Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 16:9
He teareth [me] in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
9. Picture of God’s hostility to him. The figure is that of a beast of prey.
who hateth me ] lit. and hateth me, or, and is hostile to me, i. e. assaileth me. The picture of the lion-like assailant, his rending fury, and gnashing teeth, and flashing eyes, is graphic.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He teareth me in his wrath – The language here is all taken from the ferocity of wild beasts; and the idea is, that his enemy had come upon him as a lion seizes upon its prey. Rosenmuller, Reiske, and some others suppose that this refers to God. Cocceius refers it to Satan. Schultens, Dr. Good, and some others, to Eliphaz, as the leading man among his adversaries. I have no doubt that this is the true reference. The connection seems to demand this; and we ought not to suppose that Job would charge this upon God, unless there is the clearest evidence. The whole passage is a description of the manner in which Job supposed his friends had come upon him. He says they had attacked him like wild beasts. Yet it must be admitted that he sometimes attributes these feelings to God, and says that he came upon him like a roaring lion see Job 10:16-17.
Who hateth me – Or rather, and persecutes me, or is become my adversary, for so the word used here ( satam) means; see the notes at Job 30:21.
He gnasheth upon me with his teeth – As an enraged wild animal does when about to seize upon its prey. A similar figure occurs in Otway, in his Orphan:
– For my Castalios false;
False as the wind, the water, or the weather:
Cruel as tigers oer their trembling prey:
I feel him in my breast, he tears my heart,
And at each sigh he drinks the gushing blood.
And so Homer, when he describes the wrath of Achilles as he armed himself to avenge the death of Patroclus, mentions among other signs of wrath his gnashing his teeth:
.
Tou kai odonton men kanache pele.
Iliad xix. 364.
So Virgil describes his hero as
furens animis, dentibus infrendens.
Aeneid viii. 228.
Mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me – Looks fiercely; watches me narrowly – as an animal does his victim when about to seize upon it. The image is probably drawn from the intense gaze of the lion when about to pounce upon his prey. He darts piercing looks at me; or looks at me with a fierce and penetrating eye.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 9. He teareth me in his wrath] Who the person is that is spoken of in this verse, and onward to the end of the fourteenth, has been a question on which commentators have greatly differed. Some think God, others Eliphaz, is intended: I think neither. Probably God permitted Satan to show himself to Job, and the horrible form which he and his demons assumed increased the misery under which Job had already suffered so much. All the expressions, from this to the end of the fourteenth verse, may be easily understood on this principle; e.g., Job 16:9: “He (Satan) gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.” Job 16:10: “They (demons) have gaped on me with their mouth;-they have gathered themselves together against me.” Job 16:11: “God hath delivered me to the ungodly, ( avil, to the EVIL ONE,) and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.” He hath abandoned me to be tortured by the tempter and his host.
If we consider all these expressions as referring to Job’s three friends, we must, in that case, acknowledge that the figures are all strained to an insufferable height, so as not to be justified by any figure of speech.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He teareth me in his wrath, Heb. his wrath teareth me in pieces, as a lion doth his prey.
Who hateth me, Heb. and he hateth me, i.e. he pursueth me with a deadly hatred and rage. Or, and he is become mine enemy; or, he sets himself against me with all his might; or, he treats me like an implacable enemy. He gnasheth upon me with his teeth; which is a gesture and sign of extreme anger and fury, as Psa 35:16; 37:12; Lam 2:16; as elsewhere of grievous pain, as Luk 13:28.
Mine enemy; either,
1. God, who of a friend is now become my implacable enemy. Or,
2. Eliphaz, who deals with me more like an enemy than a friend.
Sharpeneth his eyes upon me, i.e. looks upon me with a fierce and sparkling eye, as enraged persons uso to do.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. Image from a wild beast. SoGod is represented (Job 10:16).
who hateth merather,”and pursues me hard.” Job would not ascribe “hatred”to God (Ps 50:22).
