Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 36:8
And if [they be] bound in fetters, [and] be holden in cords of affliction;
8. The expression “fetters” is rather to be taken figuratively, meaning affliction or adversity, as “cords of affliction” in the next clause suggests.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
8 10. If life often appears to present a different picture and men are seen in affliction, this affliction is a discipline, needful to warn them and bring their evil before them.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And if they be bound in fetters – That is, if the righteous are thrown into prison, and are subjected to oppressions and trials, or if they are chained down, as it were, on a bed of pain, or crushed by heavy calamities, the eye of God is still upon them. Their sufferings should not be regarded either as proof that they are hypocrites, or that God is regardless of them, and is indifferent whether people are good or evil. The true solution of the difficulty was, that God was then accomplishing purposes of discipline, and that happy results would follow if they would receive affliction in a proper manner.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. And if they be bound in fetters] These are means which God uses, not of punishment, but of correction.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
If through the vicissitude of worldly affairs, and the righteous judgment of God upon them for their sins, they be brought from their throne into a prison, as sometimes hath been done.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8-10. If they be afflicted, itis no proof that they are hypocrites, as the friends maintain, orthat God disregards them, and is indifferent whether men are good orbad, as Job asserts: God is thereby “disciplining them,”and “showing them their sins,” and if they bow in a rightspirit under God’s visiting hand, the greatest blessings ensue.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And if [they be] bound in fetters,…. Not the wicked, as the Targum, but the righteous spoken of in Job 36:7, with which this is closely connected; and this is not to be understood of righteous kings on the throne in particular, or their special favourites, but of the righteous in general; and not in a literal sense, of their bonds and imprisonment for religion and righteousness sake, which is sometimes their lot; but in a figurative sense, of afflictions, as chastenings and corrections for sin, as appears by the next clause; and the design is to obviate an objection, and to show that the eye of God is upon them, and his heart towards them; and they are not the less objects of his love and delight, of his value and esteem, care and protection, though they are afflicted by him, and, as it may seem, used with some severity; seeing he has gracious ends and designs in all this, which are suggested in the following verses;
[and] be holden in cords of affliction; righteous men are not exempt from afflictions; the afflictions of the righteous are many, according to divine appointment, the covenant of grace, the declaration of God, the constant experience of good men, it being the way in which they are all led, and must enter into the kingdom; and the metaphor here used shows that afflictions are sometimes heavy upon them, like fetters and chains, and those made heavy by the hand of God pressing them sore, La 3:7; no affliction is joyous, but grievous and heavy in itself; it is indeed comparatively light when viewed with the weight of glory; and God can make a heavy affliction light with his presence, and the discoveries of his love; but they are heavy to the flesh, as Job felt his to be, Job 6:2; and, like fetters and cords, they cannot free themselves from them, or loose them, until it is the pleasure of God to take them off; and moreover by these they are sometimes held and restrained from going into more or greater sins, which is one use of them: as they are with afflictions hedged about that they cannot come out, any more than a person bound fast in a prison; so they are hedged up with thorns that they cannot go out after their lovers, La 3:7 Ho 2:6. Some render the phrase, “cords of poverty” l; it is oftentimes the case of righteous persons to be poor, and to be sadly hampered with poverty, and out of which, by all that they can do, cannot extricate themselves; and sometimes they fall into it, and are held in it, after they have enjoyed much worldly prosperity, which was the case of Job. Mr. Broughton renders it, cords of anguish; and indeed the word for “cords” is used of the pains of a woman in travail, who has then great anguish and trouble; and anguish on various accounts lays hold on the righteous, and they are holden thereby, and cannot relieve themselves, Ps 119:143; and yet this is all in mercy, and to answer some good ends and purposes, as follow.
l “funibus paupertatis”, Mercerus, Drusius; “funibus inopiae”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
8 And if they are bound with chains,
Holden in cords of affliction:
9 Then He declareth to them their doing
And their transgressions, that they have been vainglorious;
10 Then He openeth their ear to warning,
And commandeth them to turn from iniquity.
The subj. is in no case the (Hahn), but the , or those who are as susceptible to discipline as it is needful to them, just as in Ps 107, which in general presents many instances for an extensive comparison with the speeches of Elihu. The chains, Job 36:8, are meant literally, and the bands, Job 36:8, figuratively; the Psalmist couples both in , Psa 107:10. The conclusion begins with Job 36:9, and is repeated in another application, Job 36:10. in the sense of maleficium , as Arab. faalat , recalls , facinus , Job 33:17. , Job 36:9, as in Job 36:10, an objective quod . It is not translated, however, quod invaluerint (Rosenm.), which is opposed to the most natural sense of the Hithpa., but according to Job 15:25: quod sese extulerint . , , disciplina , interchanges here with the more rare used in Job 33:16; there we have already also met with the phrase , to uncover the ear, i.e., to open. corresponds to the Arab. amara an ( bi – an ), to command that. The fundamental thought of Elihu here once again comes unmistakeably to view: the sufferings of the righteous are well-meant chastisements, which are to wean them from the sins into which through carnal security they have fallen – a warning from God to penitence, designed to work their good.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Strophe b The sufferings the righteous experience are intended to be restorative, and at the same time to promote temporal and spiritual prosperity; failing of this, they entail destruction, Job 36:8-12.
8. Fetters and cords are used in a figurative sense. Arab writers, cited by Hitzig, formulate the thought thus: “Sickness is God’s prison on the earth.” However lofty the elevation of the righteous, he is not beyond the afflictive hand of God; nay, quite as certainly as upon the lowliest shall the gathered clouds of adversity burst upon the heads of the highest, in order that their souls may also be severed and won from the deleterious influences of worldly prosperity. These glowing words (Job 36:8-12) have an oblique reference to Job. In the view of Elihu affliction is the voice of God to the soul, “not in anger, nor in wrath,” but in love. The contrast between the views of Elihu and those of “the friends,” as to the design of affliction, is most marked.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 36:8 And if [they be] bound in fetters, [and] be holden in cords of affliction;
Ver. 8. And if they be bound in fetters ] If it so happens, that through abuse of their prosperity and preferment, they wander, as they are men, out of the right way, and God sends out afflictions as his pursuivants to attack them, and lay them in cold irons for their correction, and to prevent judgment, Psa 107:10 .
And be holden in cords of affliction
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
if: Job 13:27, Job 19:6, Job 33:18, Job 33:19, Psa 18:5, Psa 107:10, Psa 116:3, Lam 3:9
cords: Pro 5:22
Reciprocal: Gen 42:21 – they said 2Sa 22:6 – sorrows 2Ch 33:11 – the Lord Job 13:23 – make me Job 33:23 – to Job 36:13 – bindeth Psa 107:14 – brake Amo 4:9 – yet Luk 15:18 – I have
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 36:8-10. If they be bound in fetters If, through the vicissitude of worldly affairs, they are brought from their throne into a prison, as sometimes hath been done. Then he showeth them their work Their evil works: by these afflictions he brings them to a sight of their sins; that then have exceeded That they have greatly sinned by abusing their power and prosperity, which even good men are too prone to do. He openeth also, &c. He inclines them to hearken to what God speaks by his rod, who would not hear in the time of their prosperity; namely, to hear the rod and him that hath appointed it; and commandeth Either by his word or Spirit accompanying this affliction, and discovering the design of God in this dispensation; that they return from iniquity The chief cause of their calamity and trouble.