The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 309

do not wenr, but e. metaphor for dignity or the similar woe of Job's great Antitype honour. (John vii. 5, "For neither did his brethren Ver. 10.-He he.th destroyed me on every believe on him "). And mine aoquaintanae aide, and I e.m gone ; or, broken me dOW11. are verily eatranged from me (oomp. Ps. Job compnree himself to !l city, the wulle of xxxviii. 11; Jxix. 9; luxviii. 8, 18). The which a.re o.ttnoked on every eide and broken desertion of the afflicted by their fo.ir-weather down. Hie ruin ia oomplote--he perishes. friends is a standing topic with the poets And mine hope hath he removed like a tree • and moralists of all ages and nations. Job 10.ther, !orn up like a tree. Job's "hope'I was not singular in this affliction. wue, no doubt, to lead e. tranquil o.nd II godly Ver. H.-My kinsfolk have failed, and life, surrounded by his relatives and friends, my familiar friend• have forgotten me (see in favour with God and man, tiU old age Ps, xli. 9). came, and he descended, like a ripe shock Ver. 15.-They that dwell in mine houe, of corn (eh. v. 26), to the grave. This hope and my maids, count me for a lltranger. h11,c:l been "torn up by the roots" when hie Even the inmates of his honse, ma.le and calamities fell upon him. female, his servants, guards, retainers, hand- Ver. 11.-He bath also kindled his wrath maids, and the like, looked on him and t,gainst me. It is not what has happened treated him as if unknown to them. I am i() him in the way of affliction and calamity an alien in their sight. Nay, not only a.a if that so much oppresses and crushes the unknown, but "as an alien," i.e. a foreigner. patriarch, as the cause to which he, not un- Ver. 16.-I oalled my 1ervant, and he naturally, ascribes his afflictions, viz. the gave me no answer. Astounding insolence wrath of God. Participating in the general in an Oriental servant, or rather slave (i:1J1), oreed of his time, be believes his sufferings who should have hnng npon his master's to come direct from God, and to be proofs words, and striven ID anticipate his wishes. of God's severe anger against him. He is I intreated him with my mouth. Begging not, however, prepared on this account to him probably for some service which was renounce ,God. "Though he slay me, yet distasteful, and which he declined to render. will I trust in him" (eh. xiii. 15) is still Ver. 17.-My breath is strange to my wife. his inward sustaining thought and guiding The breath of a sufferer from elephantiasis principle. And- he oounteth me unto him has often a fetid odour which is extremely as one of his enemies, Job felt himself disagreeable. Job's wife, it would seem, treated as an enemy of God, and supposed held aloof from him on this account, so that that God must consider him such. He he lost the tender offices which a. wife is either had no glimpse of the cheering truth, the fittest person to render. Though I " Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth " illtreated for the children's sake of mine (Heh. xii. 6), or he could not imagine that own body. This translation is scarcely such woes as his were mere chastenings. tenable, though no doubt it gives to the Ver. 12.-His troops oome together (comp. words used a most touching and pathetic oh. xvi. 13, "His archers compass me round sense. Translate, and I am loathsome to the about"). It seems to Job that God brings children of my mother's womb; Le. to my against him a whole army of assailants, who brothers and sisters (comp. eh. xlii. 11). It join their forces together and proceed to the would seem that they also avoided Job's attack. Clouds of archers, troops of ravagers, presence, or at any rate any near approach come about him, and fall upon him from to him. Under the circumstances, this is every side, And raise up their way against perhaps not surprising ; but Job, in hia me; rather, and cast up their bank agaimt extreme isolation, felt it keenly. me. Job still regards himself as a besieged Ver.18.-Yea, yo=g children despised me. city (see ver. 10), and represents his assail- (So Rosenmiiller, Canon Cook, and the Re- ants as raising embankments to hem him in, vised Version.) Others translate, "the vile," or mounds from which to batter his defences or "the perverse" (comp. eh.xvi. 11). Bat (compare the Assyrian soulptures, passim). the rendering of the Authorized Version And enoamp round about my tabernaole; i.e. receives support from oh. xxi. 11. The "my tent,'' or" my dwelling." forwardness of rude and ill-trained children Ver. 13.-He hath put my brethren far to take pa.rt against God's saints appears from me. Job had actual "brothers" (eh. later in the history of Elisha (2 Kings ii. xiii. 11), who forsook him and "dealt 23, 24). I arose, and they spake against deceitfully" with him (eh. vi. 15) during me ; or, when I arise, they spealc againgt me the time of his adversity, bnt wert- glad (compare the Revised Version). enough to return to him and "eat bread Ver. 19.-All my inward friends al>horred with him" in his later prosperous life. me; literally, all the men of my e<runael; i.e. Their alienation from him during the period all those whom I was accustomed to consult. of his afflictions he here regards RB among and whose advice I WI\B wont to ta.ke, in the triBls laid upon him by God. Compare any difficulty, by keeping ciloof, have shown JOB. y  THE BOOK OF JOB.