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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 16:10 - 16:10
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
10 They have gaped against me with their mouth,
In contempt they smite my cheeks;
They conspire together against me.
11 God left me to the mercy of the ungodly,
And cast me into the hands of the evil-doer.
He does not mean the friends by those who mock and vex him with their contemptuous words, but the men around him who envied his prosperity and now rejoice at his misfortune; those to whom his uprightness was a burden, and who now consider themselves disencumbered of their liege lord, the over-righteous, censorious, godly man. The perfects here also have not a present signification; he depicts his suffering according to the change it has wrought since it came upon him. The verb פָּעַר is used with the instrumental Beth instead of with the acc., as Job 29:23 (comp. on במלים, Job 16:4): they make an opening with their mouth (similar to Psa 22:8, they make an opening with the lips, for diducunt labia). Smiting on the cheeks is in itself an insult (Lam 3:30); the additional בְּחֶרְפָּה will therefore refer to insulting words which accompany the act. The Hithpa. הִתְמַלֵּא, which occurs only here, signifies not only to gather together a מְלֹא in general, Isa 31:4, but (after the Arab. tamâla'a ‛ala, to conspire against any one)
(Note: Wetzstein thinks the signification conspirare for יתמלאון poor in this connection, and prefers to translate: All together they eat themselves full upon me, הִתְמַלֵּא as reflexive of מִלֵּא, Job 38:39, synon. of נשׂבע, as in “the Lovers of Amâsiâ,” Ferhhât, after the death of his beloved, cries out: We are not separated! To-morrow (i.e., soon) the All-kind One will unite us in paradise, and we shall satisfy ourselves one with another (Arab. w-ntmll' mn b-'dnâ 'l-b'd). One would, however, expect מִמֶּנִּי instead of עָלַי; but perhaps we may refer to the interchange of התענג עַל, Job 22:26; Job 27:10, with התענג מִן, Isa 66:11.)
to complete one's self, to strengthen one's self (for a like hostile purpose): Reiske correctly: sibi invicem mutuam et auxiliatricem operam contra me simul omnes ferunt.
(Note: The signification to help, which belongs to the I. form Arab. mala'a, proceeds from malâ'un, to have abundance, to be well off; prop. to be able to furnish any one with the means (opes, copias) for anything, and thereby to place him in a position to accomplish it. Comp. the Lat. ops, opem ferre, opitulari, opes, opulentus (Arab. malâ'un). - Fl.)
The meaning of עֲוִיל is manifest from Job 21:11; from עוּל, to suckle, alere (Arab. ‛âl med. Wau, whence the inf. ‛aul, ‛uwûl, and ‛ijâle), it signifies boys, knaves; and it is as unnecessary to suppose two forms, עָוִיל and עֲוִיל, as two meanings, puer and pravus, since the language and particularly the book of Job has coined עַוָּל for the latter signification: it signifies in all three passages (here and Job 19:18; Job 21:11) boys, or the boyish, childish, knavish. The Arabic warratta leaves no doubt as to the derivation and meaning of יִֽרְטֵנִי; it signifies to cast down to destruction (warttah, a precipice, ruin, danger), and so here the fut. Kal יִֽרְטֵנִי for יִירְטֵנִי (Ges. §69, rem. 3), praecipitem me dabat (lxx ἔῤῥιψε, Symm. ἐνέβαλε), as the praet. Kal, Num 22:32 : praeceps = exitiosa est via. The preformative Jod has Metheg in correct texts, so that we need not suppose, with Ralbag, a רָטָה, similar in meaning to יָרַט.