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Job_3:1
After this opened Job his mouth. The first to take the word is Job, as, indeed, etiquette made necessary, when the visit paid was one of condolence. It can only be conjectured what the feelings were which had kept him silent so long. We may, perhaps, suggest that in the countenances and manner of his friends he saw something which displeased him, something indicative of their belief that he had brought his afflictions upon himself by secret sins of a heinous character. Pharisaism finds it very difficult to conceal itself; signs of it are almost sure to escape; often it manifests itself, without a word spoken, most offensively. The phrase, "opened his mouth," is not to be dismissed merely as a Hebraism. It is one used only on solemn occasions, and implies the utterance of deep thoughts, well considered beforehand (Psa_78:21; Mat_5:2), or of feelings long repressed, and now at length allowed expression. And cursed his day; "cursed," i.e; the "day of his birth." Some critics think that "cursed" is too strong a word, and suggest "reviled;" but it cannot be denied that "to curse" is a frequent meaning of ÷Èìì and it is difficult to see in Job's words (verses 3-10) anything but a "curse" of a very intense character. To curse one's natal day is not, perhaps, a very wise act, since it can have no effect on the day or on anything else; but so great a prophet as Jeremiah imitated Job in this respect (Jer_20:14-18), so that before Christianity it would seem that men were allowed thus to relieve their feelings. All that such cursing means is that one wishes one had never been born.
Job_3:2, Job_3:3
And Job spake, and said, Let the day perish wherein I was born. An idle wish, doubtless; the vague utterance of extreme despair. Days cannot perish, or, at any rate, one day cannot perish more than another. They all come, and then are gone; but no day can perish out of the year, which will always have its full complement of three hundred and sixty-five days till time shall be no more. But extreme despair does not reason. It simply gives utterance to the thoughts and wishes as they arise. Job knew that many of his thoughts were vain and foolish, and confesses it further on (see Job_6:3). And the night in which it was said; rather, which said. Day and night are, both of them, personified, as in Psa_19:2. There is a man child conceived. A man child was always regarded in the ancient world as a special blessing, since thus the family was maintained in being. A girl passed into another family.
Job_3:4
Let that day be darkness; i.e. let a cloud rest upon it—let it be regarded as a day of ill omen, "carbone notandus." Job recognizes that his wish, that the day should perish utterly, is vain, and limits himself now to the possible. Let not God regard it from above; i.e. let not God, from the heaven where he dwells, extend to it his protection and superintending care. Neither let the light shine upon it. Pleonastic, but having the sort of force which belongs to reiteration.
Job_3:5
Let darkness and the shadow of death. "The shadow of death" ( öìîåú ) is a favourite expression in the Book of Job, where it occurs no fewer than nine times. Elsewhere it is rare, except in the Psalms, where it occurs four times. It is thought to be an archaic word. Stain it; rather, claim it, or claim it for their own (Revised Version). Let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. The hot, stifling "blackness" of the khamsin wind is probably meant, which suddenly turns the day into night, spreading all around a thick lurid darkness. When such a wind arises, we are told, "The sky instantly becomes black and heavy; the sun loses its splendour, and appears of a dim violet hue; a light, warm breeze is felt, which gradually increases in heat till it almost equals that of an oven. Though no vapour darkens the air, it becomes so grey and thick with the floating clouds of impalpable sand, that it is sometimes necessary to use candles at noonday".
Job_3:6
As for that night. The night, that is, of Job's conception (see above, verse 3). Let darkness seize upon it. The Revised Version has thick darkness' but this is unnecessary. Let it not be joined unto the days of the year. According to the Massorites' pointing, we should translate, "Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;" and so the Revised Version. But many of the best critics prefer the pointing which is followed by the LXX. and by King James's translators. The succeeding clause strongly supports this interpretation. Let it not come into the number of the months (comp. verse 3, and the comment on it). Job wishes the day of his birth and the night of his conception to be utterly blotted out from the calendar; but, aware that this is impossible, he subsides into a milder class of imprecations.
Job_3:7
Lo, let that night be solitary; or, sterile; "let no one be born in it." Lot no joyful voice come therein; literally, no song. Perhaps the moaning is, "Let no such joyful announcement be made," as that mentioned in Job_3:3.
Job_3:8
Let them curse it that curse the day. Very different explanations are given of this passage. Some suppose it to mean, "Let those desperate men curse it who are in the habit of cursing their day," like Job himself (Job_3:1) and Jeremiah (Jer_20:14). Others suggest a reference to such as claimed power to curse days, and to divide them into the lucky and the unlucky. In this case Job would mean, "Let the sorcerers who curse days curse especially this day," and would thus seem, if not to sanction the practice, at any rate to express a certain amount of belief in the sorcerers' power. The second clause has also a double interpretation, which adapts it to either of these two suggested meanings (vide infra). Who are ready to raise up their mourning. This is an impossible rendering. Translate (with the Revised Version), who are ready to rouse up leviathan. "Rousing leviathan" may be understood in two ways. It may be regarded as spoken in the literal sense of those who are rash enough and desperate enough to stir up the fury of the crocodile (see the comment on Job_41:1), or in a metaphorical sense of such as stir up to action by their sorceries the great power of evil, symbolized in Oriental mythologies by a huge serpent, or dragon, or crocodile. On the whole, the second and deeper sense seems preferable; and we may conceive of Job as believing in the power of sorcery, and wishing it used against the night which he so much dislikes.