mine enemyrather, “hesharpens, &c., as an enemy” (Ps7:12). Darts wrathful glances at me, like a foe (Job13:24).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He teareth [me] in his wrath, who hateth me,…. By whom is meant not Satan, as Jarchi, though he is an enemy to, and an hater of mankind, especially of good men; nor Eliphaz, as others, who had fallen upon Job with a great deal of wrath and fury, tearing his character in pieces, which Job attributed to his hatred of him; but it rather appears from the context that God himself is intended, of whom Job had now a mistaken notion and apprehension; taking him for his enemy, being treated by him, as he thought, as if he had an aversion to him, and an hatred of him; whereas God hates none of his creatures, being his offspring, and the objects of his tender care, and providential regard: indeed sin is hateful to him, and makes men odious in his sight, and he hates all the workers of iniquity, and those whom he passed by, when he chose others; though they are said to be hated by him as Esau was, yet not with a positive but a negative hatred; that is, are not loved by him; and considered as profane and ungodly persons, and as such foreordained to condemnation; for sin may be said to be hated, but good men never are; God’s chosen ones, his children and special people, are the objects of his everlasting love; and though he may be angry with them, and show a little seeming wrath towards them, yet never hates them; hatred and love are as opposite as any two things can possibly be; and indeed, strictly and properly speaking, there is no wrath nor fury in God towards his people; though they deserve it, they are not appointed to it, but are delivered from it by Christ; and neither that nor any of the effects of it shall ever light on them; but Job concluded this from the providence he was under, in which God appeared terrible to him, like a lion or any such fierce and furious creature, to which he is sometimes compared, and compares himself, which seizes on its prey, and tears and rends it to pieces; Isa 38:13; thus God permitted Job’s substance to be taken from him by the Chaldeans and Sabeans; his children by death, which was like tearing off his limbs; and his skin and his flesh to be rent and broken by boils and ulcers: Job was a type of Christ in his sorrows and sufferings; and though he was not now in the best frame of mind, the flesh prevailed, and corruptions worked, and he expressed himself in an unguarded manner, yet perhaps we shall not find, in any part of this book, things expressed, and the language in which they are expressed, more similar and to be accommodated to the case, and sorrows, and sufferings of Christ, than in this context; for though he was the son of God’s love, his dear and well beloved son, yet as he was the surety of his people, and bore and suffered punishment in their stead, justice behaved towards him as though there was a resentment unto him, and an aversion of him; yea, he says, “thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine Anointed” or “Messiah”, Ps 89:38; and indeed he did bear the wrath of God, the vengeance of justice or curse of the righteous law; and was suffered to be torn in every sense, his temples with a crown of thorns, his cheeks by those that plucked off the hair, his hands and feet by the nails driven in them, and his side by the spear; and his life was torn, snatched, and taken away from him in a violent manner:
he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; as men do when they are full of wrath and fury: this is one way of showing it, as the enemies of David, a type of Christ, and the slayers of Stephen, his protomartyr, did,
Ps 35:16; and as beasts of prey, such as the lion, wolf, do:
mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me; the Targum adds, as a razor. Here again Job considers God as his enemy, though he was not, misinterpreting his dealings with him; he represents him as looking out sharp after him, inspecting narrowly into all his ways, and works, and actions, strictly observing his failings and infirmities, calling him to an account, and afflicting him for them, and dealing rigidly and severely with him for any small offence: his eyes seemed to him to be like flames of fire, to sparkle with wrath and revenge; his thee, as he imagined, was set against him, and his eyes upon him to destroy him; and thus the eye of vindictive justice was upon Christ his antitype, when he was made sin and a curse for his people, and the sword of justice was awaked against him, and thrust in him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(9) He teareth me in his wrath.Terrible as the language is that Job has used against God, he seems here almost to exceed it, for he calls Him his adversary. It is hardly possible not to understand the expression of God, for though he immediately speaks of his friends, yet just afterwards he openly mentions God.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. He teareth His anger teareth me and warreth against me. If Job ascribe his treatment to God, (Job 16:9-14,) his language transcends all bounds of reason; but if, on the contrary, he speaks of the malice of evil spirits to whose power he has been for a time delivered, it is nothing more than what might be expected from their diabolical nature, which is best imaged in the wildness and cruelty of the brute creation. Raschi, Cocceius, Adam Clarke, Tayler Lewis, and others, think that Job speaks here of Satan with his mocking fiends.
Gnasheth with his teeth Such expressions appear often in the classics.
Sharpeneth his eyes An expression still in use in the East. The eye is here compared to a sword, or, as others suppose, to the fierce, fascinating gaze of the lion as he is about to pounce upon his prey.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 16:9. He teareth me in his wrath, &c. His fury rend-eth me, and he teareth me to pieces. Heath; who remarks, that the metaphor is taken from a beast of prey, who rends and tears his booty in pieces; and the same metaphor is carried on through the whole. See Psa 35:16; Psa 37:12. Lam 2:16.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 16:9 He teareth [me] in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
Ver. 9. He teareth me in his wrath, &c. ] Who did all this to Job? The devil, say some; his disease, say others that was a most uncharitable censure passed by Luther upon Oecolampadius, that he died suddenly, ignitis Satanae telis confossus, slain by Satan’s fiery darts, because he died of a carbuncle (Lib. de Missa. prin., A.D. 1533). But Job surely meaneth it of God, upon whom his heart was still, though he speak here somewhat unhappily of him, out of the sense of the flesh, and greatness of his grief.
Who hateth me
He gnasheth upon me with his teeth
Mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 16:9-17
Job 16:9-17
JOB RECOGNIZED THAT HIS REAL ENEMY WAS NOT GOD; BUT THE WICKED INTO WHOSE HANDS GOD HAD DELIVERED HIM
“He hath torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me;
He hath gnashed upon me with his teeth:
Mine adversary sharpeneth his eyes upon me,
They have gaped upon me with their mouth;
They have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully:
They gather themselves together against me.
God delivereth me to the ungodly,
And casteth me into the hands of the wicked.
I was at ease, and he brake me asunder;
Yea, he hath taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces:
He hath also set me up for his mark.
His archers compass me round about;
He cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare;
He poureth out my gall upon the ground.
He breaketh me with breach upon breach,
He runneth upon me like a giant.
I have sowed my sackcloth upon my skin,
And have laid my horn in the dust.
My face is red with weeping,
And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
Although there is no violence in my hands,
And my prayer is pure.”
“God delivered me to the ungodly” (Job 16:11). Here there is profound understanding on Job’s part that God is good, and that all of the evil that has befallen him, while allowed by God and, in some incomprehensible manner, is actually God’s will; nevertheless the actual evil that came to him came finally at the hands of the ungodly.
There are magnificent overtones of Calvary itself in this remarkable chapter. Job 16:4 reveals that Job’s friends “did shake their heads” at him; Job said that God had “delivered him to the ungodly” (Job 16:11); “They gaped upon me with their mouth” (Job 16:10); “They gather themselves together against me” (Job 16:10); “They have smitten (my) cheek reproachfully” (Job 16:10); “And have laid my horn in the dust” (Job 16:15).
Now observe that all of these things were prophesied as events connected with the crucifixion of Christ in Psalms 22.
He will be forsaken by God (delivered to the ungodly)…….Psa 22:1
They shake the head at him………Psa 22:7
They gape upon him……………..Psa 22:13
They place him in the dust………Psa 22:15
The evil men surround him……….Psa 22:16
Thus, it must be held as sublime fact that, “The Man of Sorrows in the Old Testament (Job) is in many respects a type of the Man of Sorrows (Christ) in the New Testament. The Psalmist David constantly applied statements regarding Job to the Messiah, as witnessed not only by Psalms 22, but also in Psa 35:16 and in Psa 37:12).”
Of special significance is the employment both in this chapter of Job and in Psalms 22 of the metaphor of wild animals attacking their prey. In Psalms 22, we have the “Strong bulls of Bashan”; and here much of the terminology is applicable to wild animals. “Several of the words used here are commonly used to describe the mutilations of their prey by rapacious animals, such as a lion.”[5] It is a mistake, however, to understand any of this as either hatred, or disrespect for God. All of the terrible things that were happening to Job came upon him by the hands of the wicked, a fact made perfectly clear here in Job 16:11.
“There is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure” (Job 16:17). In these final verses of this paragraph, Job again affirmed his integrity in these verses. This Job knew to be a fact, and all of the cunning ingenuity of Satan himself, through his chosen instruments (Job’s friends), could not dislodge Job from this fundamental integrity.
E.M. Zerr:
Job 16:9-10. He and they in this paragraph are the “friends” who have been tantalizing Job with their false reasoning. Smitten me upon the check was said figuratively. They had not made any physical attack on Job, but their scornful reference to the wasted condition of his cheek was as bad as if they had struck him there.
Job 16:11. Job did not believe nor did he mean that God put him into the hands of the ungodly as a means of punishment. Yet he considered this opportunity for persecuting him as coming from God for some purpose not yet known to him.
Job 16:12-13. This paragraph is a. figurative description of the misfortunes that God had suffered to come upon Job. Taken by the neck was said in reference to a familiar practice in war. By getting hold of one’s neck it made it possible to use the sword more effectively in slaying the foe. Gall is bitter and when used figuratively refers to the bitterness of afflictions.
Job 16:14-15. This is some more description of Job’s misfortunes. When horn is used figuratively it refers to power or prosperity. The language means that Job’s fortunes had been reversed upon him.
Job 16:16. Through daily and constant weeping, Job’s face was stained with the mixture of briny tears and the pus from his sores. And he had spent so much time in this sorrowful crying that his eyelids were inflamed and swollen and had the appearance of one near death. I shall frequently ask the reader to turn back to the comments at Job 3:2-3 and consider them in connection with the places where Job seemed to take so much pains to describe the depth of his misfortunes and suffering.
Job 16:17. Again Job disclaimed any guilt that had called for this suffering.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
teareth me: Job 10:16, Job 10:17, Job 18:4, Psa 50:22, Lam 3:10, Hos 5:14
he gnasheth: Psa 35:16, Psa 37:12, Lam 2:16
mine: Job 13:24, Job 13:27, Job 19:11, Mic 7:8
Reciprocal: Job 30:21 – become cruel Job 33:10 – he counteth Psa 18:17 – them Psa 35:15 – they Isa 57:4 – draw Jer 30:14 – I Lam 3:4 – My flesh Mar 9:18 – gnasheth Luk 22:63 – mocked Act 7:54 – they gnashed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 16:9. He teareth me in his wrath Hebrew, , appo tarap, His wrath teareth me in pieces, properly, as a lion or other savage beast tears his prey, of which the word tarap is peculiarly used; who hateth me , vajistemeni, rather, and hateth me; that is, pursues me with hatred, or as if he hated me. Some render it, adversatus est mihi, is hostile to me; or, acts as mine enemy. He gnasheth upon me with his teeth A strong figurative expression, denoting extreme anger; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me That is, looks upon me with a fierce and sparkling eye, as enraged persons are wont to look on those who have provoked them. It is a great question among commentators what enemy Job meant. Sol. Jarchi writes, Hasatan hu hatzar: Satan, he is the enemy. Certainly Satan was Jobs greatest enemy, and, by the divine permission, had brought all his sufferings upon him, and perhaps now frequently terrified him with apparitions. It is not improbable, says Henry, that this is the enemy he means. Many think that Eliphaz, who spoke last, and to whose speech Job is now replying, is intended. He had showed himself very much exasperated against Job; and might express himself with such marks of indignation as are here mentioned, rending Jobs good name, as Bishop Patrick expresses himself, and preaching nothing but terror against him. His eyes might be said to be sharpened to spy out matter of reproach against him, and very unkindly, yea, cruelly, both he and his friends had used him. Others, however, think that the expressions, though harsh, and apparently unbecoming to be applied to God, were, nevertheless, intended of him by Job, and are capable of being so interpreted as not to imply any reflection on the divine perfections. The expressions, says Chappelow, are really not stronger than those which we read in other places, particularly in the eleventh and four following verses; as also 19:11, 30, 31. The reader must observe, that the melancholy state of Jobs mind, and his dreadful sufferings under the chastising hand of God, which his friends never ceased to represent as the effects of divine wrath, had caused him to entertain distressing ideas of Gods terrors, and to view him, if not as an enemy, yet as a severe and inexorable judge, who was extreme to mark all his iniquities and failings.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
16:9 {k} He teareth [me] in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
(k) That is, God by his wrath: and in this diversity of words and high style, he expresses how grievous the hand of God was on him.