Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 3:13
For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
13. The words receive their pathos from the contrast of his present anguish, Job 3:26.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For now should I have lain still – In this verse Job uses four expressions to describe the state in which be would have been if he had been so happy as to have died when an infant. It is evidently a very pleasant subject to him, and he puts it in a great variety of form. He uses thc words which express the most quiet repose, a state of perfect rest, a gentle slumber; and then in the next verses he says, that instead of being in the miserable condition in which he then was, he would have been in the same state with kings and the most illustrious men of the earth.
I should have lain still – – shakab. I should have been lying down, as one does who is taking grateful repose. This is a word of less strength than any of those which follow.
And been quiet – – shaqat. A word of stronger signification than that before used. It means to rest, to lie down, to have quiet. It is used of one who is never troubled, harassed, or infested by others, Jdg 3:11; Jdg 5:31; Jdg 8:25; and of one who has no fear or dread, Psa 76:9. The meaning is, that he would not only have lain down, but; would have been perfectly tranquil. Nothing would have harassed him, nothing would have given him any annoyance.
I should have slept – – yashen. This expression also is in advance of those before used. There would not only have been quiet, but there would have been a calm and gentle slumber. Sleep is often representcd as the kinsman of death. Thus, Virgil speaks of it:
Tum consanguineus Leti sopor –
Aeneid vi. 278.
So Homer:
Enth’ hupno cumbleto chasigneto thanatoio –
Iliad, 14:231.
This comparsion is an obvious one, and is frequently used in the Classical writers. It is employed to denote the calmness, stillness, and quiet of death. In the Scriptures it frequently occurs, and with a significancy far more beautiful. It is there employed not only to denote the tranquility of death, but also to denote the Christian hopes of a resurrection and the prospect of being awakened out of the long sleep. We lie down to rest at night with the hopes of awaking again. We sleep calmly, with the expectation that it will be only a temporary repose, and that we shall be aroused, invigorated for augmented toil, and refreshed for sweeter pleasure. So the Christian lies down in the grave. So the infant is committed to the calm slumber of the tomb. It may be a sleep stretching on through many nights and weeks and years and centuries, and even cycles of ages, but it is not eternal. The eyes will be opened again to behold the beauties of creation; the ear will be unstoppod to hear the sweet voice of fricndship and the harmony of music; and the frame will be raised up beautiful and immortal to engage in the service of the God that made us; compare Psa 13:3; Psa 90:5; Joh 11:11; 1Co 15:51; 1Th 4:14; 1Th 5:10. Whether Job used the word in this sense and with this understanding, has been made a matter of question, and will be considered more fully in the examination of the passage in Job 19:25-27.
Then had I been at rest – Instead of the troubles and anxieties which I now experience. That is, he would have been lying in calm and honorable repose with the kings and princes of the earth.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 13. For now should I have lain still] In that case I had been insensible; quiet – without these overwhelming agitations; slept – unconscious of evil; been at rest – been out of the reach of calamity and sorrow.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Quiet; free from all those torments of my body and mind which now oppress me.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. lain . . . quiet . . . sleptagradation. I should not only have lain, but been quiet,and not only been quiet, but slept. Death in Scriptureis called “sleep” (Ps13:3); especially in the New Testament, where theresurrection-awakening is more clearly set forth (1Co 15:51;1Th 4:14; 1Th 5:10).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For now should I have lain still, and been quiet,…. Signifying, that if the above had been his case, if he had died as soon as born, or quickly after, then he would have been laid in the grave, where he would have lain as still as on a bed; for such is the grave to dead bodies as a bed is to those that lie down and sleep upon it; a place of ease and quiet, where there is freedom from all care and thought, from all trouble, anxiety, and distress; nay, more so than on a bed, where there is often tossing to and fro, and great disquietude, but none to the body in the grave, that is still and silent, where there is no uneasiness nor disturbance, see Job 17:13;
I should have slept; soundly and quietly, which persons do not always upon their beds; sometimes they cannot sleep at all, and when they do, they are frequently distressed with uneasy thoughts, frightful dreams, and terrifying visions, Job 4:13; but death is a sound sleep until the resurrection morn, which Job had knowledge of, and faith in, and so considered the state of the dead in this light; death is often in Scripture expressed by sleeping, Da 12:2; which refers not to the soul, which in a separate state is active and vigorous, and always employed; but to the body, which, as in sleep, so in death, is deprived of the senses, and the exercise of them; on which account there is a great likeness between sleep and death, and out of which a man awakes brisk and cheerful, as the saints will at the time of their resurrection, which will be like an awaking out of sleep:
then had I been at rest; from all toil and labour, from all diseases and pains of body, from all troubles of whatsoever kind, and particularly from those he now laboured under, [See comments on Job 3:17].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
13 So should I now have lain and had quiet,
I should have slept, then it would have been well with me,
14 With kings and councillors of the earth,
Who built ruins for themselves,
15 Or with princes possessing gold,
Who filled their houses with silver:
16 Or like a hidden untimely birth I had not been,
And as children that have never seen the light.
