ran upon him like a giant, whom he could not possibly stand before or confront; as the giants of old ran down all their poor neighbours, and were too hard for them. Note, Even good men, when they are in great and extraordinary troubles, have much ado not to entertain hard thoughts of God.

      VII. That he had divested himself of all his honour, and all his comfort, in compliance with the afflicting providences that surrounded him. Some can lessen their own troubles by concealing them, holding their heads as high and putting on as good a face as ever; but Job could not do so: he received the impressions of them, and, as one truly penitent and truly patient, he humbled himself under the mighty hand of God, Job 16:15; Job 16:16. 1. He now laid aside all his ornaments and soft clothing, consulted not either his ease or finery in his dress, but sewed sackcloth upon his skin; that clothing he thought good enough for such a defiled distempered body as he had. Silks upon sores, such sores, he thought, would be unsuitable; sackcloth would be more becoming. Those are fond indeed of gay clothing that will not be weaned from it by sickness and old age, and, as Job was (v. 8), by wrinkles and leanness. He not only put on sackcloth, but sewed it on, as one that resolved to continue his humiliation as long as the affliction continued. 2. He insisted not upon any points of honour, but humbled himself under humbling providences: He defiled his horn in the dust, and refused the respect that used to be paid to his dignity, power, and eminency. Note, When God brings down our condition, that should bring down our spirits. Better lay the horn in the dust than lift it up in contradiction to the designs of Providence and have it broken at last. Eliphaz had represented Job as high and haughty, and unhumbled under his affliction. “No,” says Job, “I know better things; the dust is now the fittest place for me.” 3. He banished mirth as utterly unseasonable, and set himself to sow in tears (v. 16): “My face is foul with weeping so constantly for my sins, for God’s displeasure against me, and for my friends unkindness: this has brought a shadow of death upon my eyelids.” He had not only wept away all his beauty, but almost wept his eyes out. In this also he was a type of Christ, who was a man of sorrows, and much in tears, and pronounced those blessed that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary