The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 475

Vers. 16-31.--Job's seCM1d parable: 8. .A sorrowful st1,rvey of present miserJ,. I. JoB'IS BODil.T AFFLICTION. 1. Overpowering. It was no trifling ,aifmerit that, wrung from the heart of thie fallen great man the -exquisitely plaintive lament pf .the- presl!~t section. The malady which had struck its fangs into his vitals was ,q~e--'thiit made his bowels boil, and rest not (ver. 27); that caused h1.s bear~. to melt Hke'wax fo: ~he nlidst of his bowels (Ps. uii. 14); yea, that dissolved his soul-in tears (ver. 16). Most. tnen have reason to be thankful that the afflictions they are called to endure are· not absolutely intolerable; for which the praise is due to God's mercy alone. Yet not· unles1s the soul is suitably affected by the ills that assail the body do these latter bring forth their designed results, the peaceable fruits of righteousness. The case of Job suggests that through the union and sympathy of soul and body man possesses an almost ,infiQif:e capacity for suffering pain; while the fact that pain may minister to man's impro'l:'emedt is a testimony to man's superiority over the creatures. 2. Sudden. This was 'one ·pf the circumstances that rendered Job's affliction so unmanning. •It had sprung upon hilil unawares, apprehending him, and holding him fast as a detective might do a criminal (ver. 113), at the very moment when he had been saying to himself, "I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply 1r.y days as the sand"(eh. xxix.18), and. offering congr~tulations to himself on the apparently permanent as well as inexhaustible sources of his wealtli, and on the palpably stable and unfading character of his glory. 3. Wasting. .A. second circumstance whlch tended to dissolve the soul of Job as he reflected on his physicid trouble was the revolting character of the disease by which he had been overtaken, According to one view, Job by a strong poetic figure personifies the night (ver.17; cf. eh. iii. 2) as a wild beast, wLich bad leapt upon him in ihe darkness, and rent him limb from limb-the allusion being to the terrible nature of the Lepra .Arabica, whicp. "feeds on the bones and destroys the body in BUCh a manner that single Hmbs are com- pletely detached" (Delitzsch). 'l'o t)iis, al~o, the wasting character of the dis~as~ (ver. 18) is believed by the just-named commentator to refer. 4,. UnsightllJ.. An _additional source of grief to the patriarch in thinking over his malady was the disfigurement of his person which it had occasioned. "By its great strength the gaTIDent (of his skin) was changed" (Gesenius), probably through frequent purulent discharge, or t~rough the foul incrustatioill! which covered his body; his skin also had become black, and was peelin~ off from his emaciated skeleton, while his bones within him were being consumed ,by !I. parching heat (ver. 30). It is a special c-toes when God, through disease, renders ii; man of displeasing aspect to hie fellows. 5. Iruessant. The pain which Jol;> si,ffefed wlili seemingly continuous, and without interruption. Already frequentlf'iniieted on iii. UH. ux. 1-31.] 'l'ltE BOOK OF JOB. 491