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Job's Hopelessness in his Affliction
v. 11. My days are past, he felt that he was near the end, and he sank back into his former hopeless complaint, my purposes are broken off, the plans which he had made for his life were cut off, destroyed, even the thoughts of my heart, the projects which he had secretly nursed and affectionately cherished.
v. 12. They change the night into day, namely, such joyous plans for life as his friends held before him; the light is short because of darkness, in the presence of darkness, for, according to the consolations of his friends, his present trouble was just like the darkest hour which just precedes the dawn, if he would but admit the guilt which they ascribed to him. All this was being alleged while Job saw before him only the dark night of death.
v. 13. If I wait, the grave is mine house, if he hopes for the realm of death as his dwelling place; I have made my bed in the darkness, having spread his couch in the darkness of death.
v. 14. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father, if he has so cried out to the pit or grave; to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister;
v. 15. and where, or, "where, then," is now my hope? As for my hope, who shall see it? Who would disclose and prove to him that he had any hope of being restored to health and strength!
v. 16. They shall go down to the bars of the pit, that is, his hope sinks down to the bars of the underworld, to the realm of death, when our rest together is in the dust, that is, while his body rests in the dust of the earth, in the grave, his soul would descend into the realm of the dead, the place where the souls are kept till the great day of resurrection. When his hope of death would become a certainty, then the misery of his suffering would become the rest of the grave. Similar sighs are voiced to this day, even by true believers, who are tired of the misery of this world; but they must never turn into impatient demands addressed to God.