Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 6:9

Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!

Even that it would please God to destroy me – To put me to death, and to release me from my sorrows; compare Job 3:20-21. The word rendered destroy here ( daka’) means properly to break in pieces, to crush, to trample under foot, to make small by bruising. Here the sense is, that Job wished that God would crush him, so as to take his life. The Septuagint renders it wound – trosato. The Chaldee renders it, Let God, who has begun to make me poor, loose his hand and make me rich.

That he would let loose his hand – Job here represents the hand of God as bound or confined. He wishes that that fettered hand were released, and were so free in its inflictions that he might be permitted to die.

And cut me off – This expression, says Gesenius (Lexicon on the word betsa), is a metaphor derived from a weaver, who, when his web is finished, cuts it off from the thrum by which it is fastened to the loom; see the notes at Isa 38:12. The sense is, that Job wished that God would wholly finish his work, and that as he had begun to destroy him he would complete it.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 9. Let loose his hand] A metaphor taken from an archer drawing his arrow to the head, and then loosing his hold, that the arrow may fly to the mark. See on Job 6:4.

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

To destroy me; to end my days and calamities together. That he would let loose his hand; which is now as it were bound up or restrained from giving me that deadly blow which I desire. Oh that he would restrain himself and his hand no longer, but let it fall upon me with all its might, so as to

cut me off as it follows.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

9. destroyliterally, “grind”or “crush” (Isa 3:15).

let loose his handGodhad put forth His hand only so far as to wound the surface ofJob’s flesh (Job 1:12; Job 2:6);he wishes that hand to be let loose, so as to wound deeplyand vitally.

cut me offmetaphorfrom a weaver cutting off the web, when finished, from the thrumfastening it to the loom (Isa38:12).

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

Even that it would please God to destroy me,…. Not with an everlasting destruction of body and soul; for destruction from the Almighty was a terror to him, Job 31:23; but with the destruction of the body only; not with an annihilation of it, but with the dissolution of it, or of that union there was between his soul and body: the word n used signifies to bruise and beat to pieces; his meaning is, that his body, his house of clay in which he dwelt, might be crushed to pieces, and beat to powder, and crumbled into dust; and perhaps he may have regard to his original, the dust of the earth, and his return to it, according to the divine threatening, Ge 3:19; a phrase expressive of death; and so Mr. Broughton renders it, “to bring me to the dust”, to “the dust of death”, Ps 22:15;

that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off! he had let loose his hand in some degree already; he had given his substance and his body into the hand of Satan; his own hand had touched him, but he had only gone skin deep, as it were; he had smote him in his estate, in his family, and in the outward parts of his body; but now he desires that he would stretch out his hand further, and lift it up, and give a heavier stroke, and pierce him more deeply; strike through his heart and liver, and “make an end” of him, as Mr. Broughton translates the word, and dispatch him at once; cut him off like the flower of the field by the scythe, or like a tree cut down to its root by the axe, or cut off the thread of his life, Isa 38:12.

n “me conterat”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Schmidt; so Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Michaelis, Schultens.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(9) Even that it would please God . . .The sequence of thought in these verses is obscure and uncertain. The speaker may mean that, notwithstanding all that might befall him, his consolation would still be that he had never denied the words of the Holy One. The words I would harden myself in sorrow are the most doubtful, not occurring elsewhere in Scripture. Some render the two clauses, I would exult, or rejoice, in pain that spareth not; but Let him not spare, or Though he spare not, seems preferable. Others render, Though I burn in sorrow.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

9. Please God to destroy me With God is the determination of life and death. The command, “Thou shalt not kill,” includes self-destruction. In all his sufferings Job never intimates a thought of taking his own life. The old Hebrew mind would have spurned the effeminacy that expresses itself in the “Morals of Seneca;” that mind was strong to bear the ills of life so long as it pleased God. In the entire Old Testament there is no trace of suicide apart from war, unless the case of Ahithophel be an exception.

And cut me off Allusion is here made to the weaver, who, when the web is woven, cuts off the thread from the thrum which fastens the web to the loom. Compare Isa 38:12.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Job 6:9 Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!

Ver. 9. That it would please God to destroy me ] That is, to despatch me out of this world, and send me to a better. A dissolution would be far more acceptable to Job than that restitution which Eliphaz seemed to promise him, Job 5:24 . It is as if Job should say, Take you the world among you, since you like it so well; I have more than enough of it; I am neither fond of life, nor afraid of death, but the clean contrary; I had rather die than dine, and crave no greater favour than to have more weight laid upon me that I may die out of hand. Feri, Domine, feri; nam a peccatis absolutus sum, as Luther once said, Strike, Lord, strike deep; for thou hast pardoned my sins, and wilt save my soul.

That he would let loose his hand ] That now seemeth tied, or bound behind him. Manus ligari videtur quando parcit, saith Vatablus. God had chained up Satan, and strictly charged him not to take away Job’s life; but this is it that Job would fain have done. Mortality he would account no small mercy; he desired nothing more than to be dissolved, and to be with Christ; he might do it, because he knew that his Redeemer lived, &c. So might Simeon, because he had seen God’s salvation; and so might Paul, who had fought a good fight, and kept the faith. But how could Plato say, in the eighth of his laws, The communion of the soul with the body is not better than the dissolution, as I would say, if I were to speak in earnest? K , . His master, Socrates, when to die, was nothing so confident; for he shut up his last speech with these words, as both Plato himself and Cicero tell us, Tempus est iam hinc abire, It is now high time for us to go hence; for me to die, and for you to live longer; and whether of these two is the better the gods immortal know; hominem quidem arbitror scire neminem, it is above the knowledge, I believe, of any man living. Thus he; but Job was better persuaded; otherwise he would have been better advised than thus earnestly to have desired death.

And cut me off! ] Avide me absumat quasi ex morte mea ingens lucrum reportaturus (Pineda). Let him greedily cut me off (so the word signifieth), even as if he were to have some great gain, or get some rich booty by my blood.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

destroy = crush.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

that it would: Job 3:20-22, Job 7:15, Job 7:16, Job 14:13, Num 11:14, Num 11:15, 1Ki 19:4, Jon 4:3, Jon 4:8, Rev 9:6

that he would: Job 19:21, Psa 32:4, Isa 48:10-13

Reciprocal: 2Ch 14:13 – before the Lord Job 6:26 – one that Job 8:2 – the words Job 10:1 – My soul Job 13:13 – and let come Job 23:17 – cut off Job 30:21 – thy strong hand Job 36:20 – Desire Psa 88:5 – cut

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge