“Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it.”
All, without your information. (Calmet)
“Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.”
Reason. Hebrew, “to dispute with, or before God,” concerning the matter which we have in hand. He appeals to God, as to the judge of all.
“But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.”
Having. Hebrew, “But ye are sewers of lies.” (Calmet) — Septuagint, “unskilful surgeons, (who, instead of sewing up a wound, increase it) and all of you doctors of evil;” vain empirics. — Maintainers. Protestants, “ye are all physicians of no value.” (Haydock)
“O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.”
Men. Proverbs xvii. 28. If you had been silent, you might still have had the reputation of wisdom. (Calmet)
“Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.”
Judgment. Hebrew, “pleading” before our common judge. (Haydock)
“Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?”
Accept. Hebrew, “will you not be seized with fear?” Olympiodorus translates, “will you stand in his presence, and dispute with him?” (Calmet) — Septuagint, “Are you sent to be judges?” &c., or, do you suppose that you please him by asserting that he punishes me for my sins? (Haydock) — Is it thus you hope to gain his favour? (Calmet) — He knows the state of my soul best; then I myself: but you are quite in the dark. (Worthington)
“Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?”
Or. Hebrew, “Is it good that he should examine you, would you escape?” (Calmet)
“He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons.”
His. Hebrew, “persons.” Because you see me afflicted, you infer that I am guilty; and think this mode of judging most honourable to God, whom you wish thus to please. (Haydock) — But he stands not in need of lies; (Calmet) and something farther is still to be proved. (Haydock) — You judge rashly, as if you designed to please a prince, (Menochius) without examining the cause of the accused. (Haydock)
“Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.”
Necks. Septuagint, “body.” Hebrew also, (Haydock) “heights,” (Calmet) or “fortifications.” (Grotius)
“Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will. Hold: Heb. Be silent from me”
Whatsoever. Hebrew, “come what will.” Septuagint, “that my anger may cease.” (Haydock)
“Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?”
Why you seem to ask do I thus eagerly desire to die, (Haydock) as if I were tearing my own flesh, and exposing my soul to danger, (Worthington) like a madman? (Tirinus) — Is it not better for me to address myself to God, that he would hasten my departure, than thus to tear my flesh with my teeth? (Calmet) — Some have supposed that Job really did so in extreme anguish, (Ven. Bede) the leprosy occasioning such an insupportable irritation. (Haydock) — But the expression insinuates an interior anguish or despair; (Isaias xlix. 26.) in which sense Pythagoras enjoins, “not to eat the heart.” — Hands, in imminent danger of death, Psalm cxviii. 109. — St. Gregory explains it in a moral sense: “It is to manifest the intention of the heart by the actions.” (Haydock)
“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him. maintain: Heb. prove, or, argue”
In him. Hebrew lu is read, though lo, “not,” is written in the Hebrew text. (Haydock) — Protestants, &c., follow the sense of the Vulgate, and Junius comes to the same, as he reads lo with an interrogation: “Should I not hope in him?” Luther and the Belgic version go astray: “Behold he shall kill me, and I cannot expect,” or hope; I am resolved to die: which words indicate “extreme impatience.” (Amama) — Septuagint, “If the powerful (or Lord) lay [not] hands on me, since it is commenced? No: but I shall speak and arraign [you] before him,” &c. The words not and you are thus placed in Grabe’s edition. (Haydock) — Ways. I do not pretend that I am quite blameless. (Calmet) — Protestants, “I will maintain (Marginal note: prove, or argue) mine own ways before him.” (Haydock) — I will hope, like Abraham, even against hope, to shew that I am not actuated by despair: yet I will continue to declare my innocence, ver. 16. (Tirinus)
“He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.”
Hypocrite. If I were such, I should not dare to appeal so boldly to his tribunal. (Calmet)
“Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.”
Truths. Literally, “riddles” to you. Hebrew achavathi, (Haydock) means “instructions,” &c. (Calmet)
“Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.”
Just. He was in extreme anguish, yet still trusted in God. (Worthington)
“Who is he that will plead with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost.”
Peace. It will be some consolation to explain my reasons. If I am fairly overcome, I shall die with more content. (Calmet)
“Only do not two things unto me: then will I not hide myself from thee.”
Only. He makes the same petition to God as [in] chap. ix. 34., and xxxiii. 7. (Haydock)
“How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.”
Offences, which might be hidden to Job himself. (Worthington) — He speaks to God with the freedom which he had requested, desiring to know if he were really guilty, (Calmet) that he might give glory to him, (Haydock) by an humble confession.
“For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.”
Bitter. The judge wrote down the sentence; which he read, or gave to his officer. (Calmet) — Youth, for which I thought I had satisfied. (Haydock)
“Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet. lookest: Heb. observest heels: Heb. roots”
Stocks, in which the person’s legs were sometimes stretched to the sixth hole; (Calmet) at other times, the neck was confined. (Menochius) — Some translate the Hebrew, “in the mud,” which agrees with the other part of the verse. — Steps. Hebrew and Septuagint, “roots,” or ankles, which retained the prints made by the stocks.
“And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth eaten.”
Rottenness. Septuagint, “an old vessel,” or skin, to contain wine, &c. (Calmet) — My condition might excite pity. (Menochius)