Job_3:9
Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; i.e. "let not even the light of a star illuminate the morning or evening twilight of that night; let it be dark from beginning to end, uncheered even by the ray of a star." Let it look for light, but have none. Again a personification. The night is regarded as consciously waiting in hope of the appearance of morning, but continually disappointed by the long lingering of the darkness. And let it not see the dawning of the day; rather, as in the margin and in the Revised Version, let it not behold the eyelids of the morning (compare Milton's 'Lycidas,' "Under the opening eyelids of the morn," and Soph; 'Antigone,' χρυσσέης ἁμέρας βλέφαρον ).
Job_3:10
Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb; literally, of my womb; i.e. "of the womb which bare me." By a stretch of imagination, the night is supposed to have power to open or shut wombs, and is blamed for not having shut up the womb in which Job was conceived. Nor hid sorrow from mine eyes; i.e. "and did not so prevent all the sorrows that have befallen me."
Job_3:11
Why died I not from the womb? "From the womb" must mean, "as soon as I came out of the womb," not "while I yet remained within it" (comp. Jer_20:17, "Because he slew me not from the womb"). Many of the ancients thought that it was best not to be born; and next best, if one were born, to quit the earth as soon as possible. Herodotus says that with the Trauri, a tribe of Thracians, it was the custom, whenever a child was born, for all its kindred to sit round it in a circle, and weep for the woes that it would have to endure now that it was come into the world; while, on the other hand, whenever a person died, they buried him with laughter and rejoicings, since they said that he was now free from a host of sufferings, and enjoyed the completest happiness (Herod; Job_5:4). Sophocles expresses the feeling with great terseness and force: Μὴ φῦναι τὸν ἅπαντα νικᾷ λόγον τὸ δ ἐπεὶ φασῆ βῆναι κεῖθεν ὅθεν περ ἥκει πολὺ δεύτερον ὡστάχιστα : "Not to be born is best of all; once born, next best it is by far to go back there from whence one came as speedily as possible." Modem pessimism sums up all in the phrase that "life is not worth living." Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? As so often, the second clause of the distich repeats the idea of the first, merely varying the phraseology.
Job_3:12
Why did the knees prevent me? i.e. "Why did my mother take me on her knees and nurse me, instead of casting me on the ground, where I should have perished?" There seems to be an allusion to the practice of parents only bringing up a certain number of their children. Or why the breasts that I should suck? i.e. "Why were breasts offered to me, that I should suck them? How much better would it have been if I had been allowed to perish of inanition!"
Job_3:13
For now should I have lain still and been quiet. "In that case, I should now ( òúÈÌä ) have been lying still and resting myself," instead of tossing about, and being full of restlessness and suffering." I should have slept. The life in the intermediate state is called "sleep," even in the New Testament (Mat_9:24; Joh_11:11; Act_7:60; 1Co_15:18, 1Co_15:51, etc.). Job, perhaps, imagined it to be, actually, a sound, dreamless slumber. Then should I have been at rest; literally, then ( àæ ) would there have been rest for me."
Job_3:14
With kings and counsellers of the earth. As a great man himself, nobly born probably, Job expects that his place in another world would have been with kings and nobles (see Isa_14:9-11, where the King of Babylon, on entering Sheol, finds himself among "all the kings of the nations"). Which built desolate places for themselves. Some understand "restorers of cities which had become waste and desolate;" others, "builders of edifices which, since they built them, have become desolate;" others, again, "builders of desolate and dreary piles," such as the Pyramids, and the rock-tombs common in Arabia, which were desolate and dreary from the time that they were built. The brevity studied by the writer makes his meaning somewhat obscure.
Job_3:15
Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver. This may either mean simply," princes who were rich in silver and gold during their lifetime," or "princes who have gold and silver buried with them in their tombs." It was the custom in Egypt, in Phoenicia, and elsewhere throughout the East, to bury large quantities of treasure, especially gold and silver vessels, and jewellery, in the sepulchres of kings and other great men. A tomb of a Scythian king in the Crimea, opened about fifty years ago, contained a golden shield, a golden diadem, two silver vases, a vase in electrum, and a number of ornaments, partly in electrum and partly in gold. Another Scythian tomb near the Caspian, opened by the Russian authorities, contained ornaments set with rubies and emeralds, together with four sheets of gold, weighing forty pounds. A third, near Asterabad, contained a golden goblet, weighing seventy ounces; a pot, eleven ounces, and two small trumpets. The tombs of the kings and queens in Egypt were so richly supplied with treasure that, in the time of the twentieth dynasty, a thieves' society was formed for plundering them, especially of their golden ornaments. The tomb of Cyrus the Great contained, we are told (Arrian, 'Exp. Alex.,' Job_6:29), a golden couch, a golden table set out with drinking-cups, a golden bowl, and much elegant clothing adorned with gems. Phoenician tombs, in Cyprus especially, have recently yielded enormous treasures. If the "gold" and "silver" of the present passage refer to treasures buried with princes and kings, we must understand by the "houses" of the second clause their tombs. The Egyptians called their tombs their "eternal abodes" (Diod. Sic; 1.51).
Job_3:16
Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light. This is added as another way in which Job might have escaped his misery. Though conceived and brought to the birth, he might have been still-born, and so have known no suffering.
Job_3:17
There. The word has no expressed antecedent, but the general tenor of the passage supplies one. "There" is equivalent to "in the grave." The wicked cease from troubling; i.e." cease from their state of continual perturbation and unrest" (comp. Isa_57:20, "But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt "). This is their condition, so long as they live; nothing satisfies them; they are always in trouble themselves, and always causing trouble to others. In the grave alone do they rest, or seem to rest. And there the weary be at rest; literally, the weary in strength' or "in respect of strength;" i.e. those whose strength is utterly exhausted and worn out. Here Job undoubtedly alludes to himself. He looks to the grave as his only refuge, the only hope he has of recovering peace and tranquillity.
Job_3:18
There the prisoners rest together. "There those who in life were prisoners, condemned to work at enforced labours, enjoy sweet rest together." They hear not the voice of the oppressor; rather, of the taskmaster (comp. Exo_3:7; Exo_5:6, where the same word is used). The task. master continually urged on the wearied labourers with such words as those of Exo_5:13, "Fulfil your works, fulfil your daily tasks. In the grave these hated sounds would not be heard.
Job_3:19
The small and great are there; i.e. "all are there, the small and great alike;" for
"Omnes eodem cogimur, cranium
Versatur urna serius ocius
Sors exitura, et nos in aeternum
Exilium impositura cymbae."
(Her; ' Od.')
And the servant is free from his master; rather, the slave ( òÆáÆã ).
Job_3:20
Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery? Why, Job asks, is the miserable man forced to continue on the earth and see the light to-day? Why is he not sent down at once to the darkness of the grave? Surely this would have been better. Man often speaks as if he were wiser than his Maker, and could have much improved the system of the universe, if he had had the arranging of it; but he scarcely means what he says commonly. Such talk is, however, foolish, as is all captious questioning concerning the ways of God. The proper answer to all such questioning is well given by Zophar in Job_11:7, Job_11:8, "Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell (Sheol); what canst thou know?" And life unto the bitter in soul (see the comment on Job_11:11, ad fin.).
Job_3:21
Which long for death, but it cometh not; literally, which wait for death' anxiously and longingly (comp. Psa_33:20). And dig for it more than for hid treasures; i.e. "seek it more earnestly than even they seek who dig for hid treasures." As Professor Lee remarks, "From the great instability of all Eastern governments, treasures were in Eastern countries often hid away". And hence treasure-seeking became a profession, which was pursued with avidity by a large number of persons. Even at the present day Orientals are so possessed with the idea, that they imagine every European, who is eager to unearth antiquities, must be seeking for buried treasure.
Job_3:22
Which rejoice exceedingly; literally, to exultation' or "to dancing;" i.e. so that they almost dance with joy. And are glad, when they can find the grave. Job speaks as if he knew of such eases; and, no doubt, the fact of suicide proves that among men there are some who prefer to die rather than live. But suicides are seldom altogether in possession of their senses. Of sane men it may be doubted whether one in a thousand, however miserable, really wishes to die, or is "glad when he can find the grave." In such thoughts as those to which Job here gives expression there is something morbid and unreal.
Job_3:23
Why is light given to a man whose way is hid? "Obscured," that is, "darkened," "placed under a cloud" (comp. Job_3:20, where the sentiment is nearly the same). And whom God hath hedged in. Not in the way of protection, as in Job_1:10, but of obstruction and confinement: (comp. Job_19:8 and Hos_2:6). Job feels himself confined, imprisoned, blocked in. He can neither see the path which he ought to pursue nor take steps in any direction.
Job_3:24
For my sighing cometh before I eat literally, before my meat; i.e. "more early and more constantly than my food" (Professor Lee). And my roarings are poured out. The word translated "roaring" is used primarily of the roar of a lion (Zec_11:3; comp. Amo_3:8); secondarily, of the loud cries uttered by men who suffer pain (see Psa_22:1; Psa_32:4). (On the loud cries of Orientals when suffering from grief or pain, see the comment on Job_2:12.) Like the waters; i.e. freely and copiously, without let or stint. Perhaps the loud sound of rushing water is also alluded to.
Job_3:25
For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me; literally, for I fear a fear, and it comes upon me. The meaning is not that the affliction which has come upon him is a thing which Job had feared when he was prosperous; but that now that he is in adversity, he is beset with fears, and that all his presentiments of evil are almost immediately accomplished. The second clause, And that which I was (rather, am) afraid of is come unto me, merely repeats and emphasizes the first (see the comment on verse 11).
Job_3:26
I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came. Some Hebraists give quite a different turn to this passage, rendering it as follows: "I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; but trouble cometh". Professor Lee, however, certainly one of the most eminent of modern Hebraists, maintains that the far more pregnant meaning of the Authorized Version gives the true sense. "If I rightly apprehend," he says, "the drift of the context here, Job means to have it understood that he is conscious of no instance in which he has relaxed from his religious obligations; of no season in which his fear and love of God have waxed weak; and, on this account, it was the more perplexing that such a complication of miseries had befallen him"; and he translates the passage, "I slackened not, neither was I quiet, neither took I rest; yet trouble came." Job's complaint is thus far more pointedly terminated than by a mere otiose statement that, "without rest or pause, trouble came upon trouble."
1. The time. "After this;" i.e. after the seven days' silence, after waiting, perhaps, for some expression of sympathy from his friends, perhaps also after discerning no mitigation in his misery—an indication that Job spoke not under the influence of some sudden paroxysm of grief, but with fixed resolve and after mature consideration. Language that is passionate may also be deliberate; and although hasty words are sometimes more excusable than composed utterances, as a rule it is wiser and better, especially when under strong emotion, to be "swift to hear, but slow to speak" (Jas_1:19).
2. The manner. "Opened Job his mouth." The usual Hebrew formula for intimating the commencement of a speech; this may also mark, in accordance with Oriental custom, the grave composure and solemn stateliness with which Job began his address, as well as hint at the exceptional character of his discourse. Already, since the beginning of his troubles, he had twice opened his mouth to bless God and justify his ways; never until now had he opened his mouth to curse.
II. IMPASSIONED ELOQUENCE.
1. The sublimity of Job's language. "There is nothing in ancient or modern poetry equal to the entire burst, whether in the wildness and horror of its imprecations, or the terrible sublimity of its imagery (Goode). "There is indeed a tremendous bulk and heat in his words; his imagination has Titanic grasp and violence in it. All nature's powers he translates into living things" (Davidson).
2. The naturalness of Job's language. Even on the hypothesis that the verses contain rather the formulated conceptions of the author than the ipsissima verba of Job, one cannot but feel the dramatic suitability of beth their thought and language to the situation, as well as to the individual to whom they have been assigned. It does not strike one as too lofty for a man of the intellectual calibre of Job; nor does it appear to be inappropriate as a vehicle for the burning thoughts that were then struggling for utterance within his grief-laden soul.
3. The influence of Job's language. "The boldest and most animated poets of Jerusalem made it the model of their threnodies or grief-songs, whenever uttered in scenes of similar distress" (Goode; cf. Lam_3:1-20; Jer_20:14 16; Eze_30:14-18; Eze_32:7-9, etc.). Among the instances in which modem poetry has been indebted to the imagery of the present chapter, may be mentioned Shakespeare, 'King John,' act 3. sc. 1; act 3. sc. 4; 'Macbeth,' act 2. sc. 4.
III. WILD IMPRECATION.
1. The day of his birth is in general terms execrated: "Let the day perish wherein I was born" (verse 3); meaning, let it be erased from the calendar of existence, let it be filled with misery, buried in obscurity, and loaded with dishonour, or let it be blotted out from all remembrance. After which in detail he prays that it may be:
(1) Enshrouded in darkness (verse 4); unillumined by the light of heaven, which imparts loveliness to all mundane things—an imprecation conversely reminding us of the value of light.
(2) Abandoned by God (verse 4), who, while interesting himself in all his other creatures, should never ask after it. "Job's wish of darkness had done his day no great hurt, unless he had taken the eye of God from it also' (Caryl). God's favour is the greatest blessing of the creature; and neither day nor man can be truly happy from which that favour is withdrawn.
(3) Reclaimed by death (verse 5): "Let darkness and deathshade claim it"—redeem it as a stray portion of their original kingdom, which had wandered into the realms of light, and carry it back to its primeval abode. Adhering to the metaphor which compares the light of day to a captive escaped from the prison-house of darkness, we may remember by whose power it was that the light was first liberated (Gen_1:3), and whose hand it is that still directs it to the ends of the earth (Job_37:3). We may note too that we have a better Kinsman than Job's day had—one who can buy us back, not like it, from light to darkness, but from darkness to light.
(4) Haunted by terrors: "Let the blackness of the day terrify it" (verse 5); as if it were a living thing cowering and shrinking in abject horror before troops of black omens continually occuring on it, such as eclipses, unnatural obscurations, pestilential vapours, dark storm-clouds; meaning, let it be a day to inspire terror in all beholders. The human soul is easily alarmed by unusual phenomena; but why should it when God is in them (Psa_97:1-5)?
2. The night of his conception he likewise anathematizes in general terms (verse 3); after which, personifying it, he measures out for it too a series of detailed imprecations, imploring that it might be:
(1) Excluded from the calendar; being overtaken by the surging waves of primal darkness, seized and carried back upon its ebbing tide to "chaos and old night," so that it should never join in the choral procession of the days and months that compose the year (verse 6)—a foolish curse, since the blotting out of the night could have no effect upon his sorrow.
(2) Destitute of gladness; "sitting in solitary, unrelieved gloom, nothing living and rejoicing in life coming from its womb, while other nights around it experience a parent's joy, and ring with birthday rejoicing" (verse 7)—a cruel curse, which sought to transfer his own misery to others.
(3) Cursed by enchanters, those who by their incantations can bring calamities on days otherwise propitious, rousing up leviathan (whether the crocodile, as the emblem of evil, or the dragon, i.e. the constellation of the serpent, as the enemy of the sun and moon, vide Exposition) to swallow it up (verse 8)—a superstitious curse, showing that good men are not always so enlightened as they should be.
(4) Doomed to darkness; always trembling on the verge of daylight, but never beholding the eyelids of the dawn (verse 9)—a presumptuous curse, since it thought to arrest a divinely appointed ordinance.
IV. ASTOUNDING SELFISHNESS.
1. Thinking nothing of the happiness of others.
(1) Neither of his mother's joy in his birth, who doubtless rejoiced over his advent into life, as Sarah did over Isaac's, as Elisabeth did over John's, and as every mother worthy of the name does over her babe's; who probably, in the exultation of the moment, named him Job ("Joyous'), and experienced a fresh thrill of gladness every time she paused to note his opening manhood and his ripening piety;—of all which she would have been bereft had Job not been born.
(2) Nor of the interest of others in his birthday, not, perhaps, because it was his, but because it was their own, or their children's, or their parents', or their friends'; and why should they have all their happiness blighted because Job counted it a terrible misfortune that he had been ushered into life?
2. Thinking continually upon the misery of himself. The sole reason for his tremendous imprecation is the tact that on that particular day (and night) he had entered on his miserable career of existence. Suffering and sorrow, which are sent, and supposed, to render men sympathetic, not unfrequently result in selfishness, especially when conjoined with impatience, which is "ordinarily a great ponderer of griefs, because they are ours, little weighing the troubles of others" (Hutcheson).
V. RASHNESS APPROACHING TO WICKEDNESS.
1. Its extenuations. Much to be ascribed to
(1) the emotional nature of Orientals;
(2) the comparatively unenlightened age in which Job lived;
(3) the extreme severity, multiplicity, and continuance of his troubles; and
(4) the provocation he may have received from the reproachful and suspicious looks of his friends.
2. Its aggravations. With every disposition to palliate Job's offence, it is impossible to acquit him of sin; for
(1) he immoderately indulged his sorrow, which, though natural in itself, and at times becoming, and even sanctioned by religion, should yet never be permitted to exceed (1Co_7:30);
(2) he overstepped the bounds of propriety in speech, employing phrases and terms full of passion as well as force, whereas saints should exercise restraint upon their tongues as well as tempers (Psa_141:3; Col_4:6; Tit_2:8);
(3) he used the language of imprecation, which became not a good man (Rom_12:14), and was a frequent mark of bad men (Psa_10:7; Psa_109:18);
(4) if he cursed not God, he execrated God's gift, his birthday, thus showing himself guilty of presumption in denouncing what God had blessed (Gen_1:28; Psa_127:1-5 :8), and of ingratitude in despising what God had bestowed, viz. life (Gen_2:7; Act_17:28);
(5) he did all this knowingly and deliberately (Job_3:1); and
(6) without regard to the interests of others.
Learn:
1. That a good man may stand long, and yet at length show symptoms of falling. "Be not highminded, but fear."
2. It is specially to be deplored when great gifts are employed for sinful purposes. Upon every talent should be inscribed, "Holiness to the Lord!"
3. That the tongue is a world of iniquity when it is set on fire of hell "Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!"
4. That every creature of God is good, and to be received with thanksgiving; even birthdays, for which saints should bless God while they live.
5. That though sins may be palliated, they still require to be pardoned; excuses do not cancel guilt.
6. That from the greatest depth of wickedness into which a child of God can fall, he may ultimately be recovered. "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin."
Job_3:11-19
1. Before birth. "Why died I not from the womb?" i.e. while I was yet unborn; surely a display of monstrous ingratitude, since, if God did not protect the tender offspring of men prior to their birth, it would be impossible that they should ever see the light (contrast Psa_139:13).
2. At birth. "Why did 1 not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?" To which he might himself have returned answer:
(1) Because of God's sovereign will; man being God's creature (Gen_5:1; Deu_4:32; Job_10:8; Job_12:10; Job_27:3; Job_33:4), and God ever doing according to his will among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of earth (Job_9:12; Job_12:9; Job_33:13).
(2) Because of God's great power, the hour of birth being a time so fraught with peril to a tender babe as well as to a suffering mother, that only God's watchful guardianship can account for a child not dying as soon as it is born (Job_31:15; Psa_71:6).
(3) Because of God's spontaneous kindness; life being a gift to the bestowal of which God can be moved by nothing but his own free favour, as Job afterwards acknowledged (Job_10:12).
3. After birth. "Why did the knees prevent"—i.e. anticipate—"me? or why the breasts that I should suck?" (verse 12). To which, again, he might have responded that man is so helpless in infancy that without the safe shelter of a father's arms and the strong support of a father's knees, as well as the warm nest of a mother's bosom and the rich consolations of a mother's breasts, he must inevitably perish. That God has provided these for man is a signal proof of the Divine wisdom and loving-kindness. That any should despise them is a mark of thoughtlessness, if not of depravity (cf. Psa_22:9, Psa_22:10; Psa_71:5, Psa_71:6).
II. THE LOST BLESSING—THE GRAVE. Thus undervaluing God's great gift of life, he proceeds to depict a blessing of which he foolishly as well as sinfully supposes himself to have been deprived in consequence of having entered on the stage of existence, viz. the peaceful repose of the grave, in which he should have enjoyed:
1. Perfect rest' "Now should I have lain still," like one reclining on his couch after the labours of the day—death being compared to a night of resting after the day of working life (Ecc_9:1-18; Ecc_10:1-20; Psa_104:23; Rev_14:13). "And been quiet"—at peace, withdrawn from every kind of trouble and annoyance—the grave being a place of absolute security against every form of temporal calamity (verses 17, 18; Ecc_9:5). "I should have slept"—death being often likened to a sleep (Joh_11:11; Act_7:60; Act_13:1-52 :86; 1Th_4:13; 1Th_5:10). "Then had I been at rest;" my sleep being untroubled, a profound slumber unvisited by dreams—the rest of the grave being, especially for the good man, a couch of the most peaceful repose (Gen_15:15; Ecc_12:5; Job_7:2 l; Job_30:23), in comparison with which Job's maladies and miseries allowed him neither rest nor quiet.
2. Dignified companionship. "Then had I been at rest with kings and counsellors of the earth," etc. Enjoying a splendid association with the great ones of the earth, now lying in their magnificent mausoleums, instead of sitting, as I presently do, on this ash-heap, in sublime but sorrowful isolation, an object of loathing and disgust to passers-by. The human heart, in its seasons of distress, longs for society, in particular the society of sympathetic friends; and sometimes the loneliness of sorrow is so great that the thought of the grave, with its buried millions, presents to the sufferer a welcome relief. However obscure, isolated, miserable, the lot of a saint on earth, death introduces him to the noblest fellowships Ñ of his fathers (Gen_15:15; Gen_25:8); of "the spirits of just men made perfect" (Heb_12:23); of the Saviour (Luk_23:43; Php_1:23).
3. Absolute equality. Whereas he was now spurned by his fellows, he would then, had he died in infancy, have attained to as much glory as the aforesaid counsellors, kings, and princes, who, notwithstanding their ambitious greatness, which had led them to construct gorgeous sepulchres and amass untold hoards of wealth, were now lying cold and stiff within their desolate palaces. Behold the vanity of earthly greatness!—monarchs mouldering in the dust (Isa_14:11; Eze_32:23). See the impotence of wealth—it cannot arrest the footsteps of death (Jas_1:11; Luk_16:22). Note that death is a great leveller (Ecc_2:14, Ecc_2:16; Psa_89:48; Heb_9:27), and the grave a place where distinctions are unknown (verse 19; Ecc_3:20).
4. Complete tranquillity. "As a hidden untimely birth I had not been, and as children that have never seen the light" (verse 16; cf. Ecc_6:4, Ecc_6:5); unconscious and still as non-existence itself, as those "upon whose unopened ear no cry of misery ever fell, and on whose unopened eye the light, and the evil which the light reveals, never broke;" a tranquillity deeper (and, in Job's estimation, more blessed) than that of those who only attain rest after passing through life's ills—a doctrine against which both the light of nature and the voice of revelation protest (vide homily on verse 16).
5. Entire emancipation. A perfect cessation from all life's troubles, and a final escape from the exactions of his unseen oppressor. "There the wicked cease from troubling," etc. (verses 17-19; cf. Ecc_9:5-10)—a sentiment, again, which is only partially correct, i.e. so far as it relates to the ills of life.
LESSONS.
1. God's best gifts are often least appreciated.
2. Men frequently mistake ill for good.
3. What we have not commonly appears more desirable than what we have.
4. "Better is a living dog than a dead lion."
5. The grave is a poor place for a man to hide his sorrows in.
6. It is better to bear the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of.
7. It is well to scrutinize keenly all that we either think or say in trouble.
8. There is a greater sin than despising the gift of temporal existentence, viz. despising the offer of eternal life.
Job_3:13-19
II. A REALM OF UNBROKEN SILENCE.
III. AN ABODE OF DEEP TRANQUILLITY.
IV. A BED OF PEACEFUL SLUMBER.
V. A WORLD OF ABSOLUTE EQUALITY.
VI. A PLACE OF UNIVERSAL RENDEZVOUS.
VII. A HOUSE OF TEMPORARY LODGING.
LESSONS.
1. Humility.
2. Contentment.
3. Diligence.
4. Watchfulness.
Job_3:16
1. Life is little other than a capacity for suffering affliction.
2. At the best, life is so short, and man's powers so feeble, that nothing he undertakes can attain to perfection.
3. In every instance life involves the terrible necessity and painful experience of dying.
4. Life always carries in its bosom the possibility of coming short of everlasting felicity.
II. IN FAVOUR OF BEING AND AGAINST NOT-BEING.
1. Life in itself is a thing of pure enjoyment.
2. Man's powers, though imperfect, are susceptible of infinite improvement.
3. The day of existence, whether long or short, affords a noble opportunity for serving God.
4. The fact that one is born gives him a chance, by being born again, of attaining to salvation and eternal life.
LESSONS.
1. Notwithstanding all the miseries of human life, it is better to have been born than to have remained in non-existence.
2. Notwithstanding all its brevity and imperfection, life is worth living.
3. Because of all its hardships and sorrows, it should be given up with resignation when God recalls it to himself.
Job_3:20-26
1. The miseries of life. Which he depicts as:
(1) inward trouble; not merely bodily pain, but mental anguish, bitterness of soul (verse 20); the acutest form of all distress (Pro_18:14; cf. 'Macbeth,' act 5. sc. 3).
(2) Constant trouble, which came to him as regularly as his daily bread: "My sighing cometh before I eat" (cf. Psa_80:5; Isa_30:20).
(3) Abundant trouble, like the gushing forth of waters: "My roarings are poured out like the waters" (verse 24)—a frequent image for affliction (cf. 2Sa_22:17; Psa_42:7; Psa_88:7).
(4) Paralyzing trouble, terror overtaking him the moment he thought of it: "I feared a fear, and it came upon me" (verse 25; cf. "He that but fearer etc; 'Henry IV.,' pt. 2, act 1. sc. 1).
(5) Superfluous trouble; i.e. his misery had not sprung upon him revelling in sinful and luxurious ease, which might have afforded some justification for so appalling a visitation as had overtaken him; but when already he was a stricken man, another and a greater sorrow leapt forth upon him: "I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came" (verse 26).
2. The perplexities of providence. To these he alludes when he describes himself as a man "whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in" (verse 23). The term "way" is often put for course of life (Psa_1:6; Pro_4:19; Isa_26:7; Jer_10:23); and a man's way may be said to be hid (i.e. to himself) when either its future character is concealed from his perception, or the reason for its present shape is not understood. Now, to all men a veil inscrutable separates the future, the immediate no less than the remote, from the present (Pro_27:1; Jas_4:14). The special ground of complaint felt by Job was, not so much that he had been subjected to adversity, but that he could not discern the reason of God's mysterious dealings with him; that his sufferings so engirt him like a lofty wall, that he not only knew not which way to turn, but that he failed to discover any way to turn. The like perplexity has frequently been experienced by God's people (of Jer_12:1; Psa_42:5; l73:2; Lam_3:7). But it is unreasonable to expect that God's ways should be perfectly patent to the finite understanding. Man cannot always fathom the purposes or comprehend the plans of his fellow-creatures: how much less should he think to gauge the counsel of him whose wisdom is "fold over fold" (Job_11:6); or discern the reason of every dark dispensation that is measured out by him whose judgments are a great deep (Psa_36:6)! Hence God charges his saints, when they see that clouds and darkness surround his throne, that his footsteps are in the sea, and that his way is not known, to preserve their souls in patience, to decline to be perplexed, and to calmly trust their present way and future course to him who always walketh in the light, and who, out of the greatest entanglements and darkest riddles of life, is able to evolve his own glory and their good (Psa_37:5; Isa_26:3, Isa_26:4; Rom_8:28).
II. QUERULOUS EXPOSTULATION. "Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery," etc? (verses 20, 23). The interrogation indicated:
1. Astonishing presumption on the part of Job, not only in questioning the Supreme, seeing that he giveth no account of his doings unto any, and least of all to men (Job_33:13; Psa_46:10; Jer_18:6; Dan_4:35); but much more in addressing to him such a question, which practically meant—Why should a man be sent into this world? or, if sent into it, why should he be kept in it, unless his existence is to be always encircled with the radiance of prosperity, and exhilarated with the wine of joy, and unless he is to be assisted both to pierce the veil of futurity and to penetrate the overshadowing clouds of the present?
