{"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":15,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["fear--reverence for God (Job 4:6; Psa 2:11). \n\nprayer--meditation, in Psa 104:34; so devotion. If thy views were right, reasons Eliphaz, that God disregards the afflictions of the righteous and makes the wicked to prosper, all devotion would be at an end.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["The sophistry of thine own speeches proves thy guilt.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["No pious man would utter such sentiments.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["That is, Art thou wisdom personified? Wisdom existed before the hills; that is, the eternal Son of God (Pro 8:25; Psa 90:2). Wast thou in existence before Adam? The farther back one existed, the nearer he was to the Eternal Wisdom.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["secret--rather, \"Wast thou a listener in the secret council of God?\" The Hebrew means properly the cushions of a divan on which counsellors in the East usually sit. God's servants are admitted to God's secrets (Psa 25:14; Gen 18:17; Joh 15:15). \n\nrestrain--Rather, didst thou take away, or borrow, thence (namely, from the divine secret council) thy wisdom? Eliphaz in this (Job 15:8-9) retorts Job's words upon himself (Job 12:2-3; Job 13:2).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["in us--or, \"with us,\" Hebraism for \"we are aware of.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["On our side, thinking with us are the aged. Job had admitted that wisdom is with them (Job 12:12). Eliphaz seems to have been himself older than Job; perhaps the other two were also (Job 32:6). Job, in Job 30:1, does not refer to his three friends; it therefore forms no objection. The Arabs are proud of fulness of years.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["consolations--namely, the revelation which Eliphaz had stated as a consolatory reproof to Job, and which he repeats in Job 15:14. \n\nsecret--Hast thou some secret wisdom and source of consolation, which makes thee disregard those suggested by me? (Job 15:8). Rather, from a different Hebrew root, Is the word of kindness or gentleness addressed by me treated by thee as valueless? [UMBREIT].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["wink--that is, why do thy eyes evince pride? (Pro 6:13; Psa 35:19).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["That is, frettest against God and lettest fall rash words.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["Eliphaz repeats the revelation (Job 4:17) in substance, but using Job's own words (see on Job 14:1, on \"born of a woman\") to strike him with his own weapons.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["Repeated from Job 4:18; \"servants\" there are \"saints\" here; namely, holy angels. \n\nheavens--literally, or else answering to \"angels\" (see on Job 4:18, and Job 25:5).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["filthy--in Arabic \"sour\" (Psa 14:3; Psa 53:3), corrupted from his original purity. \n\ndrinketh-- (Pro 19:28).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["In direct contradiction of Job's position (Job 12:6, &c.), that the lot of the wicked was the most prosperous here, Eliphaz appeals (1) to his own experience, (2) to the wisdom of the ancients.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["Rather, \"and which as handed down from their fathers, they have not concealed.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["Eliphaz speaks like a genuine Arab when he boasts that his ancestors had ever possessed the land unmixed with foreigners [UMBREIT]. His words are intended to oppose Job's (Job 9:24); \"the earth\" in their case was not \"given into the hand of the wicked.\" He refers to the division of the earth by divine appointment (Gen 10:5; Gen 25:32). Also he may insinuate that Job's sentiments had been corrupted from original purity by his vicinity to the Sabeans and Chaldeans [ROSENMULLER].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["travaileth--rather, \"trembleth of himself,\" though there is no real danger [UMBREIT]. \n\nand the number of his years, &c.--This gives the reason why the wicked man trembles continually; namely, because he knows not the moment when his life must end.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["An evil conscience conceives alarm at every sudden sound, though it be in a time of peace (\"prosperity\"), when there is no real danger (Lev 26:36; Pro 28:1; Kg2 7:6).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["darkness--namely, danger or calamity. Glancing at Job, who despaired of restoration: in contrast to good men when in darkness (Mic 7:8-9). \n\nwaited for of--that is, He is destined for the sword [GESENIUS]. Rather (in the night of danger), \"he looks anxiously towards the sword,\" as if every sword was drawn against him [UMBREIT].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["Wandereth in anxious search for bread. Famine in Old Testament depicts sore need (Isa 5:13). Contrast the pious man's lot (Job 5:20-22). \n\nknoweth--has the firm conviction. Contrast the same word applied to the pious (Job 5:24-25). \n\nready at his hand--an Arabic phrase to denote a thing's complete readiness and full presence, as if in the hand.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["prevail--break upon him suddenly and terribly, as a king, &c. (Pro 6:11).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["stretcheth . . . hand--wielding the spear, as a bold rebel against God (Job 9:4; Isa 27:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["on his neck--rather, \"with outstretched neck,\" namely, that of the rebel [UMBREIT] (Psa 75:5). \n\nupon . . . bucklers--rather, \"with--his (the rebel's, not God's) bucklers.\" The rebel and his fellows are depicted as joining shields together, to form a compact covering over their heads against the weapons hurled on them from a fortress [UMBREIT and GESENIUS].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["The well-nourished body of the rebel is the sign of his prosperity. \n\ncollops--masses of fat. He pampers and fattens himself with sensual indulgences; hence his rebellion against God (Deu 32:15; Sa1 2:29).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["The class of wicked here described is that of robbers who plunder \"cities,\" and seize on the houses of the banished citizens (Isa 13:20). Eliphaz chooses this class because Job had chosen the same (Job 12:6). \n\nheaps--of ruins.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["Rather, he shall not increase his riches; he has reached his highest point; his prosperity shall not continue. \n\nperfection--rather, \"His acquired wealth--what he possesses--shall not be extended,\" &c.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":30,"content":["depart--that is, escape (Job 15:22-23). \n\nbranches--namely, his offspring (Job 1:18-19; Psa 37:35). \n\ndry up--The \"flame\" is the sultry wind in the East by which plants most full of sap are suddenly shrivelled. \n\nhis mouth--that is, God's wrath (Isa 11:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["Rather, \"let him not trust in vanity or he will be deceived,\" &c. \n\nvanity--that which is unsubstantial. Sin is its own punishment (Pro 1:31; Jer 2:19).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":32,"content":["Literally, \"it (the tree to which he is compared, Job 15:30, or else his life) shall not be filled up in its time\"; that is, \"he shall be ended before his time.\" \n\nshall not be green--image from a withered tree; the childless extinction of the wicked.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":33,"content":["Images of incompleteness. The loss of the unripe grapes is poetically made the vine tree's own act, in order to express more pointedly that the sinner's ruin is the fruit of his own conduct (Isa 3:11; Jer 6:19).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":34,"content":["Rather, The binding together of the hypocrites (wicked) shall be fruitless [UMBREIT]. \n\ntabernacles of bribery--namely, dwellings of unjust judges, often reprobated in the Old Testament (Isa 1:23). The \"fire of God\" that consumed Job's possessions (Job 1:16) Eliphaz insinuates may have been on account of Job's bribery as an Arab sheik or emir.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":35,"content":["Bitter irony, illustrating the \"unfruitfulness\" (Job 15:34) of the wicked. Their conceptions and birthgivings consist solely in mischief, &c. (Isa 33:11). \n\nprepareth--hatcheth.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Job Chapter 16\n\n"]}],"introduction":"SECOND SPEECH OF ELIPHAZ. (Job 15:1-35)\n\na wise man--which Job claims to be. \n\nvain knowledge--Hebrew, \"windy knowledge\"; literally, \"of wind\" (Job 8:2). In Ecc 1:14, Hebrew, \"to catch wind,\" expresses to strive for what is vain. \n\neast wind--stronger than the previous \"wind,\" for in that region the east wind is the most destructive of winds (Isa 27:8). Thus here,--empty violence. \n\nbelly--the inward parts, the breast (Pro 18:8).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/15.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":15},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/16.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":16},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/14.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":14},"numberOfVerses":32}