“These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me. make: or, harden yourselves against me”
Ten times; very often. — Oppress me. Hebrew word occurs no where else, and is variously translated. It may signify, “to dig a pit for me,” chap vi. 27., and Psalm vi. 6. Job repeats nearly what he had said before, only with greater vehemence. He admits that Providence treats him in an unusual manner. Yet he still retains an assured hope, and arraigns his adversaries before the divine tribunal. (Calmet) — Yet he rather hesitates; (ver. 4, 6.) and this species of ignorance is the folly of which he, at last, accuses himself, chap. xlii. 3. It was no real fault, chap. xlii. 8. (Haydock)
“And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.”
With me. I alone am answerable for it. But I am no wiser for your remarks. If I have sinned, have I not been sufficiently punished? (Calmet) — Septuagint, “Yea, truly, I was under a mistake; and the mistake still remains with me, to have spoken a word which was not becoming. But my speeches are erroneous and importunate.” He talks thus ironically. (Haydock)
“If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:”
Reproaches, which I endure, as if they were a sure proof of your assertion. (Haydock) — I must therefore refute you. (Calmet)
“Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.”
With an equal judgment. St. Gregory explains these words thus: Job being a just man, and truly considering his own life, thought that his affliction was greater than his sins deserved; and in that respect, that the punishment was not equal, yet it was just, as coming from God, who gives a crown of justice to those who suffer for righteousness’ sake, and proves the just with tribulations, as gold is tried by fire. (Challoner) — He knew that God would surely give a just reward, 2 Timothy iv. (St. Gregory xiv. 16.) (Worthington) — The friends of Job had too contracted a notion of Providence, supposing that the virtuous could not be afflicted. Job allowed that the ordinary rules were not here observed. Hebrew, “the Lord hath perverted or overthrown me.” (Calmet) — This gave him no small uneasiness. If the thing had been as plain as it appears now to us, he might have refuted all with a bare denial. (Houbigant)
“Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment. wrong: or, violence”
Hear. Jeremias makes the same complaint, Lamentations iii. 8. (Calmet)
“His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.”
Troops: (latrones) “free-booters,” (Haydock) or “soldiers.” (Sanctius) — Those nations made a practice of plundering one another’s territories, without any declaration of war. Mercury and Autolychus are praised for thefts of this description. (Odys. xix.) See Judges xi. 3. Septuagint, “his temptations (Calmet; or militia; peirateria) came rushing together upon me; lying down (Haydock) in ambush, (Calmet) they surrounded my paths.” (Haydock)
“My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body. mine: Heb. my belly”
Entreated. Protestants add, “for the children’s sake of mine own body.” Septuagint, “I invited with flattering speeches the sons of my concubines. (18) But they cast me from them for ever. When I arise, they speak against me.” (Haydock) — Interpreters generally suppose that Job speaks of the children by his inferior wives: though he might have some at home by the first wife, who were not old enough to be invited to the feast, with those who were destroyed. (Calmet)
“Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me. young: or, the wicked”
Fools; wicked men, (Menochius) or the meanest of the people, (Calmet) whom (Haydock) these unnatural children (Calmet) resembled. Hebrew, “young children.” (Protestants) (Haydock)
“All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me. my: Heb. the men of my secret”
Some. Hebrew, “men of my secret.” Septuagint, “who knew me;” my most intimate friends. — And he. Hebrew and Septuagint, “They whom I love are.” (Haydock) — These ungratefully joined with the rest, in turning their backs on their benefactor. (Worthington)
“My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. and to: or, as to”
Teeth. I am like a skeleton, so strangely emaciated, and my flesh corrupted: even my bones are not entire. (Haydock) — Hebrew, “I have escaped with the skin of my teeth.” Only my gums are left. My bones cut the skin. Symmachus, “I tore my skin with my teeth.”
“Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?”
Flesh? acting with the like inhumanity towards me. Am I not then sufficiently tormented in your opinion, that you insult over my distress? (Calmet)
“That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!”
In a. Hebrew, “lead, in the rock for ever.” (Protestants) Septuagint have, “for ever,” after book, (ver. 23) and subjoins, “with a writing instrument of iron and (or) lead, or be engraven on the rocks for a memorial.” Grabe insinuates that before there was only, “and on lead, or be engraven on the rocks.” (Haydock) — Instrument, (celte) means “a chisel,” (Haydock) like cœlum from cœlo: ” I engrave.” (Pineda) — St. Jerome, (ad Pam.) and the late editor of his works, retain this word, as the older editions of St. Gregory did; (Calmet) though certe, “surely,” has been inserted instead, from several manuscripts by the Benedictines. (Haydock) — Ancient manuscripts and Latin Bibles have more generally the latter word. But the received editions are supported by many manuscripts (Calmet) and the Septuagint eggluthenai, expresses as much. Celtis est, gluthaion. (Amama). (Casaub. in Athen. vii. 20. p. 556.) — An inscription, in Dalmatia, has the same sense: Neque hic atramentum vel papyrus aut membrana ulla adhuc; sed malleolo et celte literatus silex. “Here as yet was neither ink, nor paper, nor any parchments; but a flint stone was lettered with a mallet and a chisel..” The former modes of writing were not, in effect, invented in the days of Job. (Calmet) — But it was long very usual to make use of lead. (Pineda) — What he desired to have written in such durable characters, (Haydock) was the following sentence, in proof of his unshaken confidence in God, and as a refutation of his friends, who accused him of despair and blasphemy, (Calmet) as also the whole history of his conflict. His desire has been granted. (Tirinus)
“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:”
Redeemer may be understood of the Deity, without confining it to the second Person; (Isaias xli. 14., and xlix. 7.; Piscator) though it may have a more peculiar reference to Christ: (Junius; Haydock) in whom he believed, as the Redeemer of all mankind. (Calmet) — Earth. Yea, ere long I shall be restored to health, (St. Chrysostom; Grotius) as an earnest and figure of the resurrection. Nothing is more common, in Scripture, than for the same prophecy to have a double accomplishment; one soon after it is made public, and another more sublime and remote. Job seemed to have no expectation of surviving his present misery, (ver. 7., and chap. vii. 7., and xxiv. 15.) unless God now revealed it to him, as a figure of his future resurrection, founded on the hope of our Saviour’s, which he expresses in much clearer terms. Hebrew, “I know that my Redeemer is living, and that he will raise himself one day upon the earth,” (Calmet) like a conqueror, (Haydock) or wrestler, having overthrown his antagonist: (Amama) or, “he will stand the last upon the earth, or dust,” (Piscator) ascending his throne, to judge all. (Deodat.) — Yet Luther translates, “and one day he will raise me up from the earth;” which is not conformable to the Hebrew. Others explain, “he….will place (26) this, my skin, after they (worms) shall have ruined it.” (Pagnin; Montanus) — But Amama suspects that the latter is not in earnest. Pineda defends the Vulgate and observes that yakum (Haydock) may signify, “will raise” himself, or “me;” the latter being at least a consequence of the former, if St. Jerome did not read it me in his copy. So St. Paul argues; If Christ be risen, we also shall rise again. Septuagint, “For I know that he is eternal, who will set me free,” (Haydock) by death, (Calmet; or redemption; ekluein) “upon the earth.”
“And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: And: or, After I shall awake, though this body be destroyed, yet out of my flesh”
And I. Septuagint, “But he will raise up my body or skin, which has sustained these things. This now has been accomplished for me by the Lord; (27) which I know within myself, which my eyes have seen, and not another. For all things are accomplished in my bosom.” I am as fully convinced of this glorious event, (Haydock) as if it were past. (Calmet) — Hebrew, “and though, after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” (Protestants, or in the margin, “After I shall awake, though this body be destroyed, yet out of,” &c. Various other interpretations are given. (Haydock) — But we had as well adhere to the Septuagint, Vulgate, &c. (Du Hamel) — God. Sixtus V and some other editions, add “Saviour.” (Calmet) — Job would see the Messias by the eyes of his posterity. (St. Augustine or Faustus, ser. 234. t. v. App.) (Sanctius) — He hoped also to see God face to face in glory (Calmet) though not by means of his corporeal eyes, (Haydock) and to be restored to favour, so that God would no longer turn his back on him, chap. xlii. 5. St. Gregory, when legate at Constantinople, convinced the patriarch Eutychius, by this text, that after the resurrection, our bodies would still be palpable, and not aerial only. (Calmet) — It contains an express profession of Job’s faith, on this head. We shall rise the same in substance. (Worthington)
“Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me. another: Heb. a stranger though: or, my reins within me are consumed with earnest desire (for that day) within: Heb. in my bosom”
Myself. Hebrew, “for myself,” and for my comfort; not like the reprobate, who shall see their judge to their eternal confusion. Job insists so much on this point, that he shews he is not speaking merely of the divine favour being restored to him, in the re-establishment of his health and affairs, but that he raises his mind to something more solid and desirable, of which the former was only a faint representation. (Calmet) — “No one since Christ has spoken so plainly of the resurrection, as this man did before the coming of the Messias.” (St. Jerome, ad Pam.) — This. Hebrew, “though my reins be consumed within me;” (Protestants; Haydock) or, “my reins (desires and tender affections) are completed in my bosom.” (Calmet)
“But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me? seeing: or, and what root of matter is found in me?”
Let us. Septuagint, “Why do we contend against him? and the root of the word (reason) we shall find in him.” He provokes us to speak thus. (Haydock) — Hebrew reads, “in me.” But the Chaldean, &c., “have him,” as the sequel requires; unless Job speak this in his own person. I am ready to answer you; or, have you really discovered in me any grounds for your virulent attack? (Calmet)
“Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment .”
Know. Septuagint, “And then they shall know that their power is nowhere;” or, “where is their substance?” (Grabe) (Haydock) — Job menaces his friends with God’s judgments, as they had done him. (Calmet)