{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"JOB","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Job","commonName":"Job","introduction":"JOB A REAL PERSON.--It has been supposed by some that the book of Job is an allegory, not a real narrative, on account of the artificial character of many of its statements. Thus the sacred numbers, three and seven, often occur. He had seven thousand sheep, seven sons, both before and after his trials; his three friends sit down with him seven days and seven nights; both before and after his trials he had three daughters. So also the number and form of the speeches of the several speakers seem to be artificial. The name of Job, too, is derived from an Arabic word signifying repentance.\n\nBut Eze 14:14 (compare Eze 14:16, Eze 14:20) speaks of \"Job\" in conjunction with \"Noah and Daniel,\" real persons. St. James (Jam 5:11) also refers to Job as an example of \"patience,\" which he would not have been likely to do had Job been only a fictitious person. Also the names of persons and places are specified with a particularity not to be looked for in an allegory. As to the exact doubling of his possessions after his restoration, no doubt the round number is given for the exact number, as the latter approached near the former; this is often done in undoubtedly historical books. As to the studied number and form of the speeches, it seems likely that the arguments were substantially those which appear in the book, but that the studied and poetic form was given by Job himself, guided by the Holy Spirit. He lived one hundred and forty years after his trials, and nothing would be more natural than that he should, at his leisure, mould into a perfect form the arguments used in the momentous debate, for the instruction of the Church in all ages. Probably, too, the debate itself occupied several sittings; and the number of speeches assigned to each was arranged by preconcerted agreement, and each was allowed the interval of a day or more to prepare carefully his speech and replies; this will account for the speakers bringing forward their arguments in regular series, no one speaking out of his turn. As to the name Job--repentance (supposing the derivation correct)--it was common in old times to give a name from circumstances which occurred at an advanced period of life, and this is no argument against the reality of the person.\n\nWHERE JOB LIVED.--\"Uz,\" according to GESENIUS, means a light, sandy soil, and was in the north of Arabia-Deserta, between Palestine and the Euphrates, called by PTOLEMY (Geography, 19) Ausitai or Aisitai. In Gen 10:23; Gen 22:21; Gen 36:28; and Ch1 1:17, Ch1 1:42, it is the name of a man. In Jer 25:20; Lam 4:21; and Job 1:1, it is a country. Uz, in Gen 22:21, is said to be the son of Nahor, brother of Abraham--a different person from the one mentioned (Gen 10:23), a grandson of Shem. The probability is that the country took its name from the latter of the two; for this one was the son of Aram, from whom the Arameans take their name, and these dwelt in Mesopotamia, between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. Compare as to the dwelling of the sons of Shem in Gen 10:30, \"a mount of the East,\" answering to \"men of the East\" (Job 1:3). RAWLINSON, in his deciphering of the Assyrian inscriptions, states that \"Uz is the prevailing name of the country at the mouth of the Euphrates.\" It is probable that Eliphaz the Temanite and the Sabeans dwelt in that quarter; and we know that the Chaldeans resided there, and not near Idumea, which some identify with Uz. The tornado from \"the wilderness\" (Job 1:19) agrees with the view of it being Arabia-Deserta. Job (Job 1:3) is called \"the greatest of the men of the East\"; but Idumea was not east, but south of Palestine: therefore in Scripture language, the phrase cannot apply to that country, but probably refers to the north of Arabia-Deserta, between Palestine, Idumea, and the Euphrates. So the Arabs still show in the Houran a place called Uz as the residence of Job.\n\nTHE AGE WHEN JOB LIVED.--EUSEBIUS fixes it two ages before Moses, that is, about the time of Isaac: eighteen hundred years before Christ, and six hundred after the Deluge. Agreeing with this are the following considerations: 1. Job's length of life is patriarchal, two hundred years. 2. He alludes only to the earliest form of idolatry, namely, the worship of the sun, moon, and heavenly hosts (called Saba, whence arises the title \"Lord of Sabaoth,\" as opposed to Sabeanism) (Job 31:26-28). 3. The number of oxen and rams sacrificed, seven, as in the case of Balaam. God would not have sanctioned this after the giving of the Mosaic law, though He might graciously accommodate Himself to existing customs before the law. 4. The language of Job is Hebrew, interspersed occasionally with Syriac and Arabic expressions, implying a time when all the Shemitic tribes spoke one common tongue and had not branched into different dialects, Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic. 5. He speaks of the most ancient kind of writing, namely, sculpture. Riches also are reckoned by cattle. The Hebrew word, translated \"a piece of money,\" ought rather be rendered \"a lamb.\" 6. There is no allusion to the exodus from Egypt and to the miracles that accompanied it; nor to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (PATRICK, however, thinks there is); though there is to the Flood (Job 22:17); and these events, happening in Job's vicinity, would have been striking illustrations of the argument for God's interposition in destroying the wicked and vindicating the righteous, had Job and his friends known of them. Nor is there any undoubted reference to the Jewish law, ritual, and priesthood. 7. The religion of Job is that which prevailed among the patriarchs previous to the law; sacrifices performed by the head of the family; no officiating priesthood, temple, or consecrated altar.\n\nTHE WRITER.--All the foregoing facts accord with Job himself having been the author. The style of thought, imagery, and manners, are such as we should look for in the work of an Arabian emir. There is precisely that degree of knowledge of primitive tradition (see Job 31:33, as to Adam) which was universally spread abroad in the days of Noah and Abraham, and which was subsequently embodied in the early chapters of Genesis. Job, in his speeches, shows that he was much more competent to compose the work than Elihu, to whom LIGHTFOOT attributes it. The style forbids its being attributed to Moses, to whom its composition is by some attributed, \"whilst he was among the Midianites, about 1520 B.C.\" But the fact, that it, though not a Jewish book, appears among the Hebrew sacred writings, makes it likely that it came to the knowledge of Moses during the forty years which he passed in parts of Arabia, chiefly near Horeb; and that he, by divine guidance, introduced it as a sacred writing to the Israelites, to whom, in their affliction, the patience and restoration of Job were calculated to be a lesson of especial utility. That it is inspired appears from the fact that Paul (Co1 3:19) quotes it (Job 5:13) with the formula, \"It is written.\" Our Savior, too Mat 24:28), plainly refers to Job 29:30. Compare also Jam 4:10 and Pe1 5:6 with Job 22:29; Rom 11:34-35 with Job 15:8. It is probably the oldest book in the world. It stands among the Hagiographa in the threefold division of Scripture into the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa (\"Psalms,\" Luk 24:44).\n\nDESIGN OF THE BOOK.--It is a public debate in poetic form on an important question concerning the divine government; moreover the prologue and epilogue, which are in prose, shed the interest of a living history over the debate, which would otherwise be but a contest of abstract reasonings. To each speaker of the three friends three speeches are assigned. Job having no one to stand by him is allowed to reply to each speech of each of the three. Eliphaz, as the oldest, leads the way. Zophar, at his third turn, failed to speak, thus virtually owning himself overcome (Job 27:1-23). Therefore Job continued his reply, which forms three speeches (Job 26:1-14; Job 27:1-23; Job 28:1-28; Job 29:1-31:40). Elihu (Job 32:1-37:24) is allowed four speeches. Jehovah makes three addresses (Job 38:1-41:34). Thus, throughout there is a tripartite division. The whole is divided into three parts--the prologue, poem proper, and epilogue. The poem, into three--(1) The dispute of Job and his three friends; (2) The address of Elihu; (3) The address of God. There are three series in the controversy, and in the same order. The epilogue (Job 42:1-17) also is threefold; Job's justification, reconciliation with his friends, restoration. The speakers also in their successive speeches regularly advance from less to greater vehemence. With all this artificial composition, everything seems easy and natural.\n\nThe question to be solved, as exemplified in the case of Job, is, Why are the righteous afflicted consistently with God's justice? The doctrine of retribution after death, no doubt, is the great solution of the difficulty. And to it Job plainly refers in Job 14:14, and Job 19:25. The objection to this, that the explicitness of the language on the resurrection in Job is inconsistent with the obscurity on the subject in the early books of the Old Testament, is answered by the fact that Job enjoyed the divine vision (Job 38:1; Job 42:5), and therefore, by inspiration, foretold these truths. Next, the revelations made outside of Israel being few needed to be the more explicit; thus Balaam's prophecy (Num 24:17) was clear enough to lead the wise men of the East by the star (Mat 2:2); and in the age before the written law, it was the more needful for God not to leave Himself without witness of the truth. Still Job evidently did not fully realize the significance designed by the Spirit in his own words (compare Pe1 1:11-12). The doctrine, though existing, was not plainly revealed or at least understood. Hence he does not mainly refer to this solution. Yes, and even now, we need something in addition to this solution. David, who firmly believed in a future retribution (Psa 16:10; Psa 17:15), still felt the difficulty not entirely solved thereby (Psa. 83:1-18). The solution is not in Job's or in his three friends' speeches. It must, therefore, be in Elihu's. God will hold a final judgment, no doubt, to clear up all that seems dark in His present dealings; but He also now providentially and morally governs the world and all the events of human life. Even the comparatively righteous are not without sin which needs to be corrected. The justice and love of God administer the altogether deserved and merciful correction. Affliction to the godly is thus mercy and justice in disguise. The afflicted believer on repentance sees this. \"Via crucis, via salutis\" [\"The way of the cross, the way of deliverance\"]. Though afflicted, the godly are happier even now than the ungodly, and when affliction has attained its end, it is removed by the Lord. In the Old Testament the consolations are more temporal and outward; in the New Testament, more spiritual; but in neither to the entire exclusion of the other. \"Prosperity,\" says BACON, \"is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity that of the New Testament, which is the mark of God's more especial favor. Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost has labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.\" This solution of Elihu is seconded by the addresses of God, in which it is shown God must be just (because He is God), as Elihu had shown how God can be just, and yet the righteous be afflicted. It is also acquiesced in by Job, who makes no reply. God reprimands the \"three\" friends, but not Elihu. Job's general course is approved; he is directed to intercede for his friends, and is restored to double his former prosperity.\n\nPOETRY.--In all countries poetry is the earliest form of composition as being best retained in the memory. In the East especially it was customary for sentiments to be preserved in a terse, proverbial, and poetic form (called maschal). Hebrew poetry is not constituted by the rhythm or meter, but in a form peculiar to itself: 1. In an alphabetical arrangement somewhat like our acrostic. For instance, Lam. 1:1-22. 2. The same verse repeated at intervals; as in Psa 42:1-11; Psa. 107:1-43. 3. Rhythm of gradation. Psalms of degrees, Psa. 120:1-134:3, in which the expression of the previous verse is resumed and carried forward in the next (Psa 121:1-8). 4. The chief characteristic of Hebrew poetry is parallelism, or the correspondence of the same ideas in the parallel clauses. The earliest instance is Enoch's prophecy (Jde 1:14), and Lamech's parody of it (Gen 4:23). Three kinds occur: (1) The synonymous parallelism, in which the second is a repetition of the first, with or without increase of force (Psa 22:27; Isa 15:1); sometimes with double parallelism (Isa 1:15). (2) The antithetic, in which the idea of the second clause is the converse of that in the first (Pro 10:1). (3) The synthetic, where there is a correspondence between different propositions, noun answering to noun, verb to verb, member to member, the sentiment, moreover, being not merely echoed, or put in contrast, but enforced by accessory ideas (Job 3:3-9). Also alternate (Isa 51:19). \"Desolation and destruction, famine and sword,\" that is, desolation by famine, and destruction by the sword. Introverted; where the fourth answers to the first, and the third to the second (Mat 7:6). Parallelism thus often affords a key to the interpretation. For fuller information, see LOWTH (Introduction to Isaiah, and Lecture on Hebrew Poetry) and HERDER (Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, translated by Marsh). The simpler and less artificial forms of parallelism prevail in Job--a mark of its early age. \n\n\n\nNext: Job Chapter 1\n\n","order":18,"numberOfChapters":42,"sha256":"e28c73d19b068ae7148f623bfa79b3c43dd6e60e7a803672cdd5f8a7d5080b3a","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":42,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/42.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":42},"totalNumberOfVerses":954},"chapter":{"number":14,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["(Psa 90:6; see on Job 8:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["open . . . eyes upon--Not in graciousness; but, \"Dost Thou sharply fix Thine eyes upon?\" (See on Job 7:20; also see on Job 1:7). Is one so frail as man worthy of such constant watching on the part of God? (Zac 12:4). \n\nme--so frail. \n\nthee--so almighty.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["A plea in mitigation. The doctrine of original sin was held from the first. \"Man is unclean from his birth, how then can God expect perfect cleanness from such a one and deal so severely with me?\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["determined-- (Job 7:1; Isa 10:23; Dan 9:27; Dan 11:36).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["Turn--namely, Thine eyes from watching him so jealously (Job 14:3). \n\nhireling-- (Job 7:1). \n\naccomplish--rather, \"enjoy.\" That he may at least enjoy the measure of rest of the hireling who though hard worked reconciles himself to his lot by the hope of his rest and reward [UMBREIT].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Man may the more claim a peaceful life, since, when separated from it by death, he never returns to it. This does not deny a future life, but a return to the present condition of life. Job plainly hopes for a future state (Job 14:13; Job 7:2). Still, it is but vague and trembling hope, not assurance; excepting the one bright glimpse in Job 19:25. The Gospel revelation was needed to change fears, hopes, and glimpses into clear and definite certainties.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["scent--exhalation, which, rather than the humidity of water, causes the tree to germinate. In the antithesis to man the tree is personified, and volition is poetically ascribed to it. \n\nlike a plant--\"as if newly planted\" [UMBREIT]; not as if trees and plants were a different species.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["man . . . man--Two distinct Hebrew words are here used; Geber, a mighty man: though mighty, he dies. Adam, a man of earth: because earthly, he gives up the ghost. \n\nwasteth--is reduced to nothing: he cannot revive in the present state, as the tree does. The cypress and pine, which when cut down do not revive, were the symbols of death among the Romans.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["sea--that is, a lake, or pool formed from the outspreading of a river. Job lived near the Euphrates: and \"sea\" is applied to it (Jer 51:36; Isa 27:1). So of the Nile (Isa 19:5). \n\nfail--utterly disappeared by drying up. The rugged channel of the once flowing water answers to the outstretched corpse (\"lieth down,\" Job 14:12) of the once living man.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["heavens be no more--This only implies that Job had no hope of living again in the present order of the world, not that he had no hope of life again in a new order of things. Psa 102:26 proves that early under the Old Testament the dissolution of the present earth and heavens was expected (compare Gen 8:22). Enoch before Job had implied that the \"saints shall live again\" (Jde 1:14; Heb 11:13-16). Even if, by this phrase, Job meant \"never\" (Psa 89:29) in his gloomier state of feelings, yet the Holy Ghost has made him unconsciously (Pe1 1:11-12) use language expressing the truth, that the resurrection is to be preceded by the dissolution of the heavens. In Job 14:13-15 he plainly passes to brighter hopes of a world to come.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Job wishes to be kept hidden in the grave until God's wrath against him shall have passed away. So while God's wrath is visiting the earth for the abounding apostasy which is to precede the second coming, God's people shall be hidden against the resurrection glory (Isa 26:19-21). \n\nset time--a decreed time (Act 1:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["shall he live?--The answer implied is, There is a hope that he shall, though not in the present order of life, as is shown by the words following. Job had denied (Job 14:10-12) that man shall live again in this present world. But hoping for a \"set time,\" when God shall remember and raise him out of the hiding-place of the grave (Job 14:13), he declares himself willing to \"wait all the days of his appointed time\" of continuance in the grave, however long and hard that may be. \n\nappointed time--literally, \"warfare, hard service\"; imlying the hardship of being shut out from the realms of life, light, and God for the time he shall be in the grave (Job 7:1). \n\nchange--my release, as a soldier at his post released from duty by the relieving guard (see on Job 10:17) [UMBREIT and GESENIUS], but elsewhere GESENIUS explains it, \"renovation,\" as of plants in spring (Job 14:7), but this does not accord so well with the metaphor in \"appointed time\" or \"warfare.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["namely, at the resurrection (Joh 5:28; Psa 17:15). \n\nhave a desire to--literally, \"become pale with anxious desire:\" the same word is translated \"sore longedst after\" (Gen 31:30; Psa 84:2), implying the utter unlikelihood that God would leave in oblivion the \"creature of His own hands so fearfully and wonderfully made.\" It is objected that if Job knew of a future retribution, he would make it the leading topic in solving the problem of the permitted afflictions of the righteous. But, (1) He did not intend to exceed the limits of what was clearly revealed; the doctrine was then in a vague form only; (2) The doctrine of God's moral government in this life, even independently of the future, needed vindication.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["Rather, \"Yea, thou wilt number my steps, and wilt not (as now) jealously watch over my sin.\" Thenceforward, instead of severe watching for every sin of Job, God will guard him against every sin. \n\nnumber . . . steps--that is, minutely attend to them, that they may not wander [UMBREIT] (Sa1 2:9; Psa 37:23).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["sealed up-- (Job 9:7). Is shut up in eternal oblivion, that is, God thenceforth will think no more of my former sins. To cover sins is to completely forgive them (Psa 32:1; Psa 85:2). Purses of money in the East are usually sealed. \n\nsewest up--rather, \"coverest\"; akin to an Arabic word, \"to color over,\" to forget wholly.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["cometh to naught--literally, \"fadeth\"; a poetical image from a leaf (Isa 34:4). Here Job falls back into his gloomy bodings as to the grave. Instead of \"and surely,\" translate \"yet\"; marking the transition from his brighter hopes. Even the solid mountain falls and crumbles away; man therefore cannot \"hope\" to escape decay or to live again in the present world (Job 14:19). \n\nout of his place--so man (Psa 103:16).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["The Hebrew order is more forcible: \"Stones themselves are worn away by water.\" \n\nthings which grow out of--rather, \"floods wash away the dust of the earth.\" There is a gradation from \"mountains\" to \"rocks\" (Job 14:18), then \"stones,\" then last \"dust of the earth\"; thus the solid mountain at last disappears utterly.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["prevailest--dost overpower by superior strength. \n\npasseth--dieth. \n\nchangest countenance--the change in the visage at death. Differently (Dan 5:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["One striking trait is selected from the sad picture of the severance of the dead from all that passes in the world (Ecc 9:5), namely, the utter separation of parents and children.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["\"Flesh\" and \"soul\" describe the whole man. Scripture rests the hope of a future life, not on the inherent immortality of the soul, but on the restoration of the body with the soul. In the unseen world, Job in a gloomy frame anticipates, man shall be limited to the thought of his own misery. \"Pain is by personification, from our feelings while alive, attributed to the flesh and soul, as if the man could feel in his body when dead. It is the dead in general, not the wicked, who are meant here.\"\n\n\n\n\nNext: Job Chapter 15\n\n"]}],"introduction":"JOB PASSES FROM HIS OWN TO THE COMMON MISERY OF MANKIND. (Job 14:1-22)\n\nwoman--feeble, and in the East looked down upon (Gen 2:21). Man being born of one so frail must be frail himself (Mat 11:11). \n\nfew days-- (Gen 47:9; Psa 90:10). Literally, \"short of days.\" Man is the reverse of full of days and short of trouble.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/14.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":14},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/15.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":15},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/13.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":13},"numberOfVerses":20}