Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 19:17
My breath is strange to my wife, though I entreated for the children’s [sake] of mine own body.
17. Once more, if possible an acuter misery he is become intolerable to those most dear to him.
though I intreated ] Perhaps, and I am loathsome to the children of. The word as known in Heb. means to be gracious to, to pity ( Job 19:21), in the simple form (here), and to seek favour to oneself, or beseech, in the reflexive ( Job 19:16), but the simple form has nowhere the meaning of “beseech” or entreat. The Arab. has a root of the same spelling, which means to smell badly, to stink, a sense parallel to the meaning of the first clause, where “strange” means offensive.
The last words of the verse “children of mine own body” are difficult; they mean literally, children of my womb. The word usually rendered womb is used occasionally of the father, Psa 132:11; Mic 6:7. The Prologue narrates the death of Job’s children, and the same assumption is made in the Poem, ch. Job 8:4, Job 29:5, and it is not to be thought that another mode of representation appears here. In Job 19:15-16, however, Job has still maids and servants, though his servants are represented in the Prologue as having perished. As he has other servants he might have other children. These might be children of concubines, as Job lived in the patriarchal age, though no allusion is made to such connexions, and the references to his wife are of such a kind as to suggest that Job lived in a state of strict monogamy. Or the expression “children of my body” might be used somewhat loosely to mean grandchildren children of his sons. The impression conveyed by the Prologue is that the seven sons were unmarried, though this is left uncertain. Others consider the phrase “children of my womb” to mean, children of my mother children of the same womb with myself.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
My breath is strange to my wife – Schultens renders this, my breath is loathsome to my wife, and so also Noyes. Wemyss translates it, my own wife turns aside from my breath. Dr Good, my breath is scattered away by my wife. The literal meaning is, my breath is strange ( zarah) to my wife; and the idea is, that there had been such a change in him from his disease, that his breath was not that which she had been accustomed to breathe without offence, and that she now turned away from it as if it were the breath of a stranger. Jerome renders it, Halitum meum exhorruit uxor mea – my wife abhors my breath. It may be worthy of remark here, that but one wife of Job is mentioned – a remarkable fact, as he probably lived in an age when polygamy was common.
I entreated her – I appealed to her by all that was tender in the domestic relation, but in vain. From this it would seem that even his wife had regarded him as an object of divine displeasure and had also left him to suffer alone.
For the childrens sake of mine own body – Margin, my belly. There is consideralbe variety in the interpretation of this passage. The word rendered my own body ( beteny) means literally, my belly or womb; and Noyes, Gesenius, and some others, suppose it means the children of his own mother! But assuredly this was scarcely an appeal that Job would be likely to make to his wife in such circumstances. There can be no impropriety in supposing that Job referred to himself, and that the word is used somewhat in the same sense as the word loins is in Gen 35:11; Gen 46:26; Exo 1:5; 1Ki 8:19. Thus, understood, it would refer to his own children, and the appeal to his wife was founded on the relation which they had sustainded to them. Though they were now dead, he referred to their former united attachment to them, to the common affliction which they had experienced in their loss; and in view of all their former love to them, and all the sorrow which they had experienced in their death, he made an appeal to his wife to show him kindness, but in vain. Jerome renders this, Orabam filios uteri mei. The Septuagint, not understanding it, and trying to make sense of it, introduced a statement which is undoubtedly false, though Rosenmuller accords with it. I called affectionately ( kolakeuon) the sons of my concubines – huious pallakidon mou. But the whole meaning is evidently that he made a solemn and tender appeal to his wife, in view of all the joys and sorrows which they had experience as the united head of a family of now no more. What would reach the heart of an estranged wife, if such an appeal would not?
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 17. Though I entreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.] This may imply no more than adjuring her by the tenderest ties, by their affectionate intercourse, and consequently by the children which had been the seals of their mutual affection, though these children were no more.
But the mention of his children in this place may intimate that he had still some remaining; that there might have been young ones, who, not being of a proper age to attend the festival of their elder brothers and sisters, escaped that sad catastrophe. The Septuagint have, , “I affectionately entreated the children of my concubines.” But there is no ground in the Hebrew text for such a strange exceptionable rendering. Coverdale has, I am fayne to speake fayre to the children of myne own body.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
To my wife; who by reason of the stink of my breath and sores denied me her company.