2. Monstrous ingratitude; in first depreciating what, after Christ and salvation, is God's highest gift to man, viz. existence; in forgetting the manifold blessings he had enjoyed during the former period of his prosperity; and in overlooking the fact that he had some good gifts remaining still. But men are prone to forget past mercies (Psa_103:2; cf. 'Troilus and Cressida,' act 3. sc. 3), and to appreciate what the)' have not more highly than what they have. True thankfulness magnifies the gifts it has received, and does not grudge that the great Giver still reserves something to bestow (cf. 'Timon of Athens,' act 3. sc. 6).
3. Extraordinary ignorance; in not discerning that the ultimate end and chief aim of life are not to render men happy, but to make them holy; not to make them wise as the gods (Gen_3:5), but to form them into sons of God (Hebrews if. 10); and that these sublime purposes may be secured as well through adversity as through prosperity. But perhaps the absence of gospel light should explain and extenuate in Job's case what in ours would be reprehensible in the extreme.
III. MELACHOLY EXULTATION. Job's vehement longing for death bespoke:
1. An intense pressure of misery. Seeing that life is essentially joyous (Ecc_11:7), that men naturally cling to life above every earthly possession (Job_2:4), and that the intrinsic worth and happiness of life are a thousandfold increased by the addition of Heaven's favour, it indicates an amount and degree of wretchedness transcending ordinary experience when a man yearns for life's extinction, exults in the prospect of dissolution, would be blithe to find a grave, however humble or obscure—
"Mad from life's history,
Glad to death's mystery,
Swift to be hurl'd,
Anywhere, anywhere out of the world."
(Hood, 'Bridge of Sighs.')
They who find life's calamities in any measure tolerable have reason to bless God for laying on them no heavier burden than they are able to bear, and for imparting to them strength to bear the burden which he does impose. God's grace alone keeps men from sinking beneath the weight and pressure of life's ills. Contrast with Job's present state of mind that of St. Paul in the Roman prison (Php_1:23).
2. An utter extinction of hope. "The miserable hath no other medicine, but only hope"—hope that things will eventually improve; that the clouds of adversity will yet give place to the fair sunshine of prosperity; but even this the patriarch appears to have abandoned. It would be incorrect to affirm that Job had absolutely lost his hold on God; but of hope in a return to health and happiness he had none. Yet in this Job erred—erred two ways: in thinking himself at the worst, which he was not; and in despairing of recovery, which he should not. It is seldom so sad with any one that it could not be sadder; and it is seldom so bad that it cannot be improved. All things are possible with God, and God reigneth; therefore nil desperandum either in nature or in grace.
3. A sad want of faith. Had Job been able calmly to trust himself and his future to God, it is certain he would not have so inordinately longed for death. He would have reasoned that neither the miseries of life nor the perplexities of providence were a sufficient reason for God's cancelling the grant of life, or for a saint seeking the relief of death; since:
(1) God has an absolute right to dispose of his creatures as he may.
(2) No man has a claim on God for complete exemption from trouble.
(3) Affliction in some shape or another is every man's desert in this world.
(4) The higher purposes of life may be secured better through adversity than through prosperity.
(5) It is not certain that escape from misery would in every instance be attained by escape from life.
(6) And it is possible for bodily calamity and mental trouble and soul-anguish to pass away before the end of life, while life once withdrawn can never be restored.
Learn:
1. Men are apt to think there is no reason for that for which they can see no reason.
2. The best gifts of God may become burdensome to their possessors.
3. Some look for death, but cannot find it; death ever finds those for whom it looks.
4. Afflictions are commonly accompanied by much darkness, which faith only can illumine.
5. Though a man's way is sometimes hid from himself, it never is concealed from God.
Job_3:20
1. Surprising; when we consider
(1) that men are the creatures of a loving God;
(2) that their Creator designed them for happiness;
(3) that the most abundant provision has been made for their felicity. Yet:
2. Not inexplicable; when we remember
(1) that men are sinful creatures, and deserve to be miserable;
(2) that men carry the true source of misery within themselves, in their sinful hearts; and
(3) that men not unfrequently neglect that which alone can remove their misery—God's grace and Christ's blood.
II. MISERABLE MEN OFTEN CONTINUE LIVING.
1. Astonishing; if we reflect upon
(1) the frailty of life, and the ease with which it may be terminated;
(2) the heaviness of that burden of sorrow it is sometimes called to support;
(3) the intensity with which sufferers not unfrequently long for death. Still:
2. Not insoluble; if we recollect
(1) how they are kept in life by the power of God; and
(2) why they are kept in life, viz.
(a) to glorify God, by exhibiting his power in sustaining them, and his grace in giving them opportunity to improve;
(b) to benefit themselves, by allowing time for suffering, if possible, to perfect them in obedience; and, supposing this end attained,
(c) to instruct their fellows how to bear and how to profit by affliction.
Job_3:23
(along with Job_1:10).
1. In being planted by God. Job's prosperity was from God; his adversity was not without God.
2. In encircling the saint. Job was equally a pious man in both positions.
3. In being both removable. If Job's prosperity was exchanged for adversity, his adversity was afterwards succeeded by prosperity,
II. IN WHAT THEY CONTRAST.
1. In the frequency of their setting. Adversity a more frequent experience than prosperity.
2. In the comfort they afford. Prosperity a hedge of roses; adversity of thorns.
3. In the effects they produce. Prosperity more dangerous to a man's spiritual interests than adversity.
III. IN WHAT THEY SUGGEST.
1. That God's hand is in everything.
2. That the saint's good may be advanced by everything.
3. That the devil's arrows shoot at everything.
"All her maidens, wondering, said,
She must weep or she must die."