The perf. and interchanging fut. have the signification of oriental imperfecta conjunctivi , according to Ges. 126, 5; is the usual expression after hypothetical clauses, and takes the perf. if the preceding clause specifies a condition which has not occurred in the past (Gen 31:42; Gen 43:10; Num 22:29, Num 22:33; 1Sa 14:30), the fut. if a condition is not existing in the present (Job 6:3; Job 8:6; Job 13:19). It is not to be translated: for then; rather commences the clause following: so I should now, indeed then I should. Ruins, , are uninhabited desolate buildings, elsewhere such as have become, here such as are from the first intended to remain, uninhabited and desolate, consequently sepulchres, mausoleums; probably, since the book has Egyptian allusions, in other passages also, a play upon the pyramids, in whose name (III-XPAM, according to Coptic glossaries) III is the Egyptian article (vid., Bunsen, Aeg. ii. 361); Arab. without the art. hiram or ahram (vid., Abdollatf, ed. de Sacy, p. 293, s.).
(Note: We think that sounds rather like , the name of the pyramids, as the Arabic haram (instead of hharam ), derived from XPAM, recalls harman (e.g., beith harman , a house in ruins), the synonym of hhardan ( ).)
Also Renan: Qui se btissent des mausoles . Bttch. de inferis , 298 (who, however, prefers to read , wide streets), rightly directs attention to the difference between (to rebuild the ruins) and (to build ruins for one’s self). With like things are then ranged after one another. Builders of the pyramids, millionaires, abortions (vid., Ecc 6:3), and the still-born: all these are removed from the sufferings of this life in their quiet of the grave, be their grave a “ruin” gazed upon by their descendants, or a hole dug out in the earth, and again filled in as it was before.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
13. Then had I been at rest The gradation is to be remarked lain still, been quiet, have slept, been at rest. The idea of “rest” in our text, is not one of unconsciousness. The expressions are such as we ourselves continue to use in anticipation of the quiet of the grave. The inscriptions in the Catacombs are in harmony with this passage, (Job 3:13-20,) which we may not improperly regard as a strain from nature’s oratorio of the grave. “In those inscriptions the Christian is always at peace in pace. This phrase occurs either at the beginning or at the end of most of them as a necessary formula.” NORTHCOTE, Catac., p. 162. The idea of immortality was most vivid in the heart of the infant Church, “yet the Christian, not content with calling his burial ground a sleeping place, (cemetery,) pushes the notion of slumber to its fullest extent.” MAITLAND, Catac., page 42.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 3:13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
Ver. 13. For now should I have lain still and been quiet ] Why, but is it not better to be preserved in salt than to putrefy in sugar? to be emptied from vessel to vessel, than to be at ease, and so to settle on the lees? Jer 48:11 ; to be tumbled up and down, as fishes are in the streams of Jordan, than to perish in the Dead Sea? It is not always (if at all) a happiness to lie still and be quiet. Life consists in action; and in all these things is the life of my spirit, saith good Hezekiah, who had been in death’s hands (where Job so much desired to be), and could therefore make a better judgment, Isa 38:16 . What haste, then, was there of his lying still, and being quiet; say that he were assured of his salvation (for else death had been but a trap door to eternal torments), was there nothing more to be done, but taking present possession? nothing to be suffered with Christ, or ere we come to be glorified with him? Rom 8:17 . Ought not he himself first to have suffered and then to have entered into his glory? Luk 24:26 . And ought not we to be conformed to his image (in sufferings also) that he might be the firstborn among many brethren? Rom 8:29 . Let us run with patience (running is active, and patience passive) the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, &c., and looking off our present troubles (as the word , Heb 1:12 , importeth), which while Job beheld too wishtly, and was more sensible of than was meet, he brake out in this sort, and showed himself too much a man. Let us do up our work, and then God will send us to bed all in good time, Isa 57:1-21 : 2Ki 16:13 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
then had I been at rest: Ecc 6:3-5, Ecc 9:10
Reciprocal: Job 7:21 – sleep Job 14:12 – awake Eze 32:27 – shall not Luk 16:22 – that
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 3:13-14. For now should I have lain still, and been quiet Free from those torments of body, and that anguish of mind, which now oppress me. With kings and counsellors of the earth I had then been as happy as the proudest monarchs, who, after all their great achievements, go down into their graves; which built desolate places for themselves Who distinguished themselves for a while, and to show their great wealth and power, and to leave behind them a glorious name, and perpetuate their memories, with great labour and expense erected pompous and magnificent buildings; and, to render themselves the more famous, raised them up in places which seemed before to be forsaken, and abandoned to entire desolation.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3:13 For now should I have {i} lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
(i) The vehemency of his afflictions made him utter these words as though death was the end of all miseries, and as if there were no life after this, which he speaks not as though it were so, but the infirmities of his flesh caused him to break out in this error of the wicked.