Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 7:13
When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;
13, 14. Further description of the plagues employed to subdue him.
ease my complaint ] Complaint always means complaining, not malady; ch. Job 9:27, Job 10:1, Job 21:4, Job 23:2. When he looks for sleep
That knits up the ravelled sleeve of care,
Balm of hurt minds,
instead of finding it he is scared with dreams and terrified through visions. Such distressing dreams and terrors in sleep are said to be one of the symptoms of Elephantiasis.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
When I say, My bed shall comfort me – The idea in this verse and the following is, that there was no intermission to his sorrows. Even the times when people usually sought repose were to him times of distress. Then he was disturbed and alarmed by the most frightful dreams and visions, and sleep fled from him.
Shall ease my complaint – The word rendered shall ease ysa’ means rather, shall bear; that is, shall lighten or sustain. The meaning is, that he sought relief on his bed.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
By giving me sweet and quiet sleep, which may take off the sense of my torments for that while.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
When I say, my bed shall comfort me,…. When he thought within himself that he would lie down upon his bed and try if he could get a little sleep, which might comfort and refresh him, and which he promised himself he should obtain by this means, as he had formerly had an experience of:
my couch shall ease my complaint; he concluded, that by lying down upon his couch, and falling asleep, it would give some ease of body and mind; that his body would, at least, for some time be free from pain, and his mind composed, and should cease from complaining for a while; which interval would be a relief to him, and of considerable service. Some render it, “my couch shall burn” h; be all on fire, and torture me instead of giving ease; and so may have respect to his burning ulcers.
h “ardebit”, Pagninus; so Kimchi in Sepher Shorash. & Ben Melech in loc.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
13. My bed The bed ( ) was a canopied couch; in Amo 3:12; Amo 6:4, the synonym of luxury, while the couch, , was the ordinary term for bed.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 7:13 When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;
Ver. 13. When I say, My bed shall comfort me ] The bed was the most proper and probable means of refreshment; but it is not the bed that can give sleep, nor the couch ease. Creatures are not able of themselves to give out the comforts committed to them; their common nature must be assisted with a special word of blessing, or else they do us no good: man liveth not by bread only, &c. God maketh the merciful man’s bed, Psa 41:3 . So he giveth his beloved sleep, quiet sleep (Shena with an Aleph quiescent), Psa 127:2 He is the God of all mercies, and the Father of all consolation, 2Co 1:3 . It is he that shines through the creature, which else is but as the air, without light. Look how the air lights us not without the sun; and fuel heats us not without fire; so neither can any man or means comfort or content us without God.
My couch shall ease my complaint
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
complaint = complainings.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
My bed: Job 7:3, Job 7:4, Job 9:27, Job 9:28, Psa 6:6, Psa 77:4
Reciprocal: Job 17:12 – change Psa 102:7 – watch Ecc 2:23 – his heart Jer 8:18 – my Dan 4:5 – a dream
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 7:13-14. My couch shall ease my complaint By giving me sweet and quiet sleep, which may take off my sense of pain for that time. Then thou scarest me with dreams With sad and frightful dreams. And terrifiest me with visions With horrid apparitions; so that I am afraid to go to sleep, and my remedy proves as bad as my disease. This contributed no little to render the night so unwelcome and wearisome to him. How easily can God, when he pleases, meet us with terror there where we promised ourselves ease and repose. Nay, he can make us a terror to ourselves; and, as we have often contracted guilt, by the rovings of an unsanctified fancy, he can likewise, by the power of our imagination, create us a great deal of grief, and so make that our punishment which has often been our sin. Jobs dreams might probably arise, in part, from his distemper, but, no doubt, Satan also had a hand in them. We have reason to pray, that our dreams may neither defile nor disquiet us; neither tempt us to sin, nor torment us with fear; that he who keeps Israel, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, would keep us when we slumber and sleep. And we ought to bless God if we lie down and our sleep is sweet, and we are not thus scared.