A period of agitation ensues when the mind resumes its natural functions; and the first mood that succeeds to silent prostration is that of bitter resentment and complaint. As we hail the irritability of a patient who has been deadly sick as the sign of returning convalescence, so we may look upon this petulance of grief when it finds at length a voice. We do not blame; we pity, and are tender towards the irritable invalid whose heart we know to be in its depth patient and true; and he who knows the heart better than we do is forbearing with those wild cries which suffering may wring from even constant and faithful bosoms like Job's. We may read these words of passion with consideration if God can listen to them without rebuke. There are three turns in the thought here expressed.
I. THE SPIRIT OF MAN IN REVOLT FROM LIFE. Curses on the day of his birth. (Verse 1-10.) There seems to be some reference to the ancient belief, which we find in later times among the Romans, in unlucky or ill-starred days. Such a day, to the sufferers present feeling, must have been the day of his birth. But he will learn better by-and-by. He cannot see things rightly through the present medium of pain. True religion teaches us—the Christian religion above all—that no "black" days are sent us from him who causes his sun to shine on the evil and the good. It is only ill deeds that make ill days. We have met with Job's complaint again and again in different forms. Men and women have complained that they were brought into the world without their consent being asked, and sometimes passionately exclaim, "I wish I had never been born!" Let us admit what our calm and healthy judgment dictates—these feelings are morbid and transitory; and they are partial, because they represent only one, and that an extreme, mood of the ever-changing mind. We must take our morning, not our midnight, moods if we would know the truth about ourselves. The instinct which leads us to keep birthdays with joy and mutual congratulation should instruct us in our debt of thankfulness: "Thanks that we were men!"
II. THE IRRATIONALITY OF DESPAIR. (Verses 11-19.) But such wishes against the inevitable and for the impossible, the mind, even in the paroxysm of despair, feels to be absurd. It sinks to a degree less irrational in the next wish that an early death had prevented all this misery. Would that a frost had nipped the just-blown flower (verses 11, 12)! Yet this mood is only a shade less unreasonable than the former. For does not the instinct which leads us all to speak of death in infancy and early childhood as "untimely, premature," rebuke this fretfulness, and witness to the truth again that life is a good? And does not the common aspiration after "length of days," so marked in the Old Testament, supply another argument in the same direction? Job will yet live to smile, from out of the depths of a serene old age, at these passionate clamours of a turbulent grief. Again, he passes into the contemplation of death with pleasure, with a deep craving for its rest. He describes, in simple, beautiful language, that final earthly resort, where agitated brains and restless hearts find at last peace (verses 17-19). Such a sentiment, again, is common to the experience of suffering hearts, is deeply embedded in the poetry of the world. But how far more common and frequent the happy, healthy mood which finds a zest and relish in the mere sense of existence, in the simple, natural pleasures of every day! The longing for the rest of the grave is the mood of intense weariness and disease; and it is counteracted by the mood of restored health, which longs for activity, even in heaven. Well has that poet, who has entered so deeply into all the phases of modern sadness, sung—
"Whatever crazy Sorrow saith,
No life that breathes with human breath
Hath ever truly longed for death.
life whereof our nerves are scant;
Oh, life, not death, for which we pant;
More life and fuller, that we want."
III. INTERROGATION OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES. (Verses 20-26.) Once more, from longing for death, the distressed mind of the sufferer passes to impatient questioning. Why should life, if it is to be given to any, be given to sufferers who desire death? why should it be given to him who can find no rest, who is ever in dread of fresh woes? This complaint, again, is natural, but it is not wise. We are impatient of pain; we should otherwise have no quarrel with the mystery of being. But pain is a great fact in the constitution of the world; it is there; it is there evidently by Divine appointment; it cannot be glozed over nor explained away. The wisdom of piety is in reconciling ourselves to it as the dispensation of God, in submitting to it as his will, supporting it with patience. Then, "though no affliction for the present be joyous, but grievous, yet afterward it will yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness" (Heb_12:11). In hope let us—
"Strain through years
To catch the far-off interest of tears."
To the question of Job the answer is—Suffering is the signet of a majestic being. The light of eternity, falling athwart our tears, forms a rainbow prophetic of our glorious destiny. But the final and most significant of all answers is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is the union of highest life with extremest suffering. Born to suffer, and by suffering to be made perfect, the Lord Jesus Christ supplies for them that trust in him a power by which they can rise out of the mysterious darkness of pain, believing that what is tried, even as by fire, shall be found unto praise and honour and glory at his appearing. The study of this paroxysm of extreme pain of mind will be instructive if it help us to govern any similar moods which may arise in our own minds.
LESSONS.
1. There is a natural and precious relief from mental pain in words,
"Poor breathing orators of miseries!
Let them have scope; though what they do impart
Help nothing else, yet they do ease the heart."
2. God, our gracious Father, is not offended by our sincerity. Greater than our hearts, he knows all things. This book and many of the psalms teach us a childlike piety by repeating words in which sufferers poured forth all their complaints as well as thanksgivings into the ear of him who misunderstands nothing.
3. There is an exaggeration in all the moods of depression. We are prone to overstate the ills of life, and to forget the numberless hours of joy in which we have instinctively thanked God for the blessing of existence.
4. The very intensity and exaggeration of such moods point forward to a reaction. They will not continue long in the course of nature. God has mercifully so constructed this fine mechanism of body and mind that these extremes bring their own remedy. Patience, then. The hour is darkest that is nearest the dawn. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."—J.
I. THAT IT