For the childrens sake of mine own body; by these pledges of our mutual and matrimonial tie and affection, the children which came out of my loins, and were begotten by me upon her body. But divers render the words thus, and I entreated the children of my own body, i.e. either some of Jobs younger children, who by reason of their tender years were kept at home with their father, when their elder brethren and sisters were gone abroad to the feast; or some of his grandchildren by those grown sons and daughters; for such also oft come under the name of children. But this sense seems not so proper, partly because according to that translation here is mention only of Jobs entreating them, but not a word of their denying his request; which is the only matter of his present complaint; and partly because according to the former translation it is a great and just aggravation of his wifes unkindness, and exactly answers to the foregoing verse, where the servants perverseness is aggravated in the same manner, and by part of the same words.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17. strangeHis breath byelephantiasis had become so strongly altered and offensive, that hiswife turned away as estranged from him (Job 19:13;Job 17:1).
children’s . . . of mine ownbodyliterally, “belly.” But “loins” iswhat we should expect, not “belly” (womb), which applies tothe woman. The “mine” forbids it being taken of his wife.Besides their children were dead. In Job3:10 the same words “my womb” mean, my mother’swomb: therefore translate, “and I must entreat (as asuppliant) the children of my mother’s womb”; that is, my ownbrothersa heightening of force, as compared with last clause ofJob 19:16 [UMBREIT].Not only must I entreat suppliantly my servant, but my ownbrothers (Ps 69:8). Heretoo, he unconsciously foreshadows Jesus Christ (Joh7:5).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
My breath is strange to my wife,…. Being corrupt and unsavoury, through some internal disorder; see Job 17:1; so that she could not bear to come nigh him, to do any kind deed for him; but if this was his case, and his natural breath was so foul, his friends would not have been able to have been so long in the same room with him, and carry on so long a conversation with him; rather therefore it may signify the words of his mouth, his speech along with his breath, which were very disagreeable to his wife; when upon her soliciting him to curse God and die, he told her she talked like one of the foolish women; and when he taught her to expect evil as well as good at the hand of God, and to bear afflictions patiently, or else the sense may be, “my spirit” f, his vital spirit, his life, was wearisome and loathsome to his wife; she was tired out with him, with hearing his continual groans and complaints, and wished to be rid of him, and that God would take away his life: or else, as some render it, “my spirit is strange [to me], because of my wife” g; and then the meaning is, that Job was weary of his own life, he loathed it, and could have been glad to have it taken from him, because of the scoffs and jeers of his wife at him, her brawls and quarrels with him, and solicitations of him to curse God and renounce religion:
though I entreated her for the children’s [sake] of mine own body; this clause creates a difficulty with interpreters, since it is generally thought all Job’s children were dead. Some think that only his elder children were destroyed at once, and that he had younger ones at home with him, which he here refers to; but this does not appear: others suppose these were children of his concubines; but this wants proof that he had any concubine; and besides an entreaty for the sake of such children could have no influence upon his proper wife: others take them for grandchildren, and who, indeed, are sometimes called children; but then they could not with strict propriety be called the children of his body; and for the same reason it cannot be meant of such that were brought up in his house, as if they were his children; nor such as were his disciples, or attended on him for instruction: but this may respect not any children then living, but those he had had; and the sense is, that Job entreated his wife, not for the use of the marriage bed, as some suggest h; for it can hardly be thought, that, in such circumstances in which he was, there should be any desire of this kind; but to do some kind deed for him, as the dressing of his ulcers, c. or such things which none but a wife could do well for him and this he entreated for the sake of the children he had had by her, those pledges of their conjugal affection; or rather, since the word has the signification of deploring, lamenting, and bemoaning, the clause may be thus rendered, “and I lamented the children of my body” i; he had none of those indeed to afflict him; and his affliction was, that they were taken away from him at once in such a violent manner; and therefore he puts in this among his family trials; or this may be an aggravation of his wife’s want of tenderness and respect unto him; that his breath should be unsavoury, his talk disagreeable, and his sighs and moans be wearisome to her, when the burden of his song, the subject of his sorrowful complaints, was the loss of his children; in which it might have been thought she would have joined with him, being equally concerned therein.
f “spiritus meus”, Junius Tremellius, Vatablus, Schmidt, Schultens “anima mea”, Cocceius. g “propter uxorem meam”, Schmidt. h R. Levi Ben Gersom; so some in Vatablus. i “deploro”, Cocceius; “et miserans lugeo”, Schmidt; “et miseret me”, Michaelis; “comploro”, Schultens.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(17) Though I intreated for the childrens sake of mine own body.Rather, and so is my affection or kindness (see Psa. 77:10, where the same word occurs) to the children of my mothers womb, i.e., my brethren. Others render, I am become offensive to, &c.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
17. Though I entreated, etc. Now generally translated, I am offensive to the sons, etc. The Hebrew is equivocal in meaning. (See below.) Job’s disease was no less offensive to the sense of sight than to that of smell. It is to the latter sense he may now refer.
Children Some suppose he refers to his grandchildren, as his own children were believed to be all dead. But as the word rendered body signifies also womb, others think that he speaks of his own full brothers, that is, brothers by the same mother. Tayler Lewis renders the passage thus: “My temper, , [in the sense of religious faith.] to my wife is strange my yearning for the children that she bare,” and devotes a long note to its defence. This rendering of agrees with the Arabic version, “My longing is for, or, I yearn after, the children of my body.” Such a sense is justified by the Arabic hhanan, signifying “to be moved by affection, either maternal or paternal,” as in Schultens, (i, 474,) who illustrates by the exceeding fondness of the camel for her young. It establishes a satisfactory parallelism, and removes the difficulty connected with the subsequent words of the verse. It is observable that Job makes no mention of his children except here and in Job 29:5. Their tragical death rendered the subject too painful for speech. In one of the Arabic poems of the Moallakat we have, “The unkindness of relations gives keener anguish to every noble breast than the stroke of an Indian scimitar.” It is said of Job’s great antitype, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” Joh 1:11.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 19:17. Though I intreated for the children’s sake The word channothi, rendered intreated, may signify the place of a man’s dwelling. The sense may be rendered, And my habitation to the children of my body. Houbigant translates the verse, My wife abhors even my breath; the children of my body fly far from my offensive smell: and he observes, that we are nowhere told that all the children of Job perished, but only such as were feasting in their elder brother’s house.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 19:17 My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s [sake] of mine own body.
Ver. 17. My breath is strange to my wife ] The corruption of his inwards (besides the noisomeness of his outward ulcers) made his breath strong and unwholesome. This his wife (as did that Roman lady, who said she thought all men’s breath as unsavoury as her husband’s was), should have borne with, in a time of sickness especially, when she should have shown herself a help, and not a heartbreak, to her husband. Famous in our chronicles is the Lady Eleanor, wife to Prince Edward (afterwards Edward I), who extracted the poison out of her husband’s wounds with her tongue, licking daily, while he slept, his rankling wounds, whereby they perfectly closed (Cambd. in Middlesex, Speed. 630). And no less famous is the wife of Valdaurus, celebrated by Ludov. Vires, lib. 2, de Christiana Femina, p. 360. A young and beautiful maid, saith he, was matched to a man stricken in years, whom after she found to have a very fulsome breath and a diseased body, yet (out of conscience, being by God’s providence become his wife) she most worthily digested, with incredible patience and contentment, the languishing and loathsomeness of a husband, continually visited with variety of most irksome and infectious diseases; and though friends and physicians advised her by no means to come near him, for fear of danger and infection, yet she, passing by with a loving disdain and contempt these unkind dissuasions, plied him night and day with extraordinary tenderness and care, and services of all sorts above her strength and ability; she was to him friends, physician, wife, nurse; yea, she was father, mother, brother, sister, daughter, everything, anything to do him good in any manner or way, &c.
Though I intreated for the children’s sake, &c.] i.e. By the holy right of wedlock, and the fruit thereof, those dear pledges of our matrimonial good affection; children, as they are dear to their parents (Charos, Plautus somewhere calleth them), so they are an endearing to their parents, whose seed they are called, as if there were nothing left to the parents but the husks. This therefore was a melting argument; but it moved not Job’s wife. Men may speak persuasively, but God only persuadeth.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
breath. Hebrew. ruach. App-9.
strange = offensive.
though I, &c. See rendering below.
children’s = sons’: i.e. had his sons not died.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
breath: Job 2:9, Job 2:10, Job 17:1
body: Heb. belly
Reciprocal: Deu 28:11 – body 2Sa 19:29 – Why speakest Job 19:3 – make yourselves strange to me
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 19:17. My breath is strange to my wife, &c. I am become so loathsome that my wife will not come near me, though I have conjured her to do it, by the dear memory of our children, those common pledges of our mutual love. Houbigant translates the verse, My wife abhors even my breath: the children of my body fly far from my offensive smell: and he observes, that we are nowhere told that all the children of Job perished, but only such as were feasting in their eldest brothers house. It must be observed, however, that when the messenger informed Job of the destruction of his family, the answer which he gave, namely, Naked came I, &c., supposes that there were none who survived that calamity. Some are of opinion that those whom Job calls his children were grandchildren. The LXX. take them for the children of concubines. Sol. Jarchi supposes they were his domestics: but the Hebrew text here does not necessarily imply that there were any children of his then in existence. For there is nothing for the word sake; it is literally, I entreated for the children of my body, which may mean, as interpreted above, for, or by the memory of our children, namely, the children now dead. The general interpretation here supposes that Jobs breath, by reason of his sores and ulcers, was so offensive that his wife could not bear to come near him; but the words do not necessarily imply that: for, as he had just said before, I entreated my servant with my mouth; so, when he immediately adds, My breath is strange: &c., he might mean no more than that his breath or voice was strange also to his wife: that is, she had as little regard to what he said as the servant who gave him no answer when he was called. See Chappelow, who thus paraphrases the passage: When my servant gave no attention, I called to my wife; but neither did she regard me, though I particularly mentioned to her (as an aggravation of my calamities, and to move her compassion) the loss of my children, whom I had begotten.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
19:17 My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s [sake] of mine {i} own body.
(i) Which were hers and